In over my head with RMS :(

Well, you might want to mention your geographic area. Perhaps a local RMS partner would be willing to help you for a reasonable fee.

Ken K.

"Voltage Christian" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@microsoft.com...

There should be quite a number of reseller types in your area....best to call one of them...Microsoft can help you find one.

I would imagine most resellers would not try to profit to much from the hardware/software they sell to you...I assume they make most of their money off of the service (installation, troubleshooting, repair etc.) from you. If that is the case, then they shouldn't care too much about where you bought your hardware from.

"Voltage Christian" wrote:

Did you recieve any Casio software/driver disks with the system? Casio will not let you download drivers from their website for their POS without being a dealer. If you have these disks with OPOS software software you might be in luck. I suspect that the Casio might use an Esc/POS interface, the Epson defacto standard (some POS software supports this standard and only this standard natively). I am almost positive that RMS does not support this. If you could return this system however, I think I would recommend this if you want to be a do-it-yourself-er. Many companies give out their drivers online to end consumers and offer well priced high quality products. As an RMS do-it-yourself-er myself I understand your frustration. I personally did everything on a 19-lane system from hardware selection (did not purchase through RMS reseller), wiring, installation with some assistance from a national reseller via phone. I am willing to offer my experience and some pointers if you are interested.

Patrick snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com

"Voltage Christian" wrote:

Christian,

We're located here in Vancouver. Feel free to give me a call and I'll give you some options.

Regards,

Alex Bullock Retail Systems Manager, The RSC Group

"Voltage Christian" wrote:

Thank you all for your help.

I did not receive any software from Casio with the hardware (weird), but I emailed them and received drivers for all the devices. The Line Display is now 100%, but I've really been struggling with the printer and drawer. I've tried lots of combinations, but can't get them working.

We have decided that implementing this in December is not such a good idea, so I have another month to fool around and try and make this work. I plan to be less shy with Casio in hopes they can offer some help to install.

Thanks again!

"Patrick" wrote:

I will be vacationing in Vancouver February 21 - March 6, 2007. If you still need help at that time, I'd be happy to stop by for an hour or two and give your some pointers. I am always happy to help a fellow merchant, and I am on the same page as you regarding the do-it-yourself attitude.

Ragarding the "how hard can it be?" question, the answer is "pretty hard." Don't feel bad - you are not alone. I have been through quite a lot to get my 4 location enterprise up and running in the Caribbean where there is NO support.

I'm sure a partner would have no problem helping you. You can bet that it won't be cheap, but you might negotiate a fixed price to get you up and running. IMHO, the partner model does not work well for small stores - RMS is far too expensive if you need a partner or any paid support. However, the main problem is the complete lack of support from MS and the limitations of the base software product that make it virtually unusable without significant configuration and sometimes modification to meet your needs. I won't even go into the abyssmal manuals. That being said, I have found "computer people" in Vancouver to be much more willing to provide service at a good cost-benefit ration (value) than those in the US. The ones I have found in the US charge you like a lawyer - don't even pick up the phone unless you expect a bill, and a small problem costs the same as a big problem.

Jason

"Voltage Christian" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@microsoft.com...

Call the Geek Squad eh? LOL. I love it when merchants tell other merchants that they charge to much. Go figure. You would think they all sell cost, you know, get some exercise from moving boxes and loading up car trunks full of goods you paid to go to shows to buy. Not to mention the thousands of hours you spent reading and studying and stressing out live on site installs. I mean that is all for naught, you should just give your self away. Now go call the Geek Squad, I am sure they will be of great help.

Had to say that, I just had to. I lost a deal last year, the dealer, if you will call them that went out of business. I have helped a few of their customers and yes I charged them like a lawyer. They don't mind, now that they have a working system. That is what counts.

mt

mt,

I'm not sure if you have ever been to Vancouver, but the Geek Squad folks there are the most friendly and helpful people I have ever met. Don't take your frustrations out on them! That being said, they couldn't even begin to do what you could - I am certain of that.

The root of my problem isn't with the partners. It is with Microsoft. If they would develop the product to work properly and flexibly out of the box, you wouldn't have had to devote "thousands of hours... reading and studying and stressing out live on site installs." Then the support from partners would be more affordable for smaller merchants.

I know you need to charge what you do to recoup the money, time, and lost hair from your line of work - I don't blame you. That doesn't mean my opinion is not valid. You better start listening to your [potential] customers if you want to be able to pay the Chiropractor bill from all that box moving.

I make a healthy profit in my line of business, but I think every day about competition. Someone is liable to come along and sweep the RMS rug from under you if you don't look for creative ways to increase value for your customer, and that includes demanding that Microsoft improves ease of use of the base product (lest Apple come out with the iPOS). You can still charge like a lawyer, but instead you will make money from value added services instead of constantly fixing an inherently difficult to install and flawed product.

Would you have poured your life's work into learning how to repair the LeCar because you knew that it was a piece of junk and that there would be a lot of repairs required?

Jason

mt,

I'm not sure if you have ever been to Vancouver, but the Geek Squad folks there are the most friendly and helpful people I have ever met. Don't take your frustrations out on them! That being said, they couldn't even begin to do what you could - I am certain of that.

The root of my problem isn't with the partners. It is with Microsoft. If they would develop the product to work properly and flexibly out of the box, you wouldn't have had to devote "thousands of hours... reading and studying and stressing out live on site installs." Then the support from partners would be more affordable for smaller merchants.

I know you need to charge what you do to recoup the money, time, and lost hair from your line of work - I don't blame you. That doesn't mean my opinion is not valid. You better start listening to your [potential] customers if you want to be able to pay the Chiropractor bill from all that box moving.

I make a healthy profit in my line of business, but I think every day about competition. Someone is liable to come along and sweep the RMS rug from under you if you don't look for creative ways to increase value for your customer, and that includes demanding that Microsoft improves ease of use of the base product (lest Apple come out with the iPOS). You can still charge like a lawyer, but instead you will make money from value added services instead of constantly fixing an inherently difficult to install and flawed product.

Would you have poured your life's work into learning how to repair the LeCar because you knew that it was a piece of junk and that there would be a lot of repairs required?

Jason

hours...reading and studying..." I'm not equating us to their importance, but to the fact we have studied too.

I have to emphasize Jeff's point about "show me one other POS program in the same *price range* that is as *flexible*."

One of the biggest reasons we (as a reseller) decided to stick with RMS was because of it's ability to be customized. QSRules and QSBridge give you almost endless possibilities for customization, plus the fact that everything is stored in SQL. We have yet to find a POS software that gives you this much customization, specifically when it comes to hooking into the user interface, for less than $2,000.

I don't know many small retailers who want to pay $10,000 for a piece of software (or even $5,000), but if they are then I'm sure that it will do most of the things they're looking for. However even then you may still need customizations depending on what you're trying to do.

When we are in the sales cycle with RMS, we often poke and prod the retailer on how their business operates and what they are expecting from the software. The more complex their business, the more time we spend analyzing and planning things. This is where we identify what their requirements are with customizations. Many retailers are very open with us and spend a lot of time making sure we understand what it is they want. However there are some who think of RMS like Windows or Office; buy it, run the setup CD, start selling inventory. Oh wait, you forgot about peripheral configuration, departments and category setup, creating items, entering your inventory, accounting export, any import of items or customer lists, training, etc.

We look at RMS as being almost a "platform". You buy RMS and you get all the basics. If you need more, you can purchase additional modules (add-in's) to do what you want. This is the way a lot of software works; the only difference is that Microsoft isn't the one offering the additional modules - it is the ISV's and resellers like myself who are developing them.

RMS Out-Of-The-Box fits for a lot of businesses. It just depends on how complex your business flow is, and how much you want to automate or computerize things. I have to admit there are lots of quirks and gotcha in the user interface, particularly in Manager, but for traditional POS, Inventory, Customer Management, it does a damn good job.

I have to agree with Jeff also. Before I purchased Quicksell Commerce(RMS) I did a lot of research. The other POS systems in this price range out there are very clunky. I did find a System completely customized for my industry that had a lot of bells and whistles and would have satisfied everything on my wish list. The Price? $10,000.00. Way out of my reach. By doing the install by myself, with a cheap computer with lots of RAM, a little help importing things from my reseller, and lots of help from this group. I was able to get RMS up and running for around $3000. RMS has a lot of shortcomings, but is by far the best value for the money. And one of the best parts is that for $200 a year for the maintenance plan, I will never have an out of date product. And one can hope that MS will keep on addressing those shortcomings. Craig

Hi

I also agree with Jeff & Jason. As a company we spend a lot of time working with this product, testing with hardware and ensuring that the customers processes are looked at and that the job is scoped. I have been working with the product since 2001, and haven't found anything that keeps up with it at this price point. I know that it fits a wide variety of retail situations, and there are times when add-ons are required for specific markets. I also find bugs, but hey I have been finding them since DOS. We don't sell RMS as an out of the box solution, we know that configuration and proper setup is required to ensure that the customer gets a solution that works for them.

James

Craig wrote:

Wow, thank you so much for your generous offer Jason! I hope to be whizzing through RMS by that time, but please feel free to stop by for a chat and a nice discount on anything you may want ;)

I chose RMS for the flexibilty it offers. If I've learned anything, it's that change is the only constant and I really wanted to ensure that we went with a package that would be able to grow and adapt with us.

I need to understand every aspect of our business and how to fix problems that may arise. My main objection (other than the $10,000 hardware + software

• training cost) to our previous quote from a local partner (that is now out of business...) was that they wanted to set up our database, arrange categories, etc... This struck me as odd and I honestly can't imagine them having a good enough grasp of our business to do this properly.

While I think RMS will work for us, I am unable to pay "lawyer" rates for assistance, so I will slog through this until I hit a wall; at that point, I will look into calling in a partner.

The good news is that the OPOS drivers from Casio are now working and the printer, drawer, and line display are working and I am getting familar with the program :)

Christian

"Jas> I will be vacationing in Vancouver February 21 - March 6, 2007. If you still

I bought mine on ebay also....because I had no idea about the "partners" thing. I think the eBay guy does it on purpose to get people to come back to him for the setup.

You CAN do it. This forum is a WEALTH of information and very friendly folks.

I installed the program and got "stuck" too. DO NOT PAY FOR THE MS TRAINING...it sucks. Just use the manual and this forum.

You just need to go one step at a time. Do not worry about the receipt printer/hardware until you get the whole system set up. Learn about entering items, learn about checking out a customer. Understand WHERE to put the UPC codes (in ALIAS), what is important about items--how much detail you want/need, etc. Use your windows printer as your receipt printer while you are front loading and figuring it all out.

BACKUP YOUR DATABASE WITHOUT FAKE TRANSACTIONS FIRST, then,

Test test test. Run fake transactions for every type you can think of and also make fake purchase orders. Receive them, transfer inventory etc.

THEN, decide which hardware you need and cross that bridge.

Can you return the printer for a refund? If so, do it. Then, read read read for the best hardware. I read on here that the STAR printers were like Plug-n-play so I bought one (on ebay). It was Plug-n-play.

It is a mammoth task to get going but do not be afraid. Take baby steps. it may take you a year to "go live" but so what? You current system works right? You will love it after you switch but do not rush it or it will be a nightmare.

A "partner" also quoted me a $$ for coming to my "rescue" when I got frustrated. Since we are rural, no one wanted to actually come here..they wanted to do everything over the internet. I decided to just work through it myself. Once I got over that hump, we were cooking!

I figured out how to import all the thousands of customers in my old access database...but we decided to re-enter all the items since my old database was not "clean".

That was a good decision.

Please email me if you need help. There is a place for us INDEPENDENTS with LOW BUDGETS!

One last note from the Masta. Just what if the advise and help of a partner could save you/make you thousands of more dollars per year in bottom line profits? What if the fee you paid the partner allowed you to run your business and not sidetrack you into becoming your own IT department, I mean shouldn't and owner focus on the core of their business? I guess some work on their own electrical system and plumbing, but do so at risk of peril. Some times I just have to wonder why they don't take the money, go to Vegas and toss it out on a crap table and hope for the best, as that is the same thing to me. Let the pro's do the setup and train you. The money spent, and time saved will come back to you tenfold over the years of use you will get and the delight of knowing how to make RMS work in your place of business. How much would spending a whole year trying and fighting with software/hardware cost you bottom line? Could you not have taken that same time and spent it with your family and friends and not taken so many Blue Valiums? And screaming out of frustration at your workers and spouses doesn't help in the old PR dept.

As for dependability, this installer can tell you in my 15+ years front line experience RMS stays up and running and gives me less problems than any other product I have seen. I rarely hear from my customers, and most not only pay MS but also pay us for support too! You know why? They know insurance is mandatory.

Does RMS have bugs, show me a software with out them, PLEASE. At least one can rest assured that some of the greatest minds are looking at those bugs and squashing them as we write here. Keep up the good work MS.

Lastly, if you buy software on eBay, I only wish you the very best of luck. Your at risk of peril and may just be costing yourself thousands of lost dollars. One trick I know of saved a company $12K a year. How nice is that?

mt

"Mickie" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

Hi Christian,

I came across your post this afternoon. If you are still interested in help, we are a reseller here in Calgary that offers support and training. I'm not sure how far you've come along or if you are still in need of some assistance, but we would be happy to put together a quote for a support plan and/or training. We have alot of experience in setting up our customers and take pride in our service. Please take heart, you are not alone, as we've helped several retailers that tried to go it alone. It is not an easy task running a business, let alone installing a POS system from scratch. We offer remote assistance as well and have several customers as far east as Montreal as well as the Vancouver area.

Our website is:

I hope your holiday season is a profitable one!

Kind Regards,

Tyler Cumberford

"Voltage Christian" wrote: