What the future holds

A KEYCARD and a machine /\ which gives you cash from your [JLbank account any time, any day; lectronic scanning cash registers; a card 4iich allows you to pay for groceries irect from your bank account. They’re [st some of the items tipped for the gion’s future. [And, according to at least one compu ir retailer, there’s a killing for the first usinesses to take on the challenge.

Pro Systems believes keycards and utomatic Teller Machines (ATMs) ill be a winner. “Initially I think it’ll kne in as a gimmick, but whichever ink goes first is going to make a cream it of it. A lot of working people will ove their accounts there to have easy Icess to their cash,” according to einaging director Charles Quai Hoi.

He believes it also could mean big

lings in productivity.

“Government workers, for example, t paid on a Thursday so 30,000 civil rvants queue up at banks trying to get sh, taking an hour and a half, maybe □re than their lunch hour. The card is ing to cost somebody, the technology going to cost somebody, but the pay ' is there in productivity.”

But, he says, most workers are having ough problems keeping money in their counts. ATMs are a great idea, but the ne may not be right.

Nor. he says, is the region ready for ectronic Funds Transfer Point of le (Eftpos), in which an electronic >h register reads a consumer’s card and bits his/her bank account for pur ascs. Enthusiasts like IDL’s Sunil fnd stress the convenience for shoppers d advantages for businesses in infor ition flowing directly from the point of e to the main computer records.

Qjuai Hoi, however, is not convinced it the time is right even for credit cards :ause of the level of responsibility |uired on the part of shoppers. He does

believe, however, that the time is right for cash-register scanning.

“Because of changing trends, business has become very competitive, margins have dwindled away. Now businesses have got into promotions like “sweet eners” selling at a loss to get customers into the shop to balance the books.

Businesses here also have problems with “sweethearting” or pilferage selling cheaper to relatives by keying in a lesser price. With scanning the price is fixed, there’s no discounting, that’s it.”

Qiiai Hoi says scanning allows retailers to “know exactly what they are selling at any point in time, what has been sold in what area. They can work out the right products to have on the shelf, so they don’t sit there. Scanning can help increase sales figures and help you make the right buying decisions, and decisions in negotiation over buying prices.”

ICL already has electronic scanning cash registers operational at the Morris Hedstrom outlet in Tamavua, Suva, Fiji.

ICL’s general manager, John Fisher, admitted the cost, if it was not confiden tial, could seem exorbitant, but he believes a business with sufficient sales could improve its gross margin by a couple of per cent per annum, and cover the cost within a few years.

Laptop and notebook computers: enthusiasm abounds on these. IDL’s Sunil Nand points out that $4OOO to $6OOO can allow businessmen to carry their business with them. Battery packs give users the ability to access and store vital information even in remote areas.

With access to communications net works, modems can send information through phone lines.

According to Pro System’s Qiiai Hoi: “You have to make the right decisions, and have the information to make the right decisions. The investment in a laptop (Fs4ooo up for a clone with a 20-40 megabite hard disc) is minimal

compared to the losses if you make a wrong decision.”

There is general agreement that desktop publishing also is a growth market. IDL’s Nand explains its appeal: “The desktop publisher lets you take a publication like a newsletter to a stage where you give it straight to the printer the Tourism Council of the South Pacific is doing this. Or you can use a colour printer and print it yourself. You have total control.”

DATEC’s senior sales representative in Fiji, David Anstice, said there is a revolution in computer printing, par ticularly with today’s high-quality and decreased-cost laser printers.

Some retailers see growth in the home market in personal computers (PCs).

“The price of computers has come right down,” Anstice said. “Next after your television set and the video deck families will buy a computer.”

The latest IBM PCs are selling at less than $2OOO (hardware and software) in New Zealand, and negotiations are under way to release them here.

Another growth market is going to be in high level graphical presentations where video technology, for example, links into computers so seminar partici pants can be involved in presentations by selecting from visual displays.

Computer networks linking compu

ters within an office, and between offices

using telephones, are a growth market.

The price has come down a five-user network now costs about $15,000.

Total solutions for small busi ness: also are a growth market. These can include the debtors ledger, creditors ledger, training, details on phone mess ages, and records tracking progress with clients. PIM thought for a moment this could mean managers being able to just shut the door, not talk to anyone, and let business carry on around them.

But, as ICL’s Fisher pointed out: “It’s more a case of keeping in touch, and

knowing exactly what’s happening

throughout the business. That’s the idea of computers.” □