Yesterday we published advice to our Victorian newsagent customers on how to handle the unexpected and quite complex campaign announced by the Herald Sun earlier this week.  While the timing of the promotion has been pushed back, we have worked hard to ensure that Tower Newsagents are prepared to manage the promotion with our software.

We are finalising advice for our Victorian distribution newsagents on how to handle the Herald Sun subscription promotion announced this week.

We have been consulting newsagents and senior management at the Herald and Weekly Times to ensure that all of the requirements of the promotion are understood and appropriately addressed using our newsagency management software.

While we are frustrated that H&WT announced the complex promotion without consulting newsagency software vendors, our focus right now is in helping our customers deal with this.

We caught up with plenty of customers and some sales prospects at the GNS Market Fair in Melbourne yesterday.  We are sure to meet with more today.  Our stand is in an excellent location, showing off what is great about Tower Systems: excellent software for newsagents, friendly high quality support, innovation (two iPads on the stand demonstrating our software plus a new customer display carrying advertising) as well as strong industry help and support.

We had a couple of newsagents question us about migration of newsagents to Tower Systems from other systems.  We were ready with a list detailing the 30 newsagents who shifted in five months recently.  In providing proof we were able to demonstrate our truthfulness.

We have three dates remaining for the Newsasgency of the Future workshop series:

• Geelong.  Tuesday, July 6, 2010.  10am.  Mecure Hotel.
• Gold Coast.  Thursday, July 8. 10am.  Surfers Paradise Marriott.
• Melbourne.  Friday, July 9, 11am.   Geebung Polo Club.  Hawthorn.

Access is free to anyone wanting to attend.  Click here to book.

Last week we announced a poll for our newsagent customers.  We were undertaking the poll on behalf of a newsagent supplier.  Thanks to the votes by our user community we have been able to help the supplier make a more informed operational decision.

Wiuth our newsagency software being used by well over 50% of all newsagents with a computer system puts us in a unique position.  We gladly use that to help forge a better relationship between newsagents and their suppliers.

Newsagents are responding well to our end of financial year offer of a free netbook computer with newsagency system purchases.  The offer has been communicated by mail and fax and is resulting in interest from newsagents without a system as well as some with a system and keen to move.

Every year at this time we have an end of financial year offer.  This year’s offer has hit a chord with newsagents looking for honest value from their technology purchase.  The Tower Systems added value of business support beyond the software itself is a genuine point of difference. We help newsagents switch from POS Solutions and Computerlink with conversion packages including transition help.

We have included photos of three of our sales team on the brochure to demonstrate the depth of our team.  Newsagents like to know who they are buying from and that they can speak with these people long after the system is purchased.

We have added more dates to the schedule for the free Newsagency of the Future workshop including Geelong on July 6 and Townsville on July 1 (in the evening).  These latest dates will probably see the current series out.  So far, more than 300 have registered to attend.  Click here for the latest flyer or click here to book online.

Plenty more of our South Australian newsagents have processed their Adelaide Advertiser newspaper home delivery accounts through our eziPass software.  The process at the newsagency sales counter is proving to be easy and turning the facility on through eziPass also easy.

Bringing this facility live for newsagents through our relationship with Touch Networks is another example of our leadership in the newsagency channel.  Our early work in SA well over a year ago set us up for roll out elsewhere should News Limited decide to head in this direction.

We are pleased to welcome more newsagents switching to our software from POS Solutions.  Users of their old DOS software look at us when considering switching to Windows and often when they get the POS Solutions support bill.

If newsagents don’t tell POS they are considering us we usually win on our merits: better software, better support and a lower total cost of ownership.  Where POS is told, we usually see them discount heavily to retain the business.  In one instance recently we were told of a discount of 80%.

The migration from POS Solutions to Tower Systems is driving our competitor to act some unusual ways.

We will continue to run the free online workshops for former POS Solutions users who have switched to our newsagency software.  Our commitment is to help former POS Solutions users and all Tower Newsagents get the most out of their software by learning how it operates.

Tower Systems is proud to announce Newsagency of the Future, a national workshop program for newsagents.  Drawing on international research and considerable local experience.  this free workshop will share with newsagents practical ideas for building stornger and healthier newsagencies in the face of an emerging new channel around technologies such as the Apple iPad.

Presented by Mark Fletcher, this session will be the most comprehensive look at new technology ever offerd to newsagents.  There will be case studies showing what some newsagents are doing to business successful businesses in new product areas as well as an opportunity for open discussion about the challenges the cahnnel faces today.  Click here for a brochure.

Drawing on many years experience helping newsagents  and personal experience with the ipad and other enw technology, Mark Fletcher will present a compelling and value packed workshop for newsagents.

Bookings are FREE and can be made at the Tower Systems website click here.

Thanks to our eziPass solution, newsagents have an easy platform for collecting newspaper home delivery account payments on behalf of publishers and other newsagents.

eziPass processes this collection for publishers as well as individual newsagents.  This flexibility is proving it to be an attractive solution in this rapidly changing area of newsagency business.

While we win some newsagency software business from without a computer system, most of our business today comes from newsagents moving from another software package.

Customer service is given as the main reason newsagents make the move. Newsagents want software which is backed by accessible and professional support, does not cost too much to run each year, is kept up to date, and is backed by business integration advice - a higher level of customer service than some software companies are used to offering.

We are proud to note that our growing market share indicates that we are winning on these key points. This year we have shifted more newsagents to Tower Systems. Some who moved were formerly rusted on users of other software packages. That we have facilitated the transition smoothly has added to the customer experience.

We do not intend for Tower Systems join the companies losing market share. We will ensure this by remaining focused on delivering excellent customer service to our newsagent and indeed all customers. Even though we are three times the size of thenext biggest software company serving newsagents, we will alwaysremember the importance of personal and professional customer service. This is what made us what we are today and will feed our growth tomorrow.

Yesterday we published a new advice sheet (G2.8) on how to use our software for emailing customer statements and using the Direct Mail Solutions service.  While we have had this advice covered previously, it was in a more general customer statements advice sheet.  Separating it out in this way provides a more useful document for our customers.

Some newsagents using Bigpond for internet access and email are finding their emailed newspaper home delivery accounts are being treated as spam by the Bigpond mail servers and therefore not getting through.

To circumvent this, we have provided newsagents affected with access to our private mail server for the sending of home delivery accounts. This service is provided without cost and with assistance in getting the settings right.

Their Tower Systems home delivery software operates as normal. The only change is that our mail server is used for sending the accounts rather than their Bigpond service.

We are pleased to be in a position to offer support which goes beyond traditional software support.

It suits some in the newsagency channel to confuse newsagents about innovation like the recently announced fees which can be charged for the mailing of accounts.

There has been no change in the new fee structure since announced and since we covered it here in March 31 and several times since.  There has been no change since  we published our Advice Sheet on charging the fee for mailed accounts or ran the three free online training workshops on implementation.

The only reason I can think of for faux confusion put about is that maybe it suits those behind it.

Newsagents using our software are able to easily handle the change to take effect from next Monday which will see subscriptions roll on - i.e. no end date.  Our advice sheet, N34, covers how to handle this change.  We have communicated advice on this in advance to our 1,600+ strong newsagent user community to help them be ready in advance.

While the newsagency software marketplace is quite mature, we continue to attract plenty of new customers. Some of these are churning from another software package while the remainder are new locations. We are strong in attracting greenfiled location business – new newsagencies in new shopping centres.

The churn business is something we watch carefully as there is no point in churning newsagents from one system to us while we are losing people out the back door. Thankfully, our customer base is loyal and we are not seeing a significant churn away from us. To quantify that further, for every one customer we lose, we gain at least fifteen, often more.

As the newsagency IT space has matured, newsagents have developed a better understanding of the value of a strong national supplier. This is where we play in a field of our own. More than 55% of all newsagents with a computer system use Tower Systems software. This percentage is growing.

While size turns some off, most understand the value when they see the back end support, training facilities and other services we provide newsagents. The value-add is significant and another reason word of mouth is so strong around our offer.

We have published fresh advice today at our website on handling the bumper edition of the Australian Financial Review scheduled for this weekend.

In a software update yesterday, Tower Systems delivered enhanced newspaper distribution facilities to newsagents using its newspaper home delivery software.

Thanks to the new software, newsagents have even greater flexibility with run list format for printing as well as greater flexibility for run lists displayed on electronic products such as the Apple iPhone.

Some of the run list enhancements are the result of suggestions from users through our Software Ideas facility and others are from internal work here.

We have published fresh advice for QLD newsagents which reflects the latest newspaper home delivery fees announced by Queensland Newspapers.  The new advice sheet (N23.2) is available for Tower Advantage ^TM customers from our website - under support.

Yesterday, we updated advice sheet n23.3 at our website to reflect the very latest advice from Nationwide News for the new newspaper delivery fee structure in NSW / ACT.  Access to this new advice sheet is free to all Tower Advantage ^TM customers.

The Catholic Weekly newspaper has implemented Tower Systems’ newspaper distribution software to help manage key parts of their business.  They join a growing number of newspaper publishers in partnering with Tower Systems to drive business efficiency.

Our newspaper distribution software makes it easy for publishers to manage subscriptions as well as direct supply to newsagents and other outlets.

Our software creates electronic invoices in a form which newsagents and others can easily import directly into their computer systems.

Working with newsagent suppliers enhances the services we offer newsagents.  Understanding more about the supplier side better informs decisions we make for and with newsagents.

We are thrilled to be working with the folks at NT News by supplying our software to manage part of their Darwin-based newspaper publishing and distribution business.  They are a welcome addition to the newspaper and magazine publishers already using our comprehensive newspaper distribution management software.

Our first newspaper publisher customer was Australian Property News back in the late 1980s. While this publication was sold and ultimately folded some years later, we have continued to serve publishers with a variety of software solutions from subscription management to distribution.

Working with newspaper publishers better informs us on ways we can serve our 1,650+ newsagent customers.