FAQ
The technology we use to enable our clients to use a POS system anywhere is complex. The end result though makes it a pretty straightforward business decision regardless of your venue. Below we have tried to answer some of the more frequently asked questions.
Q: Who is Motion Wireless Inc. (MWI)?
A: Located in Markham, ONT (Canada), Motion Wireless is the developer of the only “use anywhere” POS system designed for location-based entertainment venues, such as golf courses, theme parks, campgrounds, stadiums, and similar sites.
Q: What makes CartMaster© so unique?
A: CartMaster© has been designed from the beginning to be rugged and long lasting. The software was designed for mobile use and many months were spent on developing a user interface which is both elegant and simple, user friendly and yet powerful to fulfill all your business needs outside.
The hardware was designed from the concept stage through to manufacture to be as rugged as possible. This is not a off the shelf product designed for light usage.
Q: Can the system be leased?
A: Yes, MWI can work with either your current vendor or can arrange for leasing of the system.
Q: Can I just call my Club Car Rep when I'm ready? I may want to buy this with my next fleet.
A: Yes by all means. Most Club Car senior managers are fully aware of the product and can access our Club Car Rep in Augusta through a quick telephone call.
Q: What would my need for CartMaster© be?
A: CartMaster© enables you to manage what happens outside of your sight. From management of inventories to enabling the processing of credit & debit, CartMaster© is the only available platform that can be easily deployed. Customers can run tabs and sales to tournaments can be easily identified and managed without complex paper systems slowing down the process.
Based on feedback from clients and their management, CartMaster© enables them to “get a handle” on some very specific issues. Although each location has their own motivators, the most common are inventory management and control, reduction of employee theft, accountability for sales and inventories and credible billing for tournaments and members.
Q: Why do we need your system? We already accept credit cards outdoors and process them in the bar.
A: With the escalating fraud rates being experienced with credit cards and the dramatic escalation of identity theft, more and more individuals are uneasy letting their cards out of their sight even on a golf course. It takes less than 5 seconds for a fraudster to strip a card of the information needed to counterfeit it. More importantly, counterfeit cards are showing up everywhere with increasing frequency.
Q: I've seen credit swipe systems with printers on the Internet for $2,000. Why is yours so expensive? I'm not sure this thing can pay for itself.
A: Quite true there are “cheaper” devices on the market. Firstly, this is not a credit card swipe; it is a fully functioning point of sale system that far surpasses a credit card swipe. CartMaster© is designed to help you better manage your business by introducing processes and controls in the “gray areas.
Making it pay also entails you being creative in the use of the product. Remember, this product can go to local golf retail shows, be used at tent events, on patios and halfway houses along with functions. In addition, the inventory management system enables you to better understand and purchase for your F&B operation. Also, through analysing purchase patterns, you can learn to stock your cart with products that sell not products that occupy space.
Q: How can I deploy CartMaster©?
A: CartMaster© can be easily mounted onto most current food & beverage carts. Working with Carts of Colorado, MWI has designed an easy to install kit for Café Express and Café Deluxe. Installation takes approximately 20 minutes. Through MWI, you can purchase an attractive rugged stand designed for use on your patio, halfway house or mobile cart. CartMaster© can be installed through the use of a kit on most F&B carts in use today.
Q: How do I know you won't develop new software and suddenly make my system inoperable? (This happens with indoor systems.)
A: MWI has made a considerable investment in the design of this software. From the start it has been designed to be modular with a fully functioning and robust database foundation. Most POS systems on the market are running old technology and in most cases, the only way they can migrate is by completely replacing their product. Motion Wireless built the application using the latest operating systems using products which are forward up gradable.
Q: How complex is the system setup?
A: The Motion Wireless requirements are pretty simple. You will need some space on a server or computer within your network, access to your firewall and knowledge of how to “tunnel” through it. You will also have to have a static IP address available. If all this is “greek” to you, please refer to your IT manager. The alternative is to have Motion Wireless host your server application on one of our servers for a monthly fee. The upside to this is that we do understand the geek talk and know how to properly configure the network for successful implementation. This reduces your managers role to simply invoking RDC services to access the program from their desktop.
There is a requirement to have a couple of standard business forms filled in and submitted. These cover the digital network. Once the paperwork is completed and processed, MWI will install the terminal ID’s onto the mobile units and ship the entire system to you in a returnable container. The CartManager© component will be delivered on a single CD and can run on any server with an Internet connection. Installation of the CartManager© component typically takes less than 2 hours.
Q: Why is your warranty period so brief? You should guarantee it for the life of the lease, like golf cars.
A: CartMaster© is a hardware/software solution with a significant number of complex technologies integrated into it. It is much more complex than your desktop or your indoor POS system since it is both portable and designed for outdoor use. You can purchase an extended warranty for the unit directly from Motion Wireless Inc if you so desire. In addition, you can purchase an annual refurbishment program.
Q: Who will service my MW POS system if it goes down for some reason?
A: If the product is still under warranty, simply inform us, courier the unit to us and within the same business day we will send you a replacement unit. If your warranty period has passed, you can still us the same process and we will either repair or replace the broken components and return it to you with 3 business days.
Q: Can't you just sell me the terminal/s, and you run them from a server at MWI? I'm not sure our IT people are good enough for something like this.
A: Motion Wireless does have a program that will suit your needs inasmuch as we can run the server component off of one of our servers. There is a monthly fee billed quarterly of $59.88/mth and a $10.00/mth user fee. The biggest difference is in the report generation since the remote location server requires you to produce your reports and then e-mail them to yourself. Once you have walked through this process a couple of times, you will find it easy to do.
Q: How do I know my customers will like this? They're not the AMEX crowd.
A: As with any business, what you are bringing to your customers are options in how to pay. It is very shortsighted to believe that your customers won’t want to use credit cards if given the opportunity to do so. Our experience has been that many customers will switch if given the opportunity and more importantly they will spend more on your course.
Q: I lease my cars. Won't I get into trouble if I install your mounting system on the floor of my Cafe Express?
A: Club Car is fully aware of the product and how it mounts. The mounting brackets require that eight (8) 3/16th holes be made in the floor between the frame. When it is time to replace your carts, the system can be removed and the floor mat replaced hiding the holes from sight.
Q: Can't you make these terminals smaller/more attractive/lighter/etc?
A: Contained within the case are a considerable number of technologies needed to make the product work consistently. In addition, the main components have shock mounts and immersion platforms designed to extend the life of the system. This design was developed as the result of processing approximately 30,000 transactions on prototypes and more “attractive” hardware. Issues such as battery failure, viewability, ruggedness, screen markings, broken connectors, dropped and damaged components all had to be addressed in the final design phase. The footprint of this POS system is still significantly smaller than typical indoor POS systems without taking into consideration the shelf space occupied by the credit card processing equipment.
Q: What about training for my staff?
A: Motion Wireless offers on-line training for your staff particularly for the on-course workers. Each module takes about 2 minutes to run through. In addition, CartMaster© ships with a small “cheat sheet” that can be left with the unit for review purposes. CartMaster© will also be offering regional training sessions for more senior managers who want to take full advantage of the system’s capabilities. These will be held across North America and are open to any user of the CartMaster© system. In addition, MWI can arrange for on-site training programs for all your staff at your convenience.
Q: What do you mean by “digital networks”?
A: Digital networks are the next generation of cellular wireless networks being introduced for the movement of data across vast distances. Because of the manner in which they handle issues such as encryption, they are superior in performance and reliability compared to older networks or 802.11b networks. These networks were designed for use in environments requiring little or no security. More importantly, the digital networks are encrypted ensuring that the data you send out is secure.
Q: Just exactly how does your system handle debit & credit?
A: We have built an “interface tool” which allows the debit/credit card pin pad or device to pass very select information back and forth from our POS system. The underlying technology is certified as “CISP IPC” compliant by the processors for security and reliability for the handling of confidential information.
Q: Is this thing really secure?
A: Yes, this thing is really secure. Part of our credit card certification process was validation by Global Payments that we do use a secure method of communications. GSM/GPRS has a double DES128 encryption algorithm which encodes twice data passing out and back.
Q: Will this thing really process credit cards accurately?
A: Yes.
Q: How do I know these transactions are going to get deposited without a lot of messes to clean up? I don't have time for messes.
A: Contained within CartManager is a report that enables you to track all credit card transactions along with fees and charges. It is relatively easy to set up and enables you to produce a report for any time period showing deposits, charges and fees by either card type or by all cards. In addition, you will be given access to Mercury Payments online reporting system which enables you to pull down reports for all credit card transactions.
Q: Can I continue to use my same bank?
A: In Canada and the US, yes. The underlying software is certified by Global Payments who have a working relationship with all the Canadian Banks. In the US, we are also certified with Global Payments.
Q: We have poor cellular coverage. Can I still use your product?
A: Yes, in most locations, the standard configuration works just fine. In some cases though we may be required to switch you to a more powerful radio to solve your reception problem. The system is designed to allow us to do this before we ship it.
Q: Do you have a ROI on your product?
A: Yes, our ROI model is rather complex and requires us to gather some facts from you before we can generate a detailed ROI. If you would like to see the numbers, just e-mail sales and we will work with you. We need to know the number of rounds you have per year, the number of days you are typically open, the number of systems you are envisioning installing, the type of carts you use and what components you are considering.
Q: Where can I see this product?
A: At any time we can arrange for an online demo of the mobile software. To arrange this either send us an e-mail at sales@motionwireless.ca or call us at 1-800-624-2781.
Q: Can we try this thing for a few months before committing to it long term? I'm not sure we're ready for something this complex/expensive. Do you have a trial program?
A: No, because we are enabling debit and credit, there is no way for us to do trials unless you are willing to give us the money from the trial. Enabling debit and credit requires you to have a merchant account with your bank. Alternatively, you can “rent” the system for a given period of time but a rental requires you to commit the necessary resources at your end to utilising the technology. We have learned from experience that “free” to a golf course means a lack of commitment.
Q: If I buy now, and you come out with a better model next year, will you take this one back and give me the new one? (Trade-in policy)
A: Yes, we will do trade-ins if you feel that you want to replace your unit entirely. In most cases, the developments are software based and you do receive free upgrades for the 1st year. If the systems have not been abused, we are more than happy to accept them as trade-ins and add those units to our event rental program.
Q: I have an internal POS system already and a G/L system. Can I interface this with it?
A: Good question, the short answer is that it really depends on the level of cooperation we can get from your POS supplier or your G/L software company. Some software vendors welcome the introduction of our product and work with us. Others unfortunately consider CartMaster© a threat and absolutely refuse to work with us. (We always wonder what they are trying to hide or keep you from knowing.) There is still an upside though; you can produce summary reports from our server which gives your people a very small organized document to input into your current POS system.
One of the easier workarounds is to set up accounts in your G/L named after the various credit cards and simply input the daily totals. Our system does not leave a batch file to close at the end of the day and our EOD report will show the user clearly totals by credit card type. You would have to have your accountant do this and we can send him exactly what they would have to set up to make this work.
Q: Have you cleared this with our CFO?
A: Tough question and more applicable to after we meet. We would be more than happy to demonstrate the product to your CFO, CIO and any other “C”’s you’ve got.
