Microsoft and POS POS take retail to resellers

Around 80 resellers attended the one-off seminar, held at Microsoft's head office in North Ryde, NSW.

Vik Devjee, director, sales and marketing at POS POS, told CRN, the seminar covered issues such as; Windows Embedded: PosReady 2009; the new POS application from Microsoft, POS2009 and what POS systems suit clients' needs.

"The [retail] market is still very good," he said.

"From our perspective it's been a very good month for us, especially compared with a few months ago.

"For us, the retail market grew around 10-11 percent and has been kept buoyant with by the Government providing money for the market place."

Tim Schroder, embedded channel manager at Microsoft, said, the seminar was also held to help channel partners pull the right solution together.

"We want to help channel partners struggling in the Australian marketplace look for value added services," he said.

"It's not just about competing on price, partners need to be able to target the market with products and wrap services around the set of offerings.

"There needs to be more services and overall value adds from the reseller to the customer."

Devjee said the nature of retail solution bundles have come down in price.

"There's significant opportunity in the sector, with resellers achieving margins of around 20 percent and beyond price," he claimed.

"Product bundles also include three year on-site warranty, so channel partners have support and aren't just selling hardware and software."