My Point of Sale Company or Provider has Been Sold, Bought Out, Acquired - What Do I Do?

One of the things that I have come across from working in the point of sale industry over the last 14 years is that companies do merge, go out of business, or are acquired by other companies. The biggest events that I can remember is when Sales Management Systems (QuickSell 2000, QuickSell HQ, and QuickSell Commerce) was acquired by Microsoft, Clover being acquired by First Data Corp, and DirectPOS selling off their customer list to other companies.

While this can't always be prevented or predicted, here are some things to ask or plan for in case this happens to you. Note that this information applies to both the company that you purchased your point of sale solutions from as well as the company that actually developed the point of sale software or app that you are using.

• Always make sure that you always have full access to your customer, inventory, and vendor information in case you need to switch point of sale programs
• Ask what will be happening related to support and related services
• Have a contingency plan in case you need to switch point of sale programs
• Find out the timeline for when things will be changing
• (if you are being switched to a new company/partner/dealer) Look at references and reviews for the new company
• Be aggressive in obtaining any information that you can find (don't wait and see what will happen)
• Keep running your business!
• Talk to the manufacture, if possible, to see what all your options might be
• Don't let yourself be talked into having to purchase additional services or products
• Talk to other customers in the same situation - you may be able to band together to look at all possible options
• Don't follow blindly - again, check all your options 

This is not a complete list so please do comment or email me (kevinantosh@gmail.com) your own personal experiences and suggestions.

I know that I would have told customers to avoid One Step Retail Solutions (when DirectPOS sold their customer base to One Step Retail Solutions back in September of 2013) if I had known how poorly the customers would be treated by One Step Retail Solutions.  In many cases, you can choose who supports your point of sale system and can not be forced into choosing one company over another.