This week, we have installed our new software for bike shops in several beta test sites where it will be tested live. This is a key next step in the process of delivering our new software to a network of bike retailers nationally.

In development for most of 2009, the new bike shop software is comprehensive replacement of the software currently being used by bike retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

Beyond Point of Sale software, our new bike shop software delivers excellent new facilities in the repairs, lay-by, business management and several other business key areas.

We have worked with bike retailers on enhancing the software to ensure that what we deliver is a genuinely useful solution.

We have mailed our final promotion in the countdown to the end of the federal government’s 50% tax bonus opportunity for small businesses.

The glossy postcards target bike shops, jewellers and gift shops with our software for each.  We have sent separate marketing collateral to newsagents with the offer.

On the back of each postcard is a photo of hardware items included as well as a list of software, training and other services included in the offer.

Postcards are an efficient marketing medium, the strike rate is good for us.  Sales prospects like they because they don’t need to open an envelope.

Like all of our marketing collateral, this latest campaign was developed in-house in our marketing department.

The tax bonus has been useful but could have been better had software been an allowable expense.

Our bike shop software is playing a key role in the running of the stunning new Avanti Plus Cannington store in Western Australia which opened at the weekend.  All four registers we supplied were busy all day when the store opened for business on the weekend.  Reports are that this store has had the highest opening sales of any Avanti Plus store opened anywhere so far - well done!

We are thrilled to be part of the journey not just with Avanti Plus Cannington but other Avanti Plus stores.  It is terrific to see how our software helps in managing the sales of Avanti bikes and a range of other merchandise including bike gear.

Our work with the Avanti bike retailers has helped us develop good facilities for other marketplaces in which we serve.

We have made it easier for prospective users of our Point of Sale software to arrange a free online demonstration through new facilities at our website.  Growth in online sales of our Point of Sale software made the move a natural progression for us.

Our online demonstrations are truly live and interactive, they show the full facilities of our software and take prospective users into any function they want.

While a face to face in-store demonstration is the preferred option, we are committed to giving our customers and prospects what they want and feedback tells us that more and more want online demonstrations.

In the online demo situation, we are able to have the business owner, their accountant and other stakeholders all in on it even though they may be in different locations.

An added benefit of an online demo is that it shows off how we can deliver personal and near on site contact for our customers for training or support.  The infrastructure we use for an online demo is the same.  WebEx, the best platform in the world for online meetings, gives us tremendous flexibility and permits live interaction with our participants.

If someone had said that we would sell a $20,000 point of sale system without meeting the sales prospect face to face or visiting their business we would have laughed.  Now that we have done this many times, we know the value of this smart technology and the value of having the right infrastructure in our business to deliver a professional demonstration.

Close to 150 bike shops use our bike shop software in a diverse range of areas in their businesses.  From the mundane to the sophisticated, our bike shop software is a key factor in helping bike shops shine in a competitive maketplace.  Here is a list of practical areas where bike shop owners and employees use our software in their businesses:

• Point of Sale
• Placing orders with suppliers
• Arriving and pricing new stock from suppliers
• Printing price and other labels for stock items
• Stock control
• Tracking theft of stock
• Returing stock to suppliers
• Managing customer accounts
• Customer loyalty programs
• Marketing to customers based on purchases - this can be something sexy like giving you a list of mobile phone numbers you cansend a TXT message to inviting recent customers to visit to have their bike serviced
• Follow up of customers following key purchases
• Handling LayBys
• Managing Repairs
• Manufactured goods - build a bike and track it
• Warranty tracking
• Tracking business performance at micro and macro levels
• Linking sales data to MYOB

Our bike shop software does plenty more, but this list is a good start for any bike shop keen to grow their business.

We have released a new bike shop POS software and hardware special offer.  The details are on our website.  This offer is available from now until the end of this year.  It taps into the Federal Government tax break opportunity.  Included in the package is our latest bike shop management software, a full package of computer hardware, on site installation, on site training and a year of support.

The Bike Shop software included in the package deal covers: point of sale, warranty tracking, repairs, stock control, lay-by, loyalty, theft management, business reporting, eftpos integration, customer accounting, sales tracking and serial tracking  … plus more.

We are achieving excellent sales of our software for bike shops this year. We put this down to better software. The number of sales coming from word of mouth tells us that the software itself is key to its success.

Our bike shop software delivers some excellent facilities tailored to bike retailers:

• Supplier links with standard EDI facilities.
• Serial number tracking for sales.
• Warranty tracking.
• Repairs / service management.
• Automated SMS facilities: end of day totals, repairs tracking and theft management.
• Customer follow up – turning the first service into a sales opportunity.
• Email marketing.
• Lay-By.
• Loyalty management.
• Point of Sale. Accounting interface.
• Smart reporting.

Our Bike Shop software has many facilities beyond these, thanks to the use of core technology on which it is built being used in other marketplaces.

The list above represents the items are often talked about as they sit at the core of business growth achievable from use of our software facilities.

Our new repairs facilities are helping jewellers (and other businesses undertaking repairs) profit more from repairs.  We are cutting management time, reducing mistakes and making it easier to bill for each task in a repair job and thereby more completely cover the business costs with appropriate margin.

Here are some of the features our development team has built into the facilities:

• Scan receipts or job card to find a repair in the system.  Alternatively, quickly find repairs based on customer details.
• Track repairs by customer.
• Support multiple repairs per customer.
• Accommodate multiple repairers per job.
• Easily schedule in-house or outsource repairs.
• Store quotes for later reference when it converts to a job.
• Manage partial payments of an account.
• Track repairs by repairer.
• Track repairs by courier.
• Automate pricing for popular repair jobs.
• Allocate staff and repair instructions.
• Allocate existing stock used for a repair job.
• Print barcoded job cards and receipts automatically.

The sophistication we have developed in our repairs facilities plays out in other parts of our software.  It’s like the NASA mission to the moon - there are many side benefits along the way for all of our customers.

Our new repairs software is up and running in beta test sites. This new software, specifically developed for businesses undertaking repairs – jewellers and bike retailers – is comprehensive, a complete replacement for what we had previously.

The development project has taken much longer than forecast because of technical challenges we encountered in executing to the requirements put to us by customers.

From the moment a customer hands over a watch or ring to a jeweller for repair, we track the job and all elements which go into costing the work – regardless of whether the work is done in-house or externally.

The new software is a testament to the patience and help of our customer base.