We shipped our latest Point of Sale software update to 300 of our users earlier this week.  This is the next step in a carefully planned and managed roll out to this major release of our software.  Given the significant scope of the update it is important that we don’t flood our 2,000+ users with this new software.

The next batch of update CDs, which double as security backup of the software, will be sent in a week.

For the update to get this far in the release process, it has progressed through:

• Thorough in-house testing and QA assessment - done separately from the development team.
• Comprehensive beta testing in our own eight retail businesses.
• Comprehensive beta (phase two) testing in a group of customer retail locations.
• Limited release commercial release.

This is all before we send the update to the 300 customers I mention above.

Each of the testing and release phases must complete with flying colours before we move to the next.  This is crucial with such large update.