CategoryEthics

We have a competitor, POS Solutions, that has published a claim of constraints, barriers, on the Xero POS software link.

For the record, we note that no such constraints or barriers have been experienced by us in any of our retail businesses or in any Tower Systems client business using our direct Xero interface.

Footnote: the challenges for the competitor could be due to how they connect to Xero. Tower Systems is a Xero partner, listed on the Xero website. The competitor is not. They may be going through anther party.

Tower Systems is proud to partner with Oxipay to bring interest free payment plans to high street retail, through our POS.

A competitor of ours has sought to denigrate Oxipay, saying this publicly yesterday: Oxipay (which I know little about other then it is in Tasmania).

This statement is untrue. Oxipay is national, generating excellent business for small and larger businesses.

Tower systems is an early adopter partner, delivering Oxipay transactions daily now for many months, in every state and territory.

Our competitor knows this.

Fid out more about Oxipay here.

I am disgusted at the behaviour of politicians from all major parties and their spending of taxpayer money what appear to be non-work related trips.

As any small business owner who has been through the ATO audit wringer would know, the government has firm views on how we get to spend our money. It is frustrating the politicians have ensured a system where they are not under the same scrutiny.

Here is what I would like to see:

1. Public transparency of all expense claims, on a readily accessible website, within thirty days of such expenses being incurred by politicians. Information on the public record to include all costs, the names of each person met and duration of such meeting.
2. No use of private aircraft of any form except in exceptional circumstances.
3. Travel to parties such as Christmas parties and NYE parties not permitted travel at public expense.
4. Travel to meet any political party donor not permitted travel at public expense.
5. Establishment of an independent politician expense review tribunal made up of members of the public with member rotation every 12 months to review spending and make cuts where appropriate.
6. Rules established on what is acceptable politician business. For example, flying somewhere to make a spending announcement is, in my opinion, unacceptable. They should do a Facebook LiveStream or similar, from their office.
7. The establishment of a federal ICAC to keep the bastards honest beyond travel roots.

Between company tax, payroll tax, fringe benefits tax and other statutory obligations small businesses in particular carry a heavy burden in Australia. It is our hard earned money being wasted by the people who preside over a system that is getting tougher and tougher to deal with.

Politicians claiming taxpayer funding to attend a polo match, wedding of a donor overseas, a colleague Christmas party – these all should be banned. However, they appear to be in the rules. It is time we elected politicians who did not act so entitled, who did not tell us to behave one way while they act another.

The best way to encourage fairness and engagement from any constituency is to lead by example. There are few politicians in Australia who lead by example in my opinion.

Mark Fletcher
January 11, 2017.

POS Solutions, a small competitor of ours, published on their that an employee of a competitor had been found commenting on their blog. For the record we note the competitor is not Tower Systems and the person to whom they refer is not an employee of ours.

UPDATE: We note POS has permitted a comment on their post, a comment that seeks to link us to what the Director of POS has complained about. They are trying to spin an argument that is not supported by the facts. The commenter the post is about is/was not from Tower Systems, the actions the Director attributes to the ‘competitor’ later suggested to be us, are not true. Shame on them for this slur. To underscore this point – the same director vets every comment published. Comments are only on their company blog if he approves. This makes him and POS the publisher of the comment.

A tell that a software company is challenged for relevance is when they respond to a competitor’s launch of innovative software by promoting software from other companies that they claim covers the same application areas.

Good software companies let their own software speak for them.

Innovation is expensive and time consuming. Promoting what someone else has done in order to spoil the innovation of a competitor takes a few minutes. It shows the operators of a business up for what they are and are not.