The Business Solutions Network

There's a lot of innovation happening in the POS (point of sale) world today. Customers are asking for mobile solutions for their employees, mobile marketing apps for customers, online marketplaces, digital signage, integrated video surveillance.  Continue Reading..

Few markets have been as rewarding to POS VARs as the hospitality vertical. In our Feb. 2010 issue of Business Solutions, I interviewed Todd Baker, Sr. of 24x7 Hospitality Technology, who shared some of the ways his company was finding success selling to restaurant chains.  Continue Reading..

About a month ago, I recorded a video blog on the rising interest in iPads from your customers. More interesting than anything I had to say were the comments from readers. It's clear that, due to customers asking for such solutions so often, many of you have already been forced to devise strategies to either offer -- or steer your customers away from -- mobile POS (point of sale) solutions.  Continue Reading..

In my conversations with POS (point of sale) dealers, I often hear about struggles to increase revenue. I've noticed that many of these people aren't doing everything they could to change their situation. I'm not going to pretend that what follows is easy or that you won't be forced to dedicate hard work and time to get the boost to revenue you're hoping for.  Continue Reading..

If you've been a reader of Business Solutions magazine for the past six years or so, you may have noticed that my articles tend to focus on technologies like POS (point of sale), payment processing, data collection, and video surveillance.  Continue Reading..

Last week, NETGEAR announced its new R6300 802.11ac WiFi router. According to the manufacturer, this is the industry's first 802.11ac dual band gigabit WiFi router enabling 5th generation WiFi (5G WiFi) at gigabit speeds. Indeed, 802.11ac is expected to deliver speeds three times faster than 802.11n (maxing out at 1300 Mbps on 5GHz ).  Continue Reading..

At Mobotix' NPC USA East Coast 2012 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, the IP camera manufacturer announced an upcoming Q3 2012 release of people counting and heat mapping functionality, which will be a free upgrade to the company's already free VMS software. While people counting functionality isn't new to the video industry, it does serve as a great example of how today's IP cameras can be used for way more than just video...  Continue Reading..

This week finds me in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for IP camera manufacturer Mobotix' national partner conference. Yesterday was loaded with networking opportunities, giving me a chance to speak with security integrators about the challenges and opportunities that they face on a daily basis. At the end of the day, one conversation about IP video really stood out.  Continue Reading..

Last week I attended the ETA Annual Meeting & Expo in Las Vegas where I spoke with leaders at dozens of various payment processing companies. A topic that came up during one appointment, which was surprising to me, was how some point of sale (POS) VARs have decided to not sell payment processing because they feel it's a dirty business.  Continue Reading..

A few weeks ago, Global Payments revealed that information from as many as 1.5 million credit cards was stolen from its systems, marking yet another data security breach in the merchant processing world. In the time since the announcement, I've spoken with a handful of both resellers and software developers and found many to be wondering what the breach might mean for them, either directly (because they partner with/sell Global Payments)...  Continue Reading..