We are about to release an enhancement in our jewellery business Point of Sale software to handle changes by Pandora to their stock file.  Our enhancements will make the Pandora change easier for jewellers.  This is being delivered free to Tower Advantage ^TM jeweller customers.

This is a significant one-off change for jewellers and if not done right the disruption to the business could be considerable.  We are pleased to be in a position to help.

A Sydney jeweller is using Tower Systems Point of Sale software for jewellers to control his retail business from an overseas base. Thanks to remote link facilities, excellent reporting and integrated theft management tools, such remote management of the business is easy.

Fast and secure, the remote link facilities are ideal for jewellers who work away from a retail business of travel extensively. Key decisions can be actioned quickly, as if you are still in the business back home.

Data integrity is not compromised by the overseas link. Further, local staff don’t have to know the extent to which the owner is watching over the business.

The same facilities helping this jeweller control his software are also helping Australian based jewellers to manage more than one retail outlet from a central location. The ability to monitor performance is exceptional, almost as good as if you are in the business at the time.

More than 300 jewellers use the current version of Tower Systems Point of Sale software.

Tower Systems is proactively helping jewellers using its jewellery business Point of Sale software to easily handle the significant change Pandora is introducing to their stock file.  The Tower Systems facility will make the change easier.  It will also cut mistakes a more manual process would cause.  This is being delivered free to Tower Advantage ^TM customers.

We are communicating with our Tower Advantage ^TM jeweller customer base on how to access our utility as well as advice for undertaking the change.

This is a significant one-off change for jewellers and if not done right the disruption to the business could be considerable.  We are pleased to be in a position to help.

We are experiencing excellent sales growth of our jewellery software here in Australia.  July was another excellent month.  The latest software enhancements as well as jeweller specific training services are proving to be the keys in driving this growth.  We are also helping jewellers access the 50% tax bonus on offer from the government for purchase arrangements made prior to the end of this year.

We will have the latest version of our software for jewellers on show at the JAA International Jewellery Fair. August 30 - September 1.

Some of our competitors try and deter jewellers from doing business with us by saying we are focused on newsagents.  As anyone who visits our offices will see, we balance our business across several marketplaces.  This provides us with commercial balance as well as learnings which benefit other markets.

We continue to help retailers cut their tax this financial year thanks to the Small Business Tax Break on offer from the federal government.  We have worked hard to esnsure that our package deal offers for newsagents, gift shops, jewellers and bike retailers meet the guidelines and help our new customers to maximise the benefit to their businesses.  Our sales team has been trained in what is available wwith the tax break and what is not.

With just five months left to run on the Small Business Tax Break, the next few months will be very busy.

The new product labels for jewellers using our jewellery software (and gift shops) which we have sourced are saving a considerable amount for our customers.  Thanks to tough negotiating by our buyer and committing to a considerable volume, we have been able to cut the price by 70%.  This price reduction is for a better quality product. The label is, in fact, a multi-label - meaning that each label has five components, separate labels if you will, which can be used in different ways for a product.  jewellers tell us that tthis configuration is ideal  for their needs.

While supplying stationery is not core to our business, helping our customers save money from their IT investment is.  A 70% reduction in a business expense  is a proud achievement for us.

The work we have done on these jeweller labels applies to our gift shop, homewares and even high end newsagent customers - any retailer wanting attractive labels for high-end product.

Our sales teams are reporting excellent results from the GHA Home and Giving Fair in Sydney and the Reed Gift Fair in Brisbane from the weekend and through to last night.  Both fairs have been busy and retailers ahve beenmost positive.  We like these trade shows as they attract giftshop owners, jewellers and newsagents - a perfect mix for us.

Tower Systems has experienced excellent growth in jewellery software sales in the six months to June 30.  Jewellers in Australia have backed our jewellers software by installing our software and underaking our training.  Customer feedback is that jewellers like our on site one-on-one training.  This personal approach allows us to tailor our training to the needs of the business.  No two jewellery businesses are the same.

Rather than drowing through the end of the financial year, hundreds of Australian jewellers have prepared end of financial year reports, completed a stock take and set themselves up for greater success in 2010 thanks to Tower Systems’ jeweller software.  Used by large jewellers and small, those handing heirloom product to fashion jewellery, the Tower Systems jeweller management software has made the end of the 2008/09 financial year go as easy as a leisurely swim.

Our next software for jewellers update is close to release - the final round of acceptance testing is under way.  This jeweller software includes several enhancements which improve the value of the software:

• Repairs.  Our new facilities are more comprehensive and robust.  In short, more valuable.
• Second hand goods.  We are delivering a complete software for second hand good solution - to police standards.
• Labels.  More label options to make any business look good.
• Lay-by.  An excellent extension to our lay-by facilities.

These enhancements and more to be announced next month add tremendous value to our jeweller management software.  They will ship shortly.

Our jewellery business management software is selling very well this year as a result of excellent word of mouth from our existing jeweller customer community.  We are grateful for their kind words to colleagues about our software.  They encourage us to work harder at enhancing the software.  The next evidence of this will be in the jeweller software update we are putting the final touches to right now.

Sales of our software for jewellers were strong before the small business Tax Break kicked in and have grown further since.

The jeweller marketplace fits well with the other marketplaces which we serve by driving better reporting and management facilities.  Jewellers benefit from the throughput focus and flexibility required for our other markets.

Our jeweller software installation and support teams help separate our offer and ensure that we reamin focused on this important marketplace to the Tower Systems business.

Choosing jeweller software is an update to our guide on how to choose the right software for your jeweller business.  This simple guide has been helpful to jewellers looking for good software for their business.  It opens needs which may not have been considered and outlines a process which jewellers find helping in evaluating jeweller software.

We are seeing some excellent business building initiatives from our jeweller user community in what we keep hearing is a tough marketplace.  These smart jewellers are using our jeweller management software to get closer to their customers and drive excellent business outcomes.  I wish the politicians who appear hell-bent on talking the economy down would get out more and see the success some business owners are creating for themselves.

What we are learning from these smart jewellers about how our software is being used will help us better serve them, other jewellers and, indeed, other retailers in our user community.

We are promoting the success of our jeweller software in helping jewellers achieve greater control over key parts of their business in our latest marketing.  From the stock room to the sales counter to customer relationship management, our jeweller management software helps jewellers with business specific facilities and reports.

We are grateful to the hundreds of jewellers who continue to work with us in guiding our software direction.  Without their input we would not have the jeweller software we have today.

Thanks to the investment allowance tax break from the federal government, our package deal our system is more attractive if purchased prior to June 30.  This is a key focus of our latest promotion.

This latest promotional material will hit the mail for jewellers around Australia on Monday.

Click here to see the Autumn point of sale software and hardware offer just released for jewellers by Tower Systems.

Click here to see a copy of the announcement by Tower Systems of the most important innovation in retail management software for jewellers for years.

UPDATE (23/4/2009):  We are on track for release of our new repairs software in May.

The new repairs facility we have developed for our jeweller users is delayed. It has not passed our quality assurance hurdles to enable it to go into beta release. The current goal is that we will reach beta release by early April.

This is a completely new software module – replacing the repairs facility which we previously supplied. The scope of functionality is considerable – thanks to excellent guidance from some in our user community for whom repairs is key to their business.

Even though we call this a repairs module, it is used for a range of other business functions.

We are promoting our point of sale software to Jewellers and connecting with the Investment Allowance currently on offer from the Federal Government.  The latest marketing collateral supporting this is available here.

We have made it easier for wholesalers to create electronic invoices thanks to some clever work by our software development team. While our preference is that wholesalers provide files which meet international EDI standards, we have created a facility for an easier file format which just about any accounting system used by a wholesaler can create. Already in use by a number of suppliers, this simple-form electronic invoice format will save time for some of our retail customers and make compliance easier for smaller wholesalers.

We have developed advice for wholesalers wanting to implement the simple-form electronic invoice format.

This work is of particular interest in the jeweller and gift shop channels.

The JAA trade show in Brisbane yesterday and today is proving to be an excellent opportunity for us with plenty of prosopects and existing customers talking with us.  Business at the show has been good.

Nathan Morrison (pictured) from our Sydney offfice and Luke La from our Brisbane office were both kept busy talking with jewellers and other retailers at the trade show who stopped by our stand.

While there are differences in between the marketplaces we serve, retail is retail.  We learn tips and techniques at tradeshows like this which can have application in all marketplaces when implemented in our software.  This is why we are grateful of the opportunity to participate in so many trade shows.

Our gift shop software and jeweller software help business owners manage fast moving stock items - like the small items next to the lion.  Where many POS software packages manage the negative, we pay due attention to the positive because it is these fast selling items which can deliver bonus returns to a retailer.

The lion in the photo is the item sales staff and management will traditionally manage.  It is big and hard to miss.  Using fast-seller tracking in our software, the top sellers are brought into focus in a way which ensures the business owner is more informed.

We developed our fast-seller reporting with businesses owners committed to this type of success outcome reporting.  The user involvement created a better outcome than we could have working in isolation based on what we thought was needed.

We are looking forward to joining 100 other exhibitors at the JAA Australian Jewellery Fair in Brisbane this weekend, March 15 and 16.  At our stand will be our team of jewellery software experts ready to show the latest release of our jeweller software package.

Loyalty marketing is back in vogue with independent retailers like newsagents, jewellers and gift shops – our marketplaces.

For the last couple of years we have seen retailers dabble with loyalty marketing but nothing like what we are seeing in 2009.  This year, loyalty marketing is serious.

In 2009, loyalty marketing in retail is about real rewards for real loyalty, adding real value. Not the fake added value of FlyBys and some other corporate loyalty programs. Small business owners I have been talking with recently are keen for innovative value based programs which really help drive their businesses.

These retailers, the small business owners looking for real value in their loyalty marketing programs, are the retailers I really like dealing with. They want to redefine their businesses around and exciting and innovative value proposition. They want to push what our loyalty marketing software can do. It is exciting to see and be part of.

We have excellent loyalty marketing facilities in our software but they can be better.  This renewed focus in 2009 will help us achieve that.

Excitement is building around the new update of software for Jewellers which we will be showing at the JAA jeweller trade show in Brisbane in mid March.  This is the first of several jeweller trade shows we will attend this year. 

Jewellers are an important marketplace for us and this trade show provides an important opportunity to access feedback on the new software.  It is also an excellent sales opportunity for us.

Tower Systems provides jeweller specific retail management software to hundreds of jewellers across Australia and New Zealand. We have been serving this marketplace since 2000.  While we continue to support old DOS software, our focus is on our Windows solution.  This…

• Increases sales with 15 sales and marketing tools
• Streamlines services by better managing repairs, special orders and valuations
• Provides optimal stock levels with 17 tools exerting full control over your assets and liabilities
• Cuts costly mistakes with smart scanning and leading edge touch screen technology
• Mines your data with 34 reports, giving you the information needed to make better business decisions

2009 have started well in the Jeweller channel with some excellent new business coming from jewellers looking to join the Tower Systems family.