StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions
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StateWays Q www.stateways.com Q September/October 2014 36 in other units of their choosing. Add-on features such as eCommerce options and payroll are also available. A new AccuPOS system is available beginning at just under $2,000. Control agencies may also be interested in POS sys- tems that offer QuickBooks integration as an optional add-on feature. ShopKeep is a cloud-based iPad POS system that recently doubled the size of its engineering and product development teams, resulting in a constant stream of new features being made available to customers every two weeks. Earlier this year, ShopKeep partnered with the company Retail Intel to offer an optional feature that lets users automatically transfer their data from their POS into QuickBooks on a daily basis. This new optional feature costs $30 per month on top of ShopKeep's basic cost of $49 per month per register (equipment costs incur an additional fee). In addition to the new QuickBooks feature, Shop- Keep has a number of additional options, including full integration of gift cards with proper accounting for gift cards as liabilities; a new e-mail receipt function allowing retailers to add logos and promotional text to e-mailed receipts; 24/7 technical support; and an "open tabs" func- tion that allows cashiers to hold a transaction in a queue and return to it later. "It's so common for customers to come up to the reg- ister with 12 items, and then as the transaction is being rung up, they remember that they wanted to grab some- thing else," says Jason Richelson, ShopKeep's founder and CEO. "That can be a problem if someone is waiting in line behind them. With this new feature, a cashier can put the fi rst transaction on hold, ring up another customer, and return to the initial transaction after the fi rst customer comes back with the missing item." While many agencies integrate multiple systems into their retail businesses, others may desire to incorporate everything into one program. NetSuite is a cloud-based system that incorporates POS, eCommerce, inventory man- agement, CRM and marketing, fi nances, and more. With more than 20,000 organizations using its program, NetSuite is a proven leader in this category and has experience work- ing with businesses of all sizes, from small family-owned retail operations to giant Fortune 500 companies. A key benefi t to utilizing a single system into your state is that all the information you want is instantly at your fi ngertips. This is especially benefi cial for de- partments seeking to connect with their customers as much as possible. "Using one system gives you a greater level of insight into who your customer is, and what that customer is most interested in," explains Branden Jenkins, General Manager of Retail with NetSuite. "With so much information easily at their disposal, your associates will be able to create a more personal expe- rience for customers." NetSuite pushes out two major system updates per year, which are immediately downloaded to all customer systems. Retailers don't need to worry about handling any installation themselves, and will never be in danger of failing to upgrade and not having access to the latest technology. Pricing for NetSuite is subscription-based and is set using several variables, including the number of user ac- counts needed and the number of POS terminals deployed. SUPPORT AND SECURITY Y ou could end up with the fanciest, most state-of-the- art POS system that exists, but all those bells and whistles won't do you much good unless you (and your retail licensees) know how to use them. In addition to researching POS systems that have all the features you're looking for, make sure you also look into the kind of cus- tomer support that each vendor has to offer. Systems Technology Group (STG) focuses closely on security, encryption, and support. STG is a versatile system that offers custom- ization, modernization, and some of the strongest security features available. The company has experi- ence working with beverage retail- ers and organizations of all sizes: STG can be implemented in large facilities such as stadiums and are- nas, across large retail chains and control state agencies, and also at NetSuite is a cloud-based system that incorporates POS, eCom- merce, inventory management, CRM and marketing, fi nances, and more. Cork Liquors, a chain of 11 stores located in Indiana, utilizes Keystroke POS.