2012 is Looking Good

Posted on January 25, 2012 by CAPSoftware

As with any new year, it’s hard to accurately predict what all will happen, but it seems we have a lot to be optimistic about anyway.

We’ve got signs of life in the job market, the housing market is stirring, and the race to the election in the fall has everyone excited. Plus, we’re not seeing the downside risks like inflation and trade friction that some had predicted through 2011.

What does that mean for retailers and solution providers? Well, retail is consumer driven, and solution providers like point of sale resellers are retailer driven. We all need a confident and stable consumer to form a solid foundation for a growing economy. When consumers feel good, and they are sure of keeping their jobs, then they’re more likely to get out and spend. This is good for retailers, and things that help retailers grow are good for solution providers.

On top of that, there are lots of new technologies hitting the marketplace this year that should help improve the customer experience and increase customer loyalty, resulting in more sales for retailers. We rely on our solution providers to put these technologies together into a coherent and valuable package to enable retailers to better serve their customers.

I think the economy is beginning to gain some momentum, and that’s good for all of us. But enough from me, here are some thoughts from some other industry peers:

http://pointofsale.com/20120125901/Point-of-Sale-News/point-of-sale-leaders-share-what-does-2012-have-in-store.html

Enjoy!

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Cloud Computing?

Posted on December 2, 2011 by CAPSoftware

The “cloud’ is an extremely hot topic right now in many areas of IT and personal computing, but it means different things to different people, and it can do different things for different types of businesses.

One of the simplest concepts to understand and use is cloud storage. This is essentially just remote storage of your data, and you can get this service from Google, Amazon, Apple, Mozy, and any number of others.

But, is that really a business service, or just outsourced storage? Small businesses need data security and disaster recovery, included automated backup services, not just data storage. Many companies offer this service as well, but is that the whole story?

Imagine this scenario: You have a retail store with 4 POS terminals and a back office station. You have had a busy holiday season so far and you’ve done lots of account sales and loyalty transactions with your best customers. You have a backup service, so you assume you’re good to go.

But, a desperate criminal, possibly hurt by the long recession, breaks into your store. He finds empty cash drawers because you have good banking practices, but he sees value in your computer system and steals them all.

What good will your simple backup service do you now? You need help re-installing your point of sale application on your replacement computers, and you need help downloading your data. A simple backup of your files isn’t enough. Not by a long shot.

As noted here by Mark Webster: http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=27328, retailers need to be thinking about more than just offsite backup. You need to have a disaster recovery plan, and you can use the cloud to store not only your data, but your mission critical applications and other necessary information. Or, pick a provider that will do it for you, and will give you the services you need, when you need them most.

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Retail Technology Flies!

Posted on December 2, 2011 by CAPSoftware

I just returned from a point of sale vendor conference and it’s clear that this business isn’t standing still. Despite a relative lack of innovation before and during the recession of 2008-2010, the last year has shown that mobile devices, web offerings, cloud products, and many other new technologies are set to offer retailers powerful new ways to interact with their customers, more efficiently gather data, and reduce their operating costs.
Mobile platforms such as tablets, smartphones, etc. allow retailers to come out from behind the counter and offer their customers a much more personal and interactive experience, without reducing their data gathering capacity. You can serve a customer in an aisle or near a display, but still capture their demographic info, loyalty points, inventory balances, and process credit cards securely, all from a simple tablet device. Is your store ready for this?

The cloud is going to continue to develop, but we see lots of opportunity for hosted data storage, reporting dashboards, and remote connectivity functions, just for starters. What part of your system would you like to see in the cloud?

In short, there’s a lot going on, and I think the rate of change will only accelerate. Help us understand what you need, and we’ll get there together.

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Wireless Security and PCI

Posted on August 30, 2011 by CAPSoftware

For those of you using wireless devices such as laptops and tablets, or Bluetooth devices like scanners, printers, MSRs, or phones, the PCI Security Standards Council has issued new guidelines for using these types of devices in a secure manner.
Please take the time to look at their updated guidelines here if you use any of these devices:

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/PCI_DSS_Wireless_Guideline_with_WiFi_and_Bluetooth_082211.pdf

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Mobility, maybe?

Posted on August 29, 2011 by CAPSoftware

Mobility is officially, in my opinion, the buzzword for 2011.

The iPad, iPhone, Android, and myriad other phone and tablet technologies have the tech community atwitter this year.  We’ve heard that the PC is dead, that the wallet is dead, and that nothing will ever be the same. 

I think the last point is true, but that’s true every year, so get over it.

What does all this mean to YOU, the retailer?  Do you have an ‘app’ for your store?  Can your customers count on getting regular tweets about your sales and merchandise?

As a small retailer, probably not.  Do you really have the time and budget to spend on social media and other trendy implementations with nebulous ROI and difficult implementation paths?

Again, probably not. 

Should you have a Facebook page and an e-mail list?  Sure, why not?  But it shouldn’t consume you either.

I think the same is true of mobility.  There are some great uses for mobile devices in the customer facing world like table side ordering and remote payment applications like Square, et al, but what use does the average small retailer have for a phone-based point of sale application?

Not much.  How are you going to look up an item’s price without a barcode to scan?  What if you want to pull up a layaway or enter a customer’s address?

Is a 4″ screen really the best way to do that?  Can you do it at all?  If so, is it good customer service to make the buyer stand there and watch you fumble with your iPhone?

Probably not.

That’s why we’re working on Windows tablets.  You don’t have to learn a new product. You don’t have to learn to support and install MacOS or Android.  You don’t have to retrain your staff and relabel all your merchandise.

You simply install your existing CAP POS on the tablet, configure your Bluetooth scanner and printer, and you’re off to the races.

Is this solution for everyone?  Of course not, but it’s a great fit for truck drivers, sidewalk sales, line busting and other special transactions.

Instead of mobile devices REPLACING our current computers, I see them as a powerful addition to our existing infrastructure, and a way to surprise and please your customers all over again.

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