Retailers Can Wait for Microsoft Vista

Tracy Mayor -- Expert Business Source, 3/16/2007 1:06:00 PM

You’ve heard the hype. You’ve read the news reports and white papers and pop-up ads and blog opinions, but still you wonder: What does Windows Vista mean for my business? Should I upgrade to Microsoft’s newest operating system now? Later? Never?

There is a natural synergy between small/medium-sized retail operations and Windows, says Greg Buzek, president of IHL Consulting Group, of Franklin, Tenn. While larger retailers are more likely to invest in proprietary point-of-sale (POS) systems, small retailers who don’t have the luxury of dedicated IT personnel are more likely to be attracted to Windows-based POS and business software – primarily because of Microsoft’s legion of small business specialists available nationwide to give support on a for-hire, as-needed basis.

That said, small retailers needn’t jump on the Vista bandwagon – not yet, anyway, Buzek says. The next time you need to replace your hardware will be the natural time to upgrade to the new operating system, he says.

That delay should give Microsoft time to shake the bugs out of its newest operating system and give developers of PC-based POS systems time to rejigger their software to take advantage of Vista’s new features. “The integration of new technologies into POS tends to lag behind back-office [software] and applications in general,” says Paula Rosenblum, vice president of research at Retail Systems Alert Group (RSAG) in Newton Upper Falls, Mass. “Vista will impact other office applications long before it impacts POS.”

When the time is right, just what can a small retailer expect to gain from Vista?

According to a Microsoft spokeswoman, Windows Vista Business and the company’s new office productivity suite, Office Professional 2007, will give small retailers the ability to:

• Work more efficiently, thanks to a cleaned-up user interface and menuing system that aims to help small companies produce better, more professional-looking results faster and easier.
• Find information more easily using Vista’s new search function and the high-resolution document-preview functionality in Office 07 that lets workers read documents, presentations and e-mail messages without having to open them.
• Manage contacts and reach customers more effectively. Office Outlook 07 includes Business Contact Manager, a contact-management solution that centralizes customer information; Office Publisher 07 includes tools for creating and publishing marketing materials for print, e-mail or the Web.
• Back up and better protect data thanks to beefed-up protection against spam, spyware and virus threats and new system image backup abilities. Windows Vista also includes Software Protection Platform (SPP), which helps protect customers from the risks of counterfeit software and piracy.
• Get help online via Microsoft’s Small Business Center Website.

Retailers don’t have to wait for Vista to take advantage of new versions of Microsoft’s PC-based retail software that the company released in January. Microsoft Dynamics Point of Sale 2.0 and Dynamics Retail Management System 2.0 offer the following improvements:

• Roles-based support that lets retailers customize the software interface to fit their users, be they cashiers, store supervisors, managers, owners or bookkeepers.
• Tighter integration with Microsoft Office Accounting. In fact, POS 2.0 ships with Office Accounting 2007 in the box.
• Greater inventory-management capabilities, better purchasing control and support for next-generation hardware devices, all available in Dynamics Retail Management System 2.0.
• Software/hardware retail bundles, in partnership with Hewlett-Packard and others, which are designed to work out-of-the-box and are available at major retailers including Best Buy. 
• Complete POS payment solutions. Microsoft, HP and First Data Corp. have teamed up to offer POS Value Exchange, a hardware/software/transaction processing system designed to provide retailers with greater security, faster transactions and more flexible payment options for customers. 

Tracy Mayor is a freelance writer based in Hamilton, Mass.