Reader Spotlight: Kevin Kogler, President, MicroBiz Cloud POS
Cloud EPOS and retail automation software for independent retailers. Runs on iPads, PCs and Macs, manages inventory at multiple locations and integrates seamlessly with an eCommerce platform and QuickBooks Online. Save retailers hours of management time each month automating tasks such as inventory management, purchasing/receiving, order management and customer management.
Describe the most innovative installation/solution you’ve been involved in recently.
We recently went live with a multi-channel retailer with two physical stores and an online business consisting of its own ecommerce site as well as storefronts on Amazon and eBay.
What is the biggest threat to your business? What are you doing about it?
The biggest threat to our business is from payment processing companies that 'give away' POS by building these software costs into the overall pricing of their payment processing service. We compete against these processor-centric solutions by emphasizing the amount of money retailers can save each month by using a POS system that automates many of the manual tasks that consume management time. We also integrate with a processor neutral gateway, so retailers are not required to be locked into a processor exclusive to their POS system.
What is the biggest opportunity for your business? What are you doing to take advantage of it?
We believe that there is a tremendous opportunity in enabling VARs and consultants to seamlessly integrate retail-focused SaaS applications. We are developing our software to leverage the automation features not only in our software, but also the automation features in software applications that integrate with MicroBiz. For example, we enable retailers to map their financial operations to QuickBooks Online in few minutes and then publish their daily register batch financials to QuickBooks instantly with a press of a button. This can save hours a month manually transferring data and reconciling any discrepancies.
What emerging technology will have the biggest impact on your business and why?
We are a developer of retail management software that automates retail operations and integrate with other popular SaaS-based applications. So the technology that will have the greatest impact on our business is new emerging application integration technologies - such as webhooks. Rather than integrating through complex tightly controlled connections - these new integration technologies make it easier to quickly 'plug into' other apps and 'publish' or push updates in status or data to a variety of connected apps.
What technology do you wish you had embraced sooner and why?
While we were early with cloud-based and mobile POS, we wish that we had embraced the development of a native iOS application. Native apps offer faster performance and are able to leverage other services available only to native apps of a development ecosystem.
Where do you see the channel in 10 years?
The channel will be less reliant on payment processing commissions than it is today. Many of the emerging processors (PayPal, Square) do not offer residuals for recommending their processing service. Processing margins will continue to compress - cutting the economics for channel partners. The channel must continue to move towards mobility and the convergence of online and offline commerce. Consumers will be able to conduct transactions in more places and with through many different methods in the future. There will be less money in selling hardware and more money in designing, securing and deploying integrated solutions that combine mobile devices, wireless networks, in app payments and integrated SaaS software applications.
What about your company culture attracts new employees and helps retrain current ones?
Our employees enjoy the ability to work with the latest technologies. We are constantly trying to identify new technologies that will make it easier to deploy more features. Our employees like working with these new technologies as they enable our developers to complete new features more quickly and easily.
What advice would you give to a VAR/MSP/ISV new to the channel?
I would recommend not becoming too reliant on credit card processing residuals. While processing will remain an important economic piece of an overall solution, retailers will see more value in VARs that can offer secure network connectivity and affordable integrated software solutions that are customized for their business needs. Integrated SaaS solutions will offer great value for the money, allowing VARs to charge more for their services.
If you weren’t a VAR/MSP/ISV what would you be doing?
I like the design aspect of software development, so if I was not managing a software development company I would like to do something creative - such as product design or architecture. I really like the process of turning ideas into products or features used by people.
What is the best business book on your shelf?
The E-myth by Michael Gerber (of course)