The Business Solutions Network

I'm a little slow to pick up on certain things. Over the past couple years, I've written scores of articles about the opportunity for our audience to sell IP video solutions. However, it wasn't until recently that I gained some insight that would have made my previous articles so much more valuable.  Continue Reading..

Today, something a little different. I want to let you know/remind you that the RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association, the POS industry's only association) is collecting data from POS dealers to create a report of key performance indicators you can use to make better business decisions.  Continue Reading..

In many cases, it's a combination of many different things that contribute to a company's success and pinpointing what's leading to success is difficult.  Continue Reading..

An occasional topic amongst editors at Jameson Publishing, the parent company of Business Solutions, is getting “too close” to a topic. More specifically, we ask — due to our perspective, number of people we interview, the successful nature of the people we interview, the amount of knowledge we have, etc. — if maybe we’re missing the mark in our articles by assuming our audience knows the same things we know.  Continue Reading..

Just yesterday I received an email from a reader who questioned an opinion article from Matt Pillar, the editor in chief of Integrated Solutions for Retailers (ISMR). While ISMR is an end-user/retailer-focused publication, Pillar has recently been talking with VARs and integrators and doing some writing for Business Solutions.  Continue Reading..

Just last week I wrote a blog post on our June issue, which highlighted all the great video surveillance content in the issue you should receive any day now. At the end of that post, I revealed some data from a recent survey we conducted. The gist? Forty-six percent of our audience (more than 18,000 readers) expects to add IP cameras/video surveillance solutions to their line cards within the next 18 months.  Continue Reading..

I've covered digital signage for a number of years, but never had much conviction that it was something POS (point of sale) VARs should be adding to their line cards. Until now. I've been reading success stories involving digital signage, seeing innovative new solutions pop up at industry events, and hearing about real implementations from readers.  Continue Reading..

Working in the publishing world is like living in fast forward. While most people are experiencing the month of May right now, we're finishing up the articles for our July (!)  issue, making calls for our August issue interviews, and planning editorial for our September issue. Ugh. Oftentimes, I have trouble recollecting which article is in which issue.  Continue Reading..

If you attended RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) INSPIRE or RetailNOW in the past, you've no doubt met Dean Crotty, president of North Country Business Products (NCBP), one of the larger POS dealerships in the United States. Conversations with Dean are always guaranteed to give you some new ideas about your business. Back in Aug. 2010, I was lucky enough to get a couple hours of time with...  Continue Reading..

The other day I was searching our own web site, www.bsminfo.com, looking for a particular article on payment processing. What I discovered was that in the past month or so, we've posted a number of really good articles on payments-related topics. If you're a POS (point of sale) VAR or software developer interested in staying on top of the latest payments trends, you'll want to take a look at the following articles:  Continue Reading..