Page 3 - Merlin Evolve Winter 2020-2021
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 CEO Introduction:
 First of all let me welcome you to this brand new magazine. This is the very first edition of ‘EVOLVE’, which will become a quarterly publication and will cover a whole range of topics from our expert team.
Why ‘EVOLVE’? That’s easy to explain, as the organisation has ‘evolved’ over the last 35 years from originally supplying EPOS systems to small multi-branch retailers, to an award winning organisation now supplying systems worldwide, covering retail management, venue management, event management, e-commerce and online ticketing. We haven’t finished yet either, as we continue to innovate and ‘evolve’ with new products coming on stream.
We have recently launched a paging system for cafés, restaurants, etc. which allows customers to place orders and then be notified by pager that their order is ready for collection. In addition, we have also launched Merlin® iFood, which is an online food ordering platform. This allows you to put your menus online and then customers can log on to your website and place orders for service at table, collection or even delivery.
We hope that you will find something of interest inside, with a range of articles covering a wealth of topics within the sectors that we support. We also welcome contributions from customers or other interested parties who want to pass out information, help or advice to our readership.
With the current conditions in place, following this awful pandemic, we know the difficulties many businesses are having just keeping afloat and we hope that within our magazine we can both reflect the current situation and also offer practical help and advice, which may prove beneficial to you.
An area of obvious concern at the moment is Christmas: what will it be like in 2020? There is a feature article inside questioning whether Santa is coming this year, but there is also the matter of what celebrations, if any,
will be allowed. With limited numbers at events and the rules regarding social distancing in place, it is quite a challenge to come up with ideas that will meet all the legislative requirements and still prove to be commercially viable. One aspect that really comes into its own here is online bookings, as that allows you to control both visitor numbers and arrival times. It also aids cash-flow as payment is all made in advance, so you are sure to get the money. If you’re not using online bookings, then please check out the helpful article inside, which will explain how you can be up and running with your own bookings platform in under an hour.
I hope that you enjoy this first edition and that it proves beneficial to your business. If you have any ideas for future topics I would love to hear from you and we will endeavour to cover them in future editions.
In the meantime I want to thank you for reading our magazine and wish you all the best for Christmas and the New Year. Let’s hope that 2021 brings a whole range of new opportunities.
Owen Gleadall Merlinsoft CEO
 Our mission statement is simple - ADD VALUE - BE KIND
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