inHARMONY MAY 2013

In this edition:

New Integration

JAM Payment Facility System Focus

VMware Marketing Spotlight

The New Face of Marketing

Ensure you are getting the right

information

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MAY 2013

It is alleged that in 1943, Thomas Watson the chairman of IBM boldly claimed

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”. I personally own

four so I’m curious who owns the fifth.

Today, we can laugh about how wildly incorrect that seventy year old

prognostication turned out to be, from the purview of history. In fairness to

Thomas Watson he was in fact talking about very expensive computing

technology only affordable by governments.

Even Bill Gates’ vision of a computer in every home some forty years after

Watson is modest by today’s standards.

The integrated circuit that can accommodate several billion transistors and

other electronic components in an area smaller than a fingernail has

revolutionised and reshaped our thinking on the use of technology.

We can certainly thank the power of computing for the avalanche of emails

that bombard our inboxes daily. At last count 145 billion emails are circulated

daily. About 500 thousand emails every time you blink. Almost one third of

the world’s population, approximately 2.2 billion people are email users.

When I was a child, the title millionaire was an extravagance few people could

lay claim to hold. Today our bytes and our wealth are measured in billions.

There have been a number of interesting new developments at FBS over the

past few months, including teaming up with Experion QAS to ensure the

accuracy of the emails populating the customer database.

We have an interesting article on JAM Payment integration with WinPOS. Jam

Payments allows a customer to purchase finance on the spot whilst being able

to take the items they purchased home.

FBS now provides integrated online marketing solutions. With Australian

online retail expenditure set to reach $27 billion by 2016 (and $5.4 billion in

New Zealand) there is a compelling argument for us to provide these services

to our customers. We have spent an enormous amount of time and energy

strengthening our online services through strategic recruitment and

partnerships. We now offer website design, development and hosting, search

engine optimisation, pay per click management and media buying, as well as

social media communication and advertising.

Managing Director's Note

We live in different times

“Today our

bytes and our

wealth are

measured in

billions.”

Mark Silver

Managing Director

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New Harmony Integration

Do you regularly send out email campaigns or promotional material?

Are you interested in increasing your email

campaigns effectiveness?

Is your Harmony customer database full of invalid or incorrect email addresses?

Future Business Systems has teamed up with Experian QAS in order to improve the accuracy of the email addresses in your customer database. Experian QAS has developed the most effective email validation system, QAS Email. It is one of the most advanced email verification products in the market. FBS has now integrated this system with our WinPOS Point of Sale software providing a seamless means of ensuring that customer email addresses captured are valid. QAS Email instantly matches email addresses to known dead domain names, malicious email addresses, and common typographical errors in email address submissions.

QAS

Email Verification System

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Business benefits of email validation: Increases reliability of contact information

Improves customer service

Improve communications with customers to increase sales

Increase your email deliverability success and metrics Reduce costs by removing invalid email data Key features of email validation: Easy implementation QAS Email is a simple hosted Web Service that will validate email addresses as they are entered into WinPOS, when the internet is accessible. Instant error detection in real time Email validation errors are identified instantaneously allowing users to fix incorrect elements in real time at point of entry.

Regular updates The data source for QAS Email is continually updated to ensure that the data complies with Internet standards from IETF/ICANN. Multiple settings Submitted email addresses go through a series of algorithms to gauge conformity with email addressing standards. Domain, syntax, and even username validity can be checked as desired. Customisable integration Determine which email addresses to accept, reject, fix or change based on several settings of validity provided by QAS Email.

If this is something of interest and you wish to explore

this further, please do not hesitate to contact your FBS

Account Manager.

It is most important for retailers to embrace practical and sensible disciplines in their business to enable profitable outcomes. Merchandise

Financial Planning, together with Gross Profit calculating and range planning, enables retailers to see "what if" scenarios as they build their

product offer for their customer.

Ken Tickle from Merchandise Financial Planner (MFP) has been successfully assisting FBS customers with KPI reporting as well as OTB,

range and forward planning for some time now. As a result of our alliance with Ken, we have in turn created a number of specialised KPI

and Planning reports which are really benefiting our customers.

Customer feedback to date has shown that through embracing Ken’s techniques and careful analysis of the accurate data Harmony provides, companies are able to increase profits by boosting sales and minimising

stock holdings and end of season discounts.

If you are interested in speaking with Ken to see how he can help your business, feel free to email him at ktickle@pacific.net.au or check out

the MFP website: http://www.mfp.net.au/

New Harmony Integration

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FBS would like to welcome aboard its newest customer, Bob Stewart Pty Ltd. Bob Stewart was founded in 1925 by Robert Joseph Stewart. It battled its way through the Great Depression as well as the rationing and shortages of World War II. With over eighty eight years and three generations of Stewarts, Bob Stewart has grown into a thriving business. The decision to stock school uniforms was made in 1960 and the business has not looked back. The business currently operates 20 school uniform stores, and has fifty schools relying on Bob Stewart to meet their uniform needs. Recently they have also branched into men’s and ladies fashion, footwear, suits and even suit hire. Bob Stewart has found it imperative to continually improve and adapt in order to meet the ever changing market demands. Renovations complete, new offices, and now a new computer system, FBS would like to wish Bob Stewart continued success and growth for the next eighty eight years.

Focus on Support

Uninterrupted Power Supply Unexpected power disruptions and voltage fluctuations can grind a business to halt in a matter of moments. A business should never make the mistake of running a server without a UPS system. A UPS, or Uninterrupted Power Supply, system is one of the best ways to protect your server from power interruptions. Power cuts can not only lead to the potential loss of data, they may also damage the internal hardware components of the server. The recovery of the lost or damaged data is often only possible by restoring from the last successful backup.

A UPS system is primarily designed to provide power to your server for a short period of time when your main power has been disrupted. When a power outage is detected, the UPS takes over and communicates with the server to execute a shutdown procedure within a matter of minutes. Harmony users receive a message that the server will shut down shortly and are requested to log out. This means the server will be shut down by an automatic script in the correct manner.

If the UPS is not communicating with the Harmony Server via a non standard serial cable, the above mentioned procedure will NOT take place. Instead, the UPS will itself run out of battery power after approximately 60-90 minutes and if the Harmony Server is not manually shut down by staff it will lose power.

When such a situation or a server crash occurs, FBS is required to lock users out of the Harmony system and determine the extent of the damage. While the system is locked, a validation of the Harmony database takes place to check and possibly fix any database issues that may have occurred. If the damage is unrepairable a restore from backup may be required.

As part of an audit by our Systems Integration department, FBS has identified that some of our customers’ UPS devices are not communicating with the Harmony Server. Each Account Manager will contact their respective customers to advise where this has been detected.

NOTE:

It is not the responsibility of FBS to maintain the connection and communication of the UPS and Server. Where a customer has been advised of UPS to Server non-communication FBS will provide our Systems Integration services to assist in resolving the problem.

Customers that do not take the necessary steps to resolve UPS/Server communication will be liable for any charges in the unlikely event of a Server Crash as a result of the above.

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F For the last six months, FBS has been working with a company called JAM Payments to integrate Harmony WinPOS with the JAM Payment System. JAM Payments’ proprietary technology has been developed to provide the consumer with an instantaneous payment solution at the register.

Focus on Customer Demand

Spread your spending with Jam Payments

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JAM Payments is a point of sale, finance product for consumers in selected fashion and related industries. The product allows the consumer to make an in store purchase, take the goods home immediately and pay over a period of time providing a significant opportunity for in store upsell. This facility has recently been released one of our largest retailers with over 100 stores and so far the system is running seamlessly with a large number of JAM Payment plans already taken up by their customers.

Here’s how it works: 1. Customer lets your retail staff member know they want to use the JAM payment plan. 2. Customer presents their driver's license to the staff member - this is how JAM identifies them. 3. Customer presents their MasterCard or Visa card (credit or debit card) to pay their 20% in store deposit. 4. Customer designs their payment plan by choosing to: • Spread their payments over an additional 2, 3 or 4 months • Pay fortnightly or monthly

• Nominate their preferred start date 5. Customer authorises their payment plan and deposit via electronic signature. 6. Customer’s WinPOS receipt will detail their agreed payment schedule. 7. Future payments are automatically debited from customer’s nominated card unless they choose to make future payments direct to JAM via cash or cheque.

Benefits for YOU our Harmony customers include: • Customers take finance on their purchases on the spot, with little fuss, no paperwork and instant approval, providing a significant opportunity for in store upsell. • There is no administrative work for you, the retailer. • The system is fully integrated with Harmony allowing for seamless transaction processing. • JAM takes on all of the risk on outstanding debts as the retailer is paid the full amount of the purchase

overnight, less the applicable JAM fees. • JAM is responsible for the collection of all monies. All matters around defaults are the responsibility of JAM. Once the customer has left the store, there is no more involvement required from the retailer. • Significantly reduces layby We at FBS are really excited about this development and believe Harmony’s seamless integration with the JAM Payment system is a great opportunity for you to gain an edge over your competitors whilst boosting your overall sales.

If this is something of interest and

you wish to explore this further,

please do not hesitate to contact

your FBS Account Manager.

http://jampayments.com.au/

End of Financial Year Procedures Seminar

We are looking at holding an End of Financial Year Procedures seminar in Victoria in early June 2013. The purpose of the seminar would be to provide an overview of procedures required for closing off the financial year. This would also cover changes to the PAYG summary and superannuation reforms.

This workshop would provide an ideal opportunity for clients to refresh their understanding of these procedure and also allow for a cost effective means of training new staff. This workshop will be open to all Harmony clients and will be significantly cheaper than private one-on-one training.

At this stage, we are seeking an expression of interest. If you or any members of your staff would be interested in attending such a session, please send an email to newsletter@fbsaust.com.au and advise how many people from your company would attend. Further details will be provided once we decide if the workshop will go ahead.

Focus on Customer Demand

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Did You Know?

Historically, each logical server has required a separate physical server to host the operating system and applications running under that operating system. As modern servers can now be purchased with far more CPU power and memory than any one server would ever require, VMware allows for multiple logical servers to operate on one physical server. This also allows for load balancing and fall over redundancy in a cluster of servers running VMware.

What does all that mean? It means that instead of running your Harmony UNIX server, your Windows based mail server and your Windows based WinPOS console on three separate machines, they can all be loaded onto one physical server running VMware.

One of the key benefits of virtualisation is the ability to consolidate hardware and get vastly higher productivity from fewer servers. If you are considering replacing your Harmony Server and already have a virtualised environment you may want to consider migrating the Harmony Server if there are sufficient resources available.

At FBS, we have consolidated over ten development servers onto a cluster of three physical servers running VMware. This gives us far greater flexibility, redundancy, space and power utilisation.

VMware is available in many different flavours which range from a free version for a single server with limited utilities through to large scale data centre versions costing tens of thousands of dollars.

To date, Future Business Systems has implemented Harmony UNIX servers under VMware for many of our customers with great success. Four of our SI technicians have undergone VMware training and accreditation and FBS is now a certified Professional VMware Partner.

The latest release of UNIXware 7.1.4+ includes full VMware tools allowing it to operate, making use of VMware’s full functionality.

Speak to your Account Manager if you would like to find out more.

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D Digital marketing is more pervasive and intrusive than

the longer established communication portals of print,

radio and television. Today’s online technologies are

personalizing the consumer experience through direct

contact via email or smart phone. Marketers decipher

streams of information about group and individual

search behaviour and proceed to optimize their

targeted campaigns from their accumulated insights to

Food for Thought

The New Face of

Marketing

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increase the likelihood of a sale.

Marketing and advertising

budgets are shifting online.

Websites are overhauled on a

regular basis, re-branded and rich

with quality content. Search

engine marketing is now as

necessary as oxygen and online

media buying crowds you with

ceaseless information that reflects

your buying habits.

The search for the elusive online

dollar has witnessed a rapid

increase in advertising on social

websites like Facebook. E-tailers are

teasing advocacy from consumers by

creating a unique online buying

experience and then asking them to

post reviews or to describe their

personal engagement with the

product or brand. We live in a world

of little mystery. You no longer have

to be a celebrity or sportsperson to

tweet or blog. A cloud of people

delight in telling us about how they

eat, dress, socialize and love. Surely

erasable online ink is the next great

invention. How do you protect

yourself from the avalanche of

emails, ads and promotions? Throw

away your PCs, iPad or smartphone.

In the event that, that’s not possible,

don’t worry. On-demand marketing

will ensure that your specific needs

will be addressed and your

expectations fulfilled. For now use

spam filters to eject unwanted emails

and trust content only from

reputable sites and those that add

value to your information pool.

Marketing—The traditional approach

The traditional approach to marketing emphasizes the “5 P’s – Product, Price,

Place, Promotion and People”. These five essential ingredients make up your

“marketing mix”. Getting your marketing mix right is not a simple process and

it’s an area of the business quite often performed in an ad hoc

fashion, without a formal strategy and dedicated annual budgets.

Flyers, brochures and advertising in the right magazines are the

solutions adopted by many business owners.

Focus on Customer Demand

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