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Are You on the Current Update Release Cycle of
Retail Pro?
You may not notice any apparent issues with your
software and you may feel that you do not need the
current hot-fix or Update Release Cycle (URC), however
URC's contain important fixes as well as subtle changes
that make Retail Pro perform better. URC's are
distributed every couple of months or sooner as
needed. In 2008, Retail Pro, Inc. released 10
URC's. For detailed information on what was
included in recent URC's click
here - URC History. The URC History document
will be updated and available on all Retail Vantage News
Briefs under Quick Links (left menu).
URC's are only available to customers with current
Software Assurance. In addition to being on the
most current URC, you should be using the most current
version of Retail Pro available through software updates
or upgrades.
- Updates are defined as minor modifications made
generally available by Retail Pro, Inc. or its
licensors designed to make the Software more
efficient, easier to operate, remedy defects, or which
in some cases enable the Software to perform new
functions.
- An upgrade, which is the addition of major
functions or significant new features to the Software,
is defined, at a minimum, as a change in the tenths
digit of a products version number. For example, v8.6
over an existing v8.52, would be considered an upgrade
to the software. Either upgrade would require current
enrollment within the Software Assurance Program.
Likewise, migrating a Retail Pro application from
version 8 generation to a version 9 generation is
considered an upgrade.
Remember, if you have current Software Assurance, you
should be on the latest version of Retail Pro, currently
V8.52, with the most current URC.
For more information about updating your Retail Pro
software, contact your sales consultant Stacey
Ryan or Andrea Ellerbrock at
insidesales@armsys.com
or give us a call at (800) 305-0461.
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 Drive Top-line Growth with the New
Radiant P1560
Retail operators face unprecedented competition,
demanding consumers, and high labor turnover. Sales
growth has become an urgent priority, and the key to
driving top-line growth is having point of sale (POS)
technology that is fast, reliable, and flexible. Both
the Radiant P1560 and P1760 point of sale terminal
combine a retail-hardened design with the latest
high-performance open technology. Configurations include
advanced features, such as a high bright 15-inch (P1560)
or 17-inch (P1760) touch screen, Intel® mobile
technology, and fast memory - helping you accelerate
speed of service, increase customer throughput, and
drive top-line growth.
So what's
new about the P1560?
Processing Power:The P1560 and P1760 have two processor
options, the 2.0 GHz Celeron or the 2.2 GHz
Core2Duo. These high performance processors allow
Radiant to retain performance leadership in the POS
market, while Intel's mobile chipset continues to keep
temperatures down and reliability
up.
Volatile Memory: The P1560 and
P1760 both support up to 4gb of
memory.
New Enclosure: A newly
designed enclosure makes wall mounting easy and improves
service and manufacturability even further. A newly
designed cable routing feature helps keep your
countertop clean and keeps cables securely
fastened.
New Operating System: The
Windows POS Ready Embedded operating system is
optimized for the retail industry and customized for the
Radiant hardware platform. The embedded operating system
saves you money by providing all the features you expect
and need but none of the unnecessary elements found on
older systems.
Encrypted MSR: The
P1560 and P1760 both come standard with encrypted
Magnetic Stripe Readers. Keep your customers data secure
from the first physical point of
contact!
To
learn more about the new Radiant P1560 and the P1760
contact Andrea Ellerbrock at (800) 305-0461 Ext 324 or
E-mail her at andrea.ellerbrock@armsys.com
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Frequently
Asked Questions
PCI is new
and confusing to most of us. So, we have completed
some research and found some very good Frequently Asked
Questions. It is important to realize where these
compliancy regulations for credit card processing are
coming from and why every merchant must adhere to
them. In regards to your Retail Pro software, the
only way we can guarantee your compliancy to the PCI-DSS
regulations is for you to update to Version 8.6.
The only way to qualify for this release is by having a
current Software Assurance Plan. It is not too
late to renew your Software Assurance in preparation of
this release.
Q:
What is PCI?
A: The Payment Card Industry
Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of
requirements designed to ensure that
ALL companies that process,
store or transmit credit card information
maintain a secure environment. Essentially any
merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID).
Q: To
whom does PCI apply?
A: PCI applies to ALL
organizations or merchants, regardless of size or number
of transactions, that accepts, transmits or stores any
cardholder data. Said another way, if any customer of
that merchant ever pays the merchant directly using a
credit card or debit card, then the PCI DSS requirements
apply.
Q:
What are the PCI compliance
deadlines?
A: All merchants that store,
process or transmit cardholder data must be compliant
now. However, as a Level 4 merchant, you will have
to refer to your merchant bank for their specific
validation requirements and deadlines. All
deadline enforcement will come from your merchant bank.
For example,
Visa will require that VNPs and agents decertify all
vulnerable payment applications by October 1, 2009 (this
would include Credit Pro &
PPM).
Visa will
also require that Acquirers ensure their merchants, VNPs
and agents use only PA-DSS compliant applications by
July 1, 2010 (only V8.6 or above, in the Retail
Pro 8 Series, will be PA-DSS
compliant).
Q: Do
organizations using third-party processors have to be
PCI compliant?
A: Yes. Merely using a
third-party company does not exclude a company from PCI
compliance. It may cut down on their risk exposure and
consequently reduce the effort to validate
compliance. However, it does not mean they can
ignore PCI.
Q:
What are the penalties for
noncompliance?
A: The payment brands may, at
their discretion, fine an acquiring bank $5,000 to
$100,000 per month for PCI compliance violations. The
banks will most likely pass this fine on downstream till
it eventually hits the merchant. Furthermore, the bank
will also most likely either terminate your relationship
or increase transaction fees. Penalties are not
openly discussed nor widely publicized, but they can
catastrophic to a small business.
It is
important to be familiar with your merchant account
agreement, which should outline your exposure. We have
also included a few links below for your
convenience:
PCI
Security Standards Website
USA
Visa Website
Please contact us today to
discuss your Software Assurance renewal so that you are
eligible for the Update to Version 8.6 this
summer.
Best
Regards,
Inside Sales
Team
Advanced Retail Management Systems,
Inc.
(800) 305-0461
insidesales@armsys.com
| | |
Tech Tips
Discounts Before
Adding Customer
If items are added
to a document before a customer is added, and discounts
are given to any of the items listed on the document,
subsequently listing a customer with a defined discount
will override the previous item discount with the
defined customer
discount. | | |
 $500 for 5 Minutes
Receive $500 credit on
account or 4 Client Service hours every time you refer a
new customer that purchases Retail Pro.
Retail
Pro has grown to be the premier Inventory Control / POS
software for small to mid-tier retailers. Whether you
know a single store or a 100 store chain, Retail Pro
provides the technology for retailers to
excel.
Call your sales person today at
800-305-0461 or click
here to complete
the form to refer another retailer and start earning
valuable rewards!
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Retailers
Cut Back on Variety, Once the Spice of
Marketing
By ILAN BRAT, ELLEN BYRON and ANN ZIMMERMAN
For years, supermarkets, drugstores
and discount retailers packed their shelves with an
ever-expanding array of products in different brands,
sizes, colors, flavors, fragrances and
prices.
Now, though, they believe less is
more.
Pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. is cutting the types of superglues it
carries to 11 from 25. Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. has decided that 24 different tape measures is 20
too many. Kroger Co. has
tested stripping out about 30% of its cereal
varieties.
In the next year or so, these and a
few of the other largest retailers are expected to slice
the assortment of products in their stores by at least
15%, industry executives and analysts say.
This is a challenge for
manufacturers, who have grown accustomed to churning out
incremental variations on popular products to maintain
shelf space and keep their brands fresh in consumers'
minds. For consumers, the shift means less variety but
also less trouble sorting their way through a
sometimes-bewildering variety of offerings.
Retailers' drive to simplify is a big
shift in the trillion-dollar consumer-products sector.
Both retailers and manufacturers long agreed that bigger
selections were better, especially when the economy was
healthy and consumers were spreading their
grocery-shopping trips around two or three
stores.
Now retailers are cleaning up the
clutter. They are trying to cater to budget-conscious
shoppers who want to simplify shopping trips and stick
to familiar products. Retailers have found that
eliminating certain products can lift sales and profits,
in part by cutting excess inventory and making more room
for house brands.
"All that go-go 1990s where we were
adding items in and adding items in, and people wanted
more, more, more, more choice... just didn't pay off,"
said Catherine Lindner, Walgreen's divisional vice
president for marketing development, at a recent
conference. Looking at store shelves, "People say,
'Whoa, you're bombarding me. Help me figure out what I
need.'"
On a recent afternoon, at a
supermarket in Chicago, Laura Gilligan confronted a
salad-dressing aisle filled with dozens of varieties
spread across two dozen brands. After staring for nearly
a minute, Ms. Gilligan, a computer-company manager,
chose Kraft
Foods Inc.'s
cucumber-tinged light ranch. "There's too many choices,"
she said. "I just went with Kraft because I know
Kraft."
As that reaction suggests, the shift
to fewer items could lead to a shakeout on the shelf, in
which No. 1 and No. 2 brands win more space, and
therefore sales, from No. 3 and lesser
brands.
Household-products giant
Procter &
Gamble Co. has been
touting shelf simplification as an advantage. "We
generally end up with share and sales growth, and it's
all, of course, a lot more profitable and returns a lot
more cash," said departing P&G Chief Executive A.G.
Lafley at an investor conference last month. "It
benefits the leaders in the industry and it
disproportionately benefits P&G."
Campbell Soup Co., which is dominant in canned
soup, expects to gain about 10% to 15% more shelf space
at large retailers this fall, said a spokesman, mostly
for its top three sellers: condensed tomato, chicken
noodle and cream of mushroom.
Continue Reading http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124597382334357329.html
Source: The Wall Street
Journal | | |
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Announcing our
New Website
We're pleased
to announce our new website which has been many months
in the planning http://www.armsys.com.
We
hope that you enjoy discovering our new site and that
you find it easy to navigate and informative.
Some familiar and new
features found on the site and in the Customer Portal:
- Details on Training Courses for
Retail Pro
- Information on available support
plans
- Log On to Support Services (for
Gold Support Customers - sign up on line)
- Log calls online
- Review call history - see your
calls and our technician's responses
- Review account balances: Client
Services minutes used, Gold Support usage and Silver
Support Usage
- Order Consumables
- Request on Online Training
- Chat with our sales staff
- Schedule of 2009 Trade Shows
- In depth product information
for Retail Pro, Microsoft RMS and CounterPoint
- Log a Referral online receive a
credit on account or free Client Service hours
| | |
 Businesses using Twitter,
Facebook to market goods
More enterprises use the
microblogging site, and other social networks, to sell
and to soothe customers
By Liyun Jin, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
(Picture) Melissa Santos of
Bloomfield bags a customer order at the Dozen Bake Shop
in Lawrenceville. The shop has been using Twitter to let
customers know what's new.
When Dozen Bake Shop in Lawrence updated its
Facebook page to announce the daily specials -- "Two new
scones: Lemon Blueberry and Chorizo Cheddar! Also,
Rainbow cake!" -- its fans were quickly
abuzz.
"I'll be there soon!"
replied a fan within an hour, while someone else posted,
"I need to come and get some of that rainbow cake! It
sounds quite tasty."
For the bakery, the ability
to instantaneously reach out to a vast customer base --
more than 600 Facebook fans and nearly 400 Twitter
followers -- makes social networking sites
invaluable.
The business impact is
perceivable. That day, the store was "incredibly busy,"
and the two scone flavors sold out quickly, said Tara
Zynel, a front-of-the-house employee.
Social networking sites
such as Facebook and Twitter originally served to
connect users with their friends, but are now being
embraced by businesses, which use the sites as marketing
tools.
In November 2007, Facebook
launched Fan Pages, which allowed brands to create
profiles, upload pictures and respond to customers. The
more barebones micro-blogging site Twitter, founded in
2006, allows users to write 140-character updates seen
by people who elect to follow their posts.
Both sites have seen
tremendous growth. The number of unique visitors to
Twitter jumped 1,382 percent, from 475,000 in February
2008 to 7 million in February 2009, according to market
researcher Nielson Online. In that same period, Facebook
is estimated to have grown by 228 percent.
Nationally, such brands as
Starbucks and shoe-retailer Zappos have social media
campaigns encompassing both Facebook and Twitter, and
other major corporate Twitter-ers include Whole Foods,
Comcast, JetBlue and American Apparel. PC-maker Dell
announced Twitter had helped the company make $3 million
since 2007 from customers who followed its links to make
purchases.
Now, Pittsburgh companies
both small and large are increasingly discovering the
business value of such sites. Many report the greatest
value lies in enhancing communication with
consumers.
21st Street Coffee and Tea,
with locations in the Strip District and Downtown, uses
its blog to educate customers about current offerings
and coffee culture, something that co-owner Luke Shaffer
can't always do in the store due to the fast
pace.
Continue
Reading
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09172/978727-96.stm
Source:
Pittsburgh
Post-gazette | | |
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8100 Southpark Way # A-10, Littleton, CO
80120
303-738-1800 | Fax 303-738-9563
Denver -
Chicago
www.armsys.com
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