A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

newsagent software

Free training for newsagents

Tower Systems has announced new (free) online training opportunities for newsagents. Newsagents can access these live training from their home or business through any computer with broadband access. Voice content is over the phone line via a toll free number. The new courses on offer are:

Magazine Management 9am Jan. 22 at 9pm and Jan. 29 at 10am. This session will cover all aspects of magazine management; from Arrivals, Returns, Putaway Management and over/under supply. There will be plenty of time for questions.

Re-Ordering 2pm Jan. 22 at 2pm. Learn how to make the most of Tower Systems’ Retailer software’s advanced reordering functions. Learn how to create an order electronically, send it to suppliers, then once the stock is in have Retailer arrive it automatically without the need to enter it manually.

Business Discussion with Mark Fletcher Jan. 23 at 11am. This will start with a quick review of benchmark data from December 2007 and be followed by an open discussion about how people are innovating in their business. Our goal is to get newsagents sharing challenges and ideas so that, collectively, we can help each other to build better businesses.

New Owner Training Jan. 29 at 2pm. This is for people who have bought their newsagency in the last six months. It will provide new owners an overview of the Tower Systems software and its capabilities. We will cover all the things that new owners find challenging, from balancing registers to arriving stock. This session will have plenty of time for your questions. (Tower Systems also offers all new owners a free ful day of one-on-one training prior to take over.)

Each session will run for between 60 an 90 minutes depending on questions and discussion. You will need access to a computer connected to broadband and a voice phone line (for a toll free call).

Bookings are by email: bookings@towersystems.com.au.

0 likes
newsagent software

Newsagents embrace online training

The industry’s first ever online training session, announced earlier this week by Tower Systems, is full.  The free training session on Magazine Management will be held next Tuesday.   Tower expects to announce more dates for this session next week.  The goal is to help Tower Newsagents cut time spent managing magazines and improve commercial outcomes from the category.

If this innovative training is successful, newsagents will have access to a suite of training from the comfort of their home of newsagency office – saving time and travel costs.

0 likes
magazines

Online user meeting for newsagents

In addition to the free magazine management training event I blogged about earlier, Tower Systems has announced its first online user meeting.  This free forum connects newsagents using the Tower software along with some experts from within Tower.  Most of the meeting will be spent answering user queries – newsagents learn well from listening to questions others ask and taking on board the answers.

0 likes
About us

Online magazine management training

Tower Systems has announced the newsagency channel’s first ever online magazine management training session for Tuesday January 15. The session filled in no time. Using the latest web event hosting tools, newsagents will be able to participate without having to leave their own businesses. Connecting to the Internet for visual content and using the telephone (toll free) for audio, everyone gets to participate as if they are in a function room together.

More training sessions will follow including more on magazine management.

0 likes
About us

Comparing card companies

With more newsagents running cards from two or more card companies, it is helpful to be able to report on performance of each card supplier side-by-side and for any date range without producing multiple reports. The Supplier Comparison Report in the Tower Systems software does exactly this. While card companies produce their own reports, taking control in the business empowers us to better deal with pushy sales reps and drive faster credits and replacement of non-performing lines with new product.

This comparison rep0ort is not only for card companies. It also works in the magazine space – indeed, any category where you have multiple suppliers involved.

While it is important to trust suppliers, newsagents need to approach the relationship with suspicion and undertake their own reporting in-house. It’s easy. While I will look at supplier reports, I will trust reports I produce, like the supplier comparison report, more.

0 likes
Greeting Cards

Newsagency software advice updated

I have updated my advice for newsagents looking for a computer system. Any newsagent or soon-to-be newsagent will find it useful in guiding their choice in point of sale software.

Even though I own Tower Systems, this guide to newsagency software will stand rigorous assessment for fairness. The most important advice is to visit the software company you are considering buying from – there is no better way for you to assess whether they can serve your needs than by spending time in their offices and watching how they serve their customers. Stay a while and listen in of support calls. Such transparency can be invaluable.

0 likes
newsagent software

Newsagents rate software companies

The Australian Newsagents’ Federation invited newsagents using a computer system to respond how they rate the customer service experience. 91 responded. The ANF has published the results at their website including verbatim all comments registered by newsagents. The comments make for interesting reading as do the ratings.

I am thrilled to that out of five possible service levels, 67% of Tower newsagents gave us the highest rating, 15% rated us at the next highest level and 12.5% at the third highest level (acceptable). Our challenge is to improve our service so that in the next survey we rate even better.

As the biggest software supplier to newsagents we have more at stake. However, as newsagents, we understand every day the importance good software backed by excellent service. Thank you to all newsagents who participated.

0 likes
Customer Service

Newsagents embracing publisher offer

The offer of an interest free loan from the Herald & Weekly Times to Victorian newsagents to fund a move away from the POS Solutions DOS software has engaged many of the remaining 180 POS DOS users. The non-compliant POS DOS software has been holding back technology advances for newsagents for too long.

It will be interesting to see how News Ltd handles the same problem elsewhere. My estimate is that of the 700 POS Solutions newsagent users, around 40 are still using DOS. The Victorian move at least offers a model for consideration.

0 likes
newsagent software

Benchmarking project update

I spent a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne early this morning pouring over data from thirty newsagencies for our benchmark project – comparing November 2007 with November 2006. I am grateful to have the opportunity to review and compare department and category level sales data from so many newsagencies.

While a more thorough analysis is a week or so away, it is clear that November was a tough month for magazines. The average fall I am seeing in unit sales year on year for November is 9%. While there is a risk in comparing sales for one month, an analysis of the magazine category performance shows that the drop is not only being driven by the weeklies – which we know are down on last year based on recent circulation data.

Another learning which appears likely to emerge from the benchmark research is the diversity in balance across newsagencies. There are some dominated by one or two departments while and there are others with excellent balance across the departments. This is important for us to consider as we deal with more disruption brought about by technology distribution changes.

On a side issue, the newsagents who have implemented the MPA magazine categories in their businesses make benchmarking easier. We are going to contact those who have not to help them achieve this standard.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Moving magazines between newsagencies

The latest version of our Tower Systems software enables newsagents to run multiple newsagency locations from one server. Each newsagency can know what the other has in stock. It makes comparing performance easier as well as a bunch of management tasks.

The challenge for the industry and magazine distributors in particular is how we manage the movement of magazines between the stores. The Tower software can do it easily but the magazine distributors are not able, at their end, to track this movement.

I see it already between our Frankston and Forest Hill locations. A title slow in one location could be a sell out in the other. Using the multi store software I can, in an instant, account for the movement of the stock between businesses so my accounting is all taken care of. The only problem is the implications in the magazine supply model since they, still, only look at returns to determine sales.

With consolidation of distribution and retail newsagencies high on the agenda, this is an issue which needs to be worked through.

0 likes
magazines

Tower Systems strengthens support for newsagents

I am pleased to announce two new management appointments within Tower Systems which will benefit newsagents.

Gavin Williams has been promoted to the role of General Manager and joins our executive team of Norman Partington (Group Financial Controller) and myself (Managing Director). Gavin’s new role has a broad focus and carries senior management responsibility for – installation, training, support, development and admin. For the last six years he has managed our software development team and managed key projects within our business. Gavin joined Tower Systems ten years ago in a support role having worked at our newsagency on a part time basis while at university.

Jonathan Tay has been promoted to the role of Software Development Manager. Jonathan has been with Tower Systems for three years, serving as one of our most senior installation and training specialists. He has also played a key role in testing of updates. Jonathan joined us after successfully completing his Bachelor of Computing at Monash University. In this new role, Jonathan has responsibility for managing our design and development teams, product QA and change management.

Gavin and Jonathan are ideal candidates for their respective new roles. Their knowledge and skill extends our strategic management capabilities and will help us make significant advances in 2008.

I feel most fortunate that we have been able to fill two crucial roles from within the Tower business.

We are currently recruiting to fill the vacancy Jonathan’s promotion creates within our installation and training team.

0 likes
newsagent software

Perth Newsagent technogy open day

At the Duxton hotel in Perth, this coming Wednesday between 2pm and 5pm we’re hosting a Newsagent Open Day where you can see home delivery, magazine management and point of sale software. I’ll be there along with several members of the Tower Systems team. The next day we are hosting a User Meeting of newsagents in WA using Tower Systems software – as part of our commitment to being accountable to our customers. Book for either session here.

0 likes
Customer Service

Newsagents ripped off by cheap labels

I have experienced first-hand the cheap labels for magazines being sold for use with our Tower Systems software. These cheap labels cost more in time and don’t respect customers. At Tower are are careful about label choice. Our most recent experience with labels bought by someone else shows that the cheapest is not always the best.

0 likes
newsagent software

CityLink, Skybus and more added to eziPass

ep_logo.JPGeziPass, the new and free electronic voucher platform for newsagents got better overnight with then release of additional product. CityLink tollway passes, Skybus airport transfer tickets and Fishing Licences for Victorian and New South Wales have been added to the eziPass inventory. more products are on the way.

Newsagents can sell vouchers direct through the exclusive link in their Tower Systems point of sale software. A free stand alone version which any newsagent is welcome to use will be released in the next week.

Click here to access the eziPass sign up process.

We have created eziPass to provide newsagents with an easy to use platform through which phone recharge and other electronic voucher product can be sold. There is no long contract to sign and no complex hardware to install at your sales counter. Plus, on some products, margin is better.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Boys and their toys

hand_run_list.JPGWe hit on something when we created the first newspaper delivery run list for the Sony PSP device years ago. Now, we can display newspaper home delivery details on all manner of devices. The latest is the sexy htc touch phone. One of our sales team got his phone working with our home delivery run management software.

People we have shown like the look of this – despite what I consider to be small text. The bright screen would be a help early in the morning.

Since all our sales team have this new phone they’ll be equipped to show the facility off.

0 likes
newsagent software

Seductive benchmarking

Owning two newsagencies (Forest Hill and Frankston) and a shareholding in another (Watergardens) provides me with access to up to the minute intimate data about the businesses. This abundance of data from three different newsagencies is seductive and the learnings considerable.

Take magazines, we can see a category up in one store and flat or down in the others. We dig deeper and find out why and make some changes. Another example is diaries. In two stores we’re seeing excellent sales while the third is yet to get the diary story out. When they saw the data from the other two they actioned it right away.

Being able to easily compare across a common IT platform and using common department and category structure is fantastic.

I can see all three newsagencies significantly benefiting from access to the pool of data – the key is to not be seduced too deeply into analysis.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Emerging new IT standards

We are actively engaged with four key newsagent suppliers on technology enhancements which will evolve into new IT standards for newsagents. What is exciting about these exclusive projects is that the resulting new standards can be easily and quickly deployed across the network of 1,400 newsagents using the Tower software.

One enhancement which really excites me will drive a more commercially valuable magazine supply model – I am seeing a magazine distributor actively engaged in understanding each newsagent’s business in a way I have not seen before. To be exclusively engaged in this project an honor – I can’t wait for the outcome for all newsagents.

I expect we will see more newsagents involved in trials of new standards in a matter of weeks.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Newsagents welcome new phone recharge offer

We have received plenty of feedback over the last 24 hours since we launched eziPass, the direct from your point of sale mobile and calling card phone recharge service in association with Touch Networks. Knowing what products and services are coming down the line, I am sure that eziPass will be of interest to many newsagents. The eziPass website has more information including answers to many questions and the sign up forms.

0 likes
newsagency marketing

New Phone Recharge and Electronic Voucher Platform for Newsagents

ezipass.JPGNew technology launched today allows all newsagents to sell phone recharge and other electronic voucher products direct from their point-of-sale computer, without the need for a complex long-term contract.

Developed exclusively for newsagents by Tower Systems, eziPass works on computers with broadband internet access.

eziPass supplies the same Touch suite of products as offered by major banks and retailers. Excellent commission is provided – up to 33% extra commission on some mobile recharge products.

“Newsagents told us they wanted an alternative to the Bill Express / DialTime contract and a simpler, more robust, operation at the sales counter,” commented Mark Fletcher, Managing Director of Tower Systems.

“We only agreed to become involved if there was absolutely NO margin or commission for us. The last thing newsagents need is another middleman making money from what is already a slim-margin business.”

eziPass has initially been launched to existing Tower Systems’ customers. And within the coming weeks, Tower expects to provide a free copy of the eziPass software to all newsagents.

Vouchers for more than 30 telco products are part of the launch range. Tourist attraction tickets, flower deliveries, magazine subscriptions and tollway passes will be added in coming weeks.

“eziPass provides a low-risk, low-overhead option for newsagents considering whether to extend their Bill Express / DialTime contracts,” said Mark Fletcher. “There is no lease to pay, no long-term contract to sign and newsagent bank accounts are swept once a week – greatly assisting cash-flow.”


www.ezipass.com.au

Tower Systems was founded in 1981 by Mark Fletcher. Today, the company serves in excess of 1,400 newsagents nationally – more than 50% of all newsagents with a computer system. It wholly owns one newsagency and is a major shareholder in another.

Touch Networks Pty Ltd provides over 200 products and services and is available over EFTPOS terminals and retail point-of-sale systems.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Business round-table discussion invitation

I am hosting a series of business round-table discussions with newsagents starting next week. If you are interested in participating please email our bookings co-ordinator. Any newsagent wold be most welcome – regardless of the software being used.

The details are: Brisbane – Tuesday October 2 @ 10am; Sydney – Wednesday October 3 @ 10am; Melbourne – Tuesday October 9 @ 10am; Adelaide – Thursday October 11 @ 10am; Newcastle – Tuesday October 16 @ 10am; Perth – Wednesday October 17 @ 10am.

The session draws on years of working with newsagencies of all sizes and in all manner of locations and the business decisions data helps you navigate. We will also discuss how to use your shop to up-sell rather than the lazier approach they use in petrol stations.

0 likes
Customer Service

Another newsagent locked out, take care

I have been in Sydney today and talked with another newsagent locked out of his computer system – he has no access to his business data. This is the risk of buying software with an annual licence fee and of providing others the ability to connect to your business without appropriate controls.

Now it looks like they will have to go to court to get their data unlocked.

If you are concerned about access to your data being blocked by your software provider ask that they disable any link into your business.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Spinning newsagent IT standards

Bernard Zimmermann, Director of POS Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, posted the following to his blog:

Xchangeit sales data is to us both positive and negative.

It is bad that a significant number of our clients are not sending sales data! There is no technical problem, it is just a high percentage are either not bothering or deciding not to send the sales data. I intend to check on everyone of my relevant clients this week to find out why they are not sending data.

On the other hand, the good news is our sales data is extremely good. It has been described to me as the best. This is clearly an excellent result.

As I stated earlier according to my calculations we now have enough sites sending good sales data that magazine producers could send every day reliable estimated daily sales with just Pos Solutions clients.

That Xchangeit is not doing it now is hurting the entire industry. It should be a priority in the industry to send each one of these publishers free this data AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

This is a misleading post.

Magazine distributors and newspaper publishers will tell you that what data they get from from newsagents using POS Solutions software has not been good for years. If POS has sorted this out for all of their customers then good. If not, suppliers ought to be public in declaring lack of compliance.

For years suppliers have been quiet about elephants in the room – the IT companies letting newsagents down on helping newsagents meet basic IT standards.

As the owner of Tower Systems there is no doubt I am conflicted in the issue of which software is better – Tower Systems or POS Solutions. Newsagents, voting with their cheque book, say Tower Systems.

But this is not about Tower versus POS. It is about a whole channel using best practice software and business processes to ensure that newsagents are, collectively, as strong in terms as IT as our major competitors in the circulation product space – supermarkets, convenience and petrol. For newsagents, such as happened in Victoria recently, to wait two years for a software company to play catch up on standards is appalling. It holds the whole channel back. If we – suppliers, software companies and associations – all agree on standards then surely we ought to ensure we support them in a timely manner. The two year delay for a group of Victorian newsagents holds the whole channel back.

Newsagents don’t have time for spin – they want their software to work and their compliance with supplier IT standards to be assured.

POS Solutions’ lack of compliance to industry standards has been the elephant in the room at many industry meetings. In November last year, at a two day News Limited meeting in Melbourne which involved, among others, myself, Bernard Zimmermann, News Limited executives, the ANF and other software providors, the lack of adherence to current standards by hundreds of POS clients was a hot topic. I asked it be parked for private discussion between POS and News because of the difficulties it presented for POS in the relatively open forum.

For years the newsagent channel has had IT standards. It is time for all stakeholders to enforce them – for the good of all newsagents.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

IT news for newsagents

Click here to download a copy of the latest technology news for newsagents from my software company, Tower Systems. Software is emerging as a unifying force for newsagents – it’s the driver of compliance, gateway to supplier relationships and the means through which newsagents can more aggressively compete.

This is the era of data in newsagencies. Respect for good data = a successful newsagency.

Tower Systems serves in excess of 1,430 newsagents. Our nearest competitor has, by out estimation, around 700 newsagents as customers with two thirds of those running out of date DOS software which does not comply with supplier standards. By publishing IT news we are seeking to demonstrate there there is a better way to run your newsagency and enjoy the benefits of data compliance.

0 likes
newsagent software
Trending Articles

Fairfax changes approach to TV Guide, disrespects newsagents

Published on April 20, 2011

What do you think of the Powerball changes?

Published on February 16, 2018

IPS releases new magazine contracts

Published on June 21, 2011