Congruity Solutions, LLC

Exciting Updates from Shopkeep

Chris Pace — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:27:00 +0000

I wanted to share some exciting developments I’ve learned from Shopkeep -

Technology Update 051713

Hi all,

This is the first entry in a series of bi-weekly updates I’ll be posting to keep you up to speed on what we’re doing to make ShopKeep POS better.

Our development talent is broadly broken up into BackOffice or iOS/iPad work. A major feature for our system will have both BackOffice and iPad components.

In the past two weeks the development team has been focusing in on some BackOffice improvements. In particular, we have worked on enabling the color coding of buttons at the register. This is a feature we have long wanted to implement and I’m really happy we’re going to make it happen. I’m particularly excited by the idea that we could soon have our first ice cream/cupcake store with buttons color-coded according to the flavor they represent. You can look for this feature some time after we finish up split tenders.

Just as a quick preview, here are the colors you can expect!

Other Button Goodness - We’ll be allowing for quick navigation between pages along with names for those pages. For example, a coffee shop’s inventory can be broken down according to coffee/sandwiches/baked goods, etc. We hope this will really cut down on the time it takes to ring up a customer – leaving everybody happy.

Custom Tenders - We are working on making it possible to create tender types and give them each a customized name. In this way, merchants will be able to track sales according to specific tender types, such as ‘Check’ or ‘Money Order’. This feature will work especially well with our upcoming split tenders feature.

So that’s what we worked on last week. Here’s what’s being worked on now.

iPad Split Tender – In the upcoming week we will be concentrating on the iPad interface for our split tender feature.

Online Ordering made Easy

Chris Pace — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:45:54 +0000

If your restaurant doesn’t offer online ordering, you are missing out on an enormous opportunity! We offer a simple, turnkey solution using the OpenDining platform that can be installed quickly and efficiently in to your existing website? Or, if you are looking for a new website with restaurant online ordering, we can build a complete integrated solution.

Contact us if you’d like a demonstration of restaurant online ordering. If you just want online referrals, with customer paying at pickup, there is no monthly fee. Or, if you’d like the ability to capture payment online, the cost is as little as $49/month.

For more information about OpenDining, please go to

http://bit.ly/OpenDining

Spotlight in Business Solutions Monthly

Chris Pace — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 02:45:33 +0000

We were very excited to be approached by Business Solutions Monthly and asked to be featured in an article in their May issue. Here’s a little sample of what was in the article:

Small VAR Goes Big-Time With Mobile POS

By Matt Pillar, Business Solutions magazine

Chris Pace helped a pal who owns a coffee shop set up mobile POS. Next thing he knew, he was a POS VAR. Congruity Solutions is now the go-to provider of mobile POS for more than a dozen shops in Phoenix.

Chris Pace didn’t expect success selling mobile POS systems. He wasn’t even looking for it. By trade, Pace is a business analyst specializing in healthcare who — almost reluctantly — calls himself a POS VAR now.

In the summer of 2011, Pace had some time to kill in the midst of a career change. A friend of his, who operates a hip coffee shop in Gilbert, AZ, needed a new POS system. Pace offered to help and, after conducting some research, convinced the coffee shop owner to try ShopKeepPOS, an iOS POS application, on an iPad. Pace was the application’s first reseller, and he plugged it in for the first time in beta.

The coffee shop owner liked it. His customers, many of them independent business owners themselves, liked it too. Within days of helping his friend deploy the iPad POS application, Pace was taking calls from independent retailers and restaurants from around the Phoenix area.

That was about 20 months ago. Today, the healthcare business analyst-turned-POS VAR serves a dozen retail, hospitality, and small business customers under the Congruity Solutions moniker.

“This is an interesting and sort of weird path that I never planned for or counted on,” says Pace. With an MBA under his belt, he is well aware that the way his new business developed is a bit nontraditional. “Most new businesses develop a product and a sales model, then go out and create demand. We found ourselves faced with huge demand, so we built a product and sales model to meet it.”

The approach is turning out quite lucrative for him, thanks in no small part to the recurring revenue he’s making on the payment processing services he resells. It’s also opened a lot of doors to another facet of this techno-renaissance man’s skillset: Web and social media development.

Pace’s willingness to offer services that most VARs don’t — or can’t — puts him in a good competitive position that appeals to the independents he serves. “Start-up and independent restaurants and retailers often don’t have rich websites and SEO [search engine optimization] and social media presences, nor do they have the time or expertise to tackle these things in-house and integrate them with the POS,” explains Pace. “But those two sides of the business — what they’re doing online and what they’re doing in stores — are complementary. One drives the other.” That’s a synergy that’s been lost on the great VAR community, and there’s no exception in Phoenix. No other tech business in the city is offering this combination of goods and services. And surely no one else is doing it for a single up-front fee, with no monthly charge and free support service for the life of the install.

Congruity Solutions Strengthens Local Arizona Connections

Chris Pace — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:27:37 +0000

Stronger Local Community Affiliations

We feel strongly about connecting to our local Arizona community. Congruity Solutions is proud to announce our recent membership with the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, as well as Local First Arizona. Our goal is to be the premier resource to small businesses in the East Valley and Phoenix Metro Area for web, social media, business analytics, and point of sale services.

Why do we focus our efforts on locally owned businesses? The Institute for Local Self-Reliance says it best:

1. Local Character and Prosperity
In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.

2. Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.

3. Local Decision-Making
Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.

4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.

5. Job and Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

6. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

7. Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.

8. Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

9. Competition
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

10. Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

If you are a member of Local First Arizona, or the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, we want to hear from you! Please feel free to contact us to see how Congruity Solutions can help your business make better business decisions by leveraging the power of our strategic partnerships.

Creative New ShopKeep POS iPad Stands

Chris Pace — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 06:03:33 +0000

I’ve had a few clients asking me about alternative ShopKeep POS iPad Stands implementations. The typical stands are either metal or acrylic, such as the WindFall POS Stand or the iSkid Flip , or even a newer innovation like the sleek and sturdy stand featured at CES last month.

A new trend though is hand crafted wooden ShopKeep POS iPad Stands. Here are a few I have stumbled on recently that look promising.

intra-stand ShopKeep POS iPad Stands

This is the intra-stand ipad stand that was specifically designed for ShopKeep with iDynamo swiper. It is a handsome cherry wood with aluminum construction, and works with the iPad 2 or 3. For only $229, this is a great option when it comes to iPad stands for ShopKeep. I found it on Etsy on February 9.

Custom Built Wooden ShopKeep POS iPad Stands

This is a custom built solution by ISupportU on etsy. Its only $199 and has a slot for the iDynamo. I also found this one on February 9

Sleek and Sturdy ShopKeep POS System

Chris Pace — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:05:55 +0000

Exciting news coming out of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show about ShopKeep POS. Finally, a heavy duty, but beautiful solution that integrates your iPad, a magnetic card reader, and a sturdy stand all in one.

A magnetic card reader with TDES encryption and DUKPT key management adds serious security; impact-resistant hardware protects the industrious iPad, and a smart stand.

As a package, the system takes the ShopKeep POS app, which is used by over 3,500 vendors in the US. Congruity Solutions is the largest reseller of ShopKeep POS for iPad and the only consultant in Arizona that specializes in ShopKeep.

The stand is manufactured by Griffin Technology.

About Griffin Technology

Founded on Paul Griffin ’s kitchen table in 1992, Griffin Technology Inc., is today one of the world’s foremost creators of accessories for home, mobile, and personal technology. Unique products such as iTrip®, PowerMate®, iFM®, iMic® and Evolve® Wireless Speaker System have broken new ground in consumer electronics and created loyal fans the world over. Today, Griffin products are conceived, designed and developed in-house and continue to push the envelope of the industry they helped create. Learn more about Griffin’s entire range of ingenious designs at www.griffintechnology.com, www.facebook.com/griffintech and on Twitter, @griffintech.

PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1y3Vg)

Learn More

Where to look for Credit Card Processing in 2013

Chris Pace — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:44:49 +0000

Credit card processing is crucial to any business. The ability to charge credit cards can mean the difference between a sale and no sale. Did you know that roughly 66% of in-store purchases are made with credit or debit cards? Over 180 million people actively carry credit cards with them, so if your business does not accept credit cards in 2013, you are turning away business.

Congruity Solutions can help get you set up with an online or offline credit card processor in a matter of days. Even if you have an existing point of sale system, terminal, or device for your phone like Square, we can help you control your costs and keep more of the money for your business. You’ll receive a personalized cost comparison to highlight how much money you’ll save in credit card processing by making the change. Even better, if your company has e-commerce and uses Authorize.net, we can help you save significantly over your current processor.

We are also Arizona’s authorized reseller of the ShopKeep POS system for iPad. If you own a small business and are tired of the hassle of keeping books, managing inventory, dealing with employee timecards, and just want something new that helps you engage better with your customers and simply make better business decisions; then ShopKeep POS for iPad is right for you.

Call us at 602.312.7561 for a free consultation and we can help get you on the right track for credit card processing, point of sale, e-commerce, IT, telephone systems, or other small business technology solutions. Or simply fill out the form below and one of our consultants will be happy to assist you.

Your Name

Phone Number *

Email *

Do you currently have a merchant account? *

Yes

Comments or Questions?

Local First Arizona Member

Chris Pace — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:05:46 +0000

Congruity Solutions is proud to announce that we are members of Local First Arizona for 2013. Congruity Solutions has been committed to helping small, locally owned business succeed since we started in 2011. This relationship solidifies our commitment to providing excellent consulting services to small businesses all across our great state of Arizona.

What does this mean to you? If you are a member of Local First Arizona, you will receive a 10% discount on any services that Congruity Solutions provides. So whether its a new point of sale in 2013, a fresh new website, or a great social media strategy…membership has its privileges.

To find out more about Local First Arizona, go to www.localfirstaz.com.

Tech Q&A – Year End Budgeting

Chris Pace — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:10:04 +0000

I love strategic partnerships. I especially love our strategic partnership with Marcus Networking. In this monthly installment, as featured in Arizona Business Magazine, Eric talks about year end budgeting and Section 179 deductions.

This is the first of what will be a continuing series of technology questions answered by Eric Marcus, CEO of Marcus Networking in Tempe.

Question: What technology or telecommunications products should we purchase before year-end?

Answer: December is an excellent time to evaluate your IT needs for the coming year and with Section 179 Deductions changing, small businesses should take advantage of purchasing new equipment before it’s too late.

According to the IRS, Section 179 of the IRS code allows small businesses to deduct the cost of machinery, vehicles, equipment, furniture and other property. This was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. At that time, the maximum amount that a business could deduct was $250,000. In 2011, the maximum deduction that a small business could make was $500,000, but in 2012, the amount drops to $139,000.

Marcus Networking recommends replacing old laptops, wireless access points, battery back-ups, MS Office, VoIP phone systems, and servers before Dec. 31, 2012. All of these products and services can improve workplace efficient and save money in the long run.

We’re also available to provide a free consultation and discuss your business needs. Does some of your staff work remotely? Will you be adding or reducing staff in the coming year? Are you building a new office? Would you like to cut travel costs and have the ability to do presentations remotely? All of these factors determine what products and services we’ll recommend for your business. And remember, you’ll always want to talk to your accountant before making any large capital purchases to ensure you follow the Section 179 code and take advantage to its fullest.

Eric Marcus is CEO of Tempe-based Marcus Networking, which specializes in telecommunications centered on phone systems, cabling, and the network infrastructure also known as the “backbone.” Read more about Eric Marcus in the January issue of Az Business magazine.

The Top Search Terms 2012

Chris Pace — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:37:08 +0000

The best way to get traffic to your site is to include popular search terms that relate to your business. So what exactly are the top search terms 2012?

The top search terms 2012 – Google

10. Games

9. Mail

8. Yahoo!

7. You

6. Hotmail

5. Download

4. Free

3. Google

2. YouTube

1. Facebook

Notice, there are no celebrity names, no places, no physical items. So why this list? Mashable explains…

When the data is normalized and scaled, we see predictable trends emerge: Popular brands and generic search terms dominate the list. What does this mean?

It likely reflects how many people use Google as a one-stop portal to the Internet. Looking for games? Where else would you look first? And lots of Internet users apparently believe the fastest way to Facebook is by typing it right into the Google bar. The same goes for YouTube and, apparently, Google itself. Google does the work — you don’t have to remember URLs anymore, or bother typing them out.

What are the top 10 search terms of 2012 on Bing?

Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber swapped their 2011 places, with the Biebs sliding to second and the Kardshian one bumping up to first. Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, and LiLo round out the top five.
Kim Kardashian
Justin Bieber
Miley Cyrus
Rihanna
Lindsay Lohan
Katy Perry
Selena Gomez
Jennifer Aniston
Nick Minaj
Taylor Swift

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/27/kardashians-idevices-and-facebook-bing-unveils-its-most-search-terms-of-2012/#g2tygF6udC4I69y6.99

Bing search keys in more on celebrities, whereas Google is used more as a launchpad for the internet. Plan your SEO accordingly!