We are waiting on final approval before we release the two posters we have developed exclusively for our retailer partners selling the Blackhawk gift card range.

We are proud to show off our innovation and the type of business-building help we provide our retail partners beyond the Point of Sale techology itself.

We developed two quite different posters to provide our retailers with a choice.

Once we have Blackhawk approval the artwork will be made available to our customers.

Retailers are responding to tough times by extracting more value from their Point of Sale software. 

Gone are the days when a Point of Sale system is seen as a cash register replacement, basic in function and service.  In today’s marketplace, smart retailers are extracting every ounce of value they can from their POS software investment.

While many software companies sell similar software, the majority do not provide the level of assistance and advice necessary for retailers to unlock value from the software beyond basic cash register replacement.

It takes real commitment from a software company to unlock the level of value necessary in today’s tough retail environment.

Software companies which act as software companies will rarely help retailers extract full value from their software.

Tower Systems is committed to helping retailers achieve tangible benefits from full use of its software every day.  This is reflected in the broad range of assistance provided through our Help Desk.  More than half all calls relate to business matters and not the software itself.

Thanks to broad retail expertise, we can go beyond the usual technical support call.  We provide business implementation advice along with business management advice.

Our assistance can also include analysing business reports and showing a retailer the business decisions available to them based on the data in the reports.  This is where real value is unlocked from our retail management software and the Tower Advantage ^TM relationship.

Imagine how a retailer feels when we identify $15,000 worth of stock which ought to be quit because it is not paying even for the floor space it occupies?  Or when we show how to easily lure customers back into the business with little or no cost.  Retailers love having access to this information and the decisions they can make.

We delight in engaging in business discussions which enable us to use the software to show the opportunities for our retail partners.

Tower Systems is more than a software company offering a technical solution. We are a business building company which uses software as one means through which we help independent retailers grow.

Tower Systems is offering Point of Sale software training next week in the following areas:

• Retail stock management. Tuesday Aug 31 at 11am
• General Q&A session Aug 31 at 2pm
• Point of Sale training Sep 2 at 11am
• Magazine management workshop Sep 2 at 2pm

Each of these sessions is free and will run for around an hour.  Please book for all online training at our website.

We are close to launching exclusive marketing collateral for the close to 150 newsagents using our newsagency software who have or will very soon have the Blackhawk gift card range in their stores.  Our marketing collateral is being developed by our own marketing department and will come with the Blackhawk seal of approval.

As the world’s largest gift card supplier, it is natural the Blackhawk must approve all marketing collateral which promotes their offer.

We are developing several collateral alternatives prior to selecting one as the preferred option for our growing network of Blackhawk outlets.  The collateral will be provided with marketing tips and advice to help our retail partners maximise sales of Blackhawk product.

This is the Tower Advantage ^TM at work - providing access to a solution through our technology, backing it with professional marketing and supporting it with quality business development advice.

The reports of sales of Blackhawk gift cards in our stores already carrying the range indicate excellent business.

Newsagents around the country have been receiving advice on compliance with standards monitored by XchangeIT, the industry standard EDI platform.  To help  Newsagents our newsagency software refresh their knowledge of the operational requirements of the standards, we have scheduled two of our popular and highly regarded online magazine management workshops next week.  Access to these online workshops is free to Tower Advantage ^TM customers.

The commercial imperative of compliance is that it reduces the cost of accessing the XchangeIT platform.

One of the key differences between Tower Systems and other software companies serving newsagents is our engagement beyond providing newsagency management software.

Owning newsagencies ourselves separates us from every other software company and takes into deeper engagement in the newsagency channel.

This deeper engagement with newsagents have been evident for many years and is, we believe, a key reason around three times more newsagents partner with Tower Systems than our nearest competitor.

We are always looking for opportunities to leverage greater value for our newsagent customers from our newsagent community.  This is evident in the sales benchmark studies we undertake.  They are highly regarded in the newsagency channel and used by suppliers and others to guide business strategy and provide an insight into overall channel performance.

Yesterday, we announced a new and exclusive initiative to help newsagents in the area of magazine management.  We have offered Tower Newsagents the opportunity to participate in a project designed to place  issues relating to magazine distribution under the spotlight in a formal situation with a view to facilitating structural change.

We are inviting access to business data which we will collate and present to appropriate parties with the assistance of skilled professionals.

Our product is data based.  We intend to use accurate newsagent supply, return and other data to provide an up to date picture of magazine distributor performance.

Our trials over recent weeks have highlighted the challenges many newsagents face as a result of the current magazine supply model.  While our software has excellent facilities for managing magazines, these tools can only react to magazine distributor behaviour.

Our commitment to our 1,700+ Tower Newsagent customers is to use their business performance data to seek a fairer model which will see the unique magazine distribution system in Australia maintained rather than killed off by poor business practices.

Our last national study on magazine related cash flow in newsagencies was in 2005.  That led to some changes in supplier performance but not enough.

With better systems in place in newsagencies now, a much bigger tower Newsagent community, the support of some independent publishers and the assistance of some outside professionals, we will be leveraging the Tower Systems point of difference on behalf of all newsagents.

Watch this space for more news.

We are finalising plans for a series of newsagency business development workshops around the country.  These are to follow on from our successful Newsagency of the Future series which concluded last month.  Participation will be free and available to our 1,700 strong newsagent customer community.

Each participant will bring to the workshop current business performance data and an agreement of confidentiality on the discussions.  The workshop itself will explore business performance, the opportunities for success and changes which others are embracing in pursuit of success.

The workshops are expected to provide participants with practical newsagency back office improvements along with plenty of revenue growth opportunities.

This is another Tower Advantage ^TM initiative.

Tower Systems announced today the first online Facebook training workshop for newsagents wanting to embrace this social media opportunity: Thursday July 15 at 10am.  Click here to book.

At this stage, participation is open to the 1,700 Tower Newsagents.

We are preparing to offer free training for our customers on how to use Facebook to promote your retail business.  This training will be offered initially through our online training program and as part of the Tower Advantage ^TM suite.

The training will cover Facebook, what it is and how to use it; setting up a Facebook page for your business; how to attract friends to your Facebook page and how to use your facebook page to spread your retail narrative.

We are finalising content and should have the first dates announced by early next week at the latest.

Our Point of Sale software for bike shops is to feature at the Ausbike Expo which is being held in Melbourne - August 23 & 23.

Costing less than $10 a day for hardware and software, our bike shop management system helps bike retailers in many practical ways:

• Cut theft.  By understanding what is being stolen you can take action to cut this.
• Save time.  Eliminate manual processes and replace these with computer based processes.
• Reduce mistakes.  By replacing manual processes - lay-bys, sales, warranty claims, repairs - with computer processes you benefit from better structure.
• Sell more.  This is a bold claim.  It is 100% achievable by using the marketing tools in the bike shop software.  Sell more to existing customers through marketing to them.
• Relax.  Better decisions can be achieved faster thanks to good management reports which are at your fingertips.  From stock turn to stock reordering to trading period comparisons, professional and flexible management reports can drive your business beyond your current goals.

All of this will be on show at the Ausbike Expo in Melbourne next month.

If you own a bike shop, drop by and see the Tower Systems Advantage ^TM for bike stores in action.

We have been helping a start up retail software company entering a market far removed from us.  In this process we have been looking at core principles which have helped us get to our position today.

Here are the key principles in which our company was founded and which hold true today.

Have the right sales team. Good IT companies try and counter retailer ignorance by using technically skilled sales people who focus on genuine business outcomes for the retailer.

Technically skilled sales people can show how the POS software genuinely helps the retail business for the long term. They will also counsel against a business purchasing the software if it is not the right fit for the business.

A sales person who knows how to sell but does not truly understand the technology chases the sale without consequences. While this may deliver good revenue to the software business in the short term, sales will fall in the long term.

Make better software. Retail businesses have very specific needs. IT companies need to understand and serve these needs, needs which go beyond traditional cash register facilities.

Smart IT companies thoroughly learn the needs of retailers in their niche, they embrace opportunities to develop specialist facilities in their products. They look for ways to help their retail customers with enhancements long after the software has been sold to the customer.

An IT company which does not care about the long term relationship with their customers will usually sell old and out of date software, not offer regular updates and not seek to engage with all of their customers, seeking our enhancement requests.

Back your software with excellent support. Get to calls in a reasonable time. Make sure advice is professional. Have a peer review process in place to ensure that the help desk team keeps each other honest and focused. You are only as good as your last support call.

Educate. Good IT companies offer education about how to use their software, long after the software has been sold. This education could be in the form of group training opportunities, online training, training videos and the more traditional printed documentation.

Regularly enhancing the training opportunities can extend the connection between retailer and POS software vendor. This can lead to good word of mouth, driving further sales. It can also lead to upgrade business.

There is a feeling of a job well done within software companies when they hear of retailers making good use of the software and achieving an outcome which, without the software, might not have been achieved.

Poor software companies tend to offer less education. Once they have the sale they don’t see much value in spending money on their customers unless they expect to make considerably more money.

The relationship between POS software vendor and retailer needs to be long term and not just about the detail done today to purchase the software. It must be a mutually beneficial relationship, one which respects the needs of both businesses.

Smart software will do considerably more than any software user ever dreamed. The key to unlocking this is the professionalism and dedication of the software vendor. The approach of a retailer is as key to driving this outcome as is the commitment of the vendor.

We are thrilled to be hosting another four free online training sessions for our Point of Sale software customers this week:

• Newspaper home delivery management.  Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 11am.
• How to use Gift Vouchers. Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 2pm.
• Mastering subagents. Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 11am.
• Stocktaking. Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 2pm.  There is a prerequisite training video for this workshop - available free at our website.

Access to all of our online training is free for Tower Advantage ^TM customers.

These will be the first sessions in our new studio in our Hawthorn office.  Bookings can be made here.

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.

As part of our Tower Advantage ^TM program we are offering four free online training workshops this week to retailers using our Point of Sale software. The four sessions are:

• Magazine management workshop – reordering - May 18, 11am.  The best industry training on managing magazines from an IT perspective.
• End of Shift – May 18, 2pm.  Everything you wanted to know about doing an end of shift.
• Officesmart – May 20, 11am.  How to use ourPoint of Sale software to manage Officesmart - a terrific stationery initiative from GNS.
• Retailer software security features – May 20, 2pm.  For owners only.  How to secure your business with Tower Systems software.

Bookings for these an other online training sessions can be made at our online training booking facility on our website.

We are offering four free online training workshops this week:

• Retail stock management – reordering - May 11, 11am.  For retailers wanting to automate the stock reordering process.
• Laybys – May 11, 2pm.  For any retailer using or wanting to use layby facilities.
• Repairs – May 13, 11am.  For  bike shops and jewellers who offer repair services to customers.
• Magazine management workshop – May 13, 2pm.  The most popular online training ever offered for newsagents.  Comprehensive, proven and valuable.

To book for these free workshops please cgo to our online training list.  Be sure to use the website to automatically update your Outlook calendar.

We released an update to our Gift Shop Software users last week which delivered enhancements making the software more valuable to gift shop owners.

This latest Gift Shop software from Tower Systems offers excellent facilities in key areas of Point of Sale, Lay By, business management and supplier electronic invoice support.

The new software has been sent to all Tower Advantage ^TM gift shop customers.

We are hosting another four free online training workshops this week.  The topics will be of interest to all of our Point of Sale software users:

• Stocktaking – May 4, 11am.  This covers all aspects of stocktaking - learn about this now before the end of financial year rush.
• Point of Sale training – May 4, 2pm.  This offers good overall Point of Sale operation training.  Ideal for new employees or as a refresher.
• Marketing your business – May 6, 11am.  This session covers all of the facilities in our software which help in marketing your business.  Get your software working for you and driving more traffic and sales!
• Retail stock management – May 6, 2pm.  This is the first of two sessions on managing stock more efficiently and effectively.

Our training program offers professional quality training to help our customers and their employees get the most from our software.  Access is free to Tower Advantage ^TM customers.  Anyone not using our software is welcome to participate to see the Tower difference first hand.

We have been asked this week why we don’t offer the training in the evenings or weekends.  We have done this several times over the last six months and take-up is not as strongas for the Tuesday and Thursday sessions.  We will try again, though, with the next round.

We published the results of the January - March 2010 vs 2009 Newsagent Sales benchmark study this morning.  The results have been sent to all newsagents who participated. Here is part of the report we have published:

Retail sales were down in newsagencies in January through March 2010 compared with the same period last year on a same-store basis according to the latest Tower Systems sales benchmark study.

The sales benchmark study, another in a series of sales performance studies in newsagencies for many years by Tower Systems, relies on data from a pool of 135 newsagencies using the Tower Systems Point of Sale software.

The process is time-consuming, accurate yet simple. We collect data for all sales for the periods being compared and analyse these in terms of unit sales (magazines, cards and newspapers) and revenue (stationery and ink & toner). Only data from trusted stores is used.

The key newsagent departments of magazines and newspapers are reporting concerning declines – especially on the back of declines in 2009 over 2008.

What differentiates this study over those from late 2009 and January 2010 is that green shoots are more evident – more newsagencies are showing growth, the difference between those performing well and those performing poorly is greater. For example, there were plenty of participating newsagencies reporting sales growth with magazines. These were pulled down by stores reporting double-digit declines.

Thinking about magazines for a moment, what is it that differentiates those stores showing growth or even 0% change and those showing double-digit decline. Once you take out stores growing or declining for one-off local factors such as construction or severe weather as well as stores more heavily affected by changes in magazine sales patterns (the decline in partworks for example) the difference can be put down to engagement.

Looking at magazine categories, weeklies have had a challenging quarter – leading the decline in stores reporting a decline and showing only modest growth in the stores reporting growth. The categories showing the most significant growth are food, cars and special interest.

Newsagencies showing growth are more likely to have the owner or the most senior manager personally involved in magazines, making strategic and opportunistic decisions. These stores are also more likely to be engaged in external marketing which is designed to drive traffic.

The benchmark study is used by newsagents and suppliers to ass ess business performance and look for change opportunities.

We are set to launch new website facilities this week, extending the e-commerce facilities which we have offered for some time.  The new facilities will enable our customers to extend software support online and thereby better manage access to our extensive range of added-value Tower Advantage ^TM services like software updates, advice sheets and advisory services.

We have four online training workshops scheduled for this week covering key aspects of our Point of sale software.

• Retailer Security. Apr. 20, 11am.  This is for retail business owners and will cover all of the security opportunities within our Point of Sale software from fraud barriers to detection facilities.
• LayBys.  Apr. 20, 2pm.  From the sale to refunds to final payment, this LayBy training will demonstrate, live, how to use our LayBy facilities in any retail situation.
• Business reporting.  Apr. 22, 11am.  POS software really shines in the reporting area.  This workshop will cover how to produce reports which are genuinely useful to your business.
• New retail staff training.  Apr. 22, 2pm.  This training is for people new to the business and new to using our POS software.

Access to these live and interactive online training workshops is free to our Tower Advantage ^TM customers.  the training can be accessed from any computer with broadband and a phone for a free call for the audio content.

The free retail business performance analysis service we offer helps participating retailers see their business through fresh eyes. Checking in recently with one participant from a year ago, we found that the free service had a marked increase in sales and an equally marked decrease in dead stock.

In undertaking the service, Tower Systems analyses business performance data at a deep level. This results in a thorough report for the business owners and, sometimes, a face to face meeting to discuss business performance.

While each analysis takes hours to complete, the company considers it a worthwhile investment. It adds to understanding of how the software is used and provides Tower Systems with an opportunity to demonstrate deeper value from the Tower Advantage ^TM.

Tower Systems customers wishing to access the free business analysis service should, in the first instance, email support@towersystems…

Tower Systems’ Point of Sale software can send emails to suppliers directly from within the software - for several purposes.  To make this work, email settings need to be established within the software.  We have published an advice sheet, G50, which explains how to create these settings.  This is available for Tower Advantage ^TM customers at our website.

This latest advice sheet is an excellent example of how we communicate helpful information to our customers, guiding easier use of our software in their businesses.

Through our Online Training Academy we are offering free access to another four online training workshops this week:

• Mastering Catalogues - Tuesday, Apr 6 @ 11am.  learn how to import catalogue data from suppliers, manage prices and ensure that correct cost and retail pricing operates.
• Retail Stock Management: configuration and maintenance – Apr 6 @ 2pm.  Managing stock is easy with the right setup.  This workshop is for retailers serious about managing stock effectively.
• Retail Stock Management: reordering – Apr 8 @ 11am.  reordering stock is where a point of sale system can pay for itself.  This workshop shows how to use valuable data from the system to manage stock reordering.
• Mastering Sub Agents – Apr 8 @ 2pm.  Sub agents are important to distribution newsagents.  This workshop covers how to manage sub agents using the software - for the benefit of the newsagency as well as the sub agents.

Our online training program helps our customers master more of their software and through this make more from their technology investment.

You can register to participate right up to an hour before we start.

Access to our online training is free as part of the Tower Advantage ^TM program.

We have locked in details for our user meeting in Dubbo commencing at 10am on April 22.  Click here to book for this meeting.  At the meeting we will cover our latest software update, provide a sneak-peek at our next update, provide training in areas of the software for which we are often asked questions and answer any queries.

Businesses not using our software are most welcome to attend to see the Tower Advantage ^TM in action.

For years now, we have offered a free business analysis service.  Retailers using our Point of Sale software send us a current backup of their system and we thoroughly analyse the data.  We look at how the system is being used as well as how the business is performing.  The result is a frank report for the business owner(s) to consider.  We often discuss this further with them and use data as a guide to talk through changes which could be considered.

At our end, a review of a business can take up to four hours of working through data and reports.  It often involves two of us comparing what we have found and challenging our views of what steps the business could take.  We take the opportunity very seriously because we understand the value for us of helping our retailers achieve more from their Tower Systems software.

The free business analysis is part of the Tower Advantage ^TM suite of services which help our retail partners get more from our Point of Sale software.

Any customer can request this by sending a current backup with a note seeking a Business Review to our Head Office: Suite 10, 22 Horne Street, Elsternwick VIC 3185.