CCS Retail Blogs

Introduction to the Sales Blog

Administrator — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:53:37 +0000

Welcome to our Blog. We are sales Consultants at CCS Retail Systems, Inc. in Seattle, Washington. You can reach us at sales@ccscentral.com or call us at 800-672-4806.

We are looking forward to sharing our thoughts with you. We hope you will provide us with some feedback on this blog, so we can exchange ideas and learn from each other.

Marilyn has taken over this Blog. See her Blog for articles.

Valentine's Day Sales Predictions

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:36:30 +0000

The Allure of Valentine's Day

While watching television last night, I saw an advertisement for huge (4 feet tall) teddy bears being offered for sale as Valentine Day gifts. The price was nearly $100 dollars each. They were cute, but I couldn’t help wondering if costly items like this one could be sold in the still shaky economy that we’re seeing today. Apparently this is a real possibility, according to National Retail Federation’s 2012 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGinsight. Their prediction that “Americans To Pull Out All The Stops This Valentine’s Day” is music to the ears of many retailers.

According to the survey, the average person celebrating the Valentine’s Day holiday will spend $126.03. That’s an increase of 8.5 percent from last year’s $116.21, and the highest in the survey’s 10-year history!

Consumers’ willingness to spend this much on discretionary gift items seems to be a strong indication that the economy is moving in a positive direction. Retailers are gearing up to take advantage of this trend by stocking up on inventories, and offering great deals on everything from teddy bears to chocolates.

Men are expected to spend more than women, an average of $168.74 (more than twice that of women). Not surprisingly, pet owners are expected to spend an average of $4.52 on their beloved furry friends.

The survey also revealed that smartphone owners (40.4%) and tablet owners (53.8%) will be researching products, comparing prices, redeeming coupons, finding retailer information and purchasing gifts using their mobile devices.

Are you prepared to take advantage of great sales possibilities for this upcoming holiday? CounterPoint POS Software can help you with your inventory, and CPMobile will allow you to rake in those “on the go” sales.

Call us at 800-672-4806 for more information or email us!

Charging Your iPhone In A New Way?

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:54:00 +0000

SolMate SmartPhone Charging System

On Saturday, I was listening to GeekWire on News Talk 97.3 KIRO FM radio. A new product called SolMate, now under development, was being discussed. Though the subject was interesting, my time was limited, so I didn’t hear the entire show. Later, I checked out the GeekWire website, and found the details about the new product in an article by John Cook titled “Meet The SolMate: This Case Charges Your iPhone In The Sun (And Shade)”

It turns out that the product being developed by co-founders Adam Benzion and Jamie Wocik is an iPhone case with a razor-thin solar panel and a 16-bit microcontroller circuit board that will provide a charge directly to a mobile device, completely doing away with grid charging. The problem is that, so far, it will only be useful in Florida or California, since the phone has to be in sunlight or in non-direct sunlight about four to five hours a day.

Similar solar chargers have been developed in the past, but have had only limited success since they can charge only in the sun. The co-founders think that this new product will be better because it can charge in the shade, also. It may even be used, eventually, to charge iPads. Just think—you could be out at a show with your NCR CPMobile POS device, conducting business without ever having to charge your phone!

Buying and selling “on the go” is here to stay. For more information about NCR CounterPoint CPMobile Mobile POS, we’re here to answer your questions at 800-672-4806, or email us!

Connecting With Your Customers

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:46:11 +0000

Do You Track Your Customers?

A few days ago, I visited a local discount store that I like and just happened to find a great discount on walking shoes, a product I buy a lot. Satisfied with my great buy, I shared the information with others at work, and one person actually went to the store and bought a pair of the shoes for herself.

Thinking back on that purchase, I am wondering what other great buys I may have missed out on because I didn’t know about them. Also, since I referred another customer to this business, I felt that I should be rewarded in some small way for having done this, like getting a coupon for a future purchase. My friend would probably like to receive information on future sale items as well.

Obviously, this company is not set up with a great Point of Sale software feature for keeping track of who its customers are, what they buy, and when they buy. CounterPoint’s CustomerConnect is one such feature that allows a business to collect the data needed to effectively track and connect with customers, drive sales, and increase customer loyalty. Email marketing functionality enables emails to be automatically sent to welcome new customers or to send promotional information to current customers. In addition, CustomerConnect can show which campaigns generate the most revenue.

Don’t miss out on possible sales revenue! Connect and engage with your customers with CounterPoint’s CustomerConnect and make email marketing simple. For more information, call us at 800-672-4806 or email us!

Mobile Technologies - A Good Thing?

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:53:34 +0000

Mobile Technology – Is It Working In Retail Stores?

Increasing use of mobile technology in retail stores is obvious to most people. Whenever I enter a retail store, I notice many people using their mobile devices to compare prices, features and availability of products before making a purchase. Often, mobile devices are used by retailers to complete the sale, eliminating the need for customers to stand in a long checkout lane. Is this new technology helping retailers and adding to customer shopping satisfaction? Answers to these questions were addressed by Marianne Wilson in an article for Retailing Today titled Survey: Mobile Technology Leads to Better In-Store Experience.

According to the article, a survey conducted by Motorola Solutions reported that 75% of surveyed retail associates and managers felt that the latest mobile technologies provided their customers better in-store experiences. Shoppers, (67%), also reported greater satisfaction doing business with stores where mobile technologies were utilized to assist them. Price checkers, self-checkout payment lanes, and information kiosks were mentioned frequently as positives. More than 43% of shoppers would like to see a store application on their smartphones that creates a map from a shopping list that could guide them through a store more efficiently.

Retailers will still need to curb out-of-stock occurrences, inefficient payment processes, and provide an adequate selection in order to improve revenue from mobile sales, but use of mobile technologies is clearly the way to go!

Break away from the counter and sell your products anywhere! CCS CPMobile POS and Inventory Management can make this happen in your business. For more information, call us at 800-762-4806 or email us.

Password Woes

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:59:43 +0000

Secure Passwords Are Critical

The importance of using strong passwords is often ignored, sometimes by even top-level executives from some of the world’s largest corporations. Fox News reported in an article published by TechMediaNetwork that the Austin think-tank Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor) was hacked into by Anonymous on December 24, 2011. Thousands of private email addresses and credit card details from the firm’s clients and recipients of the company’s emailed newsletters were stolen.

Hashcat, a computer-automated password-cracking tool, was used to determine the types of passwords that were being used by Stratfor’s clients and subscribers to keep their accounts secure. As expected, the passwords were easy to guess and easy to crack by hackers.

Some of the worst passwords found include the following

123456, 11111111, and 123123

111222333444,12345678901, administration,123456789abc,12345stratfor, hello123, lawenforcement, and intelligence
Passwords played off of the word “password” itself, like password1234, password101, password123, password122, and password999.

Of the thousands of leaked Stratfor passwords, only 1,411 had 11-characters, 627 had 12-characters, and only 165 had 13-characters. Security experts recommend creating passwords that are long, complex, case-sensitive, and have multiple characters.

How safe are your passwords?

We can answer questions about this and other important aspects of keeping your CounterPoint POS Software safe and secure. Call us now at 800-672-4806 or email us for more information.

Marketing for Repeat Business

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:59:35 +0000

Clever Marketing

Sometime an occasional “freebie” can bring in surprising profits for your business. Here is a good example for you to ponder.

I was finishing up my last-minute holiday shopping yesterday, when it occurred to me that a gift card would be appropriate for a friend of mine who is trying to “eat healthier” even though his busy schedule necessitates eating out frequently. I stopped at a local deli-type restaurant and bought the gift card, using my credit card for payment. Before the transaction was complete, I was asked what kind of a free sandwich I would like! The freebie came with the purchase of an “X Amount” gift certificate.

I wondered how they could make a profit from giving away free sandwiches. After thinking it through, I realized that l) I liked the sandwich and will probably return for more later, 2) my friend will also like the sandwiches he will buy and will probably return for more later, 3) the store was able to set the amount of future gift card purchases, and 4) the store’s database will have customer information that can be used to send out advertisements of sales that will bring both of us back for more purchases.

Keeping a track record of who your customers are and what they buy is a tremendous advantage when it comes to repeat business. Does your POS Software allow you to do this? CounterPoint’s CustomerConnect feature allows you to send targeted emails using purchase history and other customer data. In addition, it allows you to see which campaigns generate the most revenue, and much more!

If you’d like to hear more about CustomerConnect, we’re here to answer your questions. Call us at 800-672-4806 or email us for more information.

Holiday Sales Forecast

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:05:56 +0000

Holiday Sales Forecast Even Better Than Expected

The National Retail Federation recently revised its holiday sales forecast to 3.8 percent, up from the initial October 6 prediction of 2.8 percent. A record $469.1 billion in retail sales is anticipated, above the 10-year average, but lower than the 5.2 percent increase seen last year.

Two factors were cited that influenced the change: (1) unusually strong sales in October and November (including Black Friday), and (2) the results of the most recent NRF survey indicating that the average shopper has completed far less holiday shopping in that time period than usual. This means that the increase during those two months probably came from personal shopping, rather that shopping for gift-giving. Plenty of holiday shopping is still left to do!

It appears at this point that holiday spending has surpassed expectations, even though many shoppers are sticking to their budgets. The debt crisis in Europe and political wrangling in the US could still have an impact on spending, but the season should still turn out better than expected earlier.

Are you using all of the available tools in your POS Software to reap in those holiday sales? CounterPoint has many features, like CPMobile and CustomerConnect that will help you increase your bottom line! Call us at 800-672-4806 or email us for more information.

'Tis the Season to be Wary

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:22:44 +0000

Avoiding Seasonal Scams

For most people, the holiday season is a time for good will and giving. For some, however, it’s a season for illegally collecting credit card numbers or selling stolen goods. In the current AARP Bulletin, Sid Kirchheimer, in his article called Holiday Hoaxes, has five suggestions for protecting your money and your identify during this critical time period.

Don’t purchase gift cards from store display racks. Thieves can easily copy or use portable scanners to read the codes under the scratch-off strips. After replacing the cards, they later use toll-free numbers to check to see if the cards were activated and for how much, then spend your money before you can use it. To be safe, purchase those cards from a store’s customer service counter or from their website.

Delete any email purporting to announce a greeting from an unnamed “friend,” “admirer” or “webmaster.” It could contain a malware link or attachment. If you receive one of these greetings, go to the card company’s website and check the confirmation code that should appear on the email. Legitimate notifications include this confirmation code.

Don’t click on emails about an “undeliverable” package. Instead, locate the phone number of the delivery service and call it directly to inquire. Otherwise, you may be tricked into making an expensive overseas call that lets the scammer get a part of what you pay!

Ignore email solicitations and be suspicious of fundraising phone calls. Check out a charity’s legitimacy with an online search or phone call, and ask for printed material. Never give out your credit card number to someone who calls you.

When buying gifts online, never provide a credit card number before you carefully read the web address. A secure address begins with “https” instead of “http.” The “s” stands for security. Remember that there are many copycat websites out there that will try to trick you into believing that they are the “real thing.”

How secure is your POS System? If you have questions about this extremely important aspect of your business, we are here to help. Call us at 800-672-4806 or email us.

Boosting Retail Sales for the Holidays

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:03:36 +0000

Holiday Sales Strategies

The holiday season, for most retailers, is “make-or break” time. This is especially true when the economy is floundering and consumers are tightening their belts to keep from financial disaster! So what plan of action can be used by retailers to make sure that they receive their fair share of the nearly $877 billion in sales expected this year from holiday spending?

According to Michael Koplov, ERP Analyst for Software Advice, there are five strategies to increase traffic, revenue and conversions this holiday season.

1. Use social media, like Facebook, to gain followers and instill urgency.

2. Partner with mobile shopping app vendors to build loyalty.

3. Present easy in-store item pickup options.

4. Extend return policies to encourage gift purchases.

5. Offer reduced or free shipping to entice online purchasing.

The list is not complete, of course, but implementing these ideas will drive more traffic, reduce customers’ resistance to purchase, and encourage spending, including impulse buying.

Making sure that your software features, like CounterPoint’s CustomerConnect and CPOnline, are being fully utilized is another important part of the equation. We’re here to answer any questions you may have. Give us a call at 800-672-4806 or email us.

Concerning Retail Fraud

Marlene Lorraine Rigdon — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:01:25 +0000

Retail Fraud – Still a Tremendous Problem

A recent survey by the National Retail Federation shows that although retailers are not expecting fraud rates to go up considerably this holiday season, it is still a tremendous problem. The cost to retailers this season may be as high as $3.48 billion, down from $3.73 billion from last year. Part of this reduction comes from enhanced return policies and required identification when receipts are not presented for returns.

Still, such fraudulent returns as the following will be problems that retailers will need to address to avoid great losses this season:

The return of stolen merchandise
Employee return fraud/collusion with external sources
Wardrobing (the return of used, non-defective merchandise like special occasion apparel and certain electronics)
The return of merchandise purchased on fraudulent or stolen tender
The use of counterfeit receipts to return merchandise

Will the new return policies affect the honest shopper? Probably not. According to the survey conducted last year by NRF, 88.4% of Americans feel that store return policies are fair.

If you want changes to the receipts you give to your customers, we can do those modifications for you. Call us at 800-672-4806 or email us for more information.

What Hours are You Open?

Marilyn McCormick — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:34:51 +0000

When Are You Open?

Its 3 weeks and counting until Black Friday.   This year more large retailers are starting their sales at 12:00AM on Friday the 25th.   And while I'm not suggesting you do that, maybe it is time to look at your store hours over the holiday season.

Are you open hours that are convenient for your customers?   Or convenient for you?   The days of mom being home and able to shop during the weekday are long gone.   And a lot of times weekends are taken up with kids' soccer games or other commitments. So look around you and see what hours other local retailers are open.   If you are not open at night during the week, can you pick one or two nights - Thursday & Friday maybe - to stay open until 8 or 9P during the holidays.   If you're not there, customers will just move on to someone who is open.

Get people into your store on that extra night you are open by doing something special. Have free gift wrapping and cider & cookies.   Donate a portion of your profits to charity one night. Sponsor a "Giving Tree" for foster kids.   Ask for food donations and give a 10% discount.

Competition is high for the consumer's dollar.   You can't compete with the big guys on $, nor do you want to.    But you might need to stay open a few extra hours so customers can get to your store.   In my case, I'm an early morning shopper - so I can bet the crowds. On Sunday mornings, a lot of small retailers don't open until noon.   By then I'm done shopping and on my way home. So during the holidays maybe you need to look at opening a little earlier on the weekends.

Remember the whole objective is to make it easy for a customer to shop with you and keep them coming back.

Have a good weekend.

Marilyn

Layaways???

Marilyn McCormick — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:37:04 +0000

What? Layaways? YES!!!!

A returning trend over the last couple of years has been the use of layaways for customers. The once popular payment method lost its usefulness in the 1980's & 90's when credit cards became the most popular way to pay.

Move forward to 2008 and the economic downturn. Large retailers saw layaways once again as a way to help their customers, and keep their sales numbers up. Per the NRF, Sears and Kmart have had success with the return to a layaway program. And this year Walmart is making a big advertising push for layaways. If you haven't seen their ads yet, you soon will. They are on TV about every 5 minutes .At least on the channels I watch. And I'm a pretty typical consumer.

So the good news for CounterPoint users is that layaways are built into your software. Just a couple setup steps and you are ready to go. Hang a sign up, stuff a flyer in your bags, send out an email (hmmm maybe I need to sign up for Customer Connect) and let your Facebook or Twitter fans know that they can buy from you and make payments. This is a good way to get them committed to a purchase, so that don't keep looking. The budget-minded shopper will really appreciate this and you might get a customer for life!

So Halloween is over and crunch time is almost here. What can you do to get more sales this year? Maybe layaways is an option you are missing.

Give us a call and we can help you get it setup. 800-672-4806 or support@ccscentral.com.

Marilyn

"Flash Robs"

Marilyn McCormick — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:59:00 +0000

Flash Robs - Group Theft Attacks!

Social media has changed our way of life. "Flash Mobs" - the impromtu gatherings of participants, from dances in shopping malls to uprisings in the Middle East have become a way of life. Now law enforcement officials are warning of a new trend: "Flash Robs".

They are saying retailers this holiday season need to protect themselves against a new group of unwanted visitors; swarms of teenagers and young adults who plot via Twitter, phone text and Facebook to descend on stores and steal merchandise and money. According to the NFR, in some cases injuries have resulted from the size of the crowds. While most attaches have been on department stores and big-box chains, they recommend that the small retailer have a plan to keep this from happening to them.

Some recommendations are:

Avoiding putting merchandise by the door
Position workers near key areas of the store and valuable merchandise
Keep good visibility through out the store
Stock only what is needed on the floor
Maintain low levels of cash

So a new but scary phenomenon. CounterPoint can help you stay on top of your store's inventory and cash flow in many ways. The newest one is SmartAlerts that will email or text you warnings to help you know what is happen in your store without always being there. Two that come to mind are notifications of low stock on premium inventory and when cash in drawer has gone over a set level. Helping you keep a tighter control during the holidays goes directly to your bottom line. So if you would happened to be hit by a "Flash Rob" or just the normal issues that come up during your busy season, CounterPoint can help you be prepared.

Call us to see how SmartAlerts can help you. 800-672-4806 or email sales@ccscentral.com.

Effective Problem Solving - Keep it Clear and Simple

Marilyn McCormick — Sat, 28 May 2011 10:18:37 +0000

Navigating The Error Message Maze (Windows Word Document to Samba CUPS Printer)

Okay here goes, I can finally print my document after two hours of typing and tweaking.    I just have time to make my meeting if all goes well. Print ...   Good my screen shows the printer and the pages are counting off.   Now to pickup the copies.   What!   Nothing in the tray.   Hmm ... maybe its stuck.   Let's check the tray feed.   No jams, all looks fine there.   What about the spooler.   Let's see: lpq says No Entries.    Maybe the printer was not ready yet, when I printed, I'll try it again. Print ... That's probably going to get it.   Let's see the tray again.   Great still nothing.

Okay let's check the log files to see what's up: tail -20 /var/log/cups/error_log says:

"
E [21/May/2011:15:33:55 -0700] Unknown configuration directive MakeModel on line 6 of printers.conf.
E [21/May/2011:15:33:55 -0700] Unknown configuration directive Type on line 10 of printers.conf
E [25/May/2011:04:08:25 -0700] Bad IPP operation name "CUPS-Get-Document" on line 31!
E [25/May/2011:06:04:31 -0700] CUPS-Accept-Jobs: Unauthorized
"

Oh, Oh this looks like its going to be a project.   Better reschedule my meeting.   Let's Google some of the messages.   "Bad IPP operation name", "CUPS=Accept-Jobs: Unauthorized". Looks like lots of feedback. Hmm... most of these ideas are leading me deeper and deeper into more and more esoteric areas and articles. Pretty soon I'll be trying to learn how to rewrite the driver.   This can't be it.

I know, I'll reinstall the CUPS software and recreate the Linux and the Windows printer link again.   Print ... Still nothing in the tray. Nope that's not it.   What about trying the CUPS web-client interface?   http://localhost:631.   Great interface.    Lots of tabs and tools.   Click, View, Click, View ....   This is a quagmire also.   What next.

I better try to get some help with this. Let's call CCS Retail. What would you guys suggest? "Well one simple thing you could check, even though the messages are leading you somewhere else, is device permissions.  Did you just do some Gentoo Linux emerges for updates recently? "    Let's see /dev/lp0 has permissions 660.   That does NOT look right.   I'll change it to 666 to open it all the way up.   Print ... Wow there it is - at last.

What;s the point to our little story?   The software layers in your systems all have error processing steps and messages that are relative to their view of the information they see and create.   To a CUPS driver it may seem like "Bad IPP operation name".   This may lead into unnecessary levels of detail and loss of productive time.

How do we avoid this and get to the real problem of the incorrect device permissions quicker?   The best way we know at CCS Retail is to ask someone with the knowledge or experience with these types of problems to act as a consultant or guide for advice or hands-on resolution.   Try to discipline yourself to not get caught up it the frustration of the moment and start burrowing into the center of everything.

Google and other search engines are great resources. But if you are just pea-shooting at the problem with an esoteric error message you are likely to just burrow in deeper.   Would CCS Retail know from the error messages in the log file that it was device permissions.   Since they solve these types of problems frequently, the odds are favorable.   Would they know when to stop using a thread and wasting time at the right point.   Again the odds are favorable.

In our CCS Retail Support Department we spend our day solving problems and accumulating the knowledge that keeps our customers running.    Give us a call when you are stuck.   Make sure to keep track of any errors you get to help us get you going again quickly.

Marilyn

Microsoft warns of hack attempt on Windows Live, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Mozilla

Administrator — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 02:31:52 +0000

Microsoft issued a warning today that nine fraudulent digital certificates were issued by root certificate authority, Comodo Group. Although the certificates were quickly revoked, their initial release still poses a threat to browser users, including users of Internet Explorer. This is not a security flaw in Microsoft software, the company says, but it released a security update for Windows all the same.

The nine fake certificates affect the following Web sites, Microsoft says:

login.live.com (Windows Live)
mail.google.com
www.google.com
login.yahoo.com (3 certificates)
login.skype.com
addons.mozilla.org
"Global Trustee"

Fraudulent certificates give hackers the ability to spoof content, phish, or insert themselves in man-in-the-middle attacks, collecting information that users think is being sent over a secure link from browser to Web site. Browsers which have enabled the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) will automatically invalidate these certificates and block them from being used. IE7 and later supports this by default, as does Firefox 3 and later, Safari on Mac OS X (but it must be manually activated), Opera 8 and Chrome.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/microsoft-warns-hack-attempt-windows-live-goo?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_pm_2011-03-23

Increasing Inventory Turns

Marilyn McCormick — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:33:35 +0000

Inventory Turns is a key metric used in the retail industry, and is considered to be the number of times the inventory cycles or is replenished throughout a year. This can be calculated by dividing your average annual cost of goods by your average inventory.

For example, if you sell widgets with an annual cost of goods of $1 Million, and carry an average inventory level of $250k, then your inventory turns is 4.

There are a number of tools within CounterPoint SQL that will allow you to increase the number of turns and decrease your average inventory level, thus increasing your sales and profits. These tools include, but are not limited to:

The identification of slow moving products
The elimination of low-profit items
The automation of purchasing processes
Identification and promotion of high-profit items

By accomplishing the above objectives, CounterPoint SQL will give you the information you need to make purchasing, vendor management, and sale/mark-down decisions.

In the example above, if this company were to decrease the average inventory to $200k (by 20%), and increase cost of sales to $1.2 Million (roughly 20% more sales), their turns would have increased from 4 to 6! This is entirely possible with the proper use of the many features within the software.

Contact CCS Retail Systems, Inc. today for a demonstration of the specific features that can positively affect your bottom line!

What Can you Learn from Sales History?

Marilyn McCormick — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:17:36 +0000

Of the hundreds of reports that are included in CounterPoint SQL, many are geared toward sales history. Studying your sales trends can tell you a lot about your businesses. They enable you to effectively manage your store, and remain prepared for the future.

Sales history reports are tools to help you manage your current inventory and make buying decisions. You can better plan for sales and incentives, manage clearance and markdown items, market to new prospects, and even help drive repeat business. The bottom line is these reports will improve your profitability.

How do these reports accomplish these goals? Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you know who your best customers are?
Do you know the last time each of them were in your store?
Who is your best sales person?
What is a good target for sales?
- Sales Volume?
- Profitability?
- # of tickets?
- # of lines?

Who is your best vendor?
What is your inventory turn rate?
- How does that compare with others by industry or by product category?
What product category has the most sales?
What product category has the most profit?

Using Sales History reports to answer these questions will have the following affect on your business (in no particular order):

Increase the amount of each transaction
Get your customers to shop more often
Increase referrals – free advertising to increase your volume
Do internal staff training – find out who is best and leverage them
Set data-driven goals for each salesperson
Measure key metrics about your business

Collecting and analyzing would be quite daunting for a manager without a tool like CounterPoint SQL. Reports such as the Flash Sales Report, Sales Analysis By Group, Sales History by Customer by Item, the unique CounterPoint Dashboard and many others can empower you to take control of your sales and profits!

Call CCS Retail Systems today for a free personalized demonstration that will show you the power of knowledge and awareness when it comes to managing your store!

1-800-672-4806

Cut Your Keystrokes - Save Time

Marilyn McCormick — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:59:45 +0000

SNIP-ITPRO Keystroke Productivity Utility Improves Productivity in Front and Back Operations

Any repetitive keyboarding can benefit from this great little Windows Utility. Store your messages and commands for Counters, Back Office, or Technical Tasks, any time text needs to be re-entered for any reason (a snippet). A great productivity tool. See the product and get a download at http://www.snipitpro.com/index.html

All your favorite Snippets in one place.

Snip-It Pro is a snippet manager with features designed to make you more productive. It provides a single place where you can store all the useful bits of text that you need.

For clerks and administrators, your favorite comments/phrases, promotional messages, Order/Sales comments, Purchasing/Accounting comments, search filters, etc. You can then find them online in one place.

For IT personnel, save your system commands, SQL queries, program functions, XML configuration, regular expressions, and useful code. You can then find them online in one place

Save Time and Keystrokes

Why type when you can Drag and Drop? A new templating features allows you to add placeholders that can be replaced before use. Assign hot keys to snippets and save even more time.

Are you managing your vendors, or are your vendors managing you?

Marilyn McCormick — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:44:24 +0000

The average retailer says there are two types of vendors. Those that are even smaller than the retail stores they supply, and those that are much larger. The smaller vendors tend to be largely under-financed and unorganized. They also seem to have little understanding of customer service, and are always making excuses of why they can’t meet your needs. The larger vendors have spent a lot of time and money building their brand, and tell the retailers how they need to operate.

It does not have to be this way! There are features within CounterPoint SQL that will allow you to monitor and manage your vendor relationships. These vendor relationships shouldn't’t be measured purely in gross profit percentage or dollars. The key factor of your profitability is gross profit return on inventory investment.

Ask yourself these questions about your vendors and the products they supply:

What type of inventory investment must you sustain?
Do they reliably ship on time?
What is their average lead time?
Do they frequently mis-ship?
How consistent is their quality?

Reports within CounterPoint SQL can answer these questions quickly and frequently. It’s difficult to calculate how much you can save through more efficient vendor management. Even if you estimate it to be as little as 5% of your annual sales, this feature alone is enough to provide a return on investment on the purchase of your system well within your first year. Call us at 800-672-4806 or Email CCS Sales today to look at the potential return from the other features of CounterPoint!

Radiant Payment Services: Another Added-Value

Marilyn McCormick — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:42:51 +0000

You can now use CCS Retail Systems, Inc. as a one-stop shop for all of your point of sale and technology needs. Radiant Payment Services, backed by Radiant Systems, helps businesses like yours safely and efficiently process customer transactions and leverage the information related to those transactions.

With nearly one billion credit cards now in the hands of American consumers, it is important to have access to the most robust payment options available. RPS uses precise load-sharing technology to maximize your protection against processing downtime. You will be able to accept Visa^®, Mastercard^®, American Express^®, Discover^® and JCB^®. By accepting Debit Cards you are able to avoid potential losses associated with fraudulent checks and the risks of running your operations with large amounts of cash.

Combine Radiant Payment Services with CP Gateway, and you will be able to increase the speed of the credit card authorization at the register to less than 2 seconds! This helps you get more customers through the register, and avoid losing customers due to long lines.

Call CCS Sales for more info on how a combination of CCS Support Services, CounterPoint SQL software, Radiant Payment Services and CP Gateway can help improve your business!

Scheduling Jobs in SQL

David Russell — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:08:35 +0000

Scheduling SQL Jobs

Scheduling SQL jobs can be very useful, both for repeating jobs, and for long-running jobs that execute during off hours.

While SQL jobs can be run using the command OSQL, or the Windows scheduler, there are some advantages to using the SQL Server Agent, and its built in job scheduler.

One of the biggest advantages of using the SQL Server Agent, is that jobs can consist of several steps. When one step completes, the job can go on to the next step, or end, depending on the outcome of the step that just finished.

For example, you could build a job that checks for new orders. If any new orders are found, you could proceed to a second step, and process the new orders. If none are found, you could end the job. Jobs can also proceed if a step fails, and end if it succeeds.

Maintenance tasks, such as backing up your databases, rebuilding indexes, are prime candidates for this type of scheduling. A single job can be created, that goes through all of the maintenance tasks. This job can then be scheduled to run periodically, during off hours, reducing the load impacting your users.

Another good candidate for this, would be a major reorganization of your database. Adding columns to large tables, and populating them with data, can put a load on your server. In this case, the job would be setup, and scheduled to run one time during off hours.

Any SQL commands can be run, as long as there is no user intervention needed. So, take a look through your SQL scripts, especially the ones that you need to run periodically, and consider scheduling them to run automatically.

Contact CCS Retail Systems if you need help creating you SQL scripts and jobs.

Scheduling tasks on Linux

David Russell — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:15:11 +0000

Using Linux Cron

There are many tasks that are done periodically on a Linux system. System cleanup, or monitoring, are common ones, as is backing up your system.

These are all candidates for being scheduled to occur automatically.

The facility to schedule jobs on your Linux system, is cron. First, make sure that cron is installed on your system, and running automatically. Just how this is done, varies depending on the version and dialect of Linux that you are running.

Once cron is installed and running, it is time to schedule some jobs. This is done with the "crontab -e" command. This command takes you into the an editor (normally vi or vim) for your cron tables, which is what cron uses to determine what is to be run and the run schedule. When you exit the editor, the running cron is updated with your changes. It is best to use the crontab editor because, If you edit the cron tables directly, it may not pick up your changes until cron is restarted, typically the next time you reboot.

The editor that is used by the crontab command, is the one identified by your EDITOR environment variable. You should be familiar with it before you try to change the cron entries. Assuming it is vi or vim, you can read the man pages for this utility with "man vim". For a vim tutorial the "vimtutor" command can be used as well.

Each line in the cron table, is a command to be run at a specific time. The exception to this is lines beginning with the pound sign (#), which are comments.

There are basically six fields, separated by spaces.
The first five are define when to run and are the minute, hour, day of the month, month, and day of the week. Any of these may be "*", which means "all". So, a line beginning with "* * * * *" would run each minute, hour, day, etc.
To run at specific times, these fields would have numbers in them. This can be a single number, a list of numbers separated by a comma, or a range. A range is identified by a dash (-).

To run at the top of the hour, you would use "0" for the minute field. To run at 15 and 45 minutes after the hour, you would use "15,45", and to run each of the first five minutes of the hour, "1-5". These numbers would be put in without the quotes.

The range for minutes is 0-59, for hours is 0-23, day of the month 1-31, month 1-12, and day of the week 0-6 (with 0 being Sunday).

So, to run a task at 4:15 PM, the first and the 15th of a month, the command would be "15 16 1,15 * * command". At noon every Friday would be "0 12 * * 5 command".

The command field is everything following the day of the week entry. This can be any executable Linux command. Typically, it is a shell script, containing the commands to be executed. If it is a shell script, make sure that the permissions are set with the execute (x).

Any output will be sent via email to the user for that cron table. I usually prefer to redirect the output to a log file, instead. First, I redirect any errors to the standard output, using 2>&1. Then, I redirect and append the output to a log file, using double greater than (>>).

Put it all together, and you have an entry like:
15 16 1,15 * * command 2>&1 >> /var/log/command.log

This runs the command "command", on the first and fifteenth of every month. Errors are redirected to standard output, and standard output is appended to the file "/var/log/command.log".

This is a quick introduction to cron. If you need help creating cron scripts and scheduling them with crontab contact us at CCS Retail Systems.

Using OSQL to run scripts

David Russell — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:19:11 +0000

Using the Windows oSQL Command

Using the Windows OSQL command instead of SQL Management Studio can have it's advantages. I use OSQL, from a batch file, when I have a script that I want to run against multiple databases, or different servers.

First, to use OSQL, it has to be installed on your computer. If you have SQL Server, or Express, on your computer, then OSQL should have been installed by default. If not, then install the SQL Server Client Tools, from the SQL CD. Do not install the server, just the tools.

OSQL has several options that can be selected. The ones I use the most are Server (-S server), database (-d database), username (-U username), password (-P password), input file (-i inputfile), and output file (-o outputfile).

A typical batch file would look something like "osql -S %1 -d %2 -U %3 -P %4 -i inputfile.sql -o outputfile.txt". If this batch file were named, for example, batchfile.bat, it would then be called with:
batchfile.bat servername databasename username password, where %1 is servername, %2 is databasename, %3 is username, %4 is password. Inputfile.sql and output.txt are hard coded in this example.

The servername, databasename, username, and password, would be the actual values that I wanted to pass to the OSQL command line. The batch file would then run OSQL, using those parameters in order, and running the inputfile.sql (from the -i option), and sending the output to outputfile.txt (from the -o option). You will need help from your administrator to get the security information you need.

A batch file like this, can be used in different ways. It can be run from a command prompt when needed, or it can be scheduled via the Windows Task Scheduler. For example, you could make scheduled entries to run the same script on several different servers. One schedule entry per server, with the appropriate options being passed to it in a command line.

This is just a quick introduction to oSQL. If you are not current on the syntax of the SQL language, try the tutorials at the w3schools.com site.

We write SQL scripts for our customers on a daily basis. Contact us at CCS Retail Systems if you need help.

Running SQL scripts

David Russell — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:18:20 +0000

Creating a SQL Script

There are several methods that can be used to run SQL scripts. Which method is best, depends on the purpose of the script.

If the script is meant to be run one time, or on rare occasion with no set pattern, then running the script directly makes the most sense. It can be run through the SQL Management Studio Express, or from the Windows command line, if OSQL is installed.

The easiest way to write your script, is using the SQL Management Studio. Open Management Studio, and log into the database server. Expand the databases, and right click on the database that you want to run the script on, and select New Query. The right hand side will open a new window for you to write your query.

When writing queries in the Management Studio, as you type, table names and field names will show in a drop down list, based on what you are typing. You can select from these, and save yourself some keystrokes.

Once you have finished your script, and tested it (by using the Execute button in Management Studio Toolbar), save it with a ".sql" extension. By using this extension, if you double click on the script in Windows, it will automatically launch the SQL Management Studio, and load your script. Once you log in to the database server, your script is then ready to be run, by hitting the Execute button.

This is simpler than using OSQL to run your scripts. However, there are some advantages to using OSQL, which I will look at in my next blog.

If you are not current on the SQL language syntax, try the w3schools.com site: http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

NOTE: If you are creating SQL scripts you should be the Administrator or creating scripts with the Administrator approval. Your SQL Database Server (Engine) should be password protected. You will need this information to get logged in.

We write SQL scripts for our customers almost on a daily basis. If you need help contact us at CCS Retail Systems.

SQL Maintenance

David Russell — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:45:15 +0000

SQL Maintenance

If you have one of the full versions of SQL server, the SQL Management Studio has a section called "Maintenance Plans" that makes scheduling tasks like rebuilding indexes and updating statistics very easy.

From the SQL Management Studio, expand the "Management" section, and you will see "Maintenance Plans" under it. Using the right mouse button, click on "Maintenance Plans", and you will get several options. The simplest, is to choose "Maintenance Plan Wizard".

The Wizard will step you through everything to build, and schedule your plan. To setup a rebuild indexes and update statistics, for example, you would click "Next" until you get to the plan properties page.

On the plan properties, name your maintenance plan, for example "Re-index". It is useful to put a comment in for later reference, such as "Rebuild Indexes and Update Statistics". Leave the option on "Single schedule", and click the "Change" button to schedule the plan. Set the plan to "Recurring" and make sure it is enabled. Set the schedule fields for what best suits your needs. Weekly or daily would be appropriate in this case, depending on how active your database is. See my blog on "SQL Performance" for a discussion on this. Select :OK" when you have the schedule set, and then "Next" to go to the task selection.

For the tasks, select "Rebuild Indexes" and "Update Statistics". The next page allows you to define the order that they process in. Indexes should be rebuilt before the statistics are updated, so the default order is fine. Next, will take you to the properties for each of the tasks. Select "All" for the databases, unless you have a reason to only do specific ones. The default values for the rest of the options should be okay.

Going forward from there, you have the option to save results to a file, or email them. Saving results is always a good idea. Doing another "Next" brings you to the confirmation page, where doing a "Finish" will do the actual building of the maintenance plan, and scheduling it.

That's all it takes to setup and schedule most SQL maintenance tasks. Other things, such as shrinking the database, or checking the integrity can be setup the same way. Other SQL tasks that you do frequently can also be scheduled outside of the Wizard. I will take a look at doing those in a future blog.

Dave.

When your system freezes up

David Russell — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:44:38 +0000

Avoiding File Corruption

No matter how well you maintain your system, there comes the time when it freezes up. When that happens, you really have no choice other than to do a hard reset, by turning the power off, and back on. Since there is an inherent risk that this will result in some file corruption, it should be avoided if at all possible. Still, sometimes it is necessary.

There are many times, however, when your system is not truly frozen, but is overloaded instead. This is more common in a network environment, when users are running software that is server based. In this case, it may appear to be frozen, as users get no response at their workstations. However, what may really be happening, is that the server has become so busy, that it does not have time to respond to the requests from the workstation. The appearance to the users is the same, but true cause is different.

The difference is important, because if it is a matter of server overload, many times the process causing the overload can found and killed. If this can be done, the risk of corrupting your data files is much less than if the system is simply powered down. The reason for this is that when a process is killed, in most cases, it closes the files that it has open as it goes down. If the power is simply shut off, this does not occur.

Check your system for any indications of activity, to determine if it is overloaded as opposed to being frozen. In most cases, an overloaded system will have high disk usage. You may be able to hear the disk drive working, or the disk activity light on the computer may be blinking very fast, or even on solid. If that is the case, then you have a good chance of being able to get on and kill the process.

When a server is overloaded as opposed to being frozen, most times it is possible to get log in, and run utilities to identify the runaway process. It may be very slow responding, but if all possible give it enough time and you will eventually get logged in. Running the utilities to identify the runaway process varies, depending on whether you are on a Windows based machine, or UNIX/Linux. I will go into the utilities used for this in a future blog. For now, just be aware that the utilities will probably also be slow to respond. However, if you can get logged in, and the utilities do respond, you can probably kill the offending process, and free the system back up.

There may be times that the server is so overloaded, that you will not be able to log in and kill processes. In that case, you will have to resort to turning the power off, and risk corrupting files, but you really have no choice at that point. This should be a last resort, and only done if you are not able to get into your system at all.

SQL Triggers

David Russell — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:37:09 +0000

Using SQL Triggers

If you are using software based on SQL (Standard Query Language), such as Microsoft SQL, you have the ability to add triggers. A trigger is an event that is executed (triggered), when records are added, deleted, or changed, in the SQL database. There are many uses for triggers.

One that I did recently, puts records into a table, that is used by a secondary processing system that the customer has. When the sale ticket uses specific pay codes, some of the data needs to be captured, to be used by software that is specific to part of their business. By using a trigger on the tables used by the point of sale, this special table is immediately updated with the information needed by the second, specialized, application. In other words, the second application has immediate access to the sale data, without the need to search through the information on many sales tickets that are not applicable. The performance impact at the time the sale is made, is so minimal that it is not noticeable. The improved performance eliminating the search in the second application is significant.

That is the beauty of a SQL trigger. The processing occurs automatically and, if properly designed, with no noticeable impact to the end user.

Almost any processing can be done in a trigger. In the case above, the payment code is checked, and if it is one of those needed by the second application, the necessary information is captured to a different table, and the sale process then goes on as in all other sales.

Other application of SQL triggers that we have implemented, include re-calculating sales tax rates based on the sale location (a requirement in Washington state, among others), and automatically updating the sale price for repeat customers. There are any number of possible uses for SQL triggers.

While just about any processing can be performed in a trigger, the trigger must be properly designed so that it does not adversely impact the flow of business. For example, in a point of sale system, you would not want to perform processing that could take several minutes. Your customers do not want to wait those several minutes to get their receipt. You could, however, flag the records for the additional processing, and have another procedure that performs the actual additional processing. This additional processing could be made to happen automatically (which will be addressed in a future blog).

Contact CCS Retail Technical Support for Custom CounterPoint SQL and Passport Business Systems SQL programming.

SQL Performance

David Russell — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:36:19 +0000

Improving SQL Performance

There are several factors that can affect the performance of your SQL system. The obvious ones are of course the basic design of your database. A properly designed database system has a minimum amount of redundant data. There is no reason to store the same field of information in several different tables, if that information can be found from a single master table. Keeping such redundancy out reduces the overall database size, which helps with performance.

However, there are other, less obvious, factors that affect your SQL database.

Microsoft SQL in particular, greatly benefits from having indexes rebuilt and statistics updated. Properly designed indexes significantly speed up accessing the information in a table. The issue is that, over time, these indexes become less optimized as new data is added, and old data is deleted. When data in a table is updated, the old data is actually deleted, and the new data inserted, giving the index a double hit.

Recently, I ran a script on several different SQL servers for a customers. On some of the machines, the script ran in under three minutes. On others, it was over 30 minutes. Same script, similar hardware and database, and vastly different performance. The difference was that some servers had been recently had the indexes rebuild

When the SQL indexes are rebuilt, they are again running at a high level of optimization, which helped achieve the short run times mentioned above.

A second major factor, with Microsoft SQL, is updating statistics. MS-SQL keeps statistics on how particular tables are accessed, and these can be used to automatically tune the server to increase performance, also. The impact of rebuilding indexes, and updating statistics, can be major. You can see that in the difference in doing the same processing mentioned above.

How often indexes need to be rebuilt, and statistics updated, depends mostly on how active the database is. In a high activity system, these should be done frequently. Lower activity systems less frequently. My minimum recommendation would be to re-index and update statistics weekly. We have several customers that are setup to do this every night, as they have higher activity levels.

Also, if any major database processing is done, such as updating most or all records in a table, a re-index and update of statistics is called for.

Contact CCS Retail Technical Support for Custom CounterPoint SQL and Passport Business Systems SQL programming.

Some thoughts on training

David Russell — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:05:49 +0000

Hands-on Training Justification

So you just got the latest and greatest software, now what. Obviously, you need to know how to use it. While you can dig through the manuals, and try to figure it out on your own, you would probably benefit much more from hands on training.

There are many advantages to taking a training course:

Being in a dedicated training environment, you are not distracted by the many interruptions in your day.
No stopping and starting, and trying to remember where you were.
You can concentrate on learning your new software, and finding out how it can be used to best suit your needs.
Which of the myriad of setup options best suits your needs?
In a training class you can ask questions from an experienced person.
You can also find out what the implications are of choosing any particular settings, and why one is better than another for your particular needs.
Your questions can be answered while they are still fresh in your mind.
No need to write them down, and then try to remember what the circumstances were that brought on the question in the first place.

Ideally, your training course will be geared to your specific needs. In that case, you will be able to go through all of the setup steps, discussing the options and how they pertain to your needs. You will be able to ask questions, and discuss the options, to be able to choose the ideal setup. Going forward, you will be able to go through the type of processing that you do on a daily basis, to see just how those tasks would be carried out in your live environment.

In short, half a day, or a day, spent in such targeted training, will yield much greater results than spending a day trying to figure it out on your own.

Contact CCS Retail for your training needs.

Dave.

More on creating good passwords

David Russell — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:05:10 +0000

Creating Good Passwords

If you process credit cards in your retail operation, you should be aware of the requirement to change passwords every 90 days. Those of you who do not take credit cards, should change your passwords frequently, too.

I have discussed what makes a good password before. In brief, a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters, such as !, #, @, etc.

The longer the password the better. Pick a value between 16 and 32 characters. To help you create and use the passwords consider using a keeper program such as Keepass. They will generate passwords for you and allow you to use the clipboard to paste them later rather than trying to enter them on the keyboard. They also defeat key loggers that may be hidden on your system.

There are additional considerations to look at. Recently, I have seen some articles and passwords, and found it very interesting that one of the common passwords is "qwerty". While this may look like a fairly good choice, if you check, it is the string of letters on the third row of your keyboard. The pattern is where the problem lies.

Anything with a pattern is not a good choice for a password. Patterns on the keyboard (such as "qwerty"), and sequence patterns (such as "abcde") make very poor choices. Adding such a pattern to a base word is not much better. Something like "someword123" is little improvement over using "someword" as your password.

Password hacking software is getting more sophisticated all the time. Giving it easy targets, by using predictable patterns for your password, is asking for trouble. Take a little time, and put some thought into it, and you will be able to come up with a good, complex, password that you will be able to remember.

Contact us if you need more help.

Dave.

Internet Explorer 32 and 64 Bit Differences

Bryan Greenberg — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:58:39 +0000

Internet Explorer 32 bit and 64 bit Version Use

If you are running Windows 7 64 bit, you may have noticed that in the start menu there is a shortcut to Internet Explorer (64-bit). If you are wondering what it is for, Ill try to give you some information.

From the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Both versions of Internet Explorer are included to increase compatibility with existing programs and Web sites. The 32-bit version of Internet Explorer can host only native 32-bit ActiveX controls and other 32-bit Web page objects. The 64-bit
version of Internet Explorer can host only native 64-bit ActiveX controls and other 64-bit Web page objects.

Some More Information:
If you experience problems when you use the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, try to view the same Web site by using the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer. If the problem occurs in both versions of Internet Explorer, you must determine whether the problem is caused by a Web object or if the problem is caused by Internet Explorer.

To determine the version of Internet Explorer that you are running, click About Internet Explorer on the Help menu of Internet Explorer. If you are running the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, the About Internet Explorer window includes
a 64-bit descriptor label. The 32-bit version of Internet Explorer does not show a bit-level descriptor.

Interoperability with existing technologies:
The differences between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Internet Explorer can affect toolbar add-ins and Microsoft ActiveX controls. For example, 32-bit toolbar add-ins do not work in the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer. These add-ins include the MSN toolbar, the AOL toolbar, the eBay toolbar, and the Google toolbar. You can install 32-bit toolbars in the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer. However, the 32-bit toolbars will not appear in the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer.

For example, when you start the Setup program for the 32-bit Google toolbar in the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer, the Google Setup program closes the 64-bit Internet Explorer window. The Google Setup program opens a new 32-bit Internet Explorer window when setup is completed. The Google toolbar appears in the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer, and the toolbar works correctly. The 32-bit Google toolbar is not installed in the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer.

By design, the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer cannot host 32-bit ActiveX controls. Additionally, the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer cannot host 64-bit ActiveX controls.

As you can see there are some differences between the two versions. If something does not work as expected in one version, try the other.

If you have any system questions or concerns, contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us.

-Bryan

Prepare Your PC Before You Donate It

Bryan Greenberg — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:37:32 +0000

Reselling or Donating and old system

I've been asked many times what to do with old PC's that are going to be donated, re-sold, or given away.

The best way to make sure that your computer is safe and clean for resale is to run a full system recovery using the operating system discs that you either received in the packaging at the time of purchase or created yourself after
purchase. If you do not have the discs, you may be able to reformat from a recovery partition on your local hard drive. If neither of those options is viable, you can contact the manufacturer to acquire the discs often with a download of and ISO file (disc image)..

To run the recovery from a partition, you will need to access the advanced boot menu on your computer when you power it up, typically by pressing F8 repeatedly as you power on the unit. This will bring you to a screen on which you can select a "repair your computer" option, and from that selection you can run a full system recovery.

To run your recovery from the discs, you will want to turn on your computer, then restart it. During the post screen (the screen that shows the brand of your computer or motherboard) you will see a "Boot Menu" with the appropriate key to press to access this list next to it. Repeatedly press the designated key then select your CD/DVD drive when the list shows up. After this, follow the steps given to recover your computer!

A System Recovery will put your PC back to the way it was when you first opened the box, suitable for resale. For donation wiping the drive is more suitable. You want to protect yourself from any potential theft of your private information or licensed software. There are options for preparing/wiping your PC hardware only to be donated or re-sold. These include formatting your hard drive with no OS using a type of program that will format write 0's to all of the disc any number of times. This ensures the data that was on it can not be recovered in any easy manner. Although your PC will be unusable until an operating system is installed, it is probably the safest way to prepare your PC and protect you confidentiality.

If you have lost your original CD/DVD and no recovery/factory partition exists, there are several good shareware tools that included a wipe disk capability up to the DOD level of protection. For example: Ccleaner.

If you need help with this topic, contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us.

-Bryan

Some Interesting Mobile Stats from CES

Bryan Greenberg — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:42:02 +0000

CES Show Mobile Devices

The CES show is the biggest electronics show in the country and attracts many of the biggest companies showing off their wares.

Here are a few notes on mobile devices.

there are now more than 6 billion cellular connections globally, including 1.5 billion with 3G mobile broadband.

1.2 billion people access news on mobile devices, more than all cable subscribers and (gulp) three times the circulation of all newspapers.

Total wireless industry revenues reached $1.3 trillion last year, "which is almost 2 percent of global GDP."

most people look at their phones about 150 times a day, or once every 6.5 minutes every waking hour.

In 2015 approximately half of all phones will ship into emerging markets that are more price sensitive. That's pushing hardware companies to develop more sub-$150 handsets.

Smart phone cover that's used to capture cardiograms by gripping the device, a product that a doctor said he used on a plane to diagnose a passenger's heart attack and call for an emergency landing.

The doctor also showed how a glucose sensor under the skin works with a smart phone app to display real-time glucose levels and chart them through the day.

I find it amazing how in such little time, that a cell phone went from being just a device to make phone calls, to being able to give glucose levels on a real time basis

If you have any system questions or concerns, contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us

-Bryan

The NEW SpyEye Trojan

Bryan Greenberg — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:37:26 +0000

Excerpted from MSNBC

SPYEYE TROJAN: Bank Account Fraud.

Here is how it works:

The Trojan horse employs a powerful two-step process to commit the electronic crime. First, the virus lies in wait until a customer with an infected computer visits an online banking site, steals their login credentials and tricks the victim
into divulging additional personal information such as debit card information. Then, after the stolen card number is used for a fraudulent purchase, the virus intercepts any further visits to the victim's banking site and scrubs transaction
records clean of any fraud. That prevents -- or at least delays -- consumers from discovering fraud and reporting it to the bank, buying the fraudster critical extra time to complete the crime.

It is being called a "post transaction" attack, because much of the virus' effectiveness is attributable to its ability to control what victims see after fraudulent transactions occur. Scary!!!!!

The virus' evidence-covering techniques are elaborate. First, it keeps track of all fraud committed by the criminal, and makes sure to remove those line items from online transaction lists. It also edits balance amounts to prevent consumers
from getting suspicious.

Victim account holders who check their balance at an ATM -- or even at a second uninfected computer -- would be able to spot the fraudulent transactions. The virus doesn’t impact bank systems, merely the characters that are displayed within the infected system's Web browser. That means paper statements would reveal the fraud, too.

So besides keeping your Anti-virus/malware software up to date, it is also important to keep your browser and OS up to date.

If you have any system questions or concerns, call the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us

-Bryan

Check Your PC's Date Or Time

Bryan Greenberg — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:29:07 +0000

Keep Your Timestamp Accurate

Its a good idea to occasionally check the date and time settings on your PC. With the incorrect date and time, you software may try to create transactions with incorrect time stamps, and may not allow you to post your transactions or settle your credit card transactions.

Recently a customer called with a problem not being able to find a certain ticket. After doing a little searching, he found that there were about 30 tickets with a date in the past that were not and could not be posted because of the date. To fix the issue required exporting out the tickets, manually finding and fixing the date, and re-importing them back in. This is something I do not recommend doing on your own. Besides being very tedious, one mistake, meaning 1 extra space where one should not be can cause corruption of the whole file.

So while most of the time, your PC's time and date will be correct, the one time that it is not can create havoc.

If you have any system questions or concerns, contact the CCS Retail Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us

-Bryan

Ways To Protect Your Online Information

Bryan Greenberg — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:50:58 +0000

Proactive Online Information Protection

excerpted from securitynewsdaily.com

Install a free anti-virus program. Macs and PCs are vulnerable to daily threats. Even if you don't open an email and never download a file or program, just visiting a website can put you in peril.

According to researchers, 85 percent of infections are from websites, often legitimate sites that have been unknowingly infected themselves.

Avoid "free" wireless networks. That gratis Wifi network in the local brewpub is probably a den of digital iniquity. Such networks usually aren't secured or encrypted, allowing strangers to track your online movements, record your passwords and make off with your credit-card information before you realize what's happened. Stay off them and use your own wireless subscription or service.
Use secure Web connections. The "HTTPS" acronym at the beginning of many Web addresses denotes a site that is using encryption (the "S" stands for secure).

Many websites have this option, but most of us don't know or don't bother to use it. You have to purposely set it in many Web-based email programs, for example. It can occasionally cause other programs to hiccup (Windows Live on HTTPS can conflict with Outlook Hotmail Connector, for example), but the inconvenience is worth it.

Don't be too social. Want to share your latest vacation pics on Facebook? Great — just wait until you get back from your trip.

Shop safely online. The convenience of letting a shopping site, especially one you visit frequently, save all your personal information and credit-card numbers is tempting — but don't do it.

Change your passwords, a lot. Since you cannot count on every site or business out there protecting your data — or even telling you when it's been stolen — one of the best protections is also the simplest.

Changing your password frequently can keep you one step ahead of the thieves. If your bank password has been stolen and is up for sale online, changing it will take away the criminal's keys to your account

Would you, could you on a train? Don't. Sitting in the commuter car or in any public place makes you vulnerable to "shoulder surfers," people who scan other people's laptop or smartphone screens looking for passwords or other personal information.

Many of these crooked cruisers don't even turn their heads; they just take a picture with their cellphones as they go by.

Avoid app attacks. Don't be the first kid to jump into the pool. In other words, when you discover a new app for your smartphone, tablet or browser, check it out before you tap "install."

Look carefully at the permissions it asks for. Better still, see how often it's been downloaded (the higher the number of times, the less likely it's malware) and read the reviews.

If you have any system questions or concerns, call the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us

-Bryan

Keeping ALL Your Software Up To Date

Bryan Greenberg — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:29:50 +0000

Missing Software Update Risks

It is important to make sure ALL of the software on your PC is updated, including browsers, Anti-Virus, camera and phone software, etc.

The reason I bring this up is, recently a customer updated their POS software and then had issues with certain functions. Part of the cause was the way the updated software changed how it was doing look-ups. The software started using a specialized service to enhance the view. But because of old anti-virus software, the specialized service was being marked as malicious and not allowed to run. The anti-virus software did not even log that it was blocking this
service from finishing its job.

Having multiple stores, where some were working and some were not, made troubleshooting this more difficult. A pattern was found and we were able to narrow the problem down to the version of the anti-virus software installed on the machines the were not working. Even though the anti-virus software was doing its job, it hampered the ability to use a piece of the POS software which was extensively used to look up past product sales performance.

As far as why a newer version of anti-virus saw this as a threat likely had to do with the way viruses have evolved over the years. Anti-virus software looks for patterns of other know malicious software to make a decision if an unknown file or services is malicious. In this case it was a false positive which was corrected in the new version of the anti-virus software.

As you can see having the latest version of software can eliminate a lot of frustration for both the users and your support team.

If you have any system questions or concerns, call the CCS Retail Systems Support department at 800.672.4806 or email us

-Bryan

Mac Malware On The Rise

Bryan Greenberg — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:16:46 +0000

Apple Products Targeted by Cyber-criminals

Mac users would be wise to be extra careful this holiday season. With Apple's PCs growing in popularity, cyber criminals have written a new wave of malware directed at Macs. MacAfee found 5,000 pieces of Mac-targeted malware as of late 2010, and that number has been increasing 10 percent month to month.

Also don't forget that smartphones are becoming targets of malware too. Some malware writers are even creating the QR codes (the square barcodes that can be scanned by a smartphone) that direct your phones browser to malicious sites. Most of the more well known Anti-Virus makers are now making anti-virus apps for phones. AVG has an Android anti-virus application, and Blackberry has multiple anti-virus applications for Blackberry phones. You can be sure there is at least one anti-virus app on the Market that can and should be installed on your Apple Products like iPhone, iPad, and iPod..

If you have any system questions or concerns, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672-4806 or email us

-Bryan

Holiday Screen Savers

Bryan Greenberg — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:04:29 +0000

Holiday Screen-Saver Malware

We have all seen them. Some of them even look pretty cool, but do you really know what you are installing?

I'm sure there are some safe or less intrusive holiday screen-savers out there, but most that I have seen either install spyware/malware, an obscure toolbar for some obscure search engine or both. If the site requires an email address to download the program, I would bet that you will be getting spam in your email inbox from the latest sale at your local grocery store to the latest sale at the Big Box stores.

So before giving out your email to some unknown site, or installing something that may (and probably will) install spyware. Think twice and be sure what you are installing is safe and malware/spyware free. Download the screen-saver install program and scan it before performing the installation to make sure.

If you have any system questions or concerns, please call the CCS retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us. We track many dangerous screen-savers by working with our customers.

Bryan.

25 Of The Worst Passwords For 2011

Bryan Greenberg — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:17:21 +0000

Good and Bad Passwords - Create Complex Passwords for the Best Security

excepted from PC Mag

"Whenever simple passwords are discussed, the following story always comes up. Five years ago, a group of Slovak hackers hacked Slovakia's National Security Bureau (abbreviated NBU), which stores tons of classified information. It was an easy hack. The NBU's master login/password was simply nbusr/nbusr123. After cracking it, the hackers publicized the information, much to the NBU's embarrassment.

What's even worse? Days later, the password was still "nbu123."

That was five years ago, but bad passwords still abound. SplashData, a password management app maker, compiled a list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011, based on millions of stolen passwords that were dumped online. Typically after hackers compromise a server, like Sony's or CIA.gov's, they post all these personal details online.

Many of the passwords are sequential numbers like "12345" or "654321," while others contained messages like "letmein" and "trustno1". Even if you thought you were being clever with "qazwsx," (look at your keyboard, you'll get it) it's number 23 on the list. "Monkey," "password," and "qwerty" are ALWAYS on these lists. I know I'm preaching to the choir here but, seriously?

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Having a tough-to-crack password won't thwart a sophisticated cybercriminal, who can use other methods to breach a server in which passwords are stored. But a solid password will at least deter the lowest common denominator like a nosy partner or a low-level hacker using a dictionary attack that simply tries thousands of passwords. "

So what is a good password then?

Here are some rules and some examples:

A secure password will contain a combination of upper and lower case characters, numbers, and special characters like "@", and "#'. This makes guessing the password much harder, and blocks against a standard dictionary attack.

As for remembering such a password, there are some tricks that can make it easier. Let's take a very simple password like "freddie". If we change the case of a letter (I recommend a letter other than the first one, as that may be done in a dictionary attack), we get something like "freDDie". Better, but not great. Now substitute a number for a letter, and get "fr3DDie". Then a special character, and you get "fr3DD!e". That is a much more secure password, and yet is still easy to remember.

To summarize:

Don't use passwords that are based on personal information that can be easily accessed or guessed
Don't use words that can be found in any dictionary of any language
Use both lowercase and capital letters
Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters
Use different passwords on different systems

After all, your system, and information, is only as secure as the weakest security link, and a weak password a sure way to invite the hackers into your system.

Examples:

Uuu8lRXpnVzRL4h5qHbn
g0U3YQ2TYcyeeJI2bZhT
9JMZ2N5ANy0Da4uk6qr1
EbzSv5PewUrcciOyJxHr
mCWAzxR3Tauy8sVFxPi6

If you have any system questions or concerns, contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department at 800.672.4806 or email us

-Bryan

J.C. Penney's Changes Pricing Tactics

John Yauger — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:13:09 +0000

J.C. Penney's Changes Pricing Tactics

J.C. Penney's recently announced that it is permanently marking down all of it's merchandise by at least 40 percent. This new marketing tactic it intended to get rid of the need to run hundreds of sales promotions that the retailer normally runs each year.

This includes a three-tiered strategy that offers:

Every Day low pricing (Designed to be both more consistent and more competitive).
Monthly Value pricing (Discounts on select merchandise).
Best Price (Clearance pricing that is tied to coincide with special dates such as pay days, slow business days, and holidays).

While this pricing structure may not make it an even par competitor with retail giants such as Wal-Mart, it may prove to bring in shoppers that would not ordinarily think of going to Penney's because of their normally higher prices. As an example, a close friend recently indicated that he never shops a Penney's unless they are having a sale (which is normally the everyday price at stores like Wal-Mart) or if it's something that he needs and he can't find elsewhere.

The above mentioned changes would also be tied in with the following:

New Color Coded tags when a price drops.
Simpler pricing rounded to whole numbers (i.e, $14, $20)
Direct mailing campaigns to existing customers with Monthly Value Pricing.
New product lines and marketing campaigns at targeting both middle class families (Penney's core customers) and the younger crowd.
Down-sizing some locations to what is referred to as "Mini-shops". The main intent here being to decrease costs and increase sales per square foot.

If you are interested in creating a similar pricing structure as above, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

Automating End of Day Procedures

John Yauger — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:02:47 +0000

Automating End of Day Procedures

Sometimes relying on new staff members to properly execute daily closing procedures can be a hit or miss proposition, especially if you have a high turnover rate.

In the past, I have seen situations were users have failed to settle Credit Card transactions for periods as long as (3) three weeks. Not only can this kind of situation cause cash flow problems, it can be very expensive,
especially if any of the transactions fail to settle due to issues with the card holders account, or because the processor rejected the transaction do to it being outside of their required settlement time frame.

If Sales are not posted on timely basis, it could affect stocking, purchasing, and other managerial decisions.

Often, In these kinds of situations, there is no one doing follow-up, and no notification given to management that there is any open issue at play. A feature in CounterPoint SQL now allows the ability to schedule automated Credit Card Batch Settlement and End of Day Sales Posting.

The System Configuration Utility gives you the capability to schedule both Credit Card Settlements and POS End of Day posting during off hours when is more convenient, such as when all users are off the system, and/or after a backup has been made.

You can set-up a single schedule per Store or for all Drawers per day, or you could have separate schedules set for individual Drawers at a location.

As an example:

If Drawer #1 was always used by the morning shift, and it was normally closed down for rest of the day, say by 1:30 PM, you could create both a Credit Card Settlement and End of Day posting operation around this event.

Some of the other features include:

Posting Drawers that have a specific status, such as "Active", "Counted", or "Reconciled:
The ability to send process status notifications to multiple email addresses.

If you would like more information on this or desire to have these tasks scheduled, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

MS SQL Server Performance Tuning

John Yauger — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:29:23 +0000

MS SQL Server Performance Tuning

An often neglected, but important area of database management involves factors that can affect MS SQL Server Performance. The most common factors are:

Whether or not the application server is dedicated to MS SQL functions. - Running MS SQL on a Domain server, Terminal Server, or an Exchange Mail Server is not recommended.
The version of MS SQL that you are running. - Some lower priced versions of MS SQL Server limit both the size of the database and may restrict the total number physical processors that can be used with MS SQL processes.
The Servers CPU processor. - Running MS SQL on older a single core processor could result in poor overall query processing. You should have beefier server for this task.
Server Ram - The amount of physical RAM that the computer has and how much of it is dedicated specifically to MS SQL. - Most newer 64 Bit servers support much higher amounts of RAM. This is a critical element of MS SQL performance tuning.
The amount of swap space dedicated to the server. - While this is often set dynamically, I have seen situations where this has been set too low especially when there are situations that involve low amounts of physical RAM being installed in the computer, or where more RAM was installed, but the swap space on the server was never increased.
Utilities - Whether or not there is a routine to Rebuild Indexes, Reorganize Data and Index Pages, Update Statistics, and how frequently these utilities are run.

For more information you can also review my previous blog entitled "Creating MS SQL Maintenance Plans." Also, see Maintenance Plans and Automating Administration Across an Enterprise in the MS SQL Help and/or contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department for further assistance.

Self Sanitizing Keyboards

John Yauger — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:31:32 +0000

Self Sanitizing Keyboards

Recent studies have indicated that some computer keyboards have more virulent germs than most bathrooms or kitchens. Various factors in your workplace could contribute to this, especially if you work in hospital or a retail environment where large numbers of people are involved in handling various pieces of equipment. ATM and Pin Pad keyboards are known to be the worst offenders, and while you may find it unquestionably gross, you may not have thought about other options to completely resolve the issue.

Basic things such as routinely vacuuming your keyboard and carefully wiping down your equipment are a good idea. However, one must also be careful that any chemical cleaners being used will not short-out or damage equipment in any way, or that whatever is being used does not void the manufacturers warranty.

Another issue has always been convenience. When being cleaned, all equipment should be powered down and preferably unplugged from a power source in order to prevent static discharges, or other issues with the computer. Obviously, in a fast paced retail environment, this not only inconvenient, but sometimes not practical.

Enter self-sanitizing keyboards...

Recently, a start-up called Vioguard announced that it received FDA approval for a device the company claims can kill up to 99.9 percent of pathogens using ultraviolet light.

Vioguard, launched by a couple of former Microsoft hardware designers, has been selling the self-sanitizing keyboard to consumers for around $900.

Now, with the FDA approval, it is pitching the keyboard for use in hospitals, which are known to be one of the most infectious places know to man. Most Hospitals tend to be filled with people sick, among other things, with bacteria, viruses, prions and other invisible pathogens that are far more successful at making humans sick than those that infect people who don't end up in the hospital.

A recent British study found that keyboards in office buildings were shown to host more than five times as many bacteria as the average toilet in the same building. This includes common objects such as keyboards, computer mice and elevator buttons that are commonly infected with a variety of pathogens, including particularly virulent antibiotic resistant staph infections such as MRSA.

Vioguard's self-sanitizing keyboard ships with a box into which the keyboard can withdraw into in order to be bathed in the germicidal ultraviolet-C light from (2) two 24-watt fluorescent lamps.

The box, with has a mechanized drawer into which the keyboard retracts automatically, which keeps the keyboard hidden until a user waves a hand to activate an infrared motion detector, which sends the keyboard out of its germ-free environment.

There are also other UV products:

VirWall Systems - a UV-lit cover that is put over phones or keyboards.
Germ Genie - Looks like a desk lamp, but emits UV to kill germs left by your fingers as you type.

If you would like more information product such as this or reconditions for sanitizing your equipment, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

$41+ Billion in unused Gift Cards

John Yauger — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:32:41 +0000

$41+ Billion in unused Gift Cards

Recent retail industry research company "Tower Group" has reported that there are in excess of $41 billion dollars worth of unused Gift Cards still out there since they started keeping track in 2005. In 2011, Gift Card transaction volume exceeded $100 billion dollars for the year.

Some other interesting statistics are:

Approximately 85 percent of issued cards are used within 60 days.
The remaining cards are either lost, stolen, or expire due to date restrictions or reduction fees. Even though many fees are down and some states no longer allow expiration dates, based on this years numbers, this still means a potential $15 billion dollar windfall for the retail industry.
The average value of a closed loop card (retailer specific) purchased in 2011 rose more than 70 percent, from $34 in 2010 to $58 in 2011.
The average value of an open loop card (not retailer specific) saw a drop of 5 percent in 2011 compared to 2010.
The average number of gift cards purchased, both closed loop and open loop, remained relatively flat year over year, however, due to the increase in the average value per closed loop card, and the total value spent when using these cards, saw a tremendous increase in 2011, going from $161 to $291.

What all of this says is...

If most cards are sold during the start of the year end holiday shopping season, the retailer is essentially guaranteed an 85% return revenue stream over the next 60 days. This could be a bonus for the retailer into the first quarter of the new year when most retail sales are typically flat.
While many consumers like the flexibility of using gift cards, a percentage will never be used or never be completely be used, thereby giving retailers an excellent profit center, especially when considering sales made on closed loop cards.
Other than the cost of the physical cards, closed loop cards cost the retailer nothing, as opposed to open loop card fees and conventional credit card fees. This means lower overhead for the retailer.
Consumers will spend more money when a Gift Card is used than they might spend otherwise, resulting in higher than average ticket sales. Often Gift Cards are redeemed for regular priced items, meaning higher profit margins.

So if you aren't using Gift Cards now, you should seriously consider contacting the CCS Retail Systems Support Department regarding your options...

WiFi Setup Flaw May Lead To Cracked Router Security Pins

John Yauger — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:41:16 +0000

WiFi Setup Flaw May Lead To Cracked Router Security Pins

Today US-CERT has issued a warning regarding a newly discovered flaw in the WPS (WiFi Protected Setup Standard). The flaw causes too much information on the PIN being returned to a brute force attacker, which subsequently results in making the PIN vulnerable to being cracked. This flaw could put the security of millions of WiFi routers and access points at risk.

Common routers known to be at risk include D-Link, Netgear, Linksys, and Buffalo, however, the issue is not limited to just these specific brands.

In summary, the flaw deals with communication messages sent back during a failed connection attempt where the messages are sent in such a way that the attacker could determine if the first half of the PIN number is correct. Subsequently, the last digit of the PIN is can be determined because it is actually a checksum of the PIN.

This vulnerability can lead to a successful brute force attack, especially with a router that has no lock out policy. Typically this means that open, loosely secured public Wi-Fi networks are at an even greater risk of
being compromised.

US-CERT has recommended disabling your WPS PIN on your router, and only turning it on when adding a new device to the network. Disabling it altogether is highly recommended as some wireless routers can respond by locking-up when hit with a surge of unsuccessful attempts, requiring a reboot of the router.

If you have questions of concerns regarding this topic, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

Who's On First On Project Management.

John Yauger — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 01:32:26 +0000

Who's On First Project On Management.

When implementing the configuration of an application software program it is important to have a central point of control to configure it. This is true regardless of whether this is a new installation or an upgrade.

Problems can occur when individuals, or groups of persons, set-up and configure in a way that conflicts with what the company or location is doing as a whole. This can result in contradictory requests for changes that conflict with another location, that are against company policy, or against management directives. This often happens in organizations with loose management styles where various locations or departments have been left to their own devices. This can results in everyone wanting to be in charge, but no one willing to take final responsibility for the changes.

If there is no central person who is "In Charge" of configuration changes, this can results in our support department being bombarded with contradictory requests for changes. Examples of this would be areas like:

Security Levels, and menu access.
What an application defaults to or prompts for.
Form and Report Changes.
Where Receipt forms print to, and how many copies print.
When automated events occur.

The main issues here are that there should be one central project manager available, there should be a clear policy on how software configuration changes are applied, and who they should be applied to.

If you need assistance with organizing your project, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

The Passport "Breakout" Option

John Yauger — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:50:00 +0000

The Passport "Breakout" Option.

Passport has an internal software feature called "Breakout", which allows a user to set individual default values for most fields that are accessed in any part of the software. This can include defaulting preset values (Including special keys such as the ENTER, ESC, and various function keys), or by having it skip normally prompted fields altogether.

However, since these fields are defined and saved by Passport user, it is also possible to have the software behave differently in one area for one user than it does for all other users. While some users may not know about this feature, I have seen some recent examples of users accidentally turning this on and setting values without being aware of it. Often this is accomplished by a user accidentally typing a combination of keystrokes that toggle the feature on, set a value, and exit the feature.

As an example...

Recently, I had one end-user accidentally toggle this feature on while in the Cash Application portion of the Cash Receipts input screen. What they managed to do was toggle it on, type in an invalid default value, and then turn on the "skip" field feature. This caused subsequent use of Cash Application portion of the program to lock-up the software. This made it impossible for the user to properly abort the transaction, including not being able to get out of the screen. However, when I used the CCS user ID, the software behaved normally.

If you would like more information on how you can utilize the Breakout feature correctly, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

The Importance of Reviewing New Technical Documentation

John Yauger — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:13:21 +0000

The Importance of Reviewing New Technical Documentation.

When you are looking at upgrading any of your application software programs it is important to review ALL documentation related to the installation and configuration requirements, BEFORE attempting to install any new software. This is especially true because of recent changes in both software and hardware technology.

When this isn't handled properly various problems can arise.

Some examples of this are:

If moving from a 32 Bit to 64 Bit Operating system environment, any or all of the following
may be present:

The software application may require an updated 64 Bit compatible run-time. - Assuming that this is available, it may require re-installation of the core software application. If you are using a Client Server application, the workstation clients will most likely need to be re-installed as well.
A supporting application that is used by the core application may be incompatible with the new 64 Bit Operation System, or require the purchase of new licenses for the new environment.
The new operation system or application may not have drivers for some of the existing peripheral devices that you intend to use with the new update. This may require purchasing new equipment.
So ideally, the should be known in advance.

What the above clearly points out is:

Technical Documentation is only as good as the ability or willingness of a person to follow it.
Project documentation should be reviewed ahead of time, during, and afterward in order to confirm
the completeness of the project at hand. - Having a poor plan is sometimes worse than having no
plan at all.
Have a test environment is preferred, so that you can have a good idea what to expect when the live
update is done.
When a project is complete, changes made to the overall configuration should also be reflected in
the documentation. - Most of us are not going to remember details, months (or perhaps years) later.
Considerable time, frustration, and expense can be incurred by not properly documenting, or
considering things.
There is a need to ave sufficient backups and documentation that will allow you to go backwards
in the event the update process fails due to some yet as known issue. - Time is money. If either you or CCS has to spend more time on something, this results in increased support costs. This is especially critical for you the issue involves recovering a system that is down.

If you are contemplating any major projects involving your systems, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department for a review.

Fake Alert Trojan disguised as a UPS Quantum View Notification

John Yauger — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:28:52 +0000

Fake Alert Trojan disguised as a UPS Quantum View Notification

There is a new variant of the Fake Alert Trojan making the rounds that is disguised as what appears to be a legitimate UPS Quantum View shipping status update Notification.

While the spam associated with it appears to be random, it may be targeting primarily email addresses with business extensions. Rather than having the more common infected attachment, this email has an embedded URL link, that when clicked on, takes you to a web site that installs the Trojan virus on your computer.

If you have up-to-date Anti-Virus software, it should be picking-off the virus. Depending on your settings, it should either be quarantining or deleting the email. This should be considered your first line of defense. However, if you normally receive legitimate UPS Quantum notifications, you can also do the following to help further protect yourself against an infection:

You can set your mail client to not automatically open any mail when viewed. This means that you would have to double-click on it to open it and actually read it..
You can set-up a separate email folder and establish mail rule that allows routing of all UPS source mails (including spoofed mails) to this specific folder.
If you suspect that the mail may not be legitimate mail, you can access your custom folder, and then do a single left-mouse-click on the mail entry, and then view the properties (to determine if the sources is actually spoofed). If desired, the suspect mail can then be deleted without having physically opened it or having clicked on the embedded link.

If you need assistance with configuring the above solution, or if you need assistance with updating your Anti-Virus software, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department.

Make It Easy To Buy More

Norma Dykes — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:09:34 +0000

Add-on Sales

"Adding on" is an essential part of the selling process. When you add on, you sell more and your customers will be happier with their purchase because you’ve either made the buying experience easier or have saved them money. What is the easiest way to add on? Create bundles.

Following are two types of bundles that are adaptable to almost all types of retail stores.

Bundle Items That Are Commonly Sold Together

Putting together this type of bundle makes it easy for your employees to sell and easy for customers to say yes to the bundle.

One example I heard of was a company that sold kites. Did you think buying a kite was simple? Not really - at least not time-wise, and in most cases - not "expertise-wise". After picking the kite, you have to pick a kite string (often depending on the kite size and the typical weather conditions where you'll fly the kite, to name two considerations). After that, you still have to choose the tail and something called a "snap swivel".

Finally, someone decided to bundle the separate pieces together. In fact, they created three bundles - good, better and best. Each bundle was given a catchy name. In the first bundle, items were chosen that would deliver the best kite flying experience while giving the store the highest profit margin. Realizing that most customers wanted to drive a Ferrari, they also knew that not all customers wanted to spend that type of money - thus the reason for creating the good and better categories. These were still wonderful products for their price point.

It's important to note that with this type of bundle, it isn't necessary to discount the items. And the fact that you've taken the guesswork out of the process has made it easier for your clerks to sell while adding value to your product for your customers.

Bundle Multiples of the Same Item

This type of bundle works especially well for consumables or perishable items, but it can be used with all kinds of merchandise - candles, sweaters, flats of annuals, paint rollers, dog food. Think about your store's products. I'm sure you'll see all types of possibilities.

You will most likely want to use some type of discount with these bundles. It could be a straight % off of one or a larger percent off of multiples. Another choice is a BOGO discount (Buy one/Get one....). One store I know of uses BOGO pricing and also has a customer loyalty program. They sell high end products. Their "bundle" consists of a customer's buying 10 of "xxx" over time. When they buy the 11th "xxx", it's free.

Because they use CounterPoint SQL software, it’s easy to track customers' BOGO purchases. In addition they can award loyalty points based on all the dollars each customer spends. These loyalty points are redeemed like cash when making future purchases. And unlike Safeway, the points don't expire in 60 days (unless, of course you want them to. If so, CounterPoint can handle that also).

Talk to you soon ~Norma

Are Your Email Customers Unsubscribing?

Norma Dykes — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:35:53 +0000

Why Readers Unsubscribe from Email Lists

Everyone hates it when they get "unsubscribes" from their email list. And when all you see is the word "unsubscribe" your immediate reaction is probably to ask yourself "what am I doing wrong"? Maybe nothing! Or maybe something you could be doing better.

The First Consideration:
Ask yourself if you're giving your readers useful, valuable, interesting or important content. If you are, they'll hesitate to unsubscribe - even during periods when you are emailing frequently about products and promotions.

If you're not giving them useful information, it's easy for even your biggest fans to ditch your emails.

A Second Consideration:
There is almost always a direct correlation between your email frequency and sales. The more you send, the more you sell. Unfortunately, frequent emails may also lead some customers to unsubscribe.

You should be willing to lose some casual readers - the ones who probably aren't that likely to buy that much from you anyway - in order to really engage and activate the amazing customers on your list who are ready to buy.

So remember this the next time you ramp up your email frequency and start getting those "unsubs". Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you're giving your readers great content on a regular basis. Those unsubscribes simply mean happier customers overall that you're reaching. And these are the ones most likely to buy.

Addendum:
I've always thought there should be another entry line for "reason" when an "unsubscribe" is submitted. You don't want a "book" written, but how about a 25 character line where the customer could enter something like "duplicate email", "no time to read" and I suppose the occasional "stop bothering me" entry.

Knowing why you're receiving unsubscribes may help you improve your emails or it may give you an opportunity to interact to a) apologize, b) find out what you could do better, or c) simply say thank you for.....your input, feedback, past business etc.

Talk to you soon. ~Norma

Boost Your E-commerce Sales with One Letter

Norma Dykes — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:18:47 +0000

Personal Service and Selling Online

I recently read an article written by Miles Burke for SitePoint. It dealt with his experiences ordering from companies online during the holiday season. In fact, his family did most of their shopping online this season. Although they received all of their orders, there was one company that stood out from all of the rest. The majority of companies' packages arrived with a packing slip and a receipt - although a few didn't. The only way to tell who sent some packages was by the address label.

But what made that one company special? I'll let Miles tell you inis own words.

"It was a letter. That's right, one of those paper items you used to receive before email. One A4 page on letterhead, with a nicely merged letter thanking me for choosing them to purchase from, and welcoming me to get in contact with them should I have any questions or feedback about the products, the purchase process, or the delivery experience. Even better, it was hand signed by someone senior in the business." (To read the complete Sitepoint article go to http://www.sitepoint.com/boost-your-e-commerce-sales-with one letter/ ).

As I've said in previous posts, if you are not giving your customers the opportunity to order from you online, you're missing out on a sure way to increase your sales. Think of it. No additional overhead for retail space, lights, heat, insurance - less seasonal help requirements. What's not to like?

If you're using NCR/Radiant's CounterPoint Point of Sale software, it's as easy as adding CPOnline Integrated eCommerce. You use your own brick and mortar inventory and download the online orders directly into CounterPoint for processing.

If you still haven't created an online presence, it's time to seriously start considering it.

Talk to you soon. ~Norma

It's Taken Less Than Two Years! - Continued

Norma Dykes — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:34:07 +0000

First Annual Shopper Experience Study

This is the second half of the First Annual Shopper Experience Study published 16 months ago that was about future shopper mega-trends that have now become part of the selling landscape. As my previous blog stated, these are trends you should seriously consider implementing if you haven't already.

Generation Y Changes the Behaviour of All Previous Generations
The massive adoption of shopper-friendly technologies forces retailers and other generations to adapt to Generation Y shopping styles. Think online. Think mobile.

The Death of the Task Worker
In order to deal with the dramatic increase in shopper product knowledge, retailers will transform their workforces into knowledge-based workforces. They will dramatically increase the hours employees spend with customers while increasingly automating back-office tasks.

Real SKU Rationalization Takes Hold
Retailers will continue to reduce supplier and SKU counts. Cross-channel order management will allow retailers to pinpoint the best locations for their SKUs - shipping slow-moving products into the warehouse or back to the supplier and increasing inventory for key items. Slow moving items that can't be returned to the supplier will get price reductions (sooner rather than later).

Shoppers Demand Consistent Cross-Channel Experiences
A divided organization drives separate strategies and experiences - and this will be increasingly unacceptable to Generation Y shoppers. Customer service, merchandising, pricing, inventory and supply chain business processes will be seamlessly integrated within the organization.

Death of Static POS Becomes as Possibility
Increasing customer acceptance of out-of-queue check-out and mobile check-out, and the cost benefits associated with it, will enable retailers to finally have an alternative to the tyranny of massive, future POS investments. By-products include reduction of employee-based shrink, lower capital expenditures, increased sales per square foot, and reclaiming premium store space.

So there are your 10 mega-trends. The good news is that if you are using CounterPoint Point of Sale software, you have the tools to implement these changes now - if you haven't already. If you aren't using CounterPoint, I would strongly suggest you take a look to see the advantages you will gain by using this forward looking product.

CounterPoint is not an old-fashioned point of sale system. It has embraced the features that customers are looking for.

Mobility? It has it.
Integration for all phases of retailing? It has it.
Customer connection? it has it.

I could go on, but instead, I'll simply state again, take a look. See what CounterPoint can do for you. Contact us so we can help you see CounterPoint's Great Feature Set.

Talk to you soon. ~Norma

It's Taken Less Than Two Years!

Norma Dykes — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:32:13 +0000

First Annual Shopper Experience Study

Less than two years ago, Steven Skinner of Cognizant published an article about the 10 future shopper mega-trends resulting from an exclusive consumer study on the future of retailing and the impact of shopper empowerment.

To gather this information, RIS News teamed with Cognizant to publish the "First Annual Shopper Experience Study: Changing Priorities, Resetting Expectations". Over 2000 participants were polled to learn the likes and dislikes of the retail shopping experience.

Now - 16 months later - it's amazing to see how many of their findings have moved into the mainstream. Why is this important to you? Because retailers who don't adapt to these changes are putting themselves at a disadvantage.

Sales and Product Information via Mobile Phone
Shoppers will opt-in to networks that send them content-rich messages about their products, prices, promotions and special services.

Taking the Store to the Shopper
Retailers will bring their full arsenal of capabilities to the shopper, regardless of location, whether the shopper is in the store, at home, or walking in the park.

Distributed Order Management Integrating All Retail Channels
All Enterprises will integrate order management across the enterprise to provide one view of customer orders regardless of the way they were purchased.

Mobile Shopping Comes of Age
Talked about since the turn of the century, this trend will be fueled by shopper acceptance, new technologies, increased network bandwidth, and retailer adoption that will increasingly become virtual.

Social Media and Product Development Collide
Product life-cycles will be integrated with social media feedback to improve relevance, increase speed to market, and reduce costs associated with creating products. Shoppers will provide ideas for new product development and will help determine how existing products can be improved.

Does any of this sound familiar? They have all come to pass. If you haven't managed your brick and mortar store to take advantage of these changes, this should be first on your list in the upcoming year.

Check tomorrow's blog for the remaining five trends that are now part of the retailing landscape.

Tale to you soon ~Norma

Fake It If You Have To!

Norma Dykes — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:37:07 +0000

Christmas Cheer

It’s December 14th. You’ve been working non-stop during this holiday season and you have 10 more days of Christmas ahead of you.

I guarantee that sometime during the next 10 days you and your staff are going to get cranky.

    ~ And tired
    ~ Possibly pre-occupied
    ~ Or annoyed
    ~ Even disgruntled

In short, your Christmas spirit will have headed south. That’s understandable. But it’s not okay to let your customers feel that lack of Christmas cheer. If you don’t feel it, you’ve got to fake it.

Your customers are counting on you to make their Christmas shopping experience fun and festive. They might be tired and grouchy too, so the last thing they need to hear is grumbling from you or your staff. Think of your time on the sales floor as being an actor. It’s showtime! Put a smile on your face and try for a spring in your step, even if you’re feeling Grinchy in your heart.

Funny thing is – when you start faking all that Christmas cheer, pretty soon you really do start to feel it! And I'll bet your customers will remember. And if they remember, you'll have created a customer who will return.

Talk to you soon. ~Norma

You Have Gift Cards - Fun Ideas For Selling Them

Norma Dykes — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:01:33 +0000

Selling Gift Cards

It's true that gift cards can boost sales during the holidays and help you generate revenue through the year. All of your competitors are going to be competing with you for a big slice of the gift card pie this season. Obviously you can place the cards by the registers and put marketing materials in your store - but what are you doing that your competitors aren't.

Try using social media to promote and sell your gift cards

If you have a Twitter or Facebook business account
Run a hastag contest on Twitter or a trivia contest on Facebook. Choose a participant at random to receive a $5 gift card. When the card is redeemed, the winner is likely to spend more than the value of the card. Better yet, that person will most likely tell his/her friends about the great experience he had with your business. Note: When you use Facebook for any type of solicitation, make sure you adhere to Face book's guidelines.

Hold secret giveaways
People love to be part of something exclusive. Encourage your fans and followers to buy cards with a "secret password" giveaway on the same day of the week every week. Give that day a catchy name. For example: Magic Monday, Terrific Tuesday, Wahda U Know Wednesday. On that day, release a password and give away a $5 gift card with any gift card purchase of $5 or more when your customer uses that password at the counter. Another option is to allow the use of the password with any online gift card purchase of $50 or more.

Make it a scavenger hunt
Hide a fully loaded gift card somewhere around town or around your neighborhood. Once it's been carefully secured, start giving clues on your social media pages about its location. As you continue to release clues, you are also reminding your fans that you sell gift cards.

IMPORTANT: Require the winner to post or tweet a photo of the location once it's found so that the rest of the searchers aren't left hanging and wondering about where/if the card was found.

Sign them up
Create an email marketing sign-up form on your Facebook page if you don't already have one. If you're not sure how to do that, you can use a third-party application to help. Promise to give a $50 gift card to one lucky winner who signs up for the email campaign during a specified time frame. Then add those email addresses to your database and use them for an email campaign. And the first campaign? Gift Cards, of course. Again, make sure you are following Facebooks guidelines.

(Excerpted from an article from NCR/Radiant Systems)
Talk to you soon. ~Norma

There's Still Time For A Fun Christmas Promotion

Norma Dykes — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:52:09 +0000

12 Days of Christmas

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. The following day - commonly known as Black Friday - actually started a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't prepared for the Black Friday blitz by now, it's too late. BUT, there's still time for "The 12 Days of Christmas".

A "12 Days of Christmas" promotion has become a big event in many areas. It features one - and only one - "super sale priced" item on each of the 12 days before Christmas.

This is a fun, easy promotion you can plan today. If you aren't familiar with this type of event, read on.

Pick your items, pick your percentage
Pick items that are either high margin so you still make some money while giving your customers a killer deal (best idea), or items that are woefully overstocked.

Items don't have to be picked way in advance. As it gets closer to Christmas, you'll have a better idea of what needs an added incentive to move.

Get the word out
Email your customers the super sale item of the day on each of the twelve days before Christmas. Make it a quick, one paragraph email with a catchy subject line. This gives you a chance to send emails for 12 days in a row without seeming like a pest.

Post signage at your location. Remember to only list that day's item.

Post the item of the day on your Website or Facebook page. Tweet if you Twitter.

You may want to include a "while supplies last" notice wherever you list your "super item".

Here is what one store owner had to say about this promotion:

" I have run this promotion for several years now. Each of the twelve days leading up to Christmas, I have one featured item on "super-sale" for that day only. I make it a good one.

Customers come in daily to check and see what's on sale that day. They usually want to know what's on sale the next day... but I never tell! Or they'll ask if a particular item will be on sale later on, and of course, I never tell that either. Now, office managers from different companies call the store in the morning to find out what's on sale that day and gets the word out to their employees.

When I started doing this promotion, I was just trying to move things that needed a push, but now I 'shop' for it in advance."

My thought? If you get them in the store for your super-sale item, they are likely to buy other items too.

Talk to you soon. `Norma

38 Days Until Christmas! What Are You Doing?

Norma Dykes — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:11:50 +0000

So what do you do? How do you complete? Do what you do best.

It's still a week until Thanksgiving and already stores have had their Christmas merchandise displayed for a month. We may not like it, but the big box stores are driving the start of the season.

So what do you do? How do you complete? Do what you do best.

Personalize the shopping experience for your customers. One idea that has proven successful for a number of store owners is creating a Holiday Gift Guide to email your customers. Make it simple - VERY simple. This isn't the time for a big complex catalog. Leave that to the big box stores. This is what we suggest for a more personal touch:

Think about 3 to 5 gift-giving categories that fit your merchandise
For example: Gifts for Him, Gifts for Her, Gifts for the Beginner, Gifts for the Expert, Gifts for Dogs, Gifts for Cats.... And don't forget Stocking Stuffer gifts - This category will make up in volume sold even if the prices are lower.

Pick 4 to 6 of your favorite gift items in each category
These could be items you have a lot of, items you're getting great margins on, bestsellers, or just items you love. Remember - we're keeping this simple, so no more than a half-dozen items. (Of course you can always add a note like "come in and see more of the delightful items we've picked for you".

Create a Word document with a page for each category
-Add a picture of each item and a little bit of copy telling why it's a great gift. Notice that I didn't say "what it is" but why it's great. (Of course if it's a cherry pitter, you might want to say "this cherry pitter makes a great gift for....or because....".

Ask your vendors if they have professional shots of the items you're featuring. They'll most likely be thrilled by the free advertising. If you can't get shots from your vendor, then take a picture with a camera or with your cell phone. You don't have to strive for perfection here.

Include some kind of call to action
Prominently display your store name, location, phone number, an email address and a message like "Come shop with us today" on every page. If you have an eCommerce website, include the link.

Add a cover sheet, a table of contents, and a short letter from you
The letter is extremely important because this is an invitation to visit and shop with you.

Turn your Word document into a .pdf file
Google "pdf creator" and you'll find many free programs that you can use.

Email your Holiday Gift Guide to your customers
If you have a Facebook page, post it there, or tweet it and put it on your Website. You can also include copies in the store for your shoppers.

Think about partnering with another local store for wider coverage and a 2nd email list - but more about that next time.

Talk to you soon. ~Norma

Reminder: Basic Email Security Tips - Don't Be A Victim

Norma Dykes — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:12:17 +0000

Email Security Tips

I know. You've heard all of this before. As malware attacks and phishing expeditions grow, it's more important than ever that you do whatever you can to protect yourself, your company and EVERYONE in your address book.

Consider this a refresher course on what to do and not do with email.

Now for the basics:

Never allow an email client to fully render HTML emails without careful thought. If your client is Outlook, you can set it to only use simplified HTML. Check the protocols if you use a different client.

Protect the privacy of your data. Use a local POP3 or IMAP client to retrieve email. Be very careful if you use Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail.

Ensure that your email authentication process is encrypted. This applies even if your actual email isn't encrypted. The reason is simple: it helps keep malicious security crackers from "listening in" on your mail server session.

Digitally sign your emails. If you observe good security practices, it is highly unlikely that anyone else will ever have the opportunity to usurp your identity.

If you absolutely positively must access an email account over an unencrypted connection: Never ever access that account from a public or otherwise unsecured network - never - ever - under any circumstances.

Be aware of both your virtual and physical surroundings when sending email. Be careful. Trust no one that you do not absolutely have to trust, and recognize the dangers and potential consequences of that trust. Remember that your email security doesn't just affect you - it affects others too.

Talk to you soon. ~Norma