Bernard Zimmermann is demonstrating why POS Solutions, his software company, is losing customers to Tower Systems with his latest blog post. Zimmermann says we have blogged that our Eftpos link is new. I have not said that. Zimmermann, an avid reader of our blogs, would know that I have said the Eftpos link is not new. What is new is our decision to promote the link we have had since 2002 and a couple of additional banks now supported by the thirds party supplier: Westpac and NAB.
POS Solutions uses the same banking interface providor that we use.
POS Solutions is in trouble in my view. Take a look at our blog and the POS blog to see Zimmermann’s reaction to innovation. He is copying our posts about EDI, returns, Eftpos and, now, training videos. Zimmermann read my post about Tower releasing training videos and is saying he has had them for 15 years.
Newsagents expect a certain amount or argy bargy between software companies as they jostle for market share. What they do not want is dishonesty – like when POS told newsagents they had a multi million doollar data centre 7 or 8 years ago. It never existed. Or like when POS told newsagents they were EDI compliant – when they were not.
Tower Systems serves in excess of 1,400 newsagents. POS Solutions serves, by my estimation, 700. Zimmermann claims 1,100. But his company’s literature also claims 1,100 total customers. Take out 300 chemists, 100 other businesses and you can see how I reach my belief they have 700 newsagents.
POS Solutions has lost more than 150 newsagents to Tower Systems in just under two years. Newsagents have shifted to Tower Systems as a rejection of the POS software – in pursuit of greener pastures. I hope this is what Tower Systems provides.
I put an offer in writing to the two Directors of POS Solutions Australia Pty Ltd some months ago offering to acquire their business as I was tired of their poor standards pulling the newsagent channel down. The Directors rejected the offer as is their right. However, this does not help newsagents: at conferences and industry meetings the poor support and poor quality software from POS is the elephant in the room. Their inability to shift their 500 DOS users to Windows is especially damaging to newsagent prospects.
Tower Systems is pleased to be helping former POS Solutions users switch their businesses to Tower Systems and better software backed by better support.
I’d rather not have to write a post like this but I had to because of the spin Zimmermann has published.
Rereading the original post you say “We are pleased to have released this morning (via email to our customers) our new Eftpos interface”. This certainly implies to me that the eftpost module is brand new and not enhanced. If that is not what you meant then maybe you should reread your posts before publishing (and pick up some of the spelling mistakes while your at it).
There’s a strange irony, John, in pointing out the spelling errors of another, when your own command of the language is not up to scratch. Note that “spelling mistakes while your at it” should have been “while you’re at it”.
Mark, while you’re on the warpath of people stealing your blog content, you should try Jarryd Moore – he rips of yours, sometimes word-for-word, mate.
Love the blog (this one!), keep it up.
John, there are more posts than the one to which you refer. I have made it clear this is not our first eftpos link.
Johnny, I like Jarryd’s blog and find myself agreeing with much of what he writes. When he uses material from here he attributes. This is what the creative commons licence is all about.
Johnny, how nice of you to mention my blog.
While i should restrain myself and refraim from responding to your mindless banter – it is not really in my nature.
You’re obviously not well acquainted with the blogging medium. It is common practice to refer to other blogs and the material they use – in fact this is a large part of the blogging medium. I would take a look at “Technorati”- the site dedicates itself to how blogs interlink with each other.
If I find material on Mark’s, or anyone elses, blog that i wish to critically analyse or point out to the readers of my blog, i always attribute the content to it’s author. If i deliberately take content word-for-word i place the text in quotation marks or a blocked quotation – as to indicate they are not my words.
It is interesting that you criticise my blog, yet still appear to read it.