Restaurants file lawsuit against payment terminal vendor after customers have identities stolen

A group of US restaurants have filed a class action lawsuit against a point of sale vendor after customers had their identities stolen after using uncompliant terminals.

According to a report on Finextra, seven restaurants in Louisiana and Mississippi are seeking millions of dollars in damages from vendor Radiant and its distributor Computer World after hundreds of their customers had their identities stolen as a result of payments terminals that were not PCI DSS compliant.

One of the attorneys acting as a legal advisor to the restaurants in the lawsuit, Charles Hoff, said in a statement that a special investigation by the United States Secret Service found that Computer World, the exclusive area distributor of Radiant Systems' ‘Aloha' POS software violated PCI DSS provisions.

Hoff said: “When major players in the hospitality industry such as Radiant Systems and its distributors say their software and business practices are PCI-DSS compliant, our clients trust them.

“When those claims of compliance and proper security practices turn out to be false, the restaurants are left to suffer huge financial losses due to financial penalties imposed by the credit card companies. Their reputations are tarnished. We're determined not to let Radiant and Computer World simply walk away from their responsibilities.”

The plaintiffs said that they were sold earlier model POS systems despite being told they were new. In addition, Computer World is accused of violating PCI standards by using a remote access system that did not have adequate security patches, using the same password for at least 200 operators, and failing to remove prior sensitive customer credit data upon installation of Radiant POS systems.

As a result, the lawsuit's plaintiffs are alleging that Radiant Systems' negligence and failure to either instruct or monitor Computer World's actions led to systems being compromised, leaving customers vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.

The suit also claimed that and Computer World were warned by Visa in 2007 that their programs were non-compliant, although the restaurants were not aware of this when they signed for the Aloha system.

It is seeking compensation to repay the penalties levied by the credit card companies and costs to track down and repair the POS system problems.

Thanks Dan Raywood, www.scmagazineuk.com

November 27, 2009

Use the Right POS System for Your Business

A Point of Sale (POS) system is indispensable for any type of retail business. It is a combination of specialized hardware and computer hardware that allows staff members to enter customer purchases, manage inventory, take credit card payments, track expenses, generate reports, and much more. Whether you’re running a convenience store, restaurant, flower shop or specialty store, a POS system can help perform many different processes to maximize your efficiency.

Some of the chief benefits reported by businesses that use such systems include:

- More accurate and more detailed information - Greater productivity - The ability to share reliable information with product suppliers and other partners - The ability to operate on a leaner stock

Choosing a Point-of-Sale System Shopping around for a POS system for your business is no easy proposition. First, you must know your business very well and have a solid idea of how things run and what information will be most helpful to you. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, comparing systems requires in depth knowledge of computers, networks, software features, and more. The market is flooded with POS systems of all complexity levels and price ranges. Knowing what to look for and where to start can be very difficult. Below are some guidelines to help you get started.

Identify Your POS Needs Identifying your point-of-sale needs can be as easy as finding out what your competitors (or other businesses similar to yours) are using or as difficult as performing an in-depth study of every transaction you process. It is a good idea to talk to your employees and your customers to get feedback on what kinds of features would help. For example, you could ask customers questions such as “do you ever shop with us online?” or “would you be interested in a frequent shopper program?” Also, keep in mind that even if there are software packages designed specifically for your type of business, they may vary wildly and you still need to research the features to determine what’ll work best for your business.

Establish a Budget A great way to narrow down your options is to establish a budget for your POS system expenditure. When doing so, remember that you will need to invest in a server (unless the system will work with your existing one) retail software, accounting software, terminals (how many will you need?) Talking to other business owners is a good way to get an idea of the range of what’s out there in terms of price.

Research the Market You may have initially taken a look at what’s available on the market in order to get an idea of what exists and in order to help you establish your budget. Now it is time to do more in-depth research and narrow down your choices. Once you find a system or two that seem to be the right fit for your company, you should research the providers. Make sure you are dealing with a reputable company known for providing outstanding service. Also, ask for and call references.

by Adriana Noton

SZUBEN475ENF

A Guide to Restaurant POS Management Software A Guide to Restaurant POS Management Software

Learn the types of restaurant POS software that will help your business grow and save your money on costly mistakes by purchasing the wrong POS software.

A lot of people may thing that the restaurant business is not worthy of investment and would rather venture on a different business. Although, a growing number of POS software, specifically designed for restaurants, that can help an owner with nearly every aspect of running his business. And there’s more good news: most of this software is affordable for smaller retail establishments that operate only a few restaurants or even a single location. The various software products currently available can help your business:

1. Greatly increase profits|Double your profits|Increase your profits
2. Lower food costs
3. Streamline staff scheduling
4. Improve table and customer management
5. Improve customer reservations system
6. Gain complete control of inventory
7. Design menus


Cost out your recipes:

Providing accurate recipe cost to your customers can get your business on the fast track to success. With the right figures, it’ll be easy for you to identify your most profitable items as well as items that aren’t cost-effective. A right POS software program eliminates human error in this crucial area.

Tables and reservation management:

A restaurant reservation POS software can help reduce no-shows, take reservations from your website, canceled reservations, differentiate VIPs from regulars, take customer information and more. It can also help you maximize table management and improve your guest management.
Control and track inventory

In order to minimize waste and to avoid running out of necessary ingredients, a restaurant owner needs need to have full control of his inventory management and keeping track of goods.

Recommended:

The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant POS software are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com

Correct ordering and purchasing:

Look for a POS software that streamlines the ordering and purchasing process, giving you more time to concentrate on revenue-generating activities.

Designing menus:

Making menu designs can help boost your customer volume by creating designs that would attack more visitors. But designing your own menu is hard and time consuming, especially if you do not have the necessary skills it requires. You will then need to hire a graphic designer and pay each time you need a new design. By purchasing a POS software that lets you create menu designs, it eliminates the need of hiring a professional designer! You can make your own menu designs depending on your restaurant’s theme, holidays, highlighted menu, etc.
Employee scheduling

Manual management of staff schedule is very time consuming and could even result to mistakes such as understaffing or overstaffing. So for a restaurant owner, this task can really cause a serious headache.



A few helpful advice for making the most of this Guide:

* If you are operating more than one restaurant, test-drive the software in one before implementing it system wide.
* Many restaurant software programs have powerful reporting features. Use them to analyze your sales, your customers and your menu. Make changes based on what you learn.

How To Stop Losing Sales At The Point of Sale

I am fortunate to live in a Southern California beach town. I have surfed most of my life because of my close proximity to the ocean. Unlike how it is portrayed in the movies, California beaches get cold in the winter, requiring surfers to wear wetsuits this time of the year. I needed a new wetsuit this year and my shopping experience at the local surf shops left much to be desired because of their point-of-sale systems. They have the technology to provide outstanding customer service, so why aren’t they using it?

The town I grew up in has a small main street with over ten surf shops selling the same merchandise. This makes it very convenient for me to run down during my lunch hour and grab whatever I may need very quickly. On this occasion I needed a specific size of wetsuit so I made a few phone calls to make sure they had my size. I found two stores right across the street from one another that had my size. The first store couldn’t tell me the color of the wetsuit. The other store told me they had one in black after they put me on hold and physically checked. When I asked each of them if their other store locations had any in stock, rather than looking up stock balances on their point-of-sale systems, they gave me the phone numbers to the other stores and told me to call myself.


Feeling confident, I headed down during my lunch hour to buy my new wetsuit. When I walked into the first store, they had my size, as they told me they did on the phone, but the only color they had was red! Their point-of-sale software couldn’t give them that important information and so they couldn’t relay it to me. I shot the sales person an unhappy look, and he simply said, "I know". So I left that store with my $400.00 and walked across the street to the second store that had my size and in the standard black color that I wanted.

I found the wetsuit in the second store right away. The time limit on my parking meter and lunch hour were expiring so I was in a hurry. I took the wetsuit to the first counter and the clerk told me the system was down; and then asked if I could move to another checkout counter. At the next one, the girl said the receipt printer was out of paper and she didn’t know how to replace it. At the third counter, the clerk could ring me up but only if I were paying cash because they were trying to fix a credit card machine batch error. Each of their checkout counters are in different places throughout the store, so at that point I was done. They also lost a $400.00 purchase due to their point-of-sale system.


Walking back to my car, I decided to quickly check a smaller store on the same street. Rather than searching myself, I simply walked up to the counter and asked them if they had the black wetsuit I wanted in my size. The clerk looked it up on the screen and then brought it back to me while I never left the counter. That’s service! Their point-of-sale system was quick and efficient. Since I’m in the point-of-sale industry, I also noticed that they had up-to-date hardware, software, and credit card processing. The efficiency of their point-of-sale system made it easy for me to buy and earned them the $400.00 sale.

Driving back to the office, I wondered how many times sales simply walk out of stores because of their point-of-sale systems. The products most retailers sell aren’t unique so the emphasis should be on customer service and making it easy for a customer to buy. Otherwise, a customer can simply walk to another retailer and buy the same item. Follow these tips to insure your point-of-sale system isn’t costing you sales.


Training – Training your front line employees on the proper use of the point-of-sale system should be a top priority. This training should include all aspects of the system that allow them to serve the customer more efficiently. Most clerks seem to know just the basics, and any anomaly forces them to stop production (sales) and wait for help. Just think about how many times you’ve been in a line and are forced to wait while a customer pulls out a coupon, is exchanging merchandise, or is trying to buy an item without a barcode. And these are just the basics.

Cashier training should also include advanced functions such as checking stock levels for in-store customers as well as call-in customers, checking stock levels at other stores, initiating a store transfer, searching for merchandise in the system, ringing items with missing bar code tags, and any simple hardware malfunctions that may occur (these would include changing receipt paper, rebooting a computer, and so on).

Accurate Inventory – The accuracy of the point-of-sale information is only reliable when the users are reliable and disciplined. Unreliable information is an indication of an undisciplined user. How many times have you heard store employees say "the system shows we have one, but I’d call first to verify."? Or worse, a store tells you the system confirms they have several, and you make the trip, only to find they have none.

To insure accurate and reliable on-hand inventory levels within the point-of-sale software, the user must:

1. Perform a regular physical inventory. These should be performed quarterly as part of the auditing process when preparing quarterly financial statements.

2. Cycle Counts - If a quarterly inventory process is too much of a challenge, perform cycle counts within the best selling departments or vendors lines.

3. Do not allow employees to sell goods classified with a miscellaneous SKU (Stock Keeping Unit). Inventory levels will never be adjusted properly.

4. Scan the bar code of every item sold. Entering an item number manually into the system will never account for size and color based items. An item UPC (Universal Product Code) bar code is different for each size and color.

5. Insure the store locations are communicating with each other flawlessly. Whether your system is a real-time configuration or a polling configuration; proper communications will either make or break the reliability of the point-of-sale information. Sales, returns, receiving, adjustments, and transfers all affect stock levels. A store location can never know if an item is in inventory or has sold out unless it is communicated to them.

Modern Hardware – You should pay attention to the aesthetics of the point-of-sale hardware just as you would to any other store fixture. You will interact with customers more at the cash wrap than any other area in the store; so make sure to make it a pleasant experience.

Most name brand hardware today is a bargain compared to a few years ago. It also gives your store an updated appearance. Although it will cost slightly more than "cheap" hardware, it will more than pay for itself with the reliability it offers. Modern hardware also requires less real-estate at the cash wrap; touch screens and flat screens don’t require a mouse and take up less space. An all-in-one type of unit offers all of the components, including the computer, built into the monitor.

The best part of name brand point-of-sale hardware is that it works reliably. POS hardware companies have industrialized their computers and peripherals to meet the rigorous demands of the retail environment. These types of computers and printers will cost more, but their duty cycles vastly outperform any comparable consumer level device. Consumer level computers are not designed to operate non-stop for 12-24 hours per day.

Integrated Credit Card Processing – Save yourself and your customers the frustration of those little grey boxes. Anytime you can minimize devices or suppliers, your quality will always improve. Most point-of-sale systems today offer a credit card processing feature within the application. Using the software versus dedicated hardware allows you to speed transaction times, reduce costs for paper and dedicated phone lines, decrease training confusion, reduce theft, and free up valuable counter space. It’s a winner on all levels.

Easy To Load Receipt Printers – The days of 2-ply and 3-ply receipt paper are long gone. Most point-of-sale software today allows you to recall a receipt onto the screen for reprints. If your software has this feature, dump the slow dot-matrix printer and get one of the faster thermal printers on the market today. In addition to being fast and quiet, they also offer lower paper costs and can be loaded with the press of a button. When the paper runs out, cashiers simply press the open button and drop in a new roll. Anyone can learn this within seconds, and they will no longer have to wait for a manager to perform the old task of threading multi-part paper through the maze of spools.

Having a point-of-sale system and using it strategically are two very different things. Rather than using the point-of-sale system as a glorified cash register; use it to provide superior customer service. The difference will earn you the sales that are walking out of your competitor’s doors.

POS restaurant system software to run your coffee shops

Restaurant POS are an important aspect of point-of-sale technology. Systems like pizza POS software, restaurant point of sale system, restaurant POS system, point of sale bar, restaurant software, fine dining restaurant have been making the complicated hospitality management as easy as typing just a few words into a computer—that’s all it takes. Manual order taking and passing it on to the kitchen is sometimes becomes a cumbersome job and then bringing the food to the table is again time consuming. All in totality will take at least half an hour. restaurant POS system has made this work easy task. Here you will have touch screen menus, remote ordering and printing, automated billing, and guest account organization and staff supervision at your fingertips.

We believe in running our organization smoothly and have introduced three different Restaurant POS systems that are for our front-office, back-office and kitchen administration. To provide the fast customer services and order management of a restaurant, the track number of the customer can be easily kept in track. Our system basically consists of administration software that has electronic menu screens and order processing through monitors. The Restaurant POS system has given us the organized running of the restaurant with an accurate record of minute-to-minute activities on any particular day. The restaurant software is very helpful in storing the information in single database on timekeeping, inventory, stock management, security and there are other activities too, to keep the restaurant open and running.


Being having different departments, our restaurant POS system require input and output devices as in any other computer system. The keyboards , touch screen and line displays as input devices, while others use electronic cash registers as both input and output devices. According to the customer demand, the restaurant POS system used by us acts as sophisticated cash registers with printers and monitors in different, but convenient locations and connected through an interface to the server at the back office.

We have a careful consideration of different activities that are needed to be controlled by the restaurant point of sale systems in a food establishment. The restaurant POS system launched by us has now been used in almost every restaurant and retail store for employing hospitality in one flavor or other. There has been a great advancement in computer technology and pizza pos software that has made it possible for smaller retail outlets and fast food restaurants to compete on a level playing field against large corporations with out breaking the bank.


Allowing many of the smaller retail chains to purchase the retail software systems, restaurant point of sale system software, pizza pos software, bar POS, restaurant POS system, point of sale bar, restaurant software, fine dining restaurant has come down in price over the years to an affordable level. Easy to manage, modular yet simple and easy to update, Restaurant POS software is designed allowing smaller restaurants and shops to install basic systems and software functionality with the ability to upgrade by switching on built in modules as and when business dictates.

Using Point-of-Sale Data to Improve Profitability

Not long ago I made a trip over to the local Radio Shack to purchase an electronic plug for my cassette recorder. As I paid for my item the retail clerk asked me for my name, address, telephone number, birth date, and even my email address (something every retailer should be asking for today!). Although I felt a twinge of discomfort giving out my personal information, I went ahead and gave it to him and went on my way.

Driving home I reflected on Radio Shack’s checkout process and was reminded of the power of information gathering at the point of sale. I had just given Radio Shack three ways to contact me, not to mention, information on what I had purchased. In the hands of a skilled marketer, this information is powerful.

Database Marketing
The recent economic slowdown has brought increased competition to small businesses. And with that, retailers across North America have described their sales as "flat." Small businesses should be looking for low cost, high impact marketing activities to drive prospects to their business. One of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to add profits to the bottom line is the use of database marketing, which uses information collected at the point-of-sale.

Using personal data, purchasing data, and contact information from a customer database, a retailer can make offers to customers for complimentary products and services and engage in loyalty marketing activities. Database marketing has four key elements, (1) gathering customer data, (2) building a customer database, (3) creating targeted offers for specific customer groups, and (4) tracking results to improve responses.

Step 1: Gather customer data. The easiest way to begin this process is to develop a simple form for customers and salespeople to fill out every time a customer purchases a product or service. Include personal information such as names of spouses, children, profession, and birthdays, as well as, product information such as manufacturer, make, and model.

Step 2: Build a database to store your customer information. Start simple using off-the-shelf software such as Microsoft Access. Later on you can begin to modify the database to either include different types of information or to print special reports.

Step 3: Start sending offers and personal messages to your customers. Don’t wait until you have a large mailing list. Begin sending notes to customers right away thanking them for their purchase, to celebrate birthdays, share holiday messages, and inviting them to come in and take advantage of special offers.

There is an old saying that goes, “Business goes where business is invited, and stays where it is appreciated.” A personalized invitation to drop by the store to take advantage of a specific incentive is sometimes all that is needed to keep your customers coming back into the store. Instituting a program of personal, hand-signed notes that coincide with birthdays or special events addressed to the customer's significant other that offer gift ideas, can have surprising results.

Step 4: Track the results of your database marketing efforts. By knowing who you sent offers to and who responded will help you identify your best customers, allow you to more effectively allocate your marketing dollars, and help you tweak your marketing pieces to get higher response rates.

What Information Do I Collect?
It’s important to determine in advance the type of information to collect. To do this, make a list of common special offers you might be presenting to your customer. For instance, if you sold a product in the health industry and many of your customers have lower back problems you could joint venture with other businesses to develop special promotions on products that help to relieve lower back pain. To capture the fact that your customer experiences lower back pain, simply place a check box on your form that says, “Do you experience lower back pain?”

If your customer has small children, consider presenting follow-up offers for products targeted for small children. Imagine being a consumer and receiving a letter from your business with an enclosed birthday card for little Joey who just turned eight years old and a discount offer for a basketball hoop or other relevant products. You think to yourself, “What a great gift. Joey would love that!” This is the power of database marketing.

Collecting Accurate and Consistent Information
Database marketing all starts at the point of sale. Without accurate, complete, and consistent data this type of pinpoint target marketing can’t be done. To ensure that your information is accurate and consistent, help your customers fill out the data collection form and review each information form for completeness.

You might experience a hesitancy from your customer to give out all their personal information, similar to how I felt at Radio Shack. However, after explaining that the information will only be used to send out special offers during important events, is completely confidential, and will not be shared with anybody else, you’ll find that most of your customers won’t have any problem giving out their personal information.

Cost Effective Loyal Customers
Marketing to your current customers is one of the most effective and cost-efficient strategies you can do to reduce your marketing costs, enhance your customer / retailer relationships, and produce long-term loyal customers who, over a period of months or years, become your biggest source of referrals.

Thanks to David Frey, Marketing Best Practices Inc.

Cash Register vs. Point of Sale (POS) System

What is POS?

POS stands for Point Of Sale. This is a system that is used throughout the restaurant, retail and Entertainment Ticketing industry. This computerized system allows business owners to track sales, cash flow, Inventory and can help simplify your bookkeeping effectively and enormously. Sales per Till, Salesclerk wise sales, Printing the Kitchen Order tickets to Kitchen directly or Bar can be done effectively and Make things easier and faster means.

Lets Discuss POS's Pros and Cons of Restaurant Industry to begin with.

Why it’s good for a restaurant?

The high volume of cash and credit cards that pass through a restaurant each day make a POS system a necessary. Not only does a POS system track every penny of your sales, many POS programs also takes credit card and work with Credit Card processors. This makes swiping credit cards more secure for both the customer and the business. Servers are accountable for all their sales, and it is impossible to alter checks in the computer unless you have the Administrative password. This helps cut down on employee theft.

What are all the Benefits?

One benefit of a POS system is that it simplifies communications between the kitchen and the Sales Clerk or Waiters. Orders go through the computer, directly to the kitchen printer or Bar Printers. Another benefit of a restaurant POS programs is that it can track everything from food usage, to the most popular menu items. Because the POS system acts as a time clock, it can also help prepare payroll. This can save you a lot of money in your bookkeeping department. Along with the daily operations of running a restaurant, a POS system can organize profit and loss statement and sales tax.

What are all the Cons of POS?

The most obvious drawback to any POS system is that it is a computer, and subject to all the same technological whims. If it happens to crash and you don’t have a back up, then you risk losing all your data, not just sales, but profit and loss statements and payroll statements. Important stuff that the IRS may want to examine some day. So, always have a backup. So Every Piece of Data need to be maintained in a planned and organised manner for later examination by you or by Income Tax department.

A good POS company can help you out in right planning and backup schedules to manage the data in a secured way.

What is the ROI (Return on Investments)?


Return on Investments are High because It saves :


1. Lots of Waiter or Sales Clerks in managing the KOT (Kitchen Order Ticket)

2. Planned Chef Work is very much possible because immediate printing of orders to the Kitchen or Bar.

3. Tracking sales and analyzing sales to plan the happy hours to boost sales based on hourly sales done.

4. Payments are Tracked properly and End of the Day report will help to analyze more accurately the sales and returns.

5. No need to remember Code number for all products since it does show all products based on categories or directly.

6. It makes life simpler for a Restaurant Owners

Where to find them?

There are many POS distributors. Here is just a partial list of those that carry restaurant-specific POS systems:

ProPOS.net - Very User Friendly POS for Restaurant / Bar / Fast Bar - with Touch Screen

Dineware POS - Restaurant POS

Aldelo For Restaurants Pro - POS Solution for Table Service & Quick Service Restaurants

Finally: Time is Money ! For sure You save alot of Money at the end of it!!!

New POS System To Help Control Liquor Inventory

Staff can free pour but our wireless pourers send a signal back to your POS system every time a drink is poured. Powerful POS based variance reporting of pours vs inventory lets you know where and when a loss has occurred. Every ounce of alcohol that flows through you bar is compared to your POS records.

Bar, Pub or hotel owners can manage liquor costs down by tracking their liquor inventory in real time.

Compact wireless pourers are simply mounted on bottle tops
Removes the need for manual liquor stocktakes
Automated variance alerts are sent to your PC or mobile
Powerful reporting lets you check the location and timing of each variance
Data can be aggregated at local, regional or corporate level.
All pourers are rechargeable with a long battery lifelong
Pourers can be calibrated to pour 30ml, 1/2nip or 15ml
Simple button can switch pour sizes

About Vectron Systems

Vectron offer a complete range of beverage dispensing technologies with easy POS integration: our compact wireless pourers, flow meters and ETN's.

Vectron POS is a complete solution with fully integrated and configurable applications. Our systems cover every function required to manage today's pubs, hotels and bars. With fully integrated modules for bar, bottleshop and restaurant, owners can connect and manage all your business activites. Email Vectron on sales@vectron.com.auThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or see http://www.vectron.com.au

News from pr-canada.net and Thanks to pr-canada.net

Don't Count Button Presses

When designing a Point of Sale system, it's easy to count the number of times the user must touch the screen to accomplish a particular goal. For instance, the process of tendering an order with a credit card requires the user to interact with the computer (e.g., through touching) a countable number of times.

Working to reduce the number of button presses is certainly a worthy goal. The problem comes when designers or well-meaning company representatives use that count as a measure of speed. And things go from bad to worse when button press counts—and the desire to minimize them—becomes one of the primary drivers of the design.

When designers start letting button press counts drive the design, it invariably results in a host of undesirable side effects, many of which actually slow things down. Here are a few side effects I've observed::

• Too many buttons on the screen, making it harder to learn and harder to find what you're looking for.
• Buttons and other controls that are too small (and too close together), making the user have to slow down to avoid touching a nearby button.
• An inflexible design that requires shifting of on-screen elements when company offerings change.

It's critical to remember that speed of service is driven by many, many factors. I did some keypress analysis for one fast-food company and discovered that the number of screen touches accounted for less than 10% of the variance in order times. That means that over 90% of what made an order faster or slower came from factors other than the number of keypresses. It's attention to these factors that will do the most to increase speed of service.

Thanks www.posdesigns.com

POSIFLEX Technology Inc. to invest US$ 10 million in India

Acquires Protocol Solutions To grow POS sales in the unorganised retail sector

POSIFLEX Technologies Inc., a professional POS (Point of Sales) hardware solution provider worldwide, today announced the acquisition of a majority stake in one of their leading distributors in India, Protocol Solutions a bangalore based company. With this, Protocol Solutions will now be called POSIFLEX India, thereby making a direct presence in India. POSIFLEX products are widely used by the largest of retail outlets in India, making them the second largest in India next to IBM according to IDC report.

This strategic move will help shorten the lead time of delivery and provide satisfactory service to customers, to increase brand awareness and expand market share. On the strength of acquisition, POSIFLEX will not only acquire the existing channel resource, but also give access to the Indian software development industry to bundle with hardware of POSIFLEX. It is expected to offer low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) solution from India to global channels eventually.

On this occasion Mr. Owen Chen, CEO, POSIFLEX Technology Inc., said, “We saw great potential in the Indian market and decided to enter India by acquiring a majority stake in Protocol Solutions. We were happy with our relationship with Protocol and impressed with their track record. They understand our products well and have played a vital role in creating a demand for our products in India. So when we thought of having a direct presence in India, Protocol was undoubtedly our choice. We will be investing US$ 10 million over the next 3-5 years, which will include setting up of R&D team in India to deliver customised solutions, strengthening our marketing and channel partners as well as an option of starting an assembly line.”

“There is tremendous potential in the Indian retail market. With hundreds of malls that are projected to open in the coming years, the sector is expected to invest around US$ 500 million in retail technology service solutions in the current financial year. This could go further up to US$ 1.26 billion in the next four to five years. So it was an important strategic milestone for us to have a direct presence in India,” added Mr. Chen

Mr. Dinesh, Director, Protocol Solutions, said, “The organised retail sector accounts for only 5 per cent of the Indian retail market, which leaves us with the big chunk of untapped unorganised retail market. As POSIFLEX India, we intend to enter the huge unorganised retail market through channel partners across India.”

Mr. Baskar, Director, Protocol Solutions, said, “We have been working as POSIFLEX distributors for over eight years and today their solutions are widely used by most of the large retails chains in India. We have worked with POSIFLEX and have been instrumental in making the product second largest in India with over 20 per cent market share. As we have developed great success stories in the organised retail segment, POSIFLEX Technology will be leveraging these successful cases in other countries.”

POSIFLEX POS solutions are used in multiple market segments such as, hospitality, retail, entertainment, logistics, manufacturing, banking, information services etc. Protocol has successfully deployed POSIFLEX products in both Industrial Automation & Retail Automation. Their clientele includes, Ford India, IFB, Hindustan Motors, Ashok Leyland, Schneider Electric, Shopper Stop, KFC, HyperCity, SPAR hypermarket, Fresh@, Subway, Costa Coffee, Café Coffee Day, Food World, Royal Orchid, Arvind Brands, Peter England, Lifestyle to name a few.

Taiwan-based POS maker Posiflex to acquire India sales agent Protocol Solution

Taiwan-based own-brand POS maker Posiflex Technologies has announced that it will acquire Protocol Solution Pvt, its general sales agent in the India market.

Posiflex said it will then establish a new marketing subsidiary headquartered in Bangalore, leveraging Protocol's original staff and resources to make further inroads into the India market.

The company said it will also seek to capitalize on India's strong software sector to develop POS solutions ranging from entry-level to high-end ones.

With more than five million retail stores as well as thousands of department stores and supermarkets, India has large potential for POS products, Posiflex indicated. Posiflex has tapped the India market for several years and become the second largest vendor with a market share of 17-18% next only to IBM, the company cited IDC as indicating.

Thanks : DIGITIMES

ProPOS.net - The Benefits of Point of Sale Systems

The early days of using a cash register and pen and notebook for accounting and processing transactions are no longer an effective means of keeping up with today's advancements in business technology. In order to stay competitive businesses have to adapt and change with emerging technologies.

The early days of using a cash register and pen and notebook for accounting and processing transactions are no longer an effective means of keeping up with today’s advancements in business technology. In order to stay competitive businesses have to adapt and change with emerging technologies. A technological advancement that businesses are now using is the point-of-sale (POS) system. They are now realizing the many benefits POS have on their businesses

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The following are the many benefits of utilizing point of sale systems:

1. POS systems provide a business with a real-time detailed report of sales. This allows businesses to assess what products are being sold and what products are lagging in sales. The business can then implement marketing strategies to boost sales of the popular products. They will also know in real-time what is not selling so they can decide whether or not to order that product. A POS system provides the latest sales reports for the day, week, month, or year.

2. POS allows for improved customer service. Transactions are processed much quicker, item that are scanned for their price are accurate which lessens sales discrepancies.

There is also a wide selection of methods to take payments such as credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, etc.

3. POS provides an efficient method of managing inventory. By being able to view in real time what is selling, they will be able to reorder products that are running low. POS software will also let you know when you need to reorder a product. Businesses can also keep track of the time of day that certain products are selling so they can arrange marketing displays around peak selling times. As well, businesses will spend less time on paperwork, accounting, inventory management, sales record keeping, as well as managing such programs as marketing, special advertising programs, loyalty programs, discount programs, and much more.

4. POS allows for the management of gift cards, coupons, and loyalty programs. This is effective way of monitoring the program and keeping track of the success of the programs.

5. POS systems and software is easy to learn. Most POS sellers will train staff and management on how to use the system. It is also easy to install and maintain. As well, POS software can be integrated into other applications so that all areas of business management can be viewed in one central place. It gives the user better control of the business. As well, technical support is only a phone call away.

6. POS retail software makes it easier to keep track of customer personal information, staff payroll, customer billing and shipping, vendor listings, and inventory management.

The many benefits of point of sale systems make it an essential business investment. The type of retail software a small business chooses depends on the type of business, size of the business, amount of sales, and the type and amount of inventory.

Point of sale systems allow for better management of a business, improve customer satisfaction, and helps increase sales. With POS, businesses are able to run a more effective and efficient operation.