Australian Newsagency Blog

The term exclusive is tossed around a lot by software companies.  They want to show that only they have some great benefit that will sway you in their direction.  As the owner of Tower Systems it is important to me that when Tower claims something as exclusive, it can prove the claim.  Click here for […]

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We are organising a walk through one or more of our Sophie Randall card and gift stores for anyone wanting to see the operation from a non-consumer perspective and, in particular, to see how we handle multiple stores off the one central point of sale technology platform. With more newsagents owning multiple retail outlets, […]

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Tower Systems‘ free online training courses are a real hit with newsagents. Hundreds have participated from the comfort of their homes and offices. Courses covered so far include: magazine management, new newsagent training, stock management, magazine returns and putaways. We have also run training sessions for suppliers with staff involved from different […]

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It has been a thrill to catch up with so many Tower Newsagents at the ANF convention these last three days.  They are a happy bunch of people.  This is a common comment from all of the Tower team at the convention - how happy our users are.  Back in the mid 1990s when our […]

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Finally the magazine distributors have started to get serious about IT compliance in newsagencies through their XchangeIT platform.  Their presentation today made it clear that DOS is dead.  For all their bleating that DOS has a life, POS Solutions has been ignored and their remaining 300 DOS users will have to make alternative arrangements to […]

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It has been a busy day at the Tower Systems stand at ANF Convention on the Gold Coast today.   Three of our sales team are here (from left - Luke, Nathan and Tim).   While their job is to pitch our software I don’t hear much of that happening.  Many of the conversations are about […]

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Through eziPass, we can sell subscriptions for 4X4 Australia, Australian Gourmet Traveller WINE, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Australian Table, Australian House & Garden, Australian PC User, Australian Personal Computer, Burke’s Backyard, belle, BlueWater Boats & Sportsfishing, Bulletin, Cleo (Australia), Caravan World, Cosmopolitan (Australia),Disney Adventures, Disney Girl, Dolly, Good Medicine, HMG, Harper’s BAZAAR (Australia), Inside Cricket, Men’s […]

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Wilson Stationery and Tower Systems are proud to announce the a significant development for newsagents in the stationery category in decades.
Thanks to the new embedded link between the Wilson Stationery IT platform and Tower Systems’ software, Tower Newsagents will soon have access to a stationery supply model which saves time and cuts business costs.
The new […]

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Tower Systems is hosting a  national series of face to face (free) newsagent user meetings starting this. We will demonstrate new features in the latest update of lour software, provide free training and answer technical questions.  Bookings are made by email: bookings@towersystems.com.au.

Hobart – Thursday, May 8 – 10am
Launceston – Friday, May […]

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This post is an edited version of an article I wrote for the latest issue of National Newsagent.
Home delivery is in play in newsagencies across Australia. Some newsagents are selling their distribution runs while others are walking away. For those keen to exit distribution, there are others pursuing acquisition and creating distribution specialists.
While […]

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Tower Systems has scheduled more 1 hour online training opportunities for newsagents. We’re trying Wednesdays following feedback from our users:

Wednesday, 7 May 2008 11:00 AM Magazine Management
Wednesday, 7 May 2008 2:00 PM Stock Re-Ordering
Wednesday, 14 May 2008 11:00 AM Magazine Management
Wednesday, 14 May 2008 2:00 PM New User Training

Any newsagent is welcome to participate. […]

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At Tower Systems we have scheduled more free online training opportunities for newsagents:

Tuesday, 15 April 2008 10:00 AM Magazine Management
Tuesday, 15 April 2008 2:00 PM Stock Re-Ordering
Thursday, 17 March 2008 10:00 AM Magazine Management
Thursday, 17 March 2008 2:00 PM New User Training

Each of these sessions runs for 60 minutes, longer depending on questions. Access is […]

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I have written a brief paper to help newsagents engage in free marketing opportunities using point of sale software. While I have written this from the perspective of Tower Systems software, some of the facilities used for this free marketing will be available in other systems.
Newsagents have tremendous opportunities to promote what they want, […]

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Management at the Adelaide Advertiser, the SA arm of News Ltd, is playing favourite with newsagent software companies.  They are pushing one locally developed software system.  Even though Tower Systems (the company I own) has 120 newsagent users, Advertiser Newspapers refuses to include us in discussions on IT changes they want in their relationship with […]

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My software company is interested in hearing from anyone with experience with the POS Solutions software who is looking for a career in software support. While POS users are migrating at a faster rate than ever before (six in three days so far this week), we’d like to be able to help newsagents who […]

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Tower Systems passed 1,500 software systems in Australian newsagencies on Thursday. I’m grateful to newsagents for the commitment that this achievement demonstrates in the team.

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DOS software died close to ten years ago.  At least that is when most software companies moved onto Windows based software.  Newsagent suppliers moved on too and from the late 1990s Windows based software was the industry standard.  Any newsagent who hae purchased DOS software since has wasted money.
This matters to me today because scrambling […]

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We are benefiting from integrating Eftpos with each register.  Customers like that they don’t have to move to enter a PIN.  Team members like that they can provide better service.  I expect that we will see an increase in basket size as a result.  It makes sense – the more convenient the payment options the […]

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We have been involved in three sales based replenishment trials in the magazine category on behalf of newsagents through Tower Systems over the last four years.  Two of these trials also involved our newsagency. While I cannot comment on the specifics of the trials for confidentiality reasons, I can say that the process is […]

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Since we sold our home delivery run we have used the POS Solutions software to collect payment of home delivery accounts on behalf of the distribution newsagent.  We have recently experienced first hand the service or lack thereof with this software.  After almost two days of down time, waiting for something, anything, to happen, the […]

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Tower Systems is offering a free current model highly configured Dell laptop (with built in camera) to every newsagent purchasing a package from the company to celebrate the official launch of its national online training program for newsagents. The online training, in addition to face to face in-store training, a national free group training program […]

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Tower Systems earlier today released advice for its 1,450 newsagent users on how to handle the variable price model for the new Elvis partwork. This advice sheet, N5.1 at the Tower website, provides a data management standard to help ensure consistently accurate pricing for retail sales and putaways.
We have been able to develop this […]

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Following success of the November and December newsagent benchmark projects I have decided to benchmark the seven months to January 31, 2008 to the same seven months a year earlier.
 
I have chosen seven months to get the most up to date data and include back to school 2008.
 
For Tower Newsagents, please send a Monthly Sales […]

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Click here to download a copy of the latest technology news for newsagents newsletter being sent this morning to all newsagents. It’s been a busy month on the IT front since the last newsletter with new standards in a couple of categories imminent and an incredible response to the free online training being delivered […]

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Below are the details of more (free) online training opportunities for newsagents using the Tower Systems software. The new courses on offer are:
Magazine Management Jan. 29 at 10am. This session will cover all aspects of magazine management; from Arrivals, Returns, Putaway Management and over/under supply. This session will be repeated several more […]

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