Microsoft Retail Software Conference

A quick reminder that sales of Microsoft Dynamics RMS and HQ to new users ends nest year (2016) so please keep that in mind if you are thinking of purchasing RMS or HQ as point of sale software for your business or organization.

I just received communication that Retail Realm and Microsoft will be hosting a conference in Las Vegas, NV on April 24th to April 26th, 2014.  The conference is slated to be dedicated to just the Microsoft family of point of sale solutions (RMS Store Operations, HQ, Nex Gen RMS, POS 2009, and AX for Retail).  Hopefully this will finally clear up what the future holds for current Microsoft RMS/HQ/POS 2009 customers.

You can read more about the conference by clicking here: http://www.rrdisti.com/blog/why-you-should-attend-the-retail-realm-2014-conference

In addition, it will be critical for Microsoft to communicate how they plan to update current software users for the upcoming MasterCard unique terminal ID requirement (being enforced in 2014) and the EMV requirements (being enforced in Oct 2015).

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.

Microsoft RMS NexGen

A quick reminder that sales of Microsoft Dynamics RMS and HQ to new users ends next year (2016) so please keep that in mind if you are thinking of purchasing RMS or HQ as point of sale software for your business or organization.

Since I personally have nearly 500 customers using the Microsoft RMS Store Operations point of sale software (of which around 8 use RMS HQ as well), I have been really trying to stay on top of the new version of Microsoft RMS being released in late 2013 or early 2014.  The news has been somewhat muted but is still creating a lot of excitement since many folks have been waiting several years for a major revision to the Microsoft RMS Store Operations software.

There are still a lot of variables but here are some insights (subject to official word from Microsoft):

• Mobile (smart phone and tablets) solutions will be a part of RMS NexGen
• "Rules" will be used to provide consistency in the customer experience
• The product will still focus on the small and medium retail store market (basically stores with around $350,000 to $5,000,000 in annual gross sales per location)
• Integrated online shopping carts will be available

The other good news is that Microsoft has made it clear that they are still committed to the retail market. I'm sure that all of this is welcome news to the 30,000+ global users of Microsoft RMS Store Operations and somewhat un-welcomed news to the competition.

Note that free or low cost version upgrades will only be available to Microsoft RMS Store Operations users who are current on their software maintenance agreement so be sure to contact me or your Microsoft partner to see if you are current on maintenance.

I've worked with Microsoft RMS back to the time when the original program was QuickSell 2000 and QuickSell HQ (from Sales Management Systems).  It has been an interesting 14 years and it sounds like 2014 will be interesting as well.

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.