The Business Solutions Network

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future of the point of sale (POS) VAR. When our kids look back on this time period, I'm convinced these years will stand out  in the history of retail solutions providers as one of those time periods of considerable transition, evolution, and probably a little chaos.  Continue Reading..

Earlier this week, IMS Research (the physical security industry’s go-to analyst firm), issued its forecast for video surveillance-as-a-service (VsaaS) or cloud-based video surveillance. The punch line of the report is that VsaaS is on pace to rapidly grow (IMS Research predicts that the world market could exceed $1 billion by 2014).  Continue Reading..

What can I say to convince you to add IP video surveillance to your line card? As a network-savvy integrator with a customer base, you've got many of the attributes necessary to sell and implement this technology (with some vendor support in the early stages, I'm sure).  Continue Reading..

There's the very real trend of retailers and restaurateurs asking their point of sale (POS) suppliers for iPad/Android consumer-grade tablet-based POS solutions. If you're that retail or restaurant solutions provider, you know that you can't make any money selling iPads or consumer-grade Android tablets.  Continue Reading..

Do you feel that making the move to managed services isn't much better than your break/fix past? Do you know what things you may need to change about your business to grow? Alex Osipov, the CTO of OS33, recently gave us his insight into why he thinks MSPs should focus more on relationships with their clients instead of one-time implementations.  Continue Reading..

In our September 2010 issue, I interviewed Ed Levin, the owner of International Point Of Sale. In the article, Levin explained how he felt as if his company lacked a competitive advantage by only selling hardware. To remedy the situation, Levin developed his own retail software (hence the title of the article, "Should You Become A POS ISV?") targeted at mom and pops. At the time of the article, Levin was able to speak...  Continue Reading..

Having interviewed a number of POS (point of sale) VARs, software developers, and payment processing companies, I'm confident in stating that POS VARs are in a great position to secure merchant processing business from their customers. In fact, I covered just that topic in a recent blog post, "Are POS VARs Missing Out On Payment Processing Revenue?"  Continue Reading..

Once a week I like to take an hour or so to randomly call readers of Business Solutions magazine. I do this for a few reasons. First, it helps me stay in touch with what’s going on in the industry. Frankly, since I’m doing no technology selling or installing myself, if I don’t talk to readers or attend shows and conferences, my articles will miss the mark. Second, having these conversations gives me ideas for...  Continue Reading..

Back in our July 2010 issue, I interviewed brothers Howard and David McCarthy of Dumac Business Systems in an article entitled "A New Twist On POS." In the article, the brothers spoke about how they're leveraging two of the RSPA's (Retail Solutions Providers Association) member benefits to reduce expenses and increase sales. (If you've ever wondered if the membership fees of the RSPA are worth it, read...  Continue Reading..

Every month, the editors of all of Jameson Publishing's (Business Solution's parent company) magazines and web portals get together and review the feature articles of each pub. In these meetings, we disscect articles, critique the writing, word choices, headlines, optical elements, and many other things in an attempt to make the following month's articles even better for our readers.  Continue Reading..