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Regardless of POS system, there are essential categories and daily tasks that must be completed to ensure you are free to focus on being a retailer and driving your business. These include:
Typically, tasks related to training and/or certification on the purchased POS and Inventory Control software that covers all aspects of the application.
Typically, tasks for the management of POS and Inventory Control Systems including data entry, management, and quality of setting up of all master files (i.e., Categories, Vendors, Inventory, Customers, and Employees), Order Documents (like PO’s, TO’s, and SO’s), etc.
Typically tasks for the management of POS and Inventory Control software like Retail Pro®, including but not limited to opening/EOD procedures, polling, ECM or data communication management, PCI management, etc.
These typically include tasks like management and monitoring of Hardware, OS, Network (i.e., firewalls, routers, Wi–Fi, switches, etc.), power, and other systems applications like MS Office365, data backup and recovery, etc.
Typically, tasks related to the custom design, development, integration, testing, and rolling out require other complementary application(s)to the base POS.
Some areas may require more attention and focus than others, for any number of reasons. Are you in older buildings, where basic infrastructure like telephone, cabling and power have not been updated for some time? Do you have multiple hardware components and set-ups? Does your system integrate with other systems, requiring constant management and monitoring?
IMS has analyzed thousands of support desk tickets and found that most customers struggle to proactively handle the essential tasks of Systems Administration/IT Infrastructure and Systems Operations. Numerous one–on–one interviews have revealed the primary reasons these support issues keep occurring:
IMS Basic Support, Extended Support and 24/7 Support is our IMS “react and respond” support offering- geared towards assisting you after you have already completed your own Systems Administration and Operations troubleshooting. Utilizing our i–Manage IT automation technology, IMS will help you diagnose the problem and assist you with recommendations on how your team can address, fix or repair, an issue or how IMS can provide short–term remediation, if necessary.
Basic support is for those clients wishing to be self–sufficient, having already invested in IMS training and workshops.
Our Basic Support, Extended Support and 24/7 Support offerings will enable you to do the work, utilizing IMS as a critical resource to help you identify what the problem is and needs to be done to resolve your issue and to help prevent it in the future. In addition to having direct access to an IMS certified technician, you have access to our internal library of “how–to” documents, and if you are current on your Retail Pro Software Assurance (SA), you also have 24x7 access to my.retailpro.com, with hundreds of how–to training videos and downloadable documents.
The main differences between these three (3)“Basic” Support offerings are hours of coverage:
•Basic Support: 9AM–5PM EST Monday through Friday ideal for the self–sufficient operator needing coverage during core business hours.
•Extended Support: 9AM –Midnight EST Monday through Sunday. Geared to the self–sufficient operator needing extended coverage during this period.
•24×7 Support: A new offering with a launch date targeted in mid–2021, with 24x7 coverage, again geared to the self–sufficient global operator needing coverage during all hours of operation.
Our Premier Services Support Program is our most complete, all encompassing, “IT” Administrative Services program. Geared towards allowing you to focus your energies, and efforts on your business, your Premier Service & Support agreement can provide support on your IMS Cloud Hosted Server (if you are hosting with IMS) or support your On Premise Server.
For support of your On–Premise POS Devices, workstations, and peripherals, you can utilize our IMS Basic Support, Extended Support or 24/7 Support, helping you understand issues and assist your team with problem source identification, recommendations and remediation.
With Premier Service & Support, IMS will provide proactive service and remediation while managing these devices allowing you to feel confident in knowing you have the full knowledge, experience, and resources of IMS proactively working on your behalf for up to 24–hours a day, 7–days a week.
With this enhanced support program, IMS moves from a reactive model- where you initiate our involvement in support- to a proactive one, where we actively monitor and manage your IMS Cloud Hosted or On–Premise Server, and provide critical support for your Back of House PC’s, POS devices, and key peripherals.
Aligned with our Managed IT services, our team of certified technicians will manage core systems administration/IT infrastructure tasks such as (but not limited to) daily, weekly, and monthly proactive management of:
• Network Monitoring of Network Availability of your network service from you network provider (IMS offers a fully managed network service, please ask to discuss this if you are interested in this)
• Local Backup (Off-Site Vaulted Backup optional)
• Anti-virus protection at server & POS
• Server and POS Operating system management, maintenance and updating
• Asset Discovery & Management
• IT Automation
• IT Infrastructure Monitoring & Management
• End-Point management
• User management at the server level
• Server and POS Hardware and peripheral management
• IT Service Management (ITSM) – Help Desk, Ticketing, Incident Management, ITIL
• Basic Change & Configuration Management at the server level
• Retail Pro software updates at the server level (POS excluded)
Built on top of our best-in-class IMS Hosting, Silver Support combines our Silver Hosting Services and one of our Basic Support coverages- IMS Cloud Hosting.
Built on top of our best-in-class Gold hosting capabilities, IMS Hosting Gold Support combines our Gold Hosting Services, including Disaster Recovery and Data Restoration.
Additionally, IMS offers an account for funding/addressing any “out-of-scope” support activities with authorization by the customer, so that we can respond to any issue immediately through use of this account for the specified function.
IMS Systems Operations support is “customized, proactive” support geared towards managing critical system operations tasks and software application tasks. Managed by our team of certified technicians, core systems operations tasks such as (but not limited to) daily, weekly, and monthly proactive management of the following can be added to a Systems Operations Support agreement:
• Polling data flow and synchronization
• Data flow to core reports
• Re-installation of software on existing IMS supplied hardware • Software test lab setup and management
• Testing of Software core updates in your lab
• Installing Software core updates on your server (onsite or cloud)
• Select document designs and revisions
• Software updates at POS
Systems Operations Support Agreement is a customized agreement, with the above representing what can be included. IMS will work together with you to identify areas of your operation you wish to hand over to IMS for expert management, crafting a program specific to your needs.
Call your IMS Account Manager or Customer Success Manager (CSM) today or email us at sales@ims–pos.com to discuss the Performance Care program that is right for you.
