To: SCOOBEY-DO (363 )
From: SCOOBEY-DO Friday, Sep 11 1998 2:34PM ET
Reply # of 2321
Hi Carl and BETT Shareholders,
The following is a brief update on SWYW's Status from Harry Hargens. Remember that SWYW needs to be up and running to have Betting Inc. earn a fee as a gateway between SWYW and the bank.
"HOST SYSTEM: The host is up and running. Test transactions have been run successfully. The system is now ready for the first live transactions from the field.
"TERMINALS: The first 50 Paymaster terminals, to be used in the first SWYW installations, are under construction now at UniPay (UniPay is the subsidiary of UniComp acting as our vendor for terminal construction, hardware and software design services, and host operations. You probably heard many references to "Smoky Mountain" in the past; UniComp merged Smoky Mountain and another operation into UniPay this summer).
"UniPay has encountered lead times a few weeks longer than expected in the procurement of some of the electronic components needed, due to distributors being out of stock on some items that we expected to be "of the shelf". This is not unusual in the business of building electronic devices, does not indicate any sort of long term problem, and will only delay us a few weeks. Assuming no more surprises (good or bad) from component vendors, final QA of circuit boards and final assembly will start in the middle of October, so we should have units in-hand and ready for installation late in October.
"CATALOG/MERCHANDISER MARKETING: In general, we are keeping our effort to contact potential catalog companies at a low level for now. The feedback from our initial contacts with catalog companies earlier this year was almost universally, "Gee, that's very very interesting...please come back and talk to us again when you have some locations running...". In the SWYW business plan I wrote in February, I forecasted exactly this reaction; our experience confirmed my expectation. We will resume the pursuit of catalog companies and other merchandisers late this year, when we have proven results to show them. I expect us to add and experienced sales person to handle this full-time, rather than have Tom and I continue to do it in our "spare time".
"One exception to the above is in the area of sports marketing. Because of the publicity that SWYW received when we signed the Dodgers as a customer, we have had inquiries from several minor- and major-league teams in a variety of sports (baseball, hockey, soccer...) in the USA, and ever inquiries from as far away as New Zealand and Germany! So, while we probably won't sign up any traditional merchandisers until early 1999, we might sign up some additional sports teams as merchandisers before the end of 1998.
"LOCATION MARTKETING: We have met with several ISOs who are interested in the SWYW program, and are standing by to start signing up locations, as soon as we give them the final go-ahead. We don't want them to sign up locations too far in advance of our having terminals ready to ship, as this could cause confusion and concern, possibly causing some locations to lose interest before the units are installed. So, we will tell the ISOs to start their effort to sign up locations around September 28.
"I also expect us to add a full-time sales person to manage ISOs sales activities , and call directly on large organizations that control many sites that could become SWYW locations; e.g. large retail chains, hotel chains, airline, etc.
"A lot of people have been holding their breath, waiting to see if SWYW can successfully build and deploy Paymasters; and waiting to see if there will really be revenue generated from these SWYW locations. I look forward to everyone finally being able to exhale soon.
"Sincerly,
"Harry Hargens
"President, SWYW" |
