Tourist attractions and leisure venues now have no excuse when it comes to providing their customers with a seamless approach to e-tickets, electronic point of sale and access control. Expert Ticket is a new venture established by three market leading companies providing a one-stop-shop for tourism and leisure businesses.

Attractions can cost effectively offer their customers the opportunity to choose and buy their tickets in advance over the internet. Their customers can either instantly download and print out their tickets in the comfort of their own home or have them sent as a text message to their mobile. . ...read more

Attractions To Become Ticket Experts.

Virgin Racing is delighted to announce the agreement of a special one-race partnership with premium luggage brand Antler, for this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix. The Antler brand will appear on Virgin Racing’s two cars under the lights of the Singapore night-race street circuit for one of the most anticipated and stylish races of the 2010 Formula 1 season.

Antler will help Virgin Racing’s team members get to their global destination with ease and style for next year’s 2011 race calendar, by supplying their new lightweight range of products to the team’s travelling contingent. The challenges facing Virgin Racing’s engineers are often similar to those experienced by Antler’s, to design and manufacture the best product possible, by minimising weight without compromising performance. . ...read more

TRAVELLING THE WORLD WITH ANTLER

LDC, the leading mid-market private equity firm, has backed the management buyout of one of Merlin Software Ltd's clients, Antler – the UK’s number one luggage brand – for an undisclosed sum.

Antler, which is headquartered in Bury and has offices in Chicago, North America and China, designs, sources and supplies a wide range of suitcases, holdalls, rucksacks, suit and laptop carriers and business cases under the iconic Antler brand as well as Revelation, Bramble & Brown and Gracie Mae.

Its products – which have become synonymous with reliability and quality - are sold through its own network of UK stores and concessions as well as major multiple retailers and hundreds of independent stores. It also supplies own label ranges for several leading retailers. ...read more

LDC BACKS ANTLER’S GLOBAL GROWTH

The Annual Museums & Heritage Show was held at Earls Court on 12th – 13th May and we were there with our EPOS retail management software. We have many clients in this sector who have been using Merlin to reclaim gift aid on admissions as well as running their gift shops and cafes.

The Museums and Heritage show is billed as the “UK's leading trade exhibition for the world of museums, galleries and cultural and heritage visitor attractions.” and a “must do” for anyone working in that sector. Despite the show being quieter than last year we received some very exciting leads including a major visitor attraction and a possible partnership with a company that specialise in e-ticketing. ...read more

Merlin^® at the Museum and Heritage show

Merlin Software Ltd are one of the first companies in the EPOS sector to convert their software to be compatible with Windows 7.

Merlin 7, a fully Windows 7 compatible version of their award winning retail management software, was launched on 19th April.

Merlin has been modernized, from the old square Windows look, to the fresher Windows 7 feel. New features include a completely new ‘look and feel’, a fully integrated E-commerce link, enhancements to the ‘News’ module, simplified installation and enhanced stock management features. ...read more

Merlin^® 7

Award winning retail software company Merlin^® Software Ltd, are celebrating the tenth birthday of their software package Merlin^®. Inspired by the mystery of Halloween in October 1999, the product was ready for launch and Merlin^® set out to create magic for independent retailers.

Unlike Halloween, this was no trick and Merlin became the first company to provide a fully integrated, Windows™ based retail management system for the independent sector. Their aims have always been innovative, and ten years on with nearly 1,000 systems installed nationwide, Merlin^® hasn’t lost its magic touch. ...read more

Merlin^® turns 10

Merlin Software Ltd was awarded the prestigious Innovation in Business title, at the annual Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commerce Business Awards, Friday 24th October 2009.

Based in Barnsley, Merlin^® Software Ltd, were celebrated for their ‘Gift Aid’ software package and how it has enhanced the Charity sector. Owen Gleadall, Sales Director at Merlin Software Ltd, accepted the award, which took place in front of over 500 guests at a packed Magna Centre, Rotherham, where compére Harry Gration, of ‘Look North’ fame, revealed the successful businesses....read more

Merlin^® innovation awards

LONDON - Leading luggage specialist Antler has rolled out the Merlin^® Retail Management System from Merlin^® Software and NCR RealPOS 21 point of sale terminals to its UK and Northern Ireland outlets as part of a complete retail IT systems upgrade.

The NCR RealPOS 21 is designed for small and mid-sized retailers who want a reliable till with the flexibility to accommodate more memory intensive software now and in the future. Driven by powerful Intel technology, it features a bright 15-inch, high definition liquid crystal display (LCD) touch screen and a powerful 1.3GHz Intel Celeron M processor, the NCR RealPOS 21 has standard memory of 256MB, expanding to up to 2GB....read more

Antler upgrades POS solution

Bressingham Steam Museum in Norfolk have been using the Merlin^® Software EPOS and admissions system since 2006 in their gift shop and at points of admission. The system captures the gift aid donor details to allow Bressingham to easily submit gift aid claims to HMRC. Since the system has been installed, Bressingham have had two HMRC audits of their systems and have audited the Merlin System as part of these audits. On each occasion they were asked to reprint 100 random receipts to prove to HMRC that the claims were genuine. Thanks to the simplicity of the Merlin system, this could be easily done and allowed Bressingham to pass their audit with flying colours. ...read more

Merlin gets charitable

Computers now control most of the major functions in any company and rely heavily on the data that is stored in them. We only have to look at recent events where disks have gone missing containing valuable and sensitive information to realise the extent of the problem.

In order to help address this problem, Merlin^® Software has now created an on-line back-up facility that allows companies, and even personal computer users, to store their valuable and sensitive information off-site in secure data banks. ...read more

How secure is your data?

Recent changes in the tax regulations now allow charity shops to reclaim Gift Aid on the actual value of donated goods, if these goods can be clearly identified as being donated by a UK taxpayer.

Current legislation means that an additional 28% is available by way of tax relief to all charities who take advantage of this opportunity.

Merlin^® Software already has many years experience of providing systems for the reclaim of tax relief on admission charges at many of England's major attractions. By using this previous experience and a detailed evaluation of the current tax regulations Merlin^® software can now provide a computerised bar-code labelling system which can be used in any charity shop....read more

Merlin Software passes Gift Aid audit

Computers now control most of the major functions in any company and we rely heavily on them being available whenever required. This is particularly important in businesses where computers control all major business functions.

Working in the retail sector, Merlin^® Software has to ensure cover for its clients as without their point of sale terminals they can lose sales. This cover is required from early in the morning to last thing at night, and for seven days every week. Traditionally this has meant having qualified engineers based at various locations throughout the country who can respond to a fault call at very short notice. Clearly this has significant cost for any organisation and therefore alternative options have been tried by using 3rd party maintenance companies. The issue then is that the engineers who arrive may be late, may not be adequately trained, may not be carrying the correct spare parts or even have the right attitude towards customer care....read more

Merlin protects

Merlin^® Software, based in Barnsley, have developed a revolutionary ready to use, all in one Epos system. The system is the first of its kind and is expected to cause quite a stir within the retail sector.

Merlin^® POS-in-a-Box consists of a market leading NCR RealPOS™21 touch screen retail terminal including cash drawer, customer display, receipt printer and omni-directional bar-code scanner PLUS a full copy of the Merlin^® Retail Manager software system. This package provides full retail management functionality including everything from Stock Control and re-ordering through to EPOS and Customer Accounts. Also pre-loaded with the system is a full copy of the Booker product file in use and ‘Booker Link’, which allows the retailer to place and receive orders directly on-line. This enables the user to receive product updates, delivery notes, promotions, price changes and much more, making retailing a lot easier with the ability to do everything through the EPOS system....read more

Revolutionary New EPOS System

Matthew Hunt, from Misterton near Doncaster, has recently broken the British Heart Foundation (BHF) record for the fastest time over Britain’s three biggest mountains. Roofing contractor Matt, aged 31, completed the race over the weekend of 23rd/24th of June. He managed to run up and down Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in a confirmed record of 4 hours 49 minutes and 33 seconds, beating the previous record by more than five minutes.

Merlin^® Software of Barnsley, South Yorkshire provide computerised timing for this event, ensuring that each competitor is checked in and out accurately. The timings are recorded by using bar-code scanning technology to ‘read’ each competitor’s badge, ensuring total accuracy and saving crucial time at check in points. Sales Director, Owen Gleadall said, “we have provided the timing for this event since 1993 and are pleased to be associated with BHF. I know that Matt has been trying for some years to beat the record and it was good to be there when he achieved it.”...read more

Matt of the Mountains