MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Critical Time-sensitive Information Included! Please Read and Contact CCS for Assistance.
This is the sixth issue of our new monthly Newsletters. We hope you will find our Newsletters interesting and helpful. We will be covering a broad range of topics each month including:
Visit our Newsletter Archives for accumulated back issues as we add them.
Contact CCS Retail Systems for Details and Assistance- Contact CCS Support
TLS 1.2 Transition
Getting Ready for TLS 1.2 (Check My TLS Status)
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) require all PA-DSS validated payment applications to discontinue the use of “early TLS” (i.e., all versions of SSL and TLS 1.0) by June 30th, 2018.
To comply with this requirement, NCR Secure Pay will no longer accept early TLS connections after 2:30 A.M. on June 5th, 2018. In addition, updates to NCR Counterpoint V8.5.4 and V8.4.6 that will require the use of TLS 1.2 for payment transactions processed through NCR Secure Pay will be released as follows:
V8.5.4 Patch 002: Scheduled for 2/20/2018
V8.4.6.19 Service Pack: Scheduled for 3/6/2018
NCR does not plan to release patches or Service Packs to support TLS 1.2 in other versions of NCR Counterpoint.
A Great Way To Get Rid Of Merchandise
You want to free up the cash in those slow-movers to buy new, better-selling items for spring AND you want to lower stock levels, so you don't have as much to count during your physical inventory.
One particularly useful markdown at this time of the year is a "buy-one-get-one-free" (BOGO). This promotion accomplishes two major goals:
1. Deep discount (up to 50%) encourages customers to buy
2. Moves twice as much merchandise to lower stock levels
Here are some ways to use the BOGO deal to get rid of your slow-moving stock strategically.
Modern, reliable Hybrid Cloud backup without the cost and complexity
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OUR BLOGS
We have migrated and updated our large archive of employee blogs. We will be adding new entries ongoing. There are over 1,500 articles of useful information on a wide variety of topics that are keys for Retailers and their management and operations personnel. You can find information on areas such as:
Visit our Blogs for ongoing and archival articles we post frequently.
NEW BLOG ARTICLES SELECTIONS
Each month our top employees will offer some important ideas and comments on the Retail Industry and Technology Topics. We hope these articles will provide guidance and ideas to help you enhance your business operations and profitability.
Marlene's Blog
How to Help Us Help You!
When we receive calls for support help, we want to assist you as quickly as possible. For that reason, we assign numbers to each request as it is received. These numbers appear on work orders (or tickets) that are given to the technician who will provide the service to you.
Many of our customers have multiple sites, and sometimes we get calls for support from several of these sites all at the same time. Because this happens, a technician may be working simultaneously on multiple issues for the same company, but for different sites. Each issue, however, will have a separate assigned number. This number can be given to you by the technician on the initial call.
Bryan's Blog
Signature Capture Devices.
Would you like to have your customers signature show up on Invoices and Order printouts?
There are a couple devices that can be used to do this.
One is the Ingenico ISC250 Pin Pad, it combines a signature capture device, along with a Pin Pad and MSR for processing credit/debit card payments. It will capture the customers signature, which can then be used to print on receipts, invoice and order forms and also be looked up in ticket history without printing.
John's Blog
The Disadvantages of Re-using Document Numbers
They are numerous reasons for not doing this as follows:
Typically, in most software applications, a document number is considered a Primary Key, so it should be considered "Unique" and would not be duplicated. However, there are some programs where it might be a Secondary key where multiples might be allowed, such as using a sequence Number, such as when using duplicate entries and historical tables such as Check History (e.g. checks, voids for the same checks, or manual payments, EFT transactions, etc.).
Even in situations where the programming might allow for this sort of thing, a duplication might cause other issues with software functionality, As examples.
Dave's Blog
Recalculating Inventory in a Counterpoint Multi-site Environment
If you are using Counterpoint in a multi-site environment, care must be taken when it comes to running the Inventory Recalculate Quantities procedure. This procedure checks several of the quantity fields in the inventory tables, against the data in the rest of the tables. Fields such as quantity-committed, quantity-on-po, and quantity-on-transfers, among others, are checked and corrected if necessary. Note, that it will not adjust quantity-on-hand. That must be done via inventory adjustments.
The issue in a multi-site environment relates to how replication works. When a replication session starts with a remote site, it does not take a snapshot of the database. Rather, it goes through the list of tables and makes the appropriate updates as it processes the various tables. What this means as to the inventory quantity recalculations, is that after finishing replication, all of the data is not consistent as to the point in time that it represents, due to ongoing user activity.
MORE SPECIAL OFFERS
We have special promotions and discount offers each month. Contact CCS to check-out this month's specials.
LOOKING FORWARD - Marilyn's Thoughts
Credit card transactions are changing to make POS more secure. We are working hard to help you stay in synch and in compliance with the changing systems and regulations. Contact us so we can ensure you are covered.
If you need some additional, new, or faster equipment; other items like software add-ons or gift cards to get on the counter - Call me and I can help you.
We stock some extra stations for inventory counting and other occasional projects. Contact us for availability - first come first serve!
The GDPR imposes rules on organizations that offer goods and services to people in the European Union (EU), or that collect and analyze data tied to EU residents, no matter where those businesses are located. Among the key elements of the GDPR are the following:
• Enhanced personal privacy rights - strengthened data protection for residents of the EU by ensuring that they have the right to access their personal data, to correct inaccuracies in that data, to erase that data, to object to processing of their personal data, and to move it
• Increased duty for protecting personal data - reinforced accountability of organizations that process personal data, providing increased clarity of responsibility in ensuring compliance
• Mandatory personal data breach reporting - organizations that control personal data are subject to stringent reporting and notification requirements in the event of a personal data breach
• Significant penalties for non-compliance - steep sanctions, including substantial fines that are applicable whether an organization has intentionally or inadvertently failed to comply November Accelerate Your GDPR Journey 2017 13
As you might anticipate, the GDPR may have a significant impact on your business, potentially requiring you to update privacy policies, implement and strengthen data protection controls and breach notification procedures, deploy highly transparent policies, and further invest in IT and training.
If your company has business transactions that involve European Union (EU**) Companies or customers, you can contact CCS Retail Systems to help you plan how to avoid GDPR penalties before this regulation is enacted on May 25th, 2018.
Make sure to visit our new website, it was designed to focus our message and simplify navigation. Visit us at our new secured server off-premise location URL: https://ccsretailsystems.com
Happy Retailing!
Marilyn McCormick
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