As the national lockdown continues, so does genuine belief this will be the last. It has been and still is, a bumpy road but one we are all (sadly) getting used to.

The government plan an announcement on 22nd February and like most of the country, I will be watching and hoping to hear positive news. As much as I would like the hospitality industry to open now, realistically I know that the priority will be to arrange for the return of children to education. If the government announce this, even with the caveat of ‘data continuing to go in the way they expect’, it will be the first big step in our route out of this.

We and a lot of our customers are planning for April being a return to some form of hospitality re-opening, with conditions of course. There is speculation that the first route back will be outside only, table service with distancing and mixing measures. We all would like to see some movement in April but accept May/June is more realistic. Regardless, we are over halfway through February and what is that I can see… a light at the end of the tunnel?!

This lockdown has seen us provide a lot of quotations to new and existing customers on a variety of POS elements. There is still a lot of interest in online ordering and order/pay at table solutions. The fact we can provide these solutions standalone or integrated to POS has kept us busy. Additionally, we have access to APP based solutions and Web (via QR code) based solutions, some of our customers have both!

At the start of this technology revolution, we talked a lot about what we could do to make the transition as easy as possible. Firstly, any person or company who has worked with us will know that we are with you throughout the whole process. It sounds obvious but I have heard so many horror stories where companies have tried to redefine the way they work, only to do so with a company they meet online and must obtain support via ‘live chat’ only. Do not get me wrong, I love technology and ‘live chat’ has its place, much more than the automated phone service (which mostly drives me insane) but if I were making such a big operational change to my business, I would want someone to manage the project and make it work for me. Our charges are more than fair, we have never been a ‘cheap’ company, the products we distribute must meet a certain standard and ‘cheap’ technology would have been hard to push our tagline ‘reliable Epos solutions’ wouldn’t it? So, with Qube, you will pay a little bit more but the old saying exists in Epos too – ‘you get what you pay for!’.

Secondly, we do not insist on minimum term contracts, from Day 1 you enroll into a monthly rolling contract with our online services. We believe that if your product and service is good enough, why tie people down to long contracts? Combine that with the fact a lot of businesses are making this step for the first time and with change comes some nervousness. So, we all decided long term contracts were unfair and were not something we wanted to associate ourselves with.

All customers who remain completely closed during this lockdown, have our full support, and will NOT be charged their subscriptions or maintenance contracts. We do what we can for our customers, yes of course it has a financial impact on us, but we want our customers to survive this pandemic and we want to work with them for many years to come. These are times we will never forget but without sounding too cliché – we are stronger together.

In other news, our new website is on hold. We are supported by ‘Yell.com’ and have hit some ‘snags’, one being this blog ironically! I am hoping it is resolved soon.

There is a lot going on with our software development team, including some integration work on a product I know will make our MSD.Cloud product better than ever.

Lastly, new hardware is on the horizon and from our leading manufacturer Uniwell! Similar amazing robustness, look and feel but in a brand-new shell. We have samples making their way to the U.K. as we speak, I will update and add details to our website as soon as I can.

In the meantime, get in touch with us if you want to assess your current system before you re-open or if you have any other questions for that matter.

Take care everyone and remember that light at the end of the tunnel is there and thank goodness, we are heading right towards it.

Dan