The newsagency involved contacted me and asked us not to talk in public about the case so I am now removing all the articles.

If you want to read the full 40 pages of the current judgment it is available now online.

I have organized new sections for our users for the automatic automation of newspapers. They deal with connect and HWT subscriptions.

These are available on our website.
 

News corp want all newsagents to send each week their subscription data which includes the stops and starts.

The information to do so is available now

If you have posbrowser please set this up ASAP.

I know that many of our clients will be affected as Labor advance on their policy on plastic bags. They have not decided yet whether they are going to phased them out or a levy put on them.

I know that many of our clients have found it extremely difficult to come up with an alternative although one newsagent supplier Kahoots is already advertising an alternative bag. Probably what will happen soon is that many retailers are going to have to decide either to pay more for bags or lose some sales. One things for sure overall the consumer is not going to pay for them.

A new study says that on average, more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. Why is that? Because users are tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out of ink, when they are not!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070618-study-inkjet-printers-are…

Almost everyone that comes to POS Solutions tells me we are Mr Fix IT. Certainly this year we did something right.

I would like to think it was the careful preparation and planning that we did for the Season and New Year break that paid off. This period we know from experience the situation changes. People often don’t know how to handle it. So problems start up. Unfortunately suppliers in the industry don’t help by vanishing now. We however did not allow ourselves to be sidetracked into other issues. I took detailed notes last year of what happened. Then well in advance I had some software changes done in both the DOS and windows to reduce some of the issues that came up. I also contacted the major newspapers to ask them for what was happening. We carefully made sure we had much documentation in place. We also went over the CRM reports for last year to identified newsagencies that had problems. From that we made a list of potential problem sites. We then contacted each of these sites personally. Then we explained to them exactly what was needed!

The result was a 45% drop in support calls compared to last year.

Clearly we had a big advantage this year as we planned well our business strategy. This planning showed up many possible problems and situations that we resolved before they even came into being. Since these plans are not cast in concrete and can be amended, next year I hope we do better.

Note having said all of this we did get badly caught with the Fairfax changing the dates at the last-minute. In the industry like newsagencies where so much can be planned this last-minute change is inexcusable. I think that newsagents should get at least a few weeks warning of any change. If this could be done we could write scripts for newsagents and automatically update our clients programs so they don’t have to do it.

There is an interesting article here in the dispute over commissions in the Herald about the new Victorian public transport smartcards.

NEWSAGENTS are refusing to sell the new public transport smartcard, saying the commission being offered by the State Government

....
Clayton Newsagency owner Simon Richards, a third-generation newsagent, said he told the TTA he would not be selling the ticket, despite his long history selling Metcard.
"I won't be taking up their offer," Mr Richards said.
"They are just making it economically unviable."

Simon Richards is right. We have been involved in this since Bill Express pulled out. Then we stated the proposed commissions offered were too low. A retailer needs at least 3% commission just to handle money that does not include anything else. So unless you are a tiny agent with the Transport Ticketing Authority doing say $400 a week than with this commission structure you will lose.

It is no wonder so few retailers have joined up. As what the article states are that "more than 100 retailers have already signed up to be agents for myki." When I spoke to them in October the only major retailer that interested was 7-11. 7-11 has about 366 outlets Australia wide. I would estimate that a quarter would be in Victoria. So almost no-one has signed up since I spoke to them. I don’t wonder why!

I think that if this goes ahead with the existing commission the only solution for newsagents who want metcards is to get a myki machine. This box then handles the tickets and the money. In exchange for looking after this box newsagents would get a fee. From my discussions with myki, I suspect on this they would agree.

It appears that POS solutions clients are lucky already this year.

Woodlands Newsagency sold a $1.4 million lotto ticket.

Pelican Waters Newsagency also a $1.4 million lotto ticket. The owner Bernie Pigg reported that the woman was shaking when she entered the store.

Then there is Willows Newsagency with a $1.6 million ticket.

Good on them!

Some newsagents have expressed concerns the variations for the newsagents have not credited to their clients’ accounts because their clients have not had a full week of deliveries. Before reversing these credits please check with the newspaper as often they do not issue the rebate as it is not a full week. That is why the variations are so designed.

I feel like the driver at the road here must have felt. All I want to do is make my clients live a bit easier by working out what is happening over the holiday season so I can give my clients clear and concise instructions on what to do. Is that such a big ask?

Attached below is the Christmas Reference Guide for information regarding Queensland Newspapers products over the holiday period including the New Year.

/blogs/pictures/Christmas_Guide_qld.PDF

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Just yesterday I was happy about the Australian Financial Reviews. This paper is a problem every year. I was determined that this year it would not be. So I made everyone make a special effort. Once told by Fairfax of what was happening with the Australian Financial Review, we tested a procedure for handling it. We then wrote out documentation on how to handle it. We then sent it off to our clients. I even got people to ring up people who mucked it up last year just so they would not call this year. We talked them though. It was clear sailing.

Today Fairfax announced that they are sincerely sorry but they have changed their minds. The sudden lateness of the announcement is breathtakingly appalling. Now we are trying to figure out a procedure to clear out the damage done as it is not easy to reverse what is done. It is a shame that all of us will not be able to charge Fairfax for this.

By now everyone should have received the documentation by email for handling of the bumper edition of the Australia Financial Review over the season break.

If not please let us know.

Category analysis in retail is when you group similar stock items together into categories so they can be compared against each other. It is the main retail management tool used today.

The idea is that many customers come into a shop with a certain category of product in mind for example they want a comic or a birthday card but they don't know exactly. They don't care who the supplier of the card is John Sands, Hallmark, Artwrap etc.

What you need to do is identify what the customer is looking for so you can satisfy them.

Once you do buy something they often will buy something else too.

That is all well and good but category analysis has been hampered by the lack of data. Since most of our clients have too large a range of stock to do the job themselves with the resources. Even putting this aside, it is very hard to do it since many products are not advertised by the retailer.

That is why they look at the suppliers to do it. Unfortunately too many suppliers have been unable or unwilling to supply these categories.

Still magazine suppliers did come together to put their products into category system called MPA. It was done originally for advertisers but it was snapped up by retailers too. Those that use it have found that their sales went up if only as it made the display more organized.

Following the success in the magazine companies, we have been attempting to reestablish this in the card industry. Since in many shops the cards are not integrated now, we think it would have a better effect here then what we have seen in magazine sections.

For this reason we have had numerous telephone calls, emails and meeting between us and many of the card companies in an attempt to get them all to use an integrated system too.

In the current integrated card category system, the cards are divided up into the following categories

A -Anniversary
B1-Special Birth
B2-Female
B3-Male
B4-Juvenile
B5-Birthday
BC-Birth
C -Convalescent or Get Well
E -Easter
EC-Engagement
FD-Father
GB–Gift Bags/Boxes
M -Greeting Card
MD-Mother
RB-Ribbon or Bow
S -Sympathy
ST–Stationery
V -Valentines
W -Wedding
WR–Wrapping Paper
XC-Calendar
XG-Xmas
XS-Christmas Special
-Others

The following card companies have now adopted this category system for their card range.

Artwrap
Browntrout
Card and paper house
Charity cards
Henderson Greetings Barcodes
John Sands
Katcards
Max Publishing
Simson Cards
Spirit publishing

So as you can see this project has made quite a lot of progress. Obviously, there are some that we would like to join. If you have card suppliers not on this list, please ask them why not?

For this and other supplier files, please visit here

Note if you are on POS DOS please reindex before importing the files.

Like any business organization these guys keep their little secrets. So it was interesting when Gordon & Gotch Australia Pty Limited and Horwitz Publications had an argument over the changes in return policy of magazines.

The dispute seems to be that once Gordon & Gotch Australia Pty Limited went away from checking everything to spot checks, Howitz became upset and complained the returns data became less accurate. Since large sums of money was at stake, ad they could not agree they went to teh courts.

This is all lucky for us as it makes interesting reading and gives us some answers to some questions we occasionally ask in the industry.

If you click here
http://tinyurl.com/3dbrxn

Do a search for SCHEDULE 1

You can see what Horwitz Publications are paying Gotch, a fee for sending each magazine. In 2004/2005-year it was $0.215 a copy. They also get a fee for collecting the returns of $0.075 for an unsold magazine. I was surprised how low these fees are. If you think about it for a company to do it for that price shows an efficient operation. Note there are obviously extras as further down you can see for example they get a bit extra if the magazines are not barcoded. Which is good as it encourages suppliers to use barcodes. Anyone who does not use barcodes in retail today should be punished.

There is a big issue in returns I noticed that I never thought of before as I read this document. It is the magazine producer in this case Horwitz Publications, are going to much trouble to make sure that unsold copies of magazines are destroyed. It makes much sense when you think about it. An unsold magazine is often a dangerous rival product to the current magazine.

However what I found particularly interesting is that supermarkets are not required to return copies if unsold! Why supermarkets and not newsagents in many states, I am not sure but I would be interested in finding out.

Another point I can see is that not all clients of Gordan and Gotch are required to send return forms unfortunately this appears not to be important in this dispute so no details were supplied other then it happens.

Still it appears that this round Gotch lost and I suspect it them a lot.

Enjoy reading it, I think you will find it interesting.

Bishops News & Stationery

We have just launched our brand new website!

Be sure to have a look, for all our latest specials and what’s new!

We will be updating the site on a regular basis.

Thanks

Steve Bishop

This is not POS Solution's problem but a problem for people who use other systems.

Anyway what we are seeing is to quote Josh Billings “There are people so addicted to exaggeration they can't tell the truth without lying.” So therefore I have put together some FAQ type questions to answer questions on what the HWT latest compliance requirement means.

Q: If I do not have a contract with HWT in Victoria am I affected?
A: No.

Q: If I do not do HWT deliveries am I affected?
A: No.

Q: What exactly is the problem that HWT sees that caused this issue?
A: HWT has a project which involves collecting and overseeing its subscribers, to complete this project they need the newsagents subscription data weekly. Many newsagents despite frequent requests by HWT have not been sending this data. HWT now feels the solution is an automated method using broadband to process and send the data.

Q: Are only DOS users affected?
A: No. My understanding is that any newsagency that is not sending subscription data automatically is effected. The ruling now is that newsagents must be sending this information automatically by the end of June 2008.

Q: What is HWT terms for those people that are effected?
A: My understanding is that until March 2008, HWT will offer any affected newsagency up to $10,000 interest free loan for 12 months to pay for anything to fix this problem. After March 2008, if they do not comply it would be nearly impossible to sell a newsagency as HWT will not approve the software at transfer. Then after June 2008, HWT intends to take action against newsagency using clauses in the existing contracts.

Q: Are only POS Solutions clients affected?
A: No. Although most of newsagents on the HWT list are POS Solution's clients there are at least two other software vendors substantially affected as well.

If you use one of the vendors which has clients affected maybe you should ask yourselves where will my software be in a few years if say lynx takes off.

Q: What does POS Solutions intend to do about this problem?
A: We intend to upgrade our software so users will have the feature that HWT require.

Q: Will I need to upgrade any extras?
A: There maybe some equipment cost as HWT requirements include broadband. For this we would suggest a computer with at least Windows 2000. Although we have not done any tests we expect that for many Bill Expresses broadband should do. This is free.

For some old computers systems we may need to do a site inspection to see what is required.

Q: I am affected but I am not a POS Solutions client what will happen to me?
A: You need to get a new system. From what I have been told there will be no easy solution for you.

As I stated before this is not POS Solution's clients' problem but a problem for people on other systems.

Having said that I would like to invite you to look at our software and find out why I believe it is the best on the market.

An information sheet is available here.
/blogs/pictures/DOSTOBROWSERFREE1007.pdf

If you did not want to go windows then we could supply you with an approved DOS system too. One that is I believe the second only to posbrowser in power and speed. It can and does handle a newsagency with extremely fast response rates of ten cash registers, a 1000 home deliveries and 50 subagents, with more analysis and reports that you have ever seen.

Plus we are now the only ones that can provide you with an upgrade path from DOS to windows if in the future you were forced or just decided to upgrade to windows.

For quiet some time we have had requests for a status bar when printing round cards instead of those few scary moments waiting to see if your rounds are going to print properly. You know what I mean, in the past when you clicked on print rounds you had to wait for them to appear on screen without any indication of what the computer was doing. This led a lot of people to believe that nothing was happening and Pos browser had crashed. This thought was always reinforced by the fact that while waiting for the rounds to print the rest of Pos browser was not accessible. Now when you click on print rounds you will find a clear display of exactly what the system is doing so you know that things are running smoothly while the system calculates the rounds.

Also you will notice that they run much faster.

If you don't have this new feature yet make sure your automatic updates are working by checking the program updates tab on the welcome document. If they are not please contact pos support for help with getting things going again.

Regards
Paul

NEWS CORP in Victoria now state that

The over-riding requirement for newsagents is that they must be able to transmit home delivery files automatically to HWT each week by the end of the 07/08 financial year

What this means is that from the end of June 1008 customer subscription data must be sent to HWT using an automatic facility every week in the new formats!

Our windows version already has this in place.

However since newsagents with DOS cannot do this now, to make this happen if you are such a newsagent with a contract in Victoria with NEWS CORP, NEWS CORP will give you an interest free loan. This amount can be up to $10,000 to upgrade your computer system by the end of March 2008. Included in this $10,000 can be such items as software, data conversion, computers, modem, broadband, software agreements and training. All are included. Whatever is needed to allow this to happen!

This is a fantastic offer. Motivated because everyone realizes that you cannot just dump people.

So for our DOS users we will be releasing in late February, a DOS version WHIZ that will have this function. As HWT insist on an Internet broadband in the shop, the minimum specification for WHIZ is windows 2000 although we prefer XP.

One warning WHIZ may need a trained engineer to come out on site to set it up.

We will not be supporting WHIZ on early operating system of windows for example Windows 98 or 95 or DOS operating systems. If you want to use some others for example Linux or freeDOS I would be interested as a theoretical exercise although I suspect that HWT will be reluctant to support such operating systems. So perhap run it though HWT first.

Also by the nature of the automatic facility, HWT will know instantly who is not doing this so although there is a lovely carrot there is a stick as well. My understanding is that after March 2008, the $10,000 offer is closed. Then NEWS CORP will state at any proposed newsagency transfer the software is not satisfactory if it does not have this automated facility. After June 2008, NEWS CORP intends to take action against newsagents with old software using penalty clauses in the existing contracts.

If you wish to discuss this further to discuss this further. Ring up our Head Office on (03) 95977222 and ask for me quoting "NEWS CORP $10,000 offer"

It is always very special when people send in such letters. We certainly appreciate them.

Michael Varga - CEO
POS Solutions
23 Tuck Street
Moorabbin

Dear Michael,

Recently Beaufort News and Tattslotto upgraded the newsagency computer system from DOS to POS Browser and Windows XP.

Prior to the upgrade we considered the following:

Improved efficiencies within the business
Service 24/7
Price - purchase and installation
Data transfer from old to new system
Features of POS browser
Tailor made to suit our own business
Management of the papers, magazines and stock
Productivity improvements - reduction of labour costs

After considering all of the above, we found that POS Solutions met these needs and we are extremely happy with our upgrade.

We are a small country Newsagency, operated by a husband and wife partnership, with minimal part time staff. Since the upgrade, the overall day to day operations of the business have been simplified.

We are extremely satisfied with the total installation of POS Browser. Should Newsagents want to upgrade or change their system we would highly recommend POS Solutions as their service and program is exceptional.

Regards,

Jim and Mary Cox
Beaufort Newsagency
Beaufort