NCR STRENGTHENS CHANNEL PARTNERS’ ABILITY TO SERVE CUSTOMERS WITH MAINTENANCE SERVICES; SCANSOURCE FIRST COMPANY SIGNED UP

Press release:

NCR STRENGTHENS CHANNEL PARTNERS’ ABILITY TO SERVE CUSTOMERS WITH MAINTENANCE SERVICES; SCANSOURCE FIRST COMPANY SIGNED UP

Contact: Melissa Andrews
ScanSource, Inc.
864-286-4425 (ph)
Melissa.Andrews@scansource.com

GREENVILLE, S.C. and DULUTH, Ga. - September 06, 2012 -

NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) announced today that independent retailers now have access to NCR point-of-sale (POS) maintenance services through the network of distributors and resellers who market and sell NCR hardware and software solutions.  This new offering allows channel partners to serve as a one-stop shop (hardware-software-services) for their independent retail customers, to create more recurring revenue streams with those customers and allow smaller retailers to offer the POS uptimes, transaction efficiency and customer service their end-user customers demand.

ScanSource POS & Barcoding is the first company to offer NCR’s POS maintenance services to POS resellers.  ScanSource POS & Barcoding is the leading international value-added distributor of automatic identification and data capture and POS solutions and a sales unit of ScanSource, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCSC). 

The NCR services now available through ScanSource include in-warranty service upgrades; on-site hardware maintenance; depot repair services, in which POS peripherals and devices are shipped to a central NCR facility for repair; and end-to-end problem management. NCR was ranked the global market share leader in retail industry product support for 2011 based on product support revenue by analyst firm Gartner. (Source: Gartner, Market Statistics Market Share: IT Services 2012 Global Hardware Maintenance)

Expanding the market coverage to include additional segments is a key component of NCR’s efforts to grow and enhance its services offering to smaller retailers and to continue to revolutionize how shoppers transact business with retailers of all sizes.  By offering NCR’s pre-packaged services offering to their end-user customers, resellers are able to serve as a one-stop-shop for all of their NCR solution needs – from products to services.

“Retailers large and small recognize the reliability the NCR name brings to POS hardware, software and services,” said David Wilkinson, vice president of channel sales for NCR.  “The ability of our channel partners like ScanSource to resell NCR services to resellers now makes these services widely available to more retailers across the country.  This is important for retailers who are looking to efficiently manage their systems, have maximum up-time and get fast repairs, all while maintaining the level of service their shopping customers expect.  Equally important is that the ability to resell NCR services is part of our effort to create profitable growth opportunities for our partners.”

“NCR is a market leader in providing retail store solution hardware maintenance, and by having access to NCR’s services through ScanSource, our reseller partners can now expand their overall offering and value to their end-user customers,” said Yvette McKenzie, vice president of merchandising, ScanSource POS & Barcoding.  “What’s more, it enables resellers to be more responsive to their end-user customers’ needs by offering a turnkey solution, while strengthening their overall relationship.”

For more information about ScanSource’s NCR services offerings, please visitwww.scansource.com/ncr.  And for additional information on ScanSource, Inc., please visitwww.scansourceinc.com.

About NCR Corporation

NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a global technology company leading how the world connects, interacts and transacts with business. NCR’s assisted- and self-service solutions and comprehensive support services address the needs of retail, financial, travel, hospitality, gaming, public sector, telecom carrier and equipment organizations in more than 100 countries. NCR (www.ncr.com) is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia. NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.

About ScanSource, Inc.

ScanSource, Inc. {NASDAQ:SCSC} is the leading international distributor of specialty technology products, consisting of seven sales units in North America, Latin America and Europe. 

ScanSource POS and Barcoding in North America, Latin America and Europe delivers AIDC and POS solutions; Catalyst Telecom in the US, and ScanSource Communications in North America and Europe, provide voice, video and converged communications equipment; and ScanSource Security in North America offers physical security solutions.  Founded in 1992, the company ranks #760 on the Fortune 1000.  For more information, call the toll-free sales telephone number at 800.944.2432 or visit www.scansourceinc.com.

Why Hackers Set Their Sights on Small Business

If you run a small business, and think that none of your data was of interest to a hacker, consider this: what if a hacker could take stolen bank account or credit card information from your computer and package it with the same information from a hundred or a thousand other small businesses? Would it be worth something then?

"SMBs don't know how defenseless they've become, especially to automated and industrialized attack methodologies by organized crime," Christopher Porter tells PCWorld. Porter, a principal with the Verizon RISK Team, is the author of a new report from Verizon on security risk.

"[Hackers] scan the Internet, looking for remote access services, and then try the default credentials. Once they gain access, they automatically install keyloggers to collect password information [as it's typed in]," Porter says. "Then they send the information it out via e-mail or by uploading it to an FTP server or a web site. They aggregate the data and sell it on the black market."

Hackers could use the keylogger to figure out how access and drain a small business' bank account, but more commonly, Porter said, they'll target point-of-sale systems, as four Romanians did recently. "That kind of attack is increasing, because they're low-risk and low-cost attacks for organized crime." Because they're geographically widespread, it's hard for any one police department to follow up.

For more, click the link below: 

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/252302/why_hackers_set_their_sights_on_small_businesses.html#tk.nl_bdx_h_crawl

ACI Worldwide Delivers Industry’s Most Powerful Retail Payments Solution with Newest Release of BASE24-eps

Latest Version Expands Offering and Enhances Market-leading, Multi-channel Payment Processing Platform

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

(New York, N.Y. – March 20, 2012) – ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq: ACIW), a leading international provider of payments systems, today announced the availability of the latest version of BASE24-eps®, its integrated payment solution for acquiring, authenticating, switching, and authorizing financial transactions across multiple channels. Drawing on more than 35 years of experience in payments software, BASE24-eps 11.1 demonstrates ACI’s continued commitment to its flagship solution for retail banks, ATM and POS transaction processors and merchant acquirers worldwide.

BASE24-eps 11.1 extends ACI’s market leadership in supporting the global payments market with new connections to support local payment schemes and device types.  Among other benefits, the new version is designed to lower customers’ total cost of ownership while expanding choice, through its enhanced multi-platform architecture that supports various deployment options.  

David Morem, Executive Vice President, Global Products and Maintenance , ACI Worldwide said, “We’re extremely proud of the progress and latest improvements we’ve made with BASE24-eps. The product is now proven in some of the largest environments across a wide range of payment applications, delivering business flexibility without compromising the reliability, scalability and performance our customers expect.”

“In this age of rapid competitive, regulatory and technological changes, the payments business demands increasing flexibility,” notes Rick Oglesby, Senior Analyst, Aite Group.  “With BASE24-eps, ACI has made a significant investment in their payments platform in order to enable users to adapt rapidly to changing conditions domestically and across the global marketplace.”

Customers rely on BASE24-eps for performance and platform flexibility
“BASE24-eps is a proven, scalable solution enabling us to provide our customers with continuous product compliance with regulatory mandates, and adaptability for new market trends. BASE24-eps is recognised for its combination of reliability and flexibility and we are confident this will help us grow our business,” said Yves Perrachon, Head of Operations at Cedicam, the Crédit Agricole Group’s payments platform. “We look forward to the increased support for various platforms and interfaces in this latest release.”

“We are happy to see ACI continue to advance BASE24-eps in support of our payment needs,” said Ray Zapata, Senior Vice President, Frost Bank, one of the largest banks headquartered in Texas.  “BASE24-eps has set a high standard for performance, and we are pleased to take advantage of its platform flexibility.  We look forward to taking advantage of the new capabilities in this latest release.”

Key new features of BASE24-eps 11.1 include:

Flexibility with new platform and technology options – BASE24-eps 11.1 includes new support for DB2® on IBM System p®, which gives customers greater flexibility in their choice of platform and infrastructure, and enables them to leverage existing investments in technology and support resources.

Expanded global capabilities for ATM and POS acquiring – BASE24-eps 11.1 includes new support for NCR’s newest NDC standard message interface, extends EMV and key management support, and adds a new POS ISO acquiring interface. These capabilities enable customers to offer new features and services that increase revenues, through added transaction acquiring and processing flexibility. 

Regional enablement and new endpoints  – BASE24-eps 11.1 now supports 40 global and regional networks and provides enhanced EMV acquiring and key management support. 

BASE24 ® to BASE24-eps migration tools – BASE24-eps 11.1 offers enhanced data conversion support and enhanced ISO Host (1987) Interface features to further enable phased migrations from BASE24 to BASE24-eps.

BASE24-eps 11.1 is available immediately.  BASE24-eps continues to serve as ACI’s flagship solution for serving the most complex global payments needs.  BASE24-eps was named the “Most Innovative Financial Services Solution” at the 2011 Financial World Innovation Awards in December 2011.  

For more information visit: www.aciworldwide.com

About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide powers electronic payments and banking for nearly 1700 financial institutions, retailers and processors around the world. Through our integrated suite of software products and hosted services, we deliver a broad range of solutions for electronic payments, transaction banking, mobile, branch, and voice banking, fraud detection and trade finance. To learn more about ACI and understand why we are trusted globally, please visitwww.aciworldwide.com. You can also find us onwww.paymentsinsights.com or on Twitter  @ACI_Worldwide.

News Release from MICROS Systems

PRESTIGIOUS WYNN LAS VEGAS AND ENCORE CASINO RESORTS TO ADVANCE TECHNOLOGY PORTFOLIO WITH MICROS SIMPHONY ENTERPRISE SOLUTION IN THE CLOUD

Columbia, MD – March 13, 2012—MICROS Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRS), a leading provider of information technology solutions for the hospitality and retail industries, is pleased to announce that Wynn Resorts  has selected MICROS’s Simphony™ Enterprise Solution for its Wynn Las Vegas and Encore casino resort properties.  MICROS will complete its enterprise-wide conversion upgrade from the MICROS 9700 Hospitality Management System (HMS) and other Legacy POS solutions to the MICROS Simphony Software as a Service (SaaS) enterprise solution in the cloud on March 31st.  The project encompasses over 100 Revenue Centers located across the two casino resort properties and includes over 500 MICROS Workstation 5A (WS5A) point-of-service terminals.

“Wynn Resorts is already realizing the tangible benefits of Simphony’s advanced technology as well as MICROS’s highly structured project management through this seamless upgrade,” stated James Houghton, Chief Information Officer, Wynn Resorts, Limited.   “Our food and beverage operations now enjoy the benefits of a smooth and uninterrupted technology platform which ensures our guests’ experience remains excellent.”

Wynn Las Vegas and Encore continue to set the bar for luxury and excellence in Las Vegas, earning top honors and recognitions, including the 2012 Forbes Travel Guide Star awards (formerly Mobil Travel Guide Star awards). Wynn Resorts selected MICROS Simphony for its advanced technology and proven capabilities in the industry, which include enterprise configuration and functionality, a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and inherent offline resiliency and scalability in a global, multi-property casino resort environment.   MICROS Simphony’s SOA approach provides Wynn Resorts management the ability to strategically place critical services across the enterprise.  In the event of a planned or unplanned outage, Simphony is able to operate detached from the hosting center or server.  This design allows all system interfaces to continue to function: credit card authorizations, liquor dispensing systems, posting to the property management system, gaming and video surveillance systems all while remaining able to share checks among terminals and print to the remote service locations.

As the look and feel of MICROS Simphony is similar to the MICROS 9700 Hospitality Management System, Wynn Resorts is able to leverage its employees’ familiarity with MICROS to reduce training time, as well as utilize new screen option layouts to improve guest service.  MICROS Simphony is also highly flexible, offering advanced interface capabilities to third-party peripheral products such as player tracking systems, liquor dispensing systems, and stored value cards.

“We are pleased to be able to offer Wynn Resorts an enterprise solution that offers a multitude of features and benefits and one which will improve the everyday operational efficiency at its properties,” stated Tom Giannopoulos, Chairman and CEO of MICROS Systems, Inc.  “MICROS Simphony will create a smoother interaction between property employees and guests and provide Wynn Resorts management with strong visibility of each property through one centralized set of reports.”

“The scalability of MICROS Simphony is a big factor in our decision to upgrade,” stated James Houghton.  “We have a reputation of pushing the limits in guest service and MICROS Simphony’s next generation solutions will scale to meet our growing demands.”