POS and EMV - Questions You Should be Asking Now

EMV compliance is less that one year away so I've been keeping tabs on which companies and which point of sale solutions have announced how they plan to upgrade their point of sale systems to work with EMV compatible hardware.  So far, only Bindo Point of Sale (www.bindopos.com) is offering EMV compatible hardware.

Square, which is popular with very small businesses (under $60,000/year in gross sales), does have a sign up form for those using Square as well as some general information on EMV. No word yet on whether the new EMV hardware will be free or will have to be purchased.  Here is a link to the the Square sign up form to be notified when EMV hardware for Square will become available: https://squareup.com/emv

As a side note, anyone thinking about purchasing a point of sale system should be asking about EMV. It makes no sense to purchase a point of sale system now and then have to spend more money in 2015 for EMV hardware.  If the place that you are working with doesn't have a solid answer then that is a major warning sign that their solution may not be the best solution for you and your business or organization.

All point of sale companies should be able to tell you the following regarding their point of sale systems and EMV:

• Will a software/app update be required and will there be any costs?
• When will any EMV software/app updates be available?
• Which EMV products (ie. readers or terminals by name and model number) will the software/app work with?
• When will the hardware be available?
• What will be the hardware costs?
• Are there any other costs (ie. labor to help with the upgrade or changing my merchant account information)?
• Will I still be able to use my existing merchant account?

Again, if you can't get a definitive answer for the above questions, then you may want to talk to a point of sale company that can provide you with the answers.

Please visit my contact page for information on how to reach me.

Pains and Gains Data - Introducing Gormim

Some of the newer mobile (and even older computer-based) point of sale solutions don't offer a lot of detailed reporting options leaving some users with limited information. A new company, Gormim, has come up with a way to provide more detailed information to help identify different sets of data in an easy to view dashboard format.

I had a chance to meet with Gormim and there are several things that are noteworthy:

1. This is a solution that can be added to multiple different types of POS solutions 
2. Gormim actually goes beyond basic information like daily sales and average sale amount to show you, in an easy to view format, "pains" and "gains" information. This pains and gains information helps the store leadership quickly specific areas of strengths and weaknesses within the store without having to run multiple reports.
3. Gormim has both a free version and a more advanced version with a low monthly fee

Gormim is also interested in talking to multi-location retail stores to see what sort of data their current point of sale system isn't providing.

You can learn more about Gormim by visiting http://www.gormim.com/

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 (I am on Mountain Time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com. There is also a contact form to the right that can be used to reach me.