IP Camera, Rugged Printer, Receipt Printer, BDR, RMM, PSA, and POS Terminal Product Reviews
2-Inch Mobile Receipt Printers
| Mobility in the worlds of retail and hospitality is one of the hottest topics. There’s also a lot of hype, confusion, and speculation. In an attempt to provide clarity on just one aspect of a mobile POS solution, we decided to review 2-inch mobile receipt printers. We once again teamed up with Greg Nelson, VP and CTO of GwarePOS (formally Genesis-POS). As our starting point, we utilized our most current Best Channel Vendors survey results, re-sorting the data to determine which manufacturers had the highest product-related scores in the survey. As a result, we had a field of about 10 manufacturers with scores we felt were high enough for consideration. Read more. |
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| Citizen CMP-20 | Epson Mobilink P60II | Star Micronics SM-S220i | Zebra EM220II |
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360-Degree IP Cameras
| If you’re a VAR in the retail and restaurant space that passed up on video surveillance because it was too expensive and/or your customers were married to antiquated analog cameras, pay attention. There’s a class of high-definition IP cameras that can provide higher resolution/better picture quality than analog cameras, can be deployed in a way that one camera replaces four to six (or even more) old cameras, and gives merchants access to powerful analytics not only to prevent loss but also to help with marketing. I’m talking about 360-degree hemispheric/fisheye cameras. Read more. |
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| ACTi KCM3911 | Axis M3007-PV | Geovision FE420 | Mobotix Q24 | Panasonic WV-SW458 | Vivotek FE8172 |
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All-In-One POS Terminals
| When it comes to retail, restaurant, and grocery IT, no system is as crucial as the point of sale. While margins have eroded over the years, and there’s been outside pressure from tablets and similar mobile technologies, the timetested POS continues to stand as the primary customer payment and interaction device. With that importance in mind, Business Solutions teamed with Greg Nelson, VP and CTO of Genesis POS, to test 10 all-in-one units from a variety of leading manufacturers. The goal: to arm you with the information you need to either confirm your existing product line or shorten your time of evaluating new products. Read more. |
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| Aures W-Touch, Ultra-Slim ePOS |
Bematech SB9015D | HP RP7 7800 | J2 Retail 225 | NCR REALPOS50 |
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| Panasonic Stingray Envo (JS-960) |
PartnerTech SP-800 | PioneerPOS StealthTouch-M5 |
Posiflex KS7215 | Touch Dynamic Breeze All-In-One |
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Backup And Disaster Recovery (BDR) Solutions
| There are a lot of services an MSP can sell its customers, but almost every MSP includes BDR services as one of its core offerings. For this month’s product review, Business Solutions once again turned to MSP Remote Technology Management (RTM). CEO Eric Brown and Technical Manager Kevin Danis tested seven BDR solutions in their Massachusetts test lab over a two-week period, investing more than 40 hours. True to RTM’s conclusion when it tested RMM (remote monitoring and management) products for our January issue, Brown says, “There is no single solution that meets every MSP’s needs perfectly.” To that end, we share highlights of RTM’s tests. Read more. |
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| Asigra BDR Solution | Axcient BDR Solution | CharTec BDR Solution | Datto BDR Solution |
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| KineticD BDR Solution | StorageCraft BDR Solution | Unitrends BDR Solution | |
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Professional Services Automation (PSA) Software
| If you’re an IT solutions provider that’s considering selling managed services, it won’t be long before you’re ready to trade in your Excel tracking and ticketing system for something more robust. Many of the PSA offerings on the market today include modules for project management, resource management, CRM (customer relationship management), and knowledge management. Most MSPs will agree that the time and project management savings from a PSA alone are worth several times the cost of the software. Read more. | ||
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| Autotask | ConnectWise | Tigerpaw |
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Remote Monitoring And Management (RMM) Software
| Because of the growing interest in the managed services business model, we kicked off our testing with RMM software. Remote Technology Management (RTM), an MSP based in the Boston area and headed up by CEO Eric Brown, performed the testing over a four-week period. Brown, along with his team of technology consultants, tested seven RMM tools and shared feedback on the highlights and lowlights of each one. Read more. | |||
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| Continuum | GFI MAX | Kaseya | LabTech |
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| Level Platforms | N-able | Dell packetTrap |
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Rugged 4-Inch Mobile Label Printers
| A common printer in field service applications, the rugged 4-inch mobile label printer was a class of printers we were eager to test for VAR and ISV (independent software vendors) readers. For this review, we partnered with VAR Paragon Print Systems to leverage the company’s years of bar-coding expertise and facilities. To determine which printers to test, we relied on the results from January’s Best Channel Vendor survey. Read more. | ||
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| Datamax-O’Neil RL4 | Toshiba TEC B-EP4 | Zebra QLn420 |
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Backup And Disaster Recovery (BDR) Solutions Part 2
| When we launched the first BDR product review in the March 2013 issue of Business Solutions magazine, we had no idea that it would become one of the most downloaded articles of the year. This is a testament to the fact that backup and recovery is a core service all customers need, regardless of the size of their business or their vertical market. As a follow-up to the original test (which included Asigra, Axcient, CharTec, Datto, KineticD, StorageCraft, and Unitrends), Eric Brown, CEO of Remote Technologies Management (RTM), recently tested the following three vendors: Acronis, Barracuda, and Continuum. Read more. | |||
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| Acronis | Barracuda | Continuum | STORServer |
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Restaurant / Hospitality Tablet POS Comparison
| The restaurant industry has been quick to show interest in tablet POS solutions and software developers (both preexisting and start-ups) have been quick to react by flooding the market with a variety of tablet POS apps and full-blown software solutions. With so many options and so much misinformation (often the Web site of one solution will include inaccurate comparison charts of its competition) out there, it’s no wonder resellers and end users are confused. Therefore, we wanted to create a resource to help compare software choices. After reaching out to the various tablet POS software providers for restaurant applications, we came up with the software packages you can see in the chart below (click on any to see their full comparison profile). Read more. |
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| 2TouchPOS | Benseron Evolution and Bevo POS |
Digital Dining | Dinerware POS |
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| E la Carte Presto | Entrepreneur by Bepoz | Hummingbird Point-Of-Sale | Instore |
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| Maitre'D POS | MICROS Simphony | MICROS Systems Restaurant Enterprise Series (RES) |
NCR Aloha Mobile |
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| NCR Silver | pcAmerica Restaurant Pro Express |
POS Lavu | POSitouch |
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| Revel Systems iPad Point of Sale | Square Register | TouchBistro | |
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Retail Tablet POS Comparison
| Despite not knowing why they want it, retailers have been quick to show interest in tablet POS solutions. Start-up software developers have been equally as quick to respond by flooding the market with a variety of tablet POS apps. Retail resellers have had a hard time making sense of what’s happening. For years, resellers could confidently sell POS software they were very familiar with. Now, fueled by pressure from customers who want to harness the power of tablets and mobile POS, resellers have had to make sense of all the new options, while begging their existing software providers to come out with a tablet version. Read more. | |||
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| CAP Retail SellWise Pro | Hummingbird Point-Of-Sale | MicroBiz Cloud | NCR Silver |
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| PAR PixelPoint V12 | pcAmerica Cash Register Express | Retail Pro | Revel Systems iPad Point of Sale |
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| Square Register | Vend POS | ||
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Endpoint Security Solutions
| Endpoint security is one of the hottest topics among readers of Business Solutions, and for good reason. First, there’s a market need. Malicious code and threats are on the rise. While malware might have been a nuisance a decade ago, now it’s being used to hold systems ransom and gain access to sensitive information like personal records and credit card data. At the same time, the BYOD trend means there are more endpoints than ever creating potential threat entry points. Read more. | ||||
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| AVG Business |
Bitdefender |
F-Secure |
Symantec |
Webroot |
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