January 19, 2011
LightSpeed 3.4 and LightSpeed Mobile 1.3 now shipping
Xsilva strengthens unified retail POS experience across desktop and mobile
Montreal, Canada –January 25, 2011– Fresh from demonstrating the latest versions of the desktop and mobile components of its LightSpeed Point of Sale (POS) system at the National Retail Federation (NRF) and International Consumer Electronics Shows (CES), Xsilva Systems today announced the general availability of LightSpeed 3.4 and LightSpeed Mobile 1.3.
The latest release features a POS user interface that tightly integrates with LightSpeed Mobile, which for the first time ever with a mobile POS application, allows transactions initiated on a mobile unit to be paid instantly by credit card or completed at a Mac station equipped with a cash drawer, receipt printer or external payment processing hardware.
“Mobile retail was the major theme at NRF this year, and Xsilva was at the epicenter of this retail revolution with our newest offering, LightSpeed Mobile,” said Dax Dasilva, CEO and founder of Xsilva. And while there were several companies offering integration of mobile apps with legacy enterprise systems, Xsilva was unique in its offering of a unified retail POS experience, with consistent, best-in-class user interfaces running on both the mobile and desktop POS.
“Retailers, integrators, media and analysts at both NRF and CES marveled at the unified retail POS experience offered by the platform, especially the ‘hand-off’ feature that enables retailers to start a transaction on a mobile POS and then complete it on the desktop,” said Dasilva.
On the retail floor, employees using an iPod touch or iPhone running the LightSpeed Mobile application scan or search the product(s); add, edit or set the customer; and then hand off the sale to a Mac desktop running the LightSpeed POS. This functionality allows a seamless workflow for those customers who want to pay by a method other than credit card, namely cash, check or alternate payment method that requires a Mac-connected cash drawer or external terminal.
The user of the desktop POS will see a bubble appear on the left sidebar of the screen, an orange LightSpeed Mobile icon that can be clicked to continue the transaction. This feature illustrates the unified retail POS experience offered by LightSpeed across mobile and the desktop, in stark contrast to other mobile POS offerings that are grafted onto legacy PC-based systems.
Also new in LightSpeed 3.4, enhanced multi-store inventory transfers, speed optimizations and other improvements.
LightSpeed Mobile 1.3, which requires LightSpeed 3.4, includes the highly requested feature of being able to add and edit customers on the handheld device.
Starting in January, international customers in five countries – the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the Dominican Republic – join the United States and Canada in being able to purchase LightSpeed Mobile on iTunes.
Surveys and studies released in late 2010 and early 2011 indicate that retailers large and small are planning to mobilize their POS systems this year, with big-box retailers spending millions on custom development of mobile POS applications and SMBs seeking affordable, easy to use, off-the-shelf systems that enhance customer experience and optimize their sales processes. LightSpeed Mobile meets that market need.
