Communication is King
In the last eleven months since the formation of Retail Pro International LLC we have done an exemplary job of putting Retail Pro on a firm, stable, financial footing. We have made the company profitable and cash flow positive while at the same time growing and investing. We have spent tireless hours on improving many of our internal procedures having to do with developing our software products, testing our products and making them simpler to install and support. We have paid attention to making our product delivery deadlines, while producing much more stable, trustworthy releases. We have delivered on all the areas we committed to improving eleven months ago. That being said, I must confess that the one area that our partners and our clients agree we have not excelled at is frequent and meaningful communication.
We agree; we have not focused on communication with the intensity that we have pursued our other priorities. It just goes to show you how very hard it is to execute perfectly on an endeavor of this scale. However, it is never too late to remedy this type of oversight, so this charter issue of the CEO Corner is dedicated to taking the first step of many to ensure that RPI is keeping all its partners and clients informed and excited about the work we are doing. Below is a list of the many products and services we have been investing our resources in delivering. Some were recently brought to market and others will come to market in the near future. They are in no particular order, and I am proud to have sponsored many of these projects out of the vision I have for the future of RPI. More detail will be provided on all these future offerings, for now I want everyone to have a glimpse of what we are working on:
- V9.2r3 - the latest V9 release filled with hundreds of useful improvements
- Enhancements to the RPI BI (business intelligence) Product for V9 and V8
- V8.6 enhanced promotions module - a valuable tool for these retail times
- V8.x - another V8 release will be announced to thank and reward our V8 clients on Software Assurance
- RPI EFT Link - PCI compliance for North American retailers coming in 60 days or less
- A new RPI App Market will allow the 100's of plug-ins developed by the RPI community to be marketed to all clients
- V9 RPI e-commerce (web store) available Q3 2010
- Multi-channel marketing module (for RPI web store)- This will be exciting and new
- MS Windows 7 compatibility for V9 and V8
- Universal Accounting link for V9 and V8 (supporting Quickbooks, BusinessWorks, and MAS90)
- Reporting enhancements in V9- coming later this month
- October 2010 Partner conference in Orlando, Florida
- October 2010 VIP client conference in Orlando, Florida
- Next V9 release, with Customer Loyalty module, Sub-location management and enhanced Promotions capabilities in 2010
- ARUBA - our next generation product is proceeding nicely. A Thin Client/Browser-based, modular, database independent system allowing centralized or decentralized topology.
As I hope you can see from the above list, we have been busy, but going forward we will never be too busy to communicate. Along with all the above you will see a new product Roadmap released by development before the end of June. This will give more detail on many of the above release features and new, more finite timelines for delivery. We have also started a RPI branding and marketing campaign and placed our first advertisements in industry magazine, look for more of this over the summer months. Thanks for listening.
Sincerely,
Kerry Lemos
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