Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Mystery Shopping - Customer Experience

i was recently given a real insight into the 'behind the scenes' workings of a mystery shopping company.
Very impressive , very labor intensive and very interesting all round if i do say..

The technology and solutions offering seem to best suit, high volume customer focused companies with 100's of retail outlets, like telco's, large food franchise that have a very competitive market place.

If you've not looked at this area before i would recommend you do.

Melbourne Point Of Sale

i met up with a POS vendor yesterday - MELBOURNE POS .
Very impressive product, great functionality, very knowledgeable team and a well priced solution.

They work mainly with HP hardware.

If you have a moment check out the link. http://www.melbournepos.com.au/

Monday, November 22, 2010

The health of the Retail Sector in Australia

I have a potential concern with the health of the Australian retail sector at the moment.
Its just a few weeks to Christmas and the shopping mall of Australia should be buzzing..
But the mall and shops seem to be, ( at least to me, ) quiet.
And behind the scenes cost cutting measures are in place in many of the large retailers.
Companies are announcing head count freezes, delaying projects and everybody seems to be preparing for soft sales numbers during this period.

Lets hope it will all rebound in 2011.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Australian Card Authentication Technology

Ventures International Group is representing an Australian Card Authentication Technology company (“The Company”) which is already achieving market acceptance and has been adopted by Visa Europe who are currently actively promoting it to their member banks.

The Company is now actively engaging with potential strategic partners for whom the technology is synergistic with their current business in either the Global Payments industry (credit cards, ATMs, POS, interbank networks, SI’s), or the Security space.

• The company is seeking to raise AUD $33.5M to facilitate an offer to be made to one of the major global accounting firms to enable it to exit from its current 51% stake in the business
• This represents the world’s first and only multi- feature authentication, transaction integrity and identity protection solution that is commercially endorsed and supported by a leading Payment Card Industry (PCI) member – Visa Europe.
• The Company was established May 2006 by a group of security and technology specialists with more than 25 years combined experience in strategic information security, risk management and commercialisation of technology software and services.
• The Company aims to become the global leader in innovative security solutions spanning multiple potential markets. Its flagship product is a credit/debit/ATM/ID card with embedded keypad, display, microprocessor and proximity chip that is currently marketed for use in card-not-present transactions.
• The use of the technology could also be extended for use in all card-present transactions such as ATM, PIN-Entry-Devices (PED) and Point-of-Sales (POS) terminals.
• The enabling technology is strongly protected by worldwide patents.
• This is a multiple-capability security solution that addresses the numerous security threats associated with financial fraud and theft, as well as identity theft. The unique ability to combine multiple security solutions in a single delivery unit (either an ISO:7810 compliant card or a mobile phone), enables the general public - for the first time - to greatly enhance their security, without the onerous need to memorise multiple passwords, or the need to carry, and look after, multiple tokens and cards.
• The revolutionary and patented solution has the capacity to largely eliminate many of the more prevalent financial frauds such as card skimming and online payment fraud, while reducing the ease by which to perpetrate other attacks such as phishing, all of which affect everyone involved in using electronic banking, PED and POS transactions, and of course paying for goods and services on the internet.
• For the first time there is a product available to the public that will protect their financial transactions, and their identity, in a format that is easy to use, effective, and even desirable. The possibility of marketing a piece of security technology and making it a sexy, advanced technical status symbol (think iPhone vs any other mobile phone), means that for the first time greatly increased security can become a ‘Pull Marketing’ product that the public will actively demand from their banks.
• Independent research revealed has an extremely high approval rating amongst techno savvy Gen-Y consumers willing to pay for the chance of getting hold of a card.
• After an extensive evaluation, testing and certification process, Visa Europe signed a deal with the Company that will see the technology made available across all Visa Europe’s 4,600 member banks. Visa Europe has over 380 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards in use. ( The USA card market is in excess of 1.3B cards)

We would pleased to provide more detailed information, including the Information Memorandum, upon execution of the attached NDA.
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Olavs J. Ritenis CEO Ventures International Group
M : +65 9185 3044 (Singapore) M : +61 405 448 938 (Australia)
E : olavs@ventures-international.net

20 Cecil Street, #15-08 Equity Plaza, Singapore 049705
www.ventures-international.net