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The “New Normal” for Consumer Facing Businesses

No matter what we do and where we are, all we hear these days is about the new normal. I would argue we heard about it before this year’s pandemic, but COVID-19 has certainly brought significant changes to how we serve our customers’ expectations. With forecasts that COVID-19 will be with us well into 2021, our businesses need to ensure we are making the investments to not only survive, but to thrive where possible.

Technology has long been a game-changer, but it is even more critical now. Below are the technologies that were once nice to have, but they are now critical for competing for today’s customers:

1. Modern Point-of-Sale (POS) Platform
Whether it is enabling an agile and always available point-of-sale platform for customers, today’s POS platforms offer significant advantages to those of 5 years ago. Many can be cloud based making them more cost-effective. These also offer customer friendly displays and information that customers find useful and preferable, including enhanced ability to enable frequent shopper or frequent guest options. Their data collection capabilities accelerate back-end data analytics so important to our sophisticated businesses. Finally, they enable many of the other technologies that follow.

2. Mobile Point-of-Sale (POS)
Mobile POS offers us so many customer service options. Whether it is line busting to speed up checkout in busy times or facilitating the now mandatory option for curbside pickup, mobile POS is no longer a nice-to-have, it is a must-have. Safe and secure mobile payment options are also a necessity.

3. Digital Signage and Order Boards
Customers respond to having more flexibility in how they shop. Many still like traditional shopping where safeguards are in place, but they want to checkout quickly and safely, which is where more crowding occurs. Is your Point-of-Sale quick and efficient? Do you offer Self-Checkout as an option? Can a contactless payment be made?

4. Protective Equipment
Customers and associates are expecting their shopping and working experiences to be as safe as possible. Plexiglass protection at checkouts and service desks is an easy solution. Temperature checking kiosks at entry identifies someone who might be carrying a virus prior to them coming too far inside. Likewise, temperature sensing cameras can also identify potentially ill people as they enter a facility. Is your business doing enough?

Macro Integration Services offers advice and solutions across all of these areas for our customers in Retail, Grocery, Quick Serve Restaurants, Hospitality, and Entertainment. Our expertise and commitment combine to make our customers the heroes of their companies.

Terry Morgan, CEO – Macro Integration Services

 

 

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

COVID-19 Protocol for Macro Technicians

Macro Integration Services values the health and safety of our Customers and Associates above all else. As such, we are following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Interim Guidance for Business and Employers.
Internally, we require any employee to stay home if they exhibit any symptoms at all. Additionally, we are taking special care in handling packages and incoming shipments from suppliers or customers. Hand washing and limiting human contact are encouraged both inside and outside the workplace.
Macro Field Maintenance and Install Technicians are required to follow the protocols below at all time while inside of customer locations:

  • Not exhibit known COVID-19 symptoms for the previous 3 days
  • Wear a mask
  • Maintain a 6’ social distancing standard
  • Wear gloves (if required by the customer)
  • Disinfect work area upon work completion

For our Customers, we plan no interruption in service. We understand that many of our QSR and retail customers may experience unusually high volume during this time of great uncertainty and Macro is committed to support them in the markets they serve.
You may visit the Macro website (www.macrointegrations.com) for the most current information. Or, please reach out to your Macro sales representative if you have any specific questions or special guidance for how to best maintain continuity of our service relationship.

TCPOS and Macro Integration Services, Inc.

With TCPOS POS solution, Macro will extend their solutions and services offerings that they have provided for decades to the retail market. TCPOS.net POS solution offering will allow Macro to address businesses that have complex corporate processes, conglomerates with multiple brands and retail format challenges, Omni-channel strategies, as well as extend their software offering into hospitality market segment.

“Now, Macro will be able to provide a cloud-based hybrid POS solution with offline capabilities that can be centrally managed. The solution provides a POS framework that allows our customers to build their own functional plugins,” says Bart Collins, VP Sales and Marketing, Partner.

“It is great to partner with a company that has strong business morals and a long-term commitment to their customers and the market they serve,” says David Thomas, Managing Director, TCPOS North America.

ABOUT TCPOS NORTH AMERICA INC.

TCPOS North America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TCPOS SA, is a leading global provider of POS software solutions to hospitality and retail businesses. With offices in US and Canada, TCPOS future-proof POS technology platform is designed for businesses to address the challenges and opportunities of multiple brands, multiple retail formats, multiple languages, and multiple currencies. The only true POS solution on the market that addresses these opportunities in a single platform and a POS architecture that enables Omni-channel retail deployments. More than 10,000 customers all over the world trust TCPOS solutions and our extensible architecture and design philosophy.

Macro Integration Services Comprehensive Network Infrastructure For Retail Stores

Bart Collins, Vice President, Sales at Macro Integration Services is excited about his company’s ability to solve the current and future opportunities and challenges for retailers. As evidenced in the emerging trends at the recent annual RetailNOW conference of the Retail Solution Providers Association (RSPA), Collins is elated that Macro’s business model focuses on point-of-sale, network infrastructure, PCl compliance, and mobility. Collins, who is a board member of the RSPA, highlights the fact that “Macro’s services have expanded from a pure services model to one that provides technology hardware and software solutions to our elite group of multi-located retail customers.”

Macro provides and implements Point of Sale (POS) hardware and software systems, as well as the services to warehouse, stage, install, and then maintain it. In this backdrop, ever since the company’s inception, Delhaize America is a customer instance where Macro provides almost all retail systems installation, remodeling, store closing, and asset management services for their subsidiary brands such as Food Lion, Hannaford, and Bottom Dollar Foods. “For our varied customers, we are heavily involved in the store’s infrastructure by providing product like POS terminals, electronic payment termina.ls, servers, PCs, workstations, self-service kiosks, self-checkout, wireless access, telephony, digital signage, security, networking, and more,” Collins adds. Additionally, the company offers help desk support, training, project management, consulting services, and on-site and depot maintenance. Macro continues to expand relationships with select business partners, such as NCR, Toshiba, Wincor, Elo TouchSystems, HP, Cisco, and Crimson TT for retail hardware and software products.

Retailers face a daunting task in investments and workloads to adopt a technology refresh across all locations within a short timeframe. Macro’s recognition highlights the quality, scale, flexibility, and value offerings to rollout large projects spread across more than 20- 30 locations in a very tight implementation time span. Macro’s significant experience with partner service organizations works well for the cyclical nature of customers’ projects. The advantage for the companies such as Hugo Boss, Coca-Cola, Colonial Downs, Stage Stores, Family Dollar, Krispy Kreme, Extended Stay America, and many more are rooted in Macro’s penchant for great long-term customer relationships.

Sharing the vision of establishing Macro, the Macro executive team includes principle and co-founder, Wayne Williams, and VP of Operations and co-founder, Tommy Gardner. Both have life-long careers in the store systems industry. At the helm is Terry Morgan, President of Macro Integration Services, with his three decades of management consulting and grocery retail industry experience raises the tide in trust-building and longevity for their clients. He claims, “We are currently seeing a number of opportunities opening for us at the various ABC Boards across North Carolina which will double up as a source of recurring revenue. Our market includes the retail, hospitality, and gaming industries, but through our development of bill payment kiosks, we are also finding opportunities in the government municipality market.” Furthermore, in concurrence to the varied cu tomer business cycles, Macro is enhancing its strategies to offer more services in payment processing, field maintenance, and depot maintenance expanding to include consulting and interim executive services.

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