Bernard Zimmermann, Director of POS Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, posted the following to his blog:
Xchangeit sales data is to us both positive and negative.
It is bad that a significant number of our clients are not sending sales data! There is no technical problem, it is just a high percentage are either not bothering or deciding not to send the sales data. I intend to check on everyone of my relevant clients this week to find out why they are not sending data.
On the other hand, the good news is our sales data is extremely good. It has been described to me as the best. This is clearly an excellent result.
As I stated earlier according to my calculations we now have enough sites sending good sales data that magazine producers could send every day reliable estimated daily sales with just Pos Solutions clients.
That Xchangeit is not doing it now is hurting the entire industry. It should be a priority in the industry to send each one of these publishers free this data AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
This is a misleading post.
Magazine distributors and newspaper publishers will tell you that what data they get from from newsagents using POS Solutions software has not been good for years. If POS has sorted this out for all of their customers then good. If not, suppliers ought to be public in declaring lack of compliance.
For years suppliers have been quiet about elephants in the room – the IT companies letting newsagents down on helping newsagents meet basic IT standards.
As the owner of Tower Systems there is no doubt I am conflicted in the issue of which software is better – Tower Systems or POS Solutions. Newsagents, voting with their cheque book, say Tower Systems.
But this is not about Tower versus POS. It is about a whole channel using best practice software and business processes to ensure that newsagents are, collectively, as strong in terms as IT as our major competitors in the circulation product space – supermarkets, convenience and petrol. For newsagents, such as happened in Victoria recently, to wait two years for a software company to play catch up on standards is appalling. It holds the whole channel back. If we – suppliers, software companies and associations – all agree on standards then surely we ought to ensure we support them in a timely manner. The two year delay for a group of Victorian newsagents holds the whole channel back.
Newsagents don’t have time for spin – they want their software to work and their compliance with supplier IT standards to be assured.
POS Solutions’ lack of compliance to industry standards has been the elephant in the room at many industry meetings. In November last year, at a two day News Limited meeting in Melbourne which involved, among others, myself, Bernard Zimmermann, News Limited executives, the ANF and other software providors, the lack of adherence to current standards by hundreds of POS clients was a hot topic. I asked it be parked for private discussion between POS and News because of the difficulties it presented for POS in the relatively open forum.
For years the newsagent channel has had IT standards. It is time for all stakeholders to enforce them – for the good of all newsagents.