as overall functionality. The Virginia Department of
Alcoholic Beverage Control (Virginia ABC) has had SAP
Transactionware software in place at its agency stores
since 2002, which is used in conjunction with IBM hardware. The POS system has undergone multiple updates
over the years, with its most recent overhaul taking place
in 2010-2011. While the current version utilizes some
mobile technology for shipping/receiving and inventory
verification, the next system upgrade will include additional mobile capabilities. The Virginia ABC will integrate Apple products into the mix at that time to give
them greater flexibility and the ability to take advantage
of the enhanced mobile functionality.
"From a business perspective, we need to continue
to grow and upgrade, which means we need to take a
closer look at what mobile can do for us in the near
future," says Stephen Fox, Chief Information Officer
with the Virginia ABC.
Although the Department is pleased that their system is becoming smaller and more mobile over time,
the convenience of modern technology takes a backseat
to security and compliance issues. Fox cites several
upcoming changes to credit card processing regulations
as being a priority for his team. These include the expiration of Windows XP support from Microsoft as of
next year, requiring any business using a Windowsbased POS system to upgrade to a newer version of
Windows. Additionally, many credit card issuers will
require merchants to adopt Chip and PIN technology,
which is already the industry standard in Europe and
provides an additional layer of security for all credit
card transactions.
The Virginia ABC plans to update all its registers to
a newer version of Windows by April 2014, and to
accept Chip and PIN technology in stores by the middle
of next year. As an additional security measure, the
Department opts not to store any customer credit card
information in its systems and plans to implement endto-end encryption in its transactions in an effort to further protect consumer data from falling into the wrong
hands. Virginia ABC's commitment to security let to the
state recently reaching full PCI compliance.
"Full PCI compliance is really the gold standard
within the payment card industry," Fox explains. "PCI
sets a very high bar in several categories for full compliance. Prior to ABC achieving full compliance, the
agency had received high marks in these categories and
the rating of full compliance came about as a result of
producing the documentation that validated the safeSW
guards that we already had in place."
CI1309
StateWays I www.stateways.com I September/October 2013
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