Northern Payment Systems, located in Seattle, Washington, has over 20 years of experience delivering payment processing solutions. In an industry that has a reputation for being complicated and misleading, the company is committed to honesty and transparency and is passionate about providing quality products and exceptional customer service. They have helped thousands of businesses by offering customized service plans, free education, annual reviews and 24/7 support.
Northern Payment Systems has since expanded their business to include Auto-Star’s Star-Plus point of sale and retail management solution. As a certified value-added reseller (VAR), Ian Foster has been able to offer a feature-rich POS application to meet the needs of local grocers.
What differentiates Auto-Star from the other POS vendors you evaluated?
“The software itself is very clean compared to some of the other systems on the market,” said Ian Foster of Northern Payment Systems. “The flexibility of having different till layouts and the Quick Flip PLU lookup has really helped our customers.”
In addition, having a fully integrated point of sale and back office solution was essential for Ian. Many of the traditional grocery systems have a separate front-end POS software, back office and other third-party programs such as labels. This often means maintaining multiple databases, which may not be consistent with one another.
“With Auto-Star, you have an all-in-one software solution,” explains Ian. “This is where the market is trending and there are few POS companies that do that well. A unified POS system simplifies the entire process.”
How would you describe the Auto-Star training process and technical support?
When asked about Auto-Star’s training program, Ian is quick to comment: “The training at Auto-Star went really well. It was a big learning curve, but anything that is worth it is.” Auto-Star is dedicated to helping resellers succeed by offering comprehensive training, continuing education and technical support. The Auto-Star team has decades of combined experience in the retail industry and is happy to assist with any issue that may arise. Reflecting on his experience with support, Ian notes, “If you call Auto-Star for support, there are a lot of really good and highly trained staff that are there to help you. With other companies that is not always the case.”
Northern Payment Systems has also benefited from Auto-Star’s online training videos. From importing products to managing inventory to setting up shelf labels, Auto-Star’s knowledgebase is designed to help resellers and customers navigate the Star-Plus point of sale. “The Wiki training videos have been very helpful and I have been sharing these with customers,” says Ian.
How has Auto-Star’s custom development helped you be more competitive in your market?
As an Auto-Star reseller, Ian has access to all the latest product features, enhancements and hardware certifications. Auto-Star releases regular product updates and welcomes input from our resellers and customers.
“I can’t tell you how many people love the Star-Plus android application,” says Ian. “The coin dispenser functionality that was added is very popular on the west coast and a lot of our customer really like that.”
Ian attributes a large part of his success to Auto-Star’s commitment to ongoing software development: “Auto-Star is really good at listening, taking feedback and executing development changes. They do not make a bunch of promises and then fail to deliver.”
The combination of a quality product, innovative features and superior customer service result in a total package that help resellers like Northern Payment Systems thrive in a competitive market. For more information on Northern Payment Systems, visit www.northernpaymentsystems.com or contact Auto-Star to learn more about our industry leading you first Partner Program.
