The Business Solutions Network

Last week, NETGEAR announced its new R6300 802.11ac WiFi router. According to the manufacturer, this is the industry's first 802.11ac dual band gigabit WiFi router enabling 5th generation WiFi (5G WiFi) at gigabit speeds. Indeed, 802.11ac is expected to deliver speeds three times faster than 802.11n (maxing out at 1300 Mbps on 5GHz ).  Continue Reading..

At Mobotix' NPC USA East Coast 2012 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, the IP camera manufacturer announced an upcoming Q3 2012 release of people counting and heat mapping functionality, which will be a free upgrade to the company's already free VMS software. While people counting functionality isn't new to the video industry, it does serve as a great example of how today's IP cameras can be used for way more than just video...  Continue Reading..

This week finds me in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for IP camera manufacturer Mobotix' national partner conference. Yesterday was loaded with networking opportunities, giving me a chance to speak with security integrators about the challenges and opportunities that they face on a daily basis. At the end of the day, one conversation about IP video really stood out.  Continue Reading..

Last week I attended the ETA Annual Meeting & Expo in Las Vegas where I spoke with leaders at dozens of various payment processing companies. A topic that came up during one appointment, which was surprising to me, was how some point of sale (POS) VARs have decided to not sell payment processing because they feel it's a dirty business.  Continue Reading..

A few weeks ago, Global Payments revealed that information from as many as 1.5 million credit cards was stolen from its systems, marking yet another data security breach in the merchant processing world. In the time since the announcement, I've spoken with a handful of both resellers and software developers and found many to be wondering what the breach might mean for them, either directly (because they partner with/sell Global Payments)...  Continue Reading..

We ran a survey about a month ago to IT integrators like you to learn more about their adoption of IP video surveillance technologies. The results put a spotlight on three interesting trends. I followed up with about a dozen of these readers to better understand what's happening in this space.  Continue Reading..

I recently spent three days in Las Vegas for ISC West, one of the physical security (video surveillance and access control) industry's largest trade shows. During that time, I talked with many manufacturers and saw a lot of different products and solutions. After seeing it all -- or at least as much as I could because the show is so large -- I came home with three key takeaways that are relevant to IT integrators like yourself...  Continue Reading..

When it comes to all the articles I've written for Business Solutions, one of my favorites goes way back to May 2007 with GENESIS, a point of sale solutions provider. In the article, Driving Grocery POS Sales, Terry Selkirk, VP of sales and co-owner of the company, shared a lot of detail on how his company is succeeding in the grocery vertical. While Selkirk and I see one another each year at BlueStar's VARTECH, we...  Continue Reading..

I recently sat down with Scott Henry, VeriFone’s director of product marketing, and had a discussion regarding the relationships between POS VARs and traditional ISOs/agents.  When I asked Henry if he thought it was easier for a POS VAR to learn payment processing than it was for an ISO/agent to learn POS technology, he explained it like this:  Continue Reading..

Most of the articles in Business Solutions magazine pertaining to IP cameras have talked about the technology as your next revenue generator and the huge competitive advantage IT integrators have in selling such solutions. However, one common complaint I get from integrators about IP cameras is the high cost.  Continue Reading..