Yesterday, Wishpond & Retail Pro announced a strategic partnership, which enables retailers to instantly import product inventory from their Retail Pro retail management systems into Wishpond’s RetailConnect and publish it in search engines, social networks and mobile applications.

Wishpond’s CEO, Ali Tajsekandar was quoted as saying, “Retail Pro customers will now be able to reach more local shoppers and significantly increase in-store sales without the cost and complexity that makes product inventory publishing very challenging for small retailers. This is a huge win for local retailers, who are the backbone of the North American economy.”

“In a highly competitive market, having an easy and effective way to market online to local consumers is critical for all of our merchants,” said Kerry Lemos, Retail Pro CEO. “By partnering with Wishpond, we’re giving merchants an instant online marketing tool they can use with their POS system to instantly promote their products and deals to local shoppers. This is absolutely a game changer for merchants.”

How it Works:

Merchants make a request by contacting sales@wishpond.com
They will automatically receive instructions, a download link and instructions on how to install the Wishpond RetailConnect plug-in. Once the plug-in is installed, the retailers Point of Sale system will automatically “push” product inventory data to Wishpond and keep it synchronized with no additional effort. Retailers can sign in to the Wishpond merchant centre to manage their products and publish their product inventory to Facebook (as a Facebook Storefront), push it to Google Product Search or to mobile applications instantly.

Through this strategic partnership, Retail Pro is creating strong differentiation from its competitors and embracing the new ways retailers need to market their products online. Tajsekandar added “Retail Pro is one of the fastest growing and most progressive Point of Sale companies in the world and we are excited about this strategic alliance. It’s a win four times over: for retailers, local shoppers, Retail Pro and Wishpond.”

Retail Pro is pleased to announce our new Saudi Arabian Business Partner- Printechs.  Printechs is the latest to join an impressive portfolio of Retail Pro Business Partners from this region, helping to assure our stronghold in the Middle Eastern retail technology arena, and exceptional customer service to the retailers we serve.

Richard Kolodynski, VP of EMEA/ASIA at Retail Pro International commented “We are delighted to welcome Printechs on board for what is an exciting dynamic time for Retail Pro in the Middle East.  I’m confident that Printechs with their impressive credentials will compliment the partners already in this region and undoubtedly play a critical role in the continued support and expansion of the Retail Pro customer base”.

Retail Pro partner network continues to grow and this new alliance is part of Retail Pro’s strategic focus on the development and further expansion of the global Business Partner network.  Printechs joins a worldwide system of highly skilled retail technology professionals in over 40 countries who understand the retailing industry and are able to provide Retail Pro customers with the highest level of support and service. It’s a partnership that works, maintaining Retail Pro’s international reputation as the software supplier that provides a complete global retail system.

Join us in congratulating our new Business Partner, Printechs

This week, Integrated Retail, a long-term Retail Pro business partner in Asia, has been recognized as one of the top 25 technology solution providers for the retail and consumer goods industries by the Retailer magazine, a leading retail trade publication in India.

As part of the qualification process, the Retailer Magazine carried out customer surveys and case studies, targeting key benefits of successful technology solutions for retailers, like measurable reduction in inventory, increase in sales and customer retention.

To Integrated Retail the recognition comes as a result of their distinguished track record of servicing over 150 chain retail clients with more than 3200 stores across Asia, by offering comprehensive retail technology services, enabling businesses to run more efficiently and profitably.

Vi-Ga, a leading footwear chain retailer, participated in the qualifying case study for the Retailer Magazine awards and offered real-life commentary on the Retail Pro implementation delivered to them by Integrated Retail.   The managing Director of Vi-Ga, commented that “Integrated Retail and Retail Pro have helped us keep our stocks in the check and offer us full audit trails and controls for each aspect of our retail business: stocks, point of sale, staff productivity, stock transfers, mark-downs, etc.”

Join us in congratulating Integrated Retail for this great service benchmark.

You can find the original article by Dave Watson published in India’s Retailer Magazine here.

Retail Pro is pleased to announce the appointment of Bevin Manian as Regional Director for the Middle East region, to be based in the regional office of Retail Pro International in Dubai, UAE.

With a key focus on building brand equity in these regions by creating profitable and long lasting relationships with the regional Business Partners, and delivering on Retail Pro’s service standards, Bevin will head the hub operation for Middle East, India and South East Asia.

Bevin brings with him a wealth of knowledge with over 14 years of experience in the retail industry and the Middle East, as well as an in-depth understanding of how retail operations are run. This coupled with Enterprise Application experience, management skills and knowledge of local business practices and cultural nuances is a formidable combination.

Richard Kolodynski, VP of EMEA/ASIA at Retail Pro said: “I am delighted to welcome Bevin on board. He brings with him the experience to drive forward the business, cement and build upon the extraordinary growth we are already experiencing within these regions.”

This appointment of the Regional Director for the mentioned regions solidifies Retail Pro’s growth strategy and expansion in the Middle East market and is a clear sign of Retail Pro’s commitment to this area.

Kerry Lemos, CE0 of Retail Pro International commented that “Retail Pro already has a well-established business partner network and a large customer base in the Middle East, India and South East Asia regions.  Bevin’s tenure in this newly introduced role is part of on-going commitment to our world-wide network of Business Partners, and dedication to our customers.”

End-of-year was a busy season for the Retail Pro team in the Middle East.  After much planning and preparation, we are pleased to announce the opening of a representative office in Dubai, UAE in conjunction with our Middle East distribution partners, Philip Toledo Middle East  (PTL).

The office is located in the Oracle building in Dubai’s Internet City, a prestigious location and a visible sign of RPI’s and PTL’s commitment to customers and prospects alike.

Retail Pro International has a long history in the region with over 400 customers, including the Jawad Group  in Bahrain with over 1200 licences, Al Futtaim, Al Sawani, Majid Al Futtaim, Al Ghurair and many others positioning Retail Pro as a market leader.

Philip Toledo LTD, with their headquarters on the strategically located Island of Malta, have been RPI partners for well over 10 years with an enviable reputation for quality and commitment to the highest levels of customer service reflected in their ISO certification.

The local operation currently includes both expatriate and local staff, whilst the regional headquarters for Retail Pro Middle East, Africa and SE Asia business unit have been moved from the UK to Dubai.

A key role for the joint venture will be the identification and recruitment of country-specific resellers, with the first, Dimension Consulting UAE, signed within the first month of operations. The office is currently actively recruiting additional Business Partners specifically for Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar, as well as Jordan and Syria.

Richard Kolodynski, Vice President for the region, commented, “I believe this strategic move reflects not only our dominant position in the Gulf, but is a sign of our confidence and commitment to the region. Our customers demand and expect the highest levels of service and support for what are undoubtedly mission critical applications”

Kerry Lemos, Retail Pro International CEO continued, “We are happy to see PTL expand on their proven track record of success into the Middle East and grow their excellent service of the retail industry.”

David Catania, CEO of Retail Pro’s distribution partners Philip Toledo Middle East reflected on the partnership by saying, ”In our very first month of operations, we were truly amazed by the size and quality of the Retail Pro customer base which includes some of the biggest users worldwide.  Our commitment to excellence is highlighted by the strength of our technical and support teams and we look forward to growing our presence with the addition of reseller partners to sell and service Retail Pro in their own countries.”

In a world of social media, retailers are focused on branding and customer experience more than ever. Brands are judged and evaluated every step of the way, with consumers pledging loyalty to brands, whose values align with their own.  Complete transparency makes retailers focus not just on what they deliver, but also how they do it, and sustainability of their practices.  Retail Pro is addressing these emerging trends with several innovative platforms in 2011. eReceipts is one example that is seeing a great response from both retailers and consumers.  

 Retail Pro has partnered with Seamless Receipts to help retailers deliver electronic receipts to customers without paper waste or BPA, a toxic chemical found in many paper receipts.  In addition to being a green and sustainable alternative to the traditional receipt, eReceipts also allows retailers to include personalized promotions and branded communications to customers, engaging the consumer beyond the initial purchase.

 “We are excited to give retailers a way to embrace the concept of sustainability and be on the front lines of green initiatives in today’s arena of responsible retailing,” says Alexandra Frith, Retail Pro’s Marketing Manager.

The marketing and sustainability benefits of eReceipts are clear and the way retailers implement eReceipts will be critical to their customer relationships.  “We found that retailers want 2 things,” says Keith Cowing, Seamless Receipts’ CEO, “a simple solution that cashiers and customers will instantly understand, and full control over their branding and customer engagement.  We built our platform to deliver those key aspects.”

eReceipts are seeing a great response from retailers and consumers and are expected to be increasingly common in coming years. The Seamless Receipts plug-in for Retail Pro is currently available via the Retail Pro App Market at www.retailpro.com/appmarket.  The eReceipts platform will also come bundled with future versions of Retail Pro, demonstrating Retail Pro’s constant commitment to innovation, sustainability, and the demands of today’s retail marketplace.

Equipment failure, data corruption, viruses, security threats, and even natural disasters all represent potential threats, or risks, to one of a retailers most valuable assets… their data.

One of the most important exercises any retailer, small or large, can perform is to develop and maintain a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan. Since it does no good to begin planning after a disaster has occurred,  it’s essential that you give this exercise a high priority, and that all of your processes and procedures are in place prior to any need for data, systems, or facilities recovery.

While a comprehensive discussion about Disaster Recovery is beyond the scope of this blog (volumes have been written on the subject), we can discuss some of the most critical elements that a small retailer, without the resources of an IT staff, can do right now to avoid data loss and disaster.

Obviously, your data is vital to your Retail business. Your Inventory, customer lists, accounting information, applications, and most everything you need to run your business is all stored as data on your server and workstation hard drives.  How important is this data to you? If you answered, “very important”, then at a minimum you should have:

• RAID configured disks
• Daily backups to tape or other media
• Offsite Storage for backups
• Recovery Testing and validation

RAID Configured Disks

RAID is a technology that involves the use of multiple hard drives configured in an array, that appear as one large single drive in order to improve disk performance, increase storage capacity, and improve fault tolerance and server availability by allowing for a single hard drive failure (sometimes more) without data loss or the need to recover data from backup. With the use of hot-standby and hot-swap technologies, many hard drive failures can be recovered from completely without any server downtime.

Various RAID technologies have been developed for performance improvements and fault tolerance, including RAID1, RAID5, RAID10, RAID50, RAID0+1, and others. RAID can provide low-to-moderate cost, real time data redundancy, and represents an essential step in providing fault tolerance for your servers and data. Two relatively low cost RAID implementations that provide a good degree of data redundancy, fault tolerance, and server availability are RAID1 and RAID5.

RAID1 (data mirroring): data is written identically to two or more disks. The array provides fault tolerance and server availability as long as any one of the disks in the array remains operational.

RAID5 (data striping with parity): data is divided up into blocks and the blocks are written across all drives simultaneously (striped) for faster performance. A parity stripe is calculated and written to the disks allowing for the recovery of data should any one disk in the array fail.

There are many other RAID solutions available that provide additional benefits at increased cost, but if your business’s critical data is not currently residing on a minimum of a RAID1 or RAID5 storage subsystem, you need to take immediate action to ensure that it does.

Daily Backups to Tape or Other Media

Even though your data may be sitting on a RAID storage subsystem, you need to take data protection and disaster/recovery planning to the next level by ensuring that your data is backed up to tape, another disk, optical media (CD, DVD, Blu-ray), copied to the cloud, etc. Although RAID provides fault tolerance against hard drive failure it cannot protect against deleted files, a corrupt database, a computer virus, or a natural disaster that destroys hardware and the data that resides on it.

A tape backup strategy that backups the entire disk contents, including the operating system, applications, and application data is critical to the recoverability of any business’s operations in the event of disaster.  This should allow for the recovery of the entire server(s).

Another approach to recovering an entire server is to ensure you retain your operating system installation disks, retain access to all your application installation files, retain all installation key codes, and perform regular, scheduled backups of your application data. In the event a server needs to be rebuilt, you can install the operating system, applications, and restore the data. However, this approach requires longer recovery time and significantly more work.

Yet another approach to backing up a server is to periodically create images of your servers using one of the many different ‘disk imaging’ software solutions on the market, and conducting regularly scheduled backups of your application data.

If your application has a built-in backup utility, use it for backing up the application data. Not all data is recoverable simply because you’ve backed up data files. Database applications utilizing relational databases store their information in a series of data files and transaction logs. The application’s backup utility will commit transaction log files to the database prior to creating the backup, ensuring the integrity of the backup. You will need to utilize a backup utility that came with the application, or a backup utility provided by a 3^rd party provider, to properly backup and restore relational database application data.

Offsite Storage for Backups

To effectively guard against any disaster, you should not store your backup tapes in the same facility where your computer systems reside. Loss of the facility, or loss of access to the facility, may result in 100% data loss. There are many commercial solutions available for storing your backup media. Things to consider are:

Proximity to Business Location: keep the data close to allow for quick delivery, but not so close that the storage facility can be part of the same natural disaster.

Physical Security:  any 3^rd party data storage provider should have a high degree of control over who enters and has access to their facilities.

Security during Transit: any 3^rd party provider should have measures for ensuring the security of the data while in transit.

Password protection and encryption technologies can also be implemented to ensure data integrity while the backup media is offsite.

Recovery Testing and Validation

Testing backup recovery is the only way to ensure that backups are working and will be available to you should you need them. Procedures for recovery of systems and application data need to be tested and documented to ensure they work properly and to provide the training necessary to perform recovery when needed.

Regular review and validation that backups are successful also needs to occur. It’s not sufficient to assign the task of swapping tapes to an employee. The Backup utility should be reviewed regularly to ensure that backup jobs are being completed and that the data actually resides on the backup media. More than once, I have witnessed businesses that have assigned the duty of swapping tapes to an employee without regular, scheduled reviews that the backup jobs were actually running properly, only to find out that there was no data available for recovery when it was needed.

Summary

Every business, large or small, is dependent upon their servers and application data for continued operations. Large companies have IT staffing to ensure the integrity and availability of their data. Small business owners must take on this added responsibility themselves or through the use of outside vendors. Either way, it is essential that the disaster recovery plan provides for fault tolerance, data redundancy, and has a solid backup strategy with proven recoverability and secure off-site storage of critical data.

In future blog posts, I will dig deeper into various Disaster Recovery concepts.

Retail Pro’s flagship retail management software product, Version 9.2, extends its global leadership as both a store management and point of sale solution, combined with multi-national headquarters management, merchandising, inventory management, customer relationship and consolidation capabilities.  While the robust feature set in Retail Pro is well established, Retail Pro International, LLC. continues to invest heavily in R&D as evidenced in their latest release: R3.

Retail Pro Version 9.2 R3 enhances a wide range of areas within the product, including overall performance and ease-of-use improvements. However, this is not just a maintenance release – it includes a host of features the diverse Retail Pro customer base can readily exploit.

The features begin with enhancements to customer management, including faster customer lookups and results sorting, along with better allocation, assignment and communication capabilities between regions and districts. Users are also now able to selectively define which fields are required vs. optional. The inventory management area has also been enhanced with additional security features and an improved physical inventory counting process.

In support of Retail Pro’s advanced capabilities for managing complex corporate structures and organizational hierarchies (including franchises), the intercompany transfer area has been enhanced. Retail Pro is also well known for its ability to accommodate a wide variety of external system integrations and advanced reporting and analytics. The new DataStor product allows these extensions to operate at maximum efficiency through affordable and seamless integration with a standalone instance of the Retail Pro database.

Retail Pro’s extensive fraud control and overall operational visibility have also been enhanced with advanced database auditing and added security for certain transactions and operations (adjustment memo reasons, UPC creation, serial type assignment and others).

Retail Pro version 9.2 R3 also adds three new links to popular accounting systems, along with a next generation integrated high-performance payment processing engine, and support for a variety of additional peripheral devices. In addition, an improved licensing capability enables specific features to be licensed so that alliance partners can more readily extend the Retail Pro suite to address industry specific vertical markets.

Finally, the already extensive reporting suite included with Retail Pro has been extended and enhanced.

Individually, these enhancements are all exciting; together, they’re a testimony to Retail Pro’s forward thinking leadership and commitment to ongoing product R&D investment.

For more information, please see: http://www.retailpro.com/RequestMoreInformation.php

Retail Pro International, LLC (RPI) is committed to providing the highest quality products and support for our Retail Pro resellers and customers. This includes support for the latest editions of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, including Windows 7™. As new Retail Pro products are released, RPI will continue to make appropriate announcements and publish updates to ensure compatibility with the latest generations of the Windows operating systems.

What does Windows 7 compatibility mean for Retail Pro?
Windows 7 compatibility is defined as the ability to install/load and operate the Retail Pro core product (Small Business, Merchant, Global, Global Enterprise, and DataStor) on a computer running the Windows 7 operating system.

Which Retail Pro solutions are Windows 7 compatible?
The Retail Pro 9 suite of products (version 9.2 R2 and later), including Small Business, Global, Global Enterprise, and DataStor editions are compatible with Windows 7 Professional, both 32 bit and 64 bit editions.

The Retail Pro 8 suite of products (version 8.6 and later), including Shop, Small Business, and Merchant editions are compatible with Windows 7 Professional 32 bit Edition. Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Edition is not supported for use with the Retail Pro 8 products. Compatibility issues which are concretely found to be caused through the use of RP8 and Windows 7 Professional 32 bit Edition (as validated by RPI) will be considered for remedy by RPI. In some cases a fix may not be possible within Retail Pro 8 platform, in which case Retail Pro 9 should be considered for use as an alternative.

It is important to note that some ancillary tools based on legacy development platforms may not have been tested for compatibility with Windows 7. In these cases the ancillary tools are provided on an as-is basis.

RPI does not recommend the use of, nor support the use of Microsoft’s Windows Home Premium or Home Basic editions with either Retail Pro 9 or 8.

Important Note: Not all hardware drivers are Windows 7 compatible, and in some cases drivers which are Windows 7 compatible are not 64 bit compatible. It is the customer’s responsibility to verify that all software and hardware devices being used with their Retail Pro products are Windows 7 compatible or 64 bit compatible when a 64 bit operating system is being utilized. Under no circumstance will Retail Pro International, LLC be responsible for 3rd party software applications and/or hardware components that are not Windows 7 and/or 64 bit compliant.

Do I need to upgrade my Retail Pro software to be compatible with Windows 7?
Only Retail Pro 9.2 R2 and Retail Pro 8.6 or later releases are considered Windows 7 compatible. A Retail Pro release prior to these versions will need to be updated to support the Windows 7 operating system.

How do I upgrade my Retail Pro software to be compatible with Windows 7?
Upgrading your Retail Pro software is a simple process, but it does require active software assurance. We highly recommend you consult your authorized Retail Pro Reseller to determine the best migration path to make your Retail Pro software Windows 7 compatible.

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