CDS, SCRC union paying off for customers

To: North Carolina ABC Boards; N.C. ABC Commission; N.C. ABC Association
CC: CDS & SCRC Staff Members
From: Danny Whitford
Date: August 31, 2016

Our expectation that benefits for customers would materialize from the combination of Carolina Data Systems and SCRC into one organization is coming to fruition. Customers of the two companies will soon reap dividends in the form of new product offerings, lower prices and more efficient services.

As we projected in our formal announcement of the CDS-SCRC merger six months ago, the leveraging of complementary technologies and the gradual realization of operational efficiencies is allowing us to bring tangible benefits to customers in a number of areas:

The list price of current POS systems offered by both companies will be reduced by 4.25 percent or more effective immediately. This reduction can equate to savings ranging from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars depending on the scope of your new equipment order. Please contact us for appropriate adjustments to any quotes for new systems you may have recently received from us. The reduction does not apply to accessories, options, peripherals or software.
Maintenance contracts: Effective with renewals beginning on January 1st, the cost of maintenance contracts will be reduced by .75 percent across the board.
We have successfully negotiated a new option with Tempus Technologies concerning the terms of payment for its fees associated with Ingenico’s EMV-compliant card processing terminals. Effective January 1st, our customers will have the option to pay the Tempus fees annually instead of monthly. ABC boards electing the annual billing option will receive a discounted rate compared to the annual sum of the monthly billings. The advantages are obvious: You will only have to pay the fees one time a year instead of monthly, and your total annual cost for the fees will be reduced.
Three new POS systems are in the pipeline.
1. The first, which will be available for order September 1st, is a highly-secure, Linux-based economy configuration derived from CDS’s long-established POSSix line of cash registers. It will have a fixed set of features and options designed to accomplish all basic functions. It will cost at least $1,000 less per lane than any of our current product offerings.
2. The second, which will be available for order October 1st, is a mid-range, touch-screen configuration derived from SCRC’s proven line of Windows-based cash registers. It will be bundled with a package of custom report-writing services.
3. The third, which will be available for order November 1st, is a high-end, Web-based concept that is being designed to be device-independent. As envisioned, this POS system will be able to run on any qualified operating system and any qualified device, including desktop and all-in-one computers, laptops, Surfaces, iPads, iPods, iPhones and Android tablets and smartphones. It will offer a combination of features and apps not available from any other vendor and will be easy to upgrade as technology evolves.
Improved preventative maintenance: We have assigned a veteran senior field engineer to perform preventative maintenance for our customers year-round. Johnny King, who has been on our staff for 22 years, will assume the position of Preventative Maintenance Inspector effective September 1st. He will be in charge of this initiative statewide with a mandate to ensure that all systems covered by maintenance contracts are scrutinized in person on a scheduled basis to address PM issues. It is intended that all equipment covered by maintenance contracts will receive this type of on-site audit at least once per year. The typical PM service will involve evaluation and review of security procedures, external and internal cleaning of equipment, any required cooling fan replacements, inspection of cable connections, any necessary cable reorganization, and assessment and documentation of any discovered system anomalies that might require follow-up hardware or software support. The objective is to make your systems function more efficiently and more reliably and to extend the lifetime of your equipment.

As noted in the introduction to this document, we made a forecast in our announcement last February that the blending of CDS and SCRC into one collaborative unit would produce meaningful benefits for customers. We believe the benefits listed above are just the first wave of positive results from the merger and that more good news for customers will come in the future as CDS and SCRC continue to harmonize their operations and explore the possibilities.

Have questions?

Contact Chris Whitford at 910-483-5603 or Jeff Edmonds at (704) 872-0826.