Our Product Pick

Denso ADC (Long Beach, CA) has stocked its BHT-1300-CE with Windows Embedded Compact 7. In wireless or batch, with one- or two-dimensional scanner, this handheld measures 6.2 in. (L) x 2 in. (W) x 1.5 in. (D) and weighs 7.5 oz. It offers ARM Cortex A8 CPU at 800 MHz, 2-GB ROM, and Micro-SD, with communications via Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11b/g/n. A full-color touchscreen, ergonomic keyboard, and LED scan confirmation address ease-of-use. Additional benefits include preinstalled software (keyboard interface, wireless setting, application launcher, and back-up tool), long-life batteries with 28 hours of continuous operation, and an IP-54 rating. "Our BHT-1300 Series terminals are well known in the industry for being easy to use and reliable, yet affordable," espoused Fran Labun, VP, Sales Group, Denso Products and Services Americas.

Denso BHT-1300-CE

COMPANY BUSINESS

EMV Rises for Mercury

Mercury/Vantiv (Durango, CO) has revealed its migration path to EMV for ISVs and SMBs. It consists of three offerings from the payment processor: Datacap's "dsiEMVUS," Datacap's "IPTranLT Mobile," and Mercury's "Pay-at-the-Table." After limited release, these solutions will be rolled out to all ISVs in early summer 2015. Overall, Mercury/Vantiv has 900 ISVs.

Datacap's dsiEMVUS is a semi-integrated client-side payment application that drives various EMV devices and simplifies the EMV certification process, according to Mercury and Datacap Systems (Chalfont, PA). For its part, Datacap's IPTranLT Mobile supports an innovative package of payment drawer, printer, and EMV PIN Pad in monthly rental format. Lastly, Mercury's Pay-at-the-Table pushes wireless transaction data to the secure application running on the EMV device. All formats will be supported via this three-sided approach--PC POS, Tablet POS, and ECR.

"SMBs with integrated point-of-sale systems face different challenges implementing EMV than those using unintegrated systems," indicated Matt Ozvat, VP of Developer Integrations at Mercury/Vantiv. "A good solution needs to be quick and easy to implement, integrate with the merchant's POS, and meet the EMV requirements of the networks. Mercury's new EMV solutions do just that."

Matt Ozvat, VP of Developer Integrations, Mercury/Vantiv

. . . While Heartland Finds PAX

In another move targeting October 1, and EMV, payment processor Heartland Payment Systems (Princeton, NJ) has certified the multi-lane S300 signature-capture PIN Pad and POSLink solution from PAX Technology (Jacksonville, FL). As part of this collaboration, PAX POSLink serves as part of the product suite, Heartland Secure, which protects card data with tokenization as well as end-to-end encryption, or "E3."As features, S300 has 3.5" full-color touchscreen, loudspeaker, 32-bit ARM 11 CPU, and, of course, magnetic-stripe reader (MSR).

"Heartland and PAX have a successful history of working together," related Michael English, VP of Product Development for Heartland Payment Systems. "The PAX POSLink semi-integrated configuration and the PAX S300 provide an exceptional solution to ISVs and VARs that are looking to reduce the complexity of payments support as well as exposure to PCI. PAX's experience in payments and EMV were instrumental in bringing this solution to market."

S300 Payment Terminal by PAX

Worth Your While

WERC
Warehousing Education Research Council
May 3-6
Orlando

NRA Show 2015
National Restaurant Association
May 16-19
Chicago

RetailNOW 2015
Retail Solutions Providers Association
August 2-5
Orlando

Pack Expo
PMMI
September 28-30
Las Vegas

NACS Show
Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing
October 11-14
Las Vegas

ALL IN THE FAMILY

New Tech for Partners: SP-850

Partner Tech USA (Irvine, CA) has unveiled its newest terminal for POS, the SP-850. It features sleek appearance, projected capacitive touchscreen, and Intel Bay Trail-D J1900 CPU at 2.4 GHz. A fanless, ventless design with aluminum die-cast construction extends reliability and durability, with bezel-free front panel for additional protection from dust, grease, or spills to IP-65.

With overall dimensions of 14.2 in. (W) x 9.2 in. (D) x 12.7 in. (H), the SP-850 carries 15" projected capacitive touchscreen and 350-nit, 1024x768 LED LCD with wide tilt angle. A full suite of ports includes USB 2.0 x 5, USB 3.0, LAN, Dual Cash Drawer, VGA, and COM x 4. As O/S, the SP-850 supports Windows 7, POS Ready 7, Windows 8.1 Industry Retail Pro, and Linux. It offers DDR3L memory support up to 8 GB and Mini PCI-e Wireless LAN.

Partner Tech's SP-850 POS

SATO Goes Wide With CL6NX

SATO America (Charlotte, NC) has expanded its new NX Series of industrial label printers with the six-inch-print-width CL6NX. Measuring 13.3 in. (W) x 18 in. (D) x 12.6 in. (H), and weighing approximately 44 lbs., the CL6NX carries die-cast aluminum frame, base, front cover, and ribbon spindle for durability; large side window for checking label and ink-ribbon levels; and wide-angle print-head opening with 60-degree access for easy, tool-less maintenance. A bi-fold cover design reduces the overall area required for operating in restricted places and the power button appears on the front of the device.

A 3.5-inch full-color display and built-in video tutorials with 30 user-selectable languages are included. As performance, CL6NX shows 10 inch/254 mm per second print speed at 203 dpi in direct thermal mode. It accommodates 10-inch outer diameter (OD) media and 600-meter ribbon and furnishes connectivity of USB, Serial, Ethernet, and Bluetooth. Finally, there's the Label Tension Damper System and Advanced Ribbon Control.

"The new CL6NX, with extensive features and user friendly operation, at its core retains the reliability and durability our customers expect, product traits that are bedrock to the tradition of SATO," relayed Gary Krause, Marketing Director at SATO America. "Whatever the identification need--Vendor Compliance, Bin/Tote and Rack, HazMat ID, Product, Ingredient, Freight Forwarding, or Case/Carton/Pallet--the CL6NX is an exceptional solution." As first in its next-generation series, SATO America released its CL4NX in March 2014.

CL6NX Label Printer From SATO

[Editor's Note: SATO has also announced that Michael Beedles has been named President of SATO America, LLC. Beedles, who currently serves as Head of North America for the SATO Group, will take on the role immediately. He assumes the position previously held by Bob Linse.]

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ALLIANCES

Deep in the Heart of Customer Engagement

AML (Euless, TX), which supplies embedded kiosks and data collection devices, has enlisted Mainstreet, Inc. (Grand Prairie, TX), the prominent POS VAR. Mainstreet will handle customer engagement systems from AML--most notably, the Monarch Interactive Retail Kiosk--in conjunction with their own value-added services in configuration, installation, and ongoing support. As additional partners, Mainstreet lists HP, Epson America, Datalogic, Elo Touch Solutions, and Microsoft.

"We rely heavily on true value-added integrators as business partners," emphasized Mike Kearby, President of AML, which manufactures in the U.S. "Mainstreet brings to us a singular focus on the retail market, a deep array of resources for pre- and post-development, and an established pedigree in the retail community. Together we create a formidable force in the customer engagement arena, a crucial component to the omni-channel marketing strategies at the top-of-mind of most retailers today."

"In addition to the same business culture and client approach, we're both located in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, which provides us with great collaboration opportunities to co-deliver some very strong store solutions," explained Terry Kasen, Mainstreet's VP of Client Engagement. "Together we're focused on interactive self-service kiosk offerings that enable retailers to drive multiple applications with extremely sharp messaging they can control. Plus, they seamlessly integrate with retailers' in-store environment and existing software ecosystem."

AML's Monarch Interactive Retail Kiosk

When the Door Opens

ProfitSystems (Colorado Springs, CO) has integrated its software platform for home furnishing retailers, RetailVantage, with retail traffic counter, DoorCounts by Floorboard, LLC (Tualatin, OR). RetailVantage spans inventory, point-of-sale, customer relationship management, and back-office. It was purchased in 2013 by Accellos, which itself merged with HighJump Software in 2014. Both Accellos and HighJump address supply chain.

"Our best-performing clients watch their store traffic very closely," reported Janice Johnson, Product Manager for RetailVantage. "We provide traffic reports by day and hour to help them staff effectively as well as recognize opportunities to train the sales team and increase sales. Our new integration with DoorCounts will help those furniture retailers leveraging both systems to look at traffic and sales data side by side and make more informed business decisions."

"This synergy will provide a seamless and well supported solution that several Top 100 home furnishings and bedding retailers already rely on," noted Ron Parton, Partner at Floorboard. Founded in 2009, Floorboard, with DoorCounts, installs digital cameras at entrances and uploads its data to the web for access by desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. It records digital images of any customer who enters the store, offers analysis of customer traffic by location, date and hour, and conversion rate, and charges the common monthly service fee.

Customer Traffic Analysis by DoorCounts

Code Corner

ServiceMax (Pleasanton, CA), which develops field-service management software, has announced its latest product release, dubbed Spring '15. This new package carries improvements in dispatching, scheduling, and networking, according to the firm. With "advanced technician search," for example, dispatchers can use multiple variables and qualification criteria to find technicians who are best suited for each job--recognizing and evaluating such factors as expertise, certifications, soft skills, and preferences. A stacked rank of technicians, with percentages of "best fit," will be produced, eliminating the need for dispatchers to manually weigh such criteria. Spring '15 also brings workforce optimization capabilities to assist with managing non-work technician activities, break time, and holiday scheduling. In further support of the mobile workforce, Spring '15 also delivers barcode scanning in ServiceMax Mobile for Android and iOS. In addition, Spring '15 adds iOS AirPrint support for the iPhone and iPad, so technicians can produce their reports on-site. "ServiceMax continues to build on our vision of equipping the field-service technicians who keep our world running," exclaimed Hari Subramanian, CTO of ServiceMax. "We enable service technicians to get to the site more quickly and improve the customer relationship by solving problems faster."

ENVIRONMENTS/PLATFORMS

Seagull Alights on Zatar

Seagull Scientific (Bellevue, WA) will add support for Zebra Technologies' Zatar Platform in its popular BarTender Software. This will allow users to easily route label, RFID, and card designs to a wide variety of output devices--in this case, primarily printers--which will be connected through Zatar. Launched in 2013, in anticipation of the Internet of Things (IoT), Zatar offers an application programming interface (API) for third parties.

"As a proud partner of Zebra Technologies, we are pleased to provide our BarTender customers with another compelling way to design, print, and control their label, RFID, and card processes," remarked Steve Wilcox, VP of Marketing for Seagull Scientific. "Combining BarTender with Zatar will create new and unique opportunities for customers who are seeking to connect their devices through the cloud." Already, Seagull Scientific sells in 150 countries through reseller partners.

BarTender's next-generation web-printing platform will integrate Zatar. Users who are interested in beta testing Zatar with the current BarTender 10.1 should contact Seagull Scientific, which also has updated its Printer Drivers Version 7.3.8. It features support for more than 65 printers from 20 manufacturers , including the SATO CL6NX and Markem-Imaje Cimjet, as well as real-time clock functionality.

Seagull Scientific Will Support Zebra's Zatar IoT Platform in BarTender

Of Slim, Whisper, and RAIN

Checkpoint Systems (Thorofare, NJ) has produced new labels based on RFID for the health, beauty, and cosmetics categories. These categories present specific inventory management challenges because of their small size, complexity of SKU, and densely packed merchandising displays, according to the firm. Two versions have been offered for use with the company's pedestals and readers in the RAIN family: Slim and Whisper.

Slim has label size of 88 x 7 mm/3.5 x 0.28 in. and integrates with the latest Monza R6 chip from Impinj (Seattle, WA). This tag can be applied over the packaging of numerous products in these categories, while being tamper-proof. Whisper has label size of 12 x 12 mm/0.47 x 0.47 in. and also integrates with the Monza R6. It is the smallest form factor in its category and comes with removable adhesive so that no marks are left on cosmetics products.

"We're delighted to see Checkpoint driving always-on inventory management solutions using the Slim and Whisper labels with our Monza R6 chip," affirmed Craig Cotton, VP of Marketing and Product Management at Impinj. "We look forward to a continued partnership with Checkpoint to enable new solutions and tagging of new categories of items. The Monza R6 chip includes Integra technology that enables RAIN RFID labels to deliver higher data reliability and accuracy, which are must-haves for retail deployments." According to Uwe Sydon, SVP of Innovation for Checkpoint Systems, interest from several major retailers drove this development.

New Labels for Health, Beauty, and Cosmetics From Checkpoint

Key Advertiser Links

Be sure to visit these vendors for the latest in channel products and offers for resellers.

POS & Peripherals
Bematech
Elo Touch Solutions
Harbortouch
Hewlett-Packard
Partner Tech
Pioneer POS
POS BANK USA
Posiflex
PowaPOS
TEAMSable

Barcode & Transaction Printers
Brother Mobile
CognitiveTPG

Cash Drawers
MMF POS

Data Collection
CipherLab
Code Corporation
Datalogic

Integrated Payment Solutions
Cayan
Datacap Systems
Discover
Mercury/Vantiv

Keyboards & Mobile POS
Cherry, ZF Electronics Corp
PrehKeyTec

Receipt Printers
Bixolon America
CognitiveTPG
Epson America
Star Micronics

Thermal Printers
Seiko Instruments USA

Touchscreens & Monitors
Elo Touch Solutions

INSTALLATIONS

PAR, the Pit Master

PAR Technology Corporation (New Hartford, NY) will fulfill the "68 Refresh" for Sonny's BBQ, which has 119 sites in the Southeast U.S. This buy involves ParTech's Brink POS Software, EverServ 500 POS Terminals, and the PAR Tablet 8. Joe Tenczar, CIO at Sonny's BBQ, recently launched the "68 Refresh" effort to force "complete technology disruption in all of their restaurants."

"I have had the opportunity when I joined Sonny's to create what I saw as the most innovative technology stack available today," declared Tenczar. "We needed a solution that was customer facing, customer engagement focused, and had built-in loyalty. We created a comprehensive RFP with an exhaustive list of solution requirements--and PAR met all of them, including their dedication to partnership and supporting us through the deployment and beyond."

Delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Brink Software will fulfill online/mobile ordering, loyalty, and kitchen display. After rigorous performance and environmental testing, including dropping the device down cement stairwell, Sonny's chose the PAR Tablet 8 with 8" screen size, protective shields, and shoulder straps. Recently, PAR debuted its Tablet 5 with phablet-like form factor of 5" screen size and weight under 10 oz. It also offers PAR Tablet 10 with 10" screen size. All three devices were purpose-built for hospitality environments, with common platform of Atom CPU and Windows 8.1 or Android 4.4.

Sonny's BBQ to Deploy PAR's Brink Software, Tablet 8, and EverServ 500

Arrival Time for SelfServ 90

Airport self-service technology has moved beyond ticketing. As one example, OTG Management has deployed the NCR SelfServ 90 at its restaurant and retail locations within LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Additional deployments within LaGuardia, as well as in Newark Liberty Int., John F. Kennedy Int., and Ronald Reagan Washington National are planned for later this year. A leader in its field, OTG Management is based in New York City.

Introduced in January, NCR SelfServ 90 can be employed as free-standing, self-checkout kiosk, installed on the countertop, or mounted on the wall. Designed for less-than-five-item, "grab-and-go" shopping, SelfServ 90 holds 15" projected capacitive touchscreen, EMV Chip-and-PIN, two-dimensional scanner, two-inch thermal receipt printer, and optional MSR. It measures 17 in. (W) x 20.7 in. (H) x 12.4 in. (D) and runs Windows O/S. It doesn't accept cash, obviously.

"Consumers are increasingly influenced by a great shopping experience, and this is particularly important in an airport where time is especially precious," observed Dennis Davidson, VP of Travel for NCR Corporation (Duluth, GA). "NCR has enabled OTG to deliver an innovative shopping experience that will serve travelers well for years to come." In making its choice, OTG Management cited ease-of-use, with travelers needing minimal or no instruction.

Airports Install NCR's Self-Checkout Solution

Channel Factoid

It seems manufacturers and retailers have embraced item-level EPC RFID. In its "2014 Standards Usage Survey," GS1 U.S. finds that nearly half (48%) of the manufacturers surveyed said they are currently implementing RFID, and another 21% plan to implement RFID within the next 12 months. Additionally, 18% plan to implement RFID over the next 13 to 24 months. Respondents reported that 40% of items made by apparel and general merchandise manufacturers have RFID tags. Of the retailers surveyed, more than half (57%) said that they are currently implementing RFID, and another 19% plan to implement RFID within the next 12 months. Additionally, 10% plan to implement RFID within the next 13 to 24 months. Respondents reported that on average 47% of items received by apparel and general merchandise retailers have RFID tags. "After seeing the proven benefits of RFID in pilot programs, both manufacturers and retailers are realizing its many long-term business advantages," summarized Melanie Nuce, VP of Apparel and General Merchandise at GS1 U.S. "As industry collaboration and discussion grows, it will be difficult for companies to ignore RFID's role as a critical enabler of inventory visibility and the seamless customer experience."

HELLO GOODBYE

A Familiar Face at Bixolon

Bixolon America (Torrance, CA) has engaged Fred Hoffman as its new Director of Channel Sales and Distribution. A familiar face to readers, Hoffman brings many years of experience in POS and Auto ID. He joins Bixolon America from Code Corporation, where he also served as Director of Channel Sales.

For 16 years, Hoffman was employed as Channel Sales Manager for Star Micronics. At Star, he successfully closed large-scale printer rollouts for customers such as Delta Airlines and Apple Stores, achieving 112% of the sales quota for 2013. Earlier in his career, he worked as Sales Manager for both Toshiba TEC and Omron Systems.

"We are extremely happy to have Fred join our team at Bixolon America," remarked David Roberts, Bixolon's SVP. "Fred is the consummate professional, knowledgeable and attentive, and has been a very good friend for many years. Both our team and customers are fortunate to have him on board with us."

Fred Hoffman, Director of Channel Sales and Distribution, Bixolon America

AIM Fetes Matt "Magellan" Schler

Matt Schler, VP of New Technologies at Datalogic, has received the prestigious Richard Dilling Award from AIM, the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (Cranberry Township, PA). This honors lifetime achievements that have furthered industry growth. Schler joined Datalogic, then Spectra-Physics, 38 years ago; his accomplishments include development of the widely deployed Magellan scanner family, as well as the new Jade X7 scanner in portal format.

"Matt's leadership and passion is highly visible, with a career that closely parallels the evolution of retail scanning from the first barcode scanner to today's multi-sensor solutions," commented Romano Volta, CEO and Chairman at Datalogic. "He is a leader who has taken full advantage of technical knowledge and a real proximity to customers in order to create innovative solutions that meet retail industry needs, often acting as a pioneer, with courage, intellectual honesty, and undisputed leadership."

"It is an honor to be recognized with this award by such a distinguished association as AIM. Over the years with Datalogic, I have had the opportunity to work with many wonderful people in this industry and thank them all for being part of my achievement," stated Schler. An active member of the Technical Symbologies Committee at AIM, he also has served on the AIM Board of Directors for the past eight years. In the U.S., Datalogic is based in Eugene, Oregon and Telford, Pennsylvania. It has an additional R&D Center in Pasadena, California.

Matt Schler of Datalogic Wins the 2015 Richard Dilling Award From AIM