The Tyro broadband eftpos solution which is integrated with our Point of Sale software is now available for jewellers following a decision by the Board of Tyro last week.  We are the first software company to bring this to the jeweller space.

Using Tyro and Tower Systems Jeweller software, jewellers can expect:

• More accurate eftpos transactions.
• Better customer flow at the counter.
• Cost savings.
• Enhanced customer experience.
• Better security.
• Sales growth opportunities.

Jewellers keen to unlock these benefits should make contact with Tower Systems.  The Tyro integration is part of our Tower Advantage ^TM offer.

Tyro has advised us that there are 420 newsagents now using Tyro for fast and secure eftpos processing – integrated with point of sale. Tower Systems has 300 newsagents of these 420. Everywhere we go we receive great feedback on Tyro: it’s faster, easier to use and more secure than the older bank terminals.

Retailers using our Point of Sale software integrated with the Tyro broadband EFTPOS solution continue to rave about the financial and operational benefits. Thanks to our smart integration and the facilities of Tyro, these retailers are making more money than if they had stuck with their old backing terminal.

We recently checked in with a group of our customers so see if they are as happy with Tyro today as they were when they first installed more than a year ago. The answer in every case is a resounding YES!.

Here is a list of the key benefits of our Tyro integrated broadband EFTPOS solution:

• Tyro is fast. Transactions are completed and the docket printed in 4 seconds, often less.
• Tyro is accurate. There are far fewer keystrokes and therefore fewer mistakes which can cost money.
• Tyro has lower fees. The fees we have negotiated with Tyro are very competitive.
• Tyro provides better customer flow. The speed and ease of integration make it easier for you to process credit card and eftpos transactions so traffic flor at the counter is better.

We use Tyro in our own retail businesses. We love it for the reasons noted above. We heartily recommend it to every retailer.

Twenty more of our retail customers signed up with Tyro broadband eftpos last month.  This continues the excellent growth we are seeing in the use of Tyro for eftpos payment among our retail partners.

Our Tyro implementation sees eftpos transactions processed faster, with fewer mistakes and with better customer and retailer documentation.

We have released details to our user community of a special offer to bring more across to the several hundred who already enjoy the benefits of broadband eftpos thanks to our relatuionship with Tyro.  The new offer is on the table until the end of February this year.

The Tyro link we have developed is fast, safe and secure.  It eliminates keystrokes, mistakes and time - all important factors in retail businesses looking to drive the best possible return.

With hundreds of users of our Point of Sale software now processing eftpos transactions through the Tyro broadband eftpos interface, we are building excellent data on the business benefits.

Tyro is saving our retail users, including our own retail businesses, time and money with a faster and mroe secure solution.  Since our software communicates directly with the EFTPOS terminal, we reduce internal fraud and errors.

Here are the key benefits our customers tell us about:

• Speed and efficiency (transaction time less than 4 seconds)
• Lower costs (no phone line, no admin fees, free paper rolls)
• Low integration set up costs
• Low merchant service fees negotiated by Tower Systems
• Reduced internal and shop front fraud
• Secure, real-time online reporting

The Tower Systems / Tyro integration offers improved efficiency and accuracy - as we are seeing ourselves in our own retail businesses.  Yes, we used this ourselves to prove its worth first.

Our Tyro broadband eftpos integration is helping hundreds of our retailers process sales faster this Christmas.  Thanks to eliminated keystrokes, faster approvals and single point record keeping, we are helping our retailers process Christmas sales faster and more accurately.

We received a call yesterday from one customer which was simple and to the point: this Tyro is a bloody ripper!  They went on to say that it’s streamlined their counter, saving on wages.  While reducing labour costs is an important benefit, it is the elimination of duplicated processes which I like in my own retail businesses.

We help our customers connect with Tyro through a simple to follow advice sheet, free interface software and over the phone help and training.

The integrated Tower Systems Point of Sale Tyro broadband EFTPOS terminal helps retailers serve more customers, more quickly.

Integration means retail employees donlt have to re-enter sale amounts into the EFTPOS terminal. The information is sent automatically from the register to the terminal and the transaction is completed via broadband in less than 4 seconds - we have seen as fast as 2 seconds.

How many transactions do you do?  Check out the table below to compare transactions per month and what you can save.

Tyro helps retailers reduce abandoned sales and save money with no line rental, competitive rates, zero account fees and set-up costs.

Uptake of the Tyro broadband eftpos solution is continuing to grow among our customers.  This is primarily due to excellent word of mouth around the very fast transactions, excellent accuracy and good fraud control.

We have plenty of reference sites our customers can visit to see the transaction speed first hand - including seven retail sites of our won.

Bringing the eftpos processing to within the point of sale software and via a broadband link, as opposed to dial-up, delivers the kind of outcomes busy retailers are looking for.

we are noticing an increase in eftpos transactions in stores using our integrated Tyro solution.   This is due to ease of use and speed.  Employees love it and push back less on offering eftpos as a payment method in very busy periods.

With Christmas coming, Tyro will come into its own as retailers with broadband eftpos will be able to better manage customer throughput than those with older technology.

Jost Stollmann, the CEO of Tyro (fast broadband eftpos), wrote to all software companies which integrate their software with the Tyro eftpos solution about the recent reports of fraud using eftpos terminals. I publish his note here in full as it provides excellent information to consider.

We completed our Tyro integration earlier this year and already have well over 200 retailers using this.  This is growing weekly thanks to excellent word of mouth around the speed, savings and, security…

In recent press you may have seen headlines alerting Australians of a card payment scam that was discovered in a West Australian multinational fast-food restaurant chain. Something like 3,500 customers seem to have been defrauded by $4 million. What about your merchants? Are they exposed without knowing?

This is a check list for their peace of mind that I sent them:

1. Have your acquirer guarantee that his terminals are PCI PED and EMV 4.0 certified! All Tyro terminals are. They are the newest generation protected against eavesdropping, tampering or message forgery. All sensitive information is protected, and instantly erased if the terminal is tampered with.

2. Have your acquirer guarantee that no card holder data passes on to any PC, for instance residing in memory in the clear! With Tyro’s integration technology, no card or PIN data is ever passed on. It never reaches your Point of Sale (POS) software. Therefore, even if malicious data capture software was to be loaded onto your POS, it would not be possible to capture, store or transmit confidential card data.

3. Have your acquirer guarantee that card holder data is never transmitted in the clear! With Tyro’s technology, any transmission occurs only encrypted through an-end-to-end secured connection between our PCI PED certified terminal and our PCI DSS compliant switch, and it is using totally safely the public internet.

Sorry, if this sounds a little like bragging on about ourselves, but we are dead serious. The reality is that most EFTPOS terminals transmit card data in the clear. Integrated EFTPOS solutions hold card data in memory in the clear. We think it is most important to protect merchants and card holders against the increasingly sophisticated fraud industry. It is also important to maintain the consumers trust in the card payment industry.

Tyro is the only new entrant into the Australian payment industry. We are leading the industry in security. So, if you want to protect your merchants and their customers from card data security breach, possible scheme fines and potentially catastrophic reputation damage to their business and to the industry, recommend Tyro to them. If you are not yet integrated with us, what are you waiting for. If you are help us spread the word and recommend us to your customers. Thank you for your consideration.

Tyro is integarted with newsagency software from Tower Systems.  Our Tyro integration delivers tangible benefits: saving time, cutting mistakes and saving money - in addition to enjoying better security.

Disclosure: Tower Systems receives a small clip from transactions through Tyro, this funds support and link development.

We know from various reports that employee theft is a high-cost problem in retail.  We help retailers using our Point of Sale softare to cut employee theft with facilities such as:

• Employee sales tracking.  Using employee codes and or staff cards, every sales is easily tracked back to an employee.  This makes them accountable.
• Cash out management.  The til draw cannot be opened without appropriate permission.
• Owner controlled password protection. Retail owners have the ability to set passwords to control access to any function and thereby restrict what employees can access.
• Maintenance of an audit log.  We keep evidence of any potential fraudulent behaviour such as deleting sales (if permitted).
• TXT warnings of bad behaviour.  Our software can automatically send text messages to owners if behaviour has been detected which may indicate theft.
• Cash management. We carefully manage cash transactionally during the day and at the end of the day.
• Video integration.  We integrate with DVR technology to overlay counter activity with sales processes.  This makes tracking what happens to cash easier.
• Tighter EFTPOS integration. Facilities like Tyro cut employee activity when processing sales and this provides fewer opportunities for fraud.

Cutting employee theft in retail starts with the business owners making good decisions around business management.  Once you decide to run a tight ship, the day to day decisions become easier and your core goal has been set.

We have seen businesses add 2% and even more to the net profit of their business as a result of a good theft management policy.

“We used to cringe when somebody wanted to pay with EFTPOS on our old bank terminal, as it was so slow and would hold up other customers. But now we look forward to using the Tyro terminal. Customers are impressed with the speed and ease of use but are equally impressed with the design of the unit as it offers better privacy when keying PIN numbers. Once again, a really big thank you!”

It is great to receive feedback from customers using our POS software.  The kudos above relates to the Tyro broadband eftpos link directly from within our software.  We know from our own shops that we save time and money and we make retail customers happier as a result.

We are about to pass 200 newsagents using our integrated Tyro broadband eftpos offer. Every location has great stories to tell of time saved, mistakes eliminated and, as I wrote last week, theft caught.

From a technology perspective, Tyro is easy to work with. From a customer service perspective, they are fantastic. Indeed, we would rate their introduction to our platform as the best managed we have seen in years of bringing new products to our customers.

A newsagent called me earlier this week to share the news that he had caught an employee stealing from the business thanks to the Tyro broadband eftpos integrated within our Point of Sale software.

Each manual step in processing a sale which we remove is one less opportunity for fraud against the business. In this instance, the Tyro eftpos integration removed a loophole in local store practice which was being exploited to the considerable cost of the owner.

A couple of months after the introduction of Tyro in the newsagency, the smart Tyro reconciliation showed up the fraud and set the owner on a goal of fixing the expensive problem.

Our Tyro broadband eftpos integration is a smart move for our retailers because it delivers financially rewarding benefits:

• Cuts keystrokes. The amount of the sale is transferred to the pin pad.
• Cuts mistakes. . Less keystrokes means less mistakes.
• Reduces fraud opportunity. . With less manual intervention and a direct from the POS to bank processing there is less chance for someone to steal.
• Faster processing. With fewer keystrokes and lightening fast approval (less than 2 seconds) customers are happier and staff are happier. Everyone wins.
• Lower cost. The Tyro solution usually costs considerably less than a back supplied eftpos terminal.

While out theft check service helps uncover theft, our tyro integration helps retailers establish more checks and balances in their own businesses and thereby mitigate the costs of the problem.

Our team is ready for the GNS Market Fair in Sydney which starts tomorrow morning.  This is a big trade show for us because we have more than 600 newsagents using our software in NSW - plenty of the newsagents attending the trade show will already be customers.  That said, we are looking forward to welcoming more to the growing Tower Newsagent community.

On our stand we have our latest newsagency software, state of the art retail hardware and a Tyro broadband eftpos terminal.

Best of all, our stand will have people from our NSW office on hand - the people newsagents deal with daily in NSW.  While I will be there tomorrow, we have found it valuable for newsagents to meet at trade shows the people they will deal with in their state.

POS Solutions is also at the trade show. This makes it easy for newsagents to compare systems and companies.

Our gift shop Point of Sale software provides access to an integrated eftpos solution which cuts mistakes, improves the customer experience and makes handling eftpos sales faster.  It saves money too - the Tyro broadband eftpos rates we have for our POS software user community are excellent.  The swivel base eftpos pin pad we recommend is popular with customers too - it is easy to use and most secure. We use Tyro and this swivel base pin pad in our own gift shops and so have our own personal experience from which to draw. It sits in the same location on the counter and is easily turned to a customer for PIN entry and back to the staff for processing.

Rather than using a separate bank terminal for eftpos, our integrated solution helps gift shop owners cut significant banking costs and processing delays from their businesses.  This is another way we help our gift shop customers improve the return they get from their software investment.

We are seeing more evidence of our fast broadband eftpos interface with Tyro driving sales growth.  Several of our retail partners have shared anecdotes of customers who made a second purchase after the sale was processed - a purchase the retailer would have expected to lose because of the slower dial-up eftpos terminal from their bank.  In each case, the retailers are busy and serving a time-poor customer pool.  A delay in processing can cause the sale to be lost.

Thanks to our smart integration with Tyro, we are seeing eftpos approvals completed in one or two seconds - dramatically faster than is usually achieved with a bank terminal.  The retailers we have spoken with love the speed of Tyro and the sales they can quickly close as a result.