Rohan Genn our Customer Service Manager is running our Albury User meeting tomorrow. This is a terrific opportunity for our users to get some great training, an insight into the latest version of our software and to speak with a senior member of our team.

The details are:

• 11th March 2010
• 11:00am
• Quality Hotel on Olive, 579 Olive Street, ALBURY NSW 2640

Anyone is welcome to attend.

Some of our Point of training videos are to be included as modules in formal (government supported) training offered by a couple of organisations. They approached us after evaluating the content and the mechanisms for assessing what has been learned. We are thrilled with how our training stacked up to professional scrutiny.

Our online training program, videos and live online workshops, are backed by assessment to track what has been learned. We back the assessment with the follow-up training opportunities to ensure that gaps are covered and that the learning is the best possible.

Creating content for a curriculum beyond our own use is exciting. It encourages us to continue to develop the suite of training on offer.

We are hosting a meeting of our users in the Geelong region this Wednesday at 2pm at the Mercure Hotel – Cnr Geringhap & Meyers Streets. This is another in our 20+ locations for this round of user meetings.  Click here to book.

We will outline the features of the latest software update, provide useful training and take plenty of questions. We have always has a soft spot for the Geelong area since it is the first region where we gained good traction in the 1980s.  We have maintained this thanks to customer loyalty and, we think, good service.

If you’re in the Geelong region and interested to know more about what we do you would be most welcome to come along on Wednesday.  We’d be glad to see you.

It is hard work running these user meetings around the country but most beneficial to our customers and to ourselves as we get to network and share ideas.

We are offering another four free online workshops in our retail management software this week:

• Security - Tuesday, Mar 9 @ 11am.  Learn how to protect your business.
• New staff training – Mar 9 @ 2pm.  Ideal for new staff using our software for the first time.
• Business reporting – Mar 11 @ 11am.  Find our how to produce reports which help your decision making.
• Home delivery management – Mar 11 @ 2pm.  Discover how to better manage home deliveries.

All can be booked online at our website.  Click here to go to the booking page.

We are meeting with retailers using our Point of Sale software in Canberra next week. Tuesday, March 9 at 11am at the Southern Cross Club in Woden. This is another stop in our national user meeting tour. The Canberra meeting should be well attended give the number of retailers using our software in the region.

I’ll be at the meeting along with our Software Development Manager.

We are hosting two important user meetings today in Newcastle and Gosford.  We will be presenting the latest information on our Point of Sale software for newsagents.  Here are the details:

• Newcastle: 10am.  Boulevard on Beaumont, 131 Beaumont Street, HAMILTON NSW
• Gosford: 3pm.  Quality Inn The Willows, 512 Pacific Highway, GOSFORD NSW

Even though bookings are excellent, we’d be glad to welcome any last minute attendees.

These meetings are part of our current national tour of twenty locations around the country where we are educating our retail customers, getting plenty of new ideas and networking with our customers.

Retailers using Tower Systems’ Point of sale software are welcome to participate in four live and interactive online training sessions this week:

• General Q&A - Tuesday, Mar 2 @ 11am
• Stocktaking - Tuesday, Mar 2 @ 2pm
• Mastering Catalogues - Thursday, FMar 4 @ 11am
• Magazine Management - Tuesday, Mar 4 @ 2pm

Each session runs for up to an hour and is offered at no cost to Tower Advantage ^TM customers.

We have loaded a new training video to our website today on handling newspaper price changes in our newsagency management software. It’s video A23 and it’s available now.

This training video has been developed to help newsagents cope with newspaper price changes - some of which come into force this weekend.

Luke La from our Brisbane office presided over a full house user meeting in Cairns yesterday.  This is a terrific area for us with great loyal customers and good new growth.

Luke does well at these meetings as he owns a newsagency and has good technical skills.  he can speak from experience and back it with geek knowledge - coveraing all the bases.

Today, the user meeting is on the Gold Coast at the plush Marriott Hotel and Resort.

Thanks to the excellent take up of our suite of training videos, we have been encouraged to started work preparing to shoot new videos over the next couple of weeks.  We are grateful to our customers who suggested new video topics for us to consider.

The process is time consuming since we need to develop content, have this peer reviewed, shoot the video and make adjustments as necessary.  This is all done in house in the same facility used for our line online training workshops.

We anticipate the first of the new videos to be available from our website next week, maybe sooner.   Access to the videos is free to all Tower Advantage ^TM customers.

The training videos are a real hit with our customers.  Some have achieved hundreds of viewings in a short period.  They are a great way to learn and to have all key stakeholders learn - in their own time.

Our EDI standards video has itself become a standard in the newsagency channel.  We are proud to have such a valuable resource available for our user community.

We are meeting with our users in Cairns this Wednesday starting at 11am.  This meeting will run like other recent User Meetings, presenting our new Point of Sale and back office management software.  We will also cover navigating our new website, outline new training now available online and take plenty of questions.  Book here.

We get to Cairns twice a year and always have a good turn out. Thanks to recent acquisitions, our local presence is getting even stronger in far north Queensland.

We are offering four free Point of Sale software online training workshops for newsagents this week:

• Magazine Management - Tuesday, Feb 23 @ 11am
• Newspaper Home Delivery Management – Configuration & Maintenance - Tuesday, Feb 23 @ 2pm
• Point of Sale Training - Thursday, Feb 25 @ 11am
• New staff member training - Thursday, Feb 25 @ 2pm

Each session runs up to an hour and is offered at no cost to Tower Advantage ^TM customers.

We have scheduled a meeting with our users in Geelong for Wednesday March 10 at 2pm.  It will be held at the Mercure Hotel.  This is detailed with the other 20 face to face user meetings we are running around the country.

In addition to the more than twenty face to face user meetings which we are in the middle of hosting around the country, we have scheduled four online user meetings:

• Wednesday, February 24 at 3pm
• Friday. February 26 at 2pm
• Saturday, February 27 at 11am
• Tuesday, March 9 at 6pm

These will cover the same agenda as the face to face meetings. The key focus is the latest release of our software, the most significant software update in two years.

Any person using Tower software can participate from work or from home.  All you will need is a computer with broadband access and a phone for the toll free call.  Yes, participation is completely free.  This is further evidence of the value of the Tower Advantage ^TM.

We are testing the evening and Saturday sessions in response to suggestions from some of our customers.  Let us know what you think.

Click here to book immediately online.  Numbers are limited.

We will schedule more of these online sessions if there is demand.

We are hosting four free online training workshops this week.  Two of the sessions focus on retail stock management training, the second and third, cover two key areas which, once learned properly, deliver tremendous rewards financial to the business.

• Importing Stock Files and Invoices - Tuesday, Feb 16 @ 11am.  This is good general training on how to import supplier stock files.  It will work well with small and larger suppliers.
• Retail Stock Management – Configuration & Maintenance - Tuesday, Feb 16 @ 2pm.
• Retail Stock Management - Reordering - Thursday, Feb 18 @ 11am.
• Putaways management - Thursday, Feb 18 @ 2pm.  Smart putaway management can help you grow a stronger and healthier newsagency.  This workshop covers the excellent facilities in our software which many newsagents use to drive a good commercial outcome.

Bookings for these can be made directly and immediately at our new webiste.  Click here to book.  A couple of the sessions are already half booked.  We limit the numbers to ensure that all participantscan ask questions and interact fully.  These are live training sessions as if you are all in the room together.

We send a confirmation email with details for connecting to the workshop.  Please log in and be ready to go on time.

We started our user meeting series yesterday in Melbourne yesterday.  This is a terrific opportunity for Tower users to meet with us face to face, learn about the new software and provide valuable feedback.  Click here to download a copy of the user meeting fax booking form.

We are pleased to be offering four free online training workshops covering various aspects of our Point of Sale software this week.

• Point of Sale training - Tuesday, Feb 9 @ 11am.  This is ideal for anyone using the point of sale screen. We will take you through key functions, show how to save time and help reduce mistakes.
• Putaway management - Tuesday, Feb 9 @ 2pm.  Ideal for newsagents who want to better manage putaways.  Putaway customers are more loyal so there is value in this beyond the service.
• Magazine Management - Thursday, Feb 11 @ 11am.  The most popular training offered newsagents, already completed by more than 1,000 participants.,
• Business reporting - Thursday, Feb 11 @ 2pm.  We will take you thorugh the most important reports in the software and outline what you can expect to get from these.

Access to these free online training workshops is open to anyone.  All you need is a computer with broadband and a phone for a toll free call.  Register at our corporate website.

In addition to the twenty face to face user meetings we are running around the coutry starting next week, we are hosting two online versions of these user meetings:

• Friday 5/2/2010 – 2:30pm
• Monday 8/2/2010 – 2:30pm

These provide people unable to make the face to face sessions an opportunity to fully participate in these wonderful learning experiences.  To book, please click here.

Participation is free.

In addition to the twenty face to face user meetings we have scheduled for around Australia starting from next week, we plan to offer several online user meetings.  These will follow the traditional format of the face to face sessions.  They will enable us to reach people unable to make the face to face sessions.  We will also schedule one session for the evening to see how this appeals to our customer base.

We are all about taking training and customer contact to locations and times which suit our customers.  Bringing the next round of user meetings online was a suggestion by one of our customers.  Thank you!

We will announce details later this week.

We are offering four more free live online training workshops this week for users of our Point of Sale software.  The sessions are

• Mastering Sub Agents - Tuesday, Feb 2 @ 11am
• Magazine Management - Tuesday, Feb 2 @ 2pm
• Former POS Solutions users - Thursday, Feb 4 @ 11am
• Systems security - Thursday, Feb 4 @ 2pm

These online training sessions are a great way to learn.  Access is 100% free to Tower Advantage ^TM customers.  We pay for the phonecall for you to get audio content.

We use WebEx from Cisco because it’s the best tool for managing meetings like these.

We are hosting two free online Point of Sale software training workshops this week:

• Point of Sale training - Thursday, Jan 28 @ 11am.  This is good for all counter staff.  We will cover the point of sale screen and all facilities available from this which help deive better customer service.
• New Staff Member Training - Thursday, Jan 28 @ 2pm.  This overview training is ideal for people new to the business and new to our software.

Click here to book online.  We’re happy for people to do this training at the workplace or at home - this makes it more flexible for employees who want training in their own time.  Theer is no cost - we cover the call cost for the audio content.

Our first Melbourne user meeting (Feb 9 at 11am) will be held at the GNS warehouse.  This saves time for newsagents as they can attend the meeting and do buying in the one visit.  To book, please click here and select the meeting.

We are hosting four free online training workshops for users (and prospective users) of our software this week.

• Retail Stock management – reordering - Tuesday, Jan 19 @ 11am
• Catalogues - Tuesday, Jan 19 @ 2pm
• Home Deliveries and Customer Management – Thursday Jan 21 @ 11am
• Magazine Management – Thursday Jan 21 @ 2pm

Bookings for these free training sessions can be made at our website.

The feedback we are receiving from our online training program is excellent and encouraging.

We have two free online training workshops today:

• New Staff Training at 11am. The session is designed for retail employees new to using our Point of Sale software. It will cover how to make the most of the system, navigating screens and other areas.
• Retail Stock management - Configuration and Maintenance at 2pm. The session will help retailers using our software to completely manage stock including reordering. It will setp participants through the configuration process to save time on these key functions.

Click here to book online. We cover the cost of the phone call for audio content. The live video stream is accessible on any computer with broadband internet access.

To deliver the best possible value in our first round of user meetings for 2010, we are offering one on one consultations before and after for business specific questions.  Time is limited, bookings for this one on one time are essential.  Please email bookings@towersystems.com.au.  There is no charge for the user meetings or these one on one sessions.  We provide the venue, catering and access to our team.

.