I did an article for our DOS newsletter on Newsagency software which did strike a cord with a fair number of people so I decided to rephrase it slightly and put it in our blog site.
We go to meet newsagents, suppliers and key industry players all the time. We are both the most progressive in the meeting and the most backward. On those days you feel you are crashing your head against the wall about Newsagency software.
Let me be clear we have as strong interest in the Newsagency industry as you do. We want newsagents to be successful. We want suppliers genuinely to partner with newsagents. We want suppliers to provide electronic invoice data and newsagents to have the capacity to send sales history like what happens in many other industries. Because we know it is necessary.
The reality is we do have a terrific DOS system. It is better then most window systems on the market for the same role. How do I know, because we have converted over newsagents with others windows systems to our DOS system! But the reality is that it is second-rate. Many of these changes done for you now is bluntly good money after bad, what you are doing is paying to keep a horse and buggy going in an age of motor cars.
The other issue is DOS needs programmers to look after it. We used to have five programmers on the DOS version. About a two-year ago it went down to two part-time programmers. Now we don’t have enough paid software adjustments coming into the DOS system to justify even that. Mind you when we did advertise for a DOS then we got not one response. They are now almost impossible to find. So now there is only me and I don’t have enough time to do it even for the ones that people have agreed to pay.
Interestingly many suppliers make it clear that they don't care less about technology in newsagencies. They have the technology and they know what is happening better then you do in their industry. They know and you don’t, that is good for them. They will have fewer newsagents sending back product, rejecting product and querying product.
Now imagine you had
1% better sales how much potential sales slip through your fingers now
1% less computer work as run sheets, backup, reindexes all automatically
1% less dead stock though better and more detailed reports
1% better stock ordering though more information
1% better customer service for example old customer and subagents statements with full detail on demand
1% less computer work as automatic run sheets there is no doing reindexes, automatic repairs, and automatic updates
Etc etc etc
If does not take many for these 1% to start adding up to real money and time savings.
In other industry technology is where everything is happening at the moment. It is happening in newsagencies too but not where you are.
It is time to consider technology in your business. Attached is a brochure for the upgrade for Newsagency software – posbrowser for you to please consider.
/blogs/pictures//POSupgrade.pdf
