RITE Extends RITE Microsoft RMS Maintenance Program to all RMS Users

As many retailers using the Microsoft Dynamics RMS point of sale software have expressed interest in using the RMS software beyond the July 2020/2021 end of life date, RITE has extended their RITE RMS Maintenance Plan to be available for all retailers using the Microsoft Dynamics RMS point of sale software. This is a great way to continue receiving RMS support and is even available to retailers using RMS who are lapsed on their Microsoft Annual Maintenance Agreement (also known as BRAP or annual software maintenance).

With costs starting around $215/lane license if current on maintenance or around $430/lane if lapsed on maintenance, this is a great way to maintain RMS support.

RITE RMS Maintenance includes the following:

• Automatic weekly backups of the RMS database (daily backups are available for an additional charge)
• ESET Antivirus software on each POS computer
• Free clean up of the RMS database (re-indexing, removing un-used files, etc) to help speed up the RMS software and stay under any SQL database size limitations
• 100% discount against the up front license cost of the Cloud Retailer point of sale software (normally $500/lane license). Cloud Retailer is a direct replacement for Microsoft RMS and also works with the very popular Card Defender processing plug in for RMS making for an easier and less expensive transition to a new POS software program. Discount only applies to RMS users who are current on RITE RMS Maintenance and does not include Cloud Retailer hardware, training or related deployment costs)
• Access to our Minnesota and Idaho based support team for RMS support via "pay as you go" or pre-paid discounted blocks of support hours options.

The first steps are to get in touch with RITE to complete a Change of Partner form and obtain a quote based on your lane count and whether you are lapsed on Microsoft RMS Maintenance. Additional options for backups and paid technical support can be discussed at that time as well. 

You can reach the RITE team by calling 888-267-7483 or sales@rite.us. 

Microsoft Dynamics RMS/HQ Annual Maintenance: Renew or Not?

A topic of debate over the last couple of months has been whether it makes sense to keep paying for annual software maintenance for the Microsoft Dynamics RMS point of sale software (applies to HQ as well).

The Con List - reasons why RMS users have not been renewing their maintenance:

• No updates will be made available and support is limited via Microsoft
• There are no patches or hotfixes being added
• Full end of life for RMS and HQ is coming up quickly (2020 and 2021)
• I have no plans to migrate to a different POS program
• I have no plans to look at any of the POS programs that are replacing Microsoft RMS
• I plan on selling my business and letting the new owner worry about the POS hardware and software

The Pro List - reasons why RMS users have been renewing their maintenance:

• We want to take advantage of the license trade / discounts for the RMS replacement programs in the next year (we need to run the numbers as it may be cheaper in the long run to go ahead and lapse if you will be hanging on to RMS for several more years)
• We still need to be able to add lane and HQ store licenses
• We do take advantage of the support directly from Microsoft

My Advice:

There is no hard and fast rule here. I would say that it makes sense to stay on annual maintenance if you will be moving to Retail Management Hero or Cloud Retailer in the next couple of years (the discounts are larger that what the annual maintenance costs in most cases). If you just plan to keep using RMS as long as possible, and tend to use little to no support, then it probably makes more sense to save the $214/year per lane license towards a new POS system down the road. 

Same if you have no interest in any of the RMS replacement programs like Retail Management Hero and Cloud Retailer - set the monies aside for a new POS system.

Just keep in mind that once you are no longer on software maintenance, you lose the following:

• Ability to add lane and/or store licenses
• License key recovery or replacement (easy fix here is to have all of your licenses keys written down for future reference)
• Free support cases directly with Microsoft (which is nice but also limited to what Microsoft can/will support)
• Free license trade to Retail Management Hero or Cloud Retailer (this would be the biggest reason to stay on software maintenance).

Need some personalized advice or help calculating the long term costs? Please contact me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632.

Microsoft Dynamics Users - Check CustomerSource ASAP

Are you a Microsoft Dynamics customer? Are you paying an annual amount for software maintenance? Then you need to be logging in to CustomerSource at least annually to ensure that your annual software maintenance agreement (sometimes referred to as "BRAP") is being renewed with Microsoft.

This is to ensure that your payment is being processed correctly and also keeps your Dynamics Partner in check. I'm not going to comment further other than to say that errors can happen but I'm also a former retailer myself and intentional miss-use of funds paid by a retailer to a Dynamics Partner specifically for software maintenance renewals is not cool or ethical (or legal).

If you require assistance, please contact Microsoft at 888-477-7877.

If you are a Dynamics RMS/HQ, POS 2007, POS 2009, or POS 2.0 user, I may be able to assist you as well - I can be reached at 208-340-5632 or kevinantosh@gmail.com.