PCI compliance is big news these days. Companies are becoming more aware of the responsibility required to collect and maintain personal information such as…

• Names
• Addresses
• Phone numbers
• E-mail addresses
• Credit Card data
• Demographic information

Most retailers are relieved they are not in the medical fields and have to comply with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act) rules. HIPAA made it the responsibility of business (the doctor, nurse, personnel, lab tech, etc) viewing or working with the information to keep the information private. If the information was not kept private and safe, the business could be fined heavily - $100 per violation, this adds up fast, up to $25,000 per year and if determined to be continued knowing misuse, $50,000 to $250,000 and 1 to 10 years imprisonment.

With more media coverage of ‘lost’ credit card and personal data and with identity theft on the rise, retailers are now being looked at much more closely just like the medical field with HIPAA. It is the responsibility of the person/people maintaining the data to keep the data safe.

With your Point of Sale software (POS software), it is easy to just ask ‘is the POS software PCI compliant?’, however, there is a lot more to PCI compliance than just data storage. The data must be protected as well. This can be though of as you in your car. Just because you are in your car does not mean you are protected. You should put on your seat belt, make sure children are in approved car seats, your breaks are in good working condition, the tires have plenty of tread and air, you have plenty of gas to get where you are going, etc. As you can see, safety in more than just putting the data in a place that ‘should’ be safe.

A quote from an article in the April 2008 SC (Security) Magazine states the following, ‘... technology can only go so far in meeting compliance mandates. “Security is 80 percent process and procedure… Vendors can only provide technology to assist in compliance, not do compliance.” Jeff Aliber, senior director, product marketing, Kaspersky Lab (makers of Anti-virus, Anti-malware, Anti-spyware, etc products).

To find out more information on PCI compliance and what is required above and beyond ‘is the data stored correctly’, visit the PCI Compliance Guide website.

While gaining new customers can help your business grow, a lot of times it is not enough. Imagine gaining 20 new customers each and every month, but losing 25 existing customers every month during the same time frame. Just getting new customers would not be enough in this situation to keep your business going. You must find a way to gain more customers than you are losing.

This is where your Point of Sale (POS) Software can be a valuable tool. ProphetLine POS Software has integrated customer marketing. With the availability of customer purchases, user definable fields you can easily give your customers that personal touch that will keep them as a valued customer even if you don’t have the best prices in town. High quality customer Service is something we at ProphetLine know is valuable and is one of the reasons our POS Software makes it easy for you to give higher customer service to your customers as well.

One of the premises of an explosive new book titled “The Secret” is positive reinforcement. If you think good things, good things will happen. “The Secret” takes this much further and also states that “thoughts become things”. If you ‘think’ about a new car, it will be materialized for you. Wouldn’t it be nice if it really worked that way?

Imagine thinking you had a million dollars and poof, there it is. Why operate a business when you can ‘think’ success into existence.

At ProphetLine, we understand what is actually required to succeed. Yes, positive outlooks will help, especially when followed with rolled up sleeves and a commitment to some good old fashioned hard work. At ProphetLine, we also understand the value of time and have built time saving features into our Point of Sale (POS) Software. We know you work hard, but why work harder than you have to? Shouldn’t your POS software be able to assist you in making smarter decisions? We at ProphetLine think so!!!

Multi-Store Ordering, Customer Marketing, Retail Stock Analysis, Best/Worst reporting, Reorder Suggested values based on Stock Levels, Sales/Special Orders, Automated Transfers of Inventory, seamlessly integrated Accounting and Payroll… The list goes on and on. Give us a call to find out how you can use ProphetLine’s POS software to use your time more wisely and give your business ‘The Secret’ of success.

If you are reading this, you have probably tried just about everything, however, we need to check the basics first. The first thing to do is remove the 1.1 framework using the control panel uninstall. If this is successful, reinstall the 1.1 framework and then SP1 if it was not included in the version you downloaded.

If, like me, during the unistall, the framework is not removed and no notice as to why is displayed, you will need to use a different method to do the uninstall. A .NET removal tool is available, Click here to download. For more information on the tool, you can read the blog entry of Aaron Stebner at Aaron Stebner's Weblog

Once the framework is removed, proceed with a normal installation.

While Microsoft's Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel (download from MajorGeeks here) will work in Windows Vista, it only works for Administrative users. If you need to mount drives for standard or limited users, you must either run the program with administrative rights (less secure) or find another solution.

One such solution that works extreamly well is Virtual CloneDrive by Elaborate Bytes software. CloneDrive can be found under their free software download located at Free CloneDrive Download.

The free version allows a maximum of 8 drives in parallel, you can change the icon for the 'clone' drives to display Elabrate Software's 'angry sheep' and you can have the last image to automatically be loaded when Windows starts.

ProphetLine specializes in specialty retail POS/point of sale software.  We know retail AND pos software technology, and our award-winning products process over a million pos transactions a day all over the world in furniture, clothing, sports, electronics, photo, cellular, and other types of retail.  Chances are if you are a retailer, our pos software will work with your business.  And, not only will it work for your business, our POS/point of sale software will make it more efficient and profitable. 

Features?  We've Got Features!

• FAST POS/Point of Sale software transactions
• Gift Certificate Production, Tracking and Redemption
• Credit, Debit & Gift Card POS Software Included
• Serial Number and Warranty Tracking
• Consignment & Trade-Ins
• Customizable "On-Screen" Shortcuts
• Sales Orders with Deposits
• Purchasing, Receiving by Exception
• Customizable Receipt Graphics
• Email and FAX Service from PC
• Seamless Web Shopping Cart & Gift Registry
• Electronic Signature Capture
• Inventory Management
• Touch Screen Support
• Customer Marketing
• Time Clock and Payroll Support
• Integrated Accounting or Links to other Packages