25 years ago, before the personal computer was on everyone's desk
when
we sold accounting solutions for customers they were required to go
to
a formal training class that was 8 hours a day and 5 days long. This
training class was designed to give the student enough knowledge to
create the chart of accounts and begin using the software.
Installing and setting up the software took another trained
technician
a day or 2 to get it up and running.
Today, you can go to almost any store selling software and buy an
accounting software program that is more powerful than the 25 year
old
package and installs itself. Within a matter of minutes the user of
today is answering some questions about their business and within an
hour can be using the software with full access to as much training
as
they need.
The difference is staggering but real. Accounting software has
become
a self install so what about point of sale software?
The traditional brands of point of sale software have dealers. These
dealers have invested large sums of money to build their businesses
and want protection and exclusivity. They desire a protected
territory, free from competition. In many ways this is like a
franchise where the franchisee has a protected territory, free from
identical brands from opening up and doing business.
The traditional brands keep their software proprietary to help
protect
their dealer networks. This means that only a trained technician can
install and maintain the software. In the mind of the local dealer
this helps maintain their exclusive status as the only company that
knows enough about the software and keeps competition out.
Unfortunately for you, that forces you to have to do business with
them in order to maintain your point of sale system.
Oh, how things are changing.
There are now several point of sale packages that are truly self-
install and provide free technical assistance. Some even have
websites dedicated to training you how to install and maintain your
own system.
These software packages have similar feature sets to the traditional
brands and in most cases look better, perform better and are priced
much less. Not only can you save on the software, by doing the
installation yourself you are also going to see a savings of $3,000 -
$5,000 in training costs.
Interested?
Self-install and self-maintain point of sale systems are a reality.
The traditional brands know this and it is eating away at their
profits.
I was contacted this week by one of these traditional dealers who is
seeing the future of the point of sale industry as more of a do-it-
yourself installation for all types of businesses. He sees the role
of the traditional dealer****p changing with this trend of slowly
dying
away.
Not only do I agree, I have already made changes to help in the move
to do-it-yourself or self-install point of sale.
My POS
www.myposterminal.com
www.myposprinter.com
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