This Week’s Product Pick

Motorola Solutions (Schaumburg, IL) has shipped its MC45 mobile computer for field service and, in particular, "the growing value-tier market." MC45 offers WLAN (802.11a/b/g), GPS, and WAN (3.5G Dual-Cell HSPA voice/data) as well as outdoor viewable 3.2-inch display, numeric keyboard, and full-shift battery. It carries high-performance laser scanner with range of 15 feet, touch screen for signature capture, and 3.2-megapixel color camera for picture taking and decoding two-dimensional symbologies. Described as pocket-sized and rugged, MC45 supports Windows Embedded Handheld and Android through Motorola's RhoMobile Suite. "Built around Motorola's core enterprise mobile computing fundamentals for targeted markets, the MC45 does not compromise on quality, reliability, or feature set," declared Girish Rishi, SVP of Enterprise Solutions for Motorola Solutions.

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MC45 by Motorola

COMPANY BUSINESS

Synnex Banks on POS

Making its move on the front counter, Synnex Corporation (Greenville, SC) will now handle hardware from an emerging vendor, POS Bank USA (Gardena, CA). Distribution will run through the Synnex StoreSolv POS products and services business unit, RRN.Com has learned. With this strategic relationship, both companies substantially boost their viability in the POS arena. At Synnex, lead executives for the effort include Mary Ellen Grom, VP of U.S. Marketing, Garry Harper, Director of Sales for AIDC/POS, and Luke Allison, StoreSolv Program Manager.

"Synnex's distribution agreement with POS Bank USA presents targeted solutions that are vital to our POS VARs' overall competitiveness in multiple retail verticals from one source," stated Peter Larocque, President of U.S. Distribution for Synnex Corporation. "POS Bank USA's high-quality and cost-effective systems have not been readily available in the channel until now. They give our POS resellers attractive offerings to secure POS hardware and refresh opportunities with their end-user customer base."

POS Bank USA Booth at NRF

CipherLab Throws the Curve

CipherLab (Plano, TX) has uncorked its CP60 industrial mobile computer, carrying state-of-the-art capabilities in processing, communications, and data collection. Measuring 7.3 in. (L) x 3.3 in. (W) x 1.7 in. (D), and weighing 18.2 oz., the CP60 supports Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5, Windows CE 6.0, and Android 2.3, with Texas Instruments OMAP3 CPU at 1 GHz, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, and 4 GB Flash. Communication schemes include 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and 3.8G Evolved HSPA, with optional 4G LTE.

For data collection, the CP60 employs laser reader, long-range laser reader, two-dimensional imager, and five-megapixel autofocus camera. Additional features include GPS, 3.5-inch transflective TFT color display, and numeric or QWERTY keypad with LED backlight. In terms of ruggedness, the CP60 holds an IP-65 environmental rating against water and dust and withstands drops onto concrete from 6 feet and 2,000 tumbles at 3.3 feet.

New CP60 Industrial Mobile Computer From CipherLab

Worth Your While

Field Service USA 2013
Worldwide Business Research
April 22-25
Indian Wells, CA

ETA Annual Meeting & Expo
Electronic Transactions Association
April 30 - May 1
New Orleans

THE Tech EVENT
(Formerly NACStech, National Association of Convenience Stores)
May 6-10
Dallas

NRA Show
National Restaurant Association
May 18-21
Chicago

HITEC 2013
Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals
June 24-27
Minneapolis

RetailNow 2013
Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA)
August 4-7
Las Vegas

Pack Expo 2013
Packaging Manufacturers Machinery Institute
September 23-25
Las Vegas

Parcel Forum 2013
Event Evolution Management
October 7-9
Chicago

ALL IN THE FAMILY

An Imager Carved in Stone

Honeywell Scanning & Mobility (Ft. Mill, SC) has brought its Adaptus 6.0 area-imaging technology to its industrial barcode scanner family with the debut of the Granit. Offered in cabled (1910i) and wireless (1911i) models, and drawing upon the supply chain expertise of LXE, now part of Honeywell, Granit brings aggressive barcode reading as well as best-of-class durability. As an indication of performance, it allows workers to scan 20-mil linear codes out to 30 inches, without sacrificing performance on damaged or two-dimensional codes.

About 8 inches long and 10 oz., with rubberized body and IP-65 rating, Granit survives 50 drops from 6.5 feet and 5,000 tumbles at 3.3 feet. An extremely wide operating range, from -22 to 122 Degrees F, provides near-universal service. As one would expect, Granit supports the company's Total Freedom 2.0 development platform as well as its Remote MasterMind 3.0, which allows businesses to enroll and configure devices, track company assets, and enforce password protection.

Honeywell's Granit 1910i/1911i Scanner

Wishing Wireless Upon Your Star

Continuing its push to serve mobility in all its forms, Star Micronics (Edison, NJ) has unveiled its clever Wi-Fi Power Pack accessory, which adds wireless communications to any of the company's LAN printers. In modular, upgradeable format, Wi-Fi Power Pack encompasses specialized USB adapter from Star and wireless router from TP-Link, running at the common data rate of 150 Mbps. It supports wireless printing of receipts on tablets, smart phones, or similar portable electronic devices on the most economical basis, according to the vendor.

Integration with existing Star printers benefits from Wi-Fi Power Pack's compact size and consumer-friendly software set-up utility. By powering through the printer's cash drawer kick, or "DK," port, cabling gets simplified. "I believe the Wi-Fi Power Pack brings an ideal wireless printing solution for any end-user," remarked Christophe Naasz, Director of Business Development for Star Micronics America.

Wi-Fi Power Pack for Star Printers

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Week of January 28

Week of January 21

Week of January 10

Channel Chatter

RRN.Com has learned that Bobby McLain, SVP of Corporate Communications, has left ScanSource to pursue other interests. McLain joined ScanSource in 1997 as VP of Marketing, following two years as President of Transition Marketing, which served as the subsidiary of ScanSource. Rich Long, who recently rejoined the distributor, now holds the title of VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications for ScanSource.

Bobby McLain Departs ScanSource

ENVIRONMENTS/PLATFORMS

Go Daddy, Go Payments

First the Super Bowl commercial, with too much kissing between supermodel and computer geek, and now this. Go Daddy, the aggressive web hosting provider, has enlisted First Data (Atlanta) as its new payment processing partner. The two firms will collaborate to provide Go Daddy Payment Solutions, which will complete an SMB market offering with website, shopping cart, and online payment acceptance.

"We're extremely pleased about the opportunity to combine the payment and technology assets of First Data with the market presence of an online leader like Go Daddy," declared Neal Korzekwinski, SVP of Strategic Partner Acquisition and Management for First Data. "We view Go Daddy as everything that is online commerce--domain registration, web hosting, e-commerce--and believe they hold an industry-leading position in everything that they do." At this point, Go Daddy has nearly 11 million customers, manages more than 54 million domain names, and hosts more than 5 million websites.

Go Daddy Super Bowl Advertisement

EMV Made Easy?

The Electronic Transactions Association (Washington, DC) has come out in favor of the Single U.S. Debit Application Identifier (AID) for EMV Chip-and-PIN. As RRN.Com readers may recall, the payment card networks have mandated migration from magnetic-stripe cards to chip-enabled cards on our shores, with corresponding upgrades to processing systems and payment terminals required by April 2013. This date has slipped several times in the past, and some observers expect the same thing to happen this time around.

In particular, EMV implementation must comply with federal law requiring merchant access to multiple payment networks, mandated by the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. EMV (which stands for Europay/MasterCard/Visa) embeds AIDs in chips to follow individual providers and even solutions. At present, card companies designate their own AIDs, with resulting incompatibility between platforms and terminals. A Single U.S. Debit AID for EMV will solve this fundamental problem, according to the ETA, which has rallied the EMV Migration Forum, the Secure Remote Payment Council, and the Merchant Advisory Group.

"As the trade association representing more than 500 payment industry companies, ETA's endorsement of the Single U.S. Debit AID for EMV represents a significant step toward the successful migration to EMV in the United States," proclaimed Jason Oxman, CEO of ETA. "The merchant acquiring community, payment card issuers, and merchants are deploying EMV payment technology under implementation roadmaps set out by the major card networks. ETA's goal is that implementation solutions for merchant acquirers are simple, cost-effective, and fully compliant with federal law."

A Single U.S. Debit Application Identifier Endorsed by ETA

Code Corner

Fishbowl (Orem, UT) has launched Fishbowl Inventory 2013 with integrated UPS shipping. This new feature allows end-users to view customer-specific negotiated rates, ship from their UPS account, and receive e-mail notifications on delivery progress. Above and beyond this UPS capability, Fishbowl Inventory 2013 provides new benefits in online inventory access, business intelligence and reporting, and electronic data interchange (EDI). It continues to link POS through SalesPoint and provides web-based customer relationship management (CRM) through the Fishbowl Pipeline. Current customers will receive Fishbowl Inventory 2013 at no additional charge within their standard scheduled software updates. "Our company ships thousands of products per month, the majority through UPS," observed Victor Paniagua, Product Support Manager at Navistar International. "Fishbowl's effort to provide these shipping features costs us nothing, but will save hundreds of labor hours every year while allowing us to actually ship our merchandise more quickly and with fewer mistakes."

DoubleBeam (Pasadena, CA) has tied its cloud-based mobile payment solution for smartphones to the IBM ACE POS system running on 4690 O/S. According to the ISV, this package allows supermarkets and other chain retailers to increase their marketing ROI through personalized promotions, to speed checkout time, and to reduce the cost of traditional credit and debit transactions through proprietary mobile-based e-checking. "We are thrilled with the success of this integration and look forward to helping retailers improve their customer experience and save money," stated Ted Tekippe, CEO of DoubleBeam.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Ole!, Says OLO

OLO (New York), an emerging digital commerce engine for restaurants, has garnered an additional $5 million in funding, most notably from PayPal. OLO allows customers to order and pay from merchant websites and mobile apps, and ties directly to POS from vendors such as NCR, Micros, Xpient, and Retail Data Systems, as well as major payment processors. It launched in 2005 with $13.75 million in venture funding.

"OLO is already profitable and is taking on this Series B funding round to scale up in the fast-growing digital commerce market," reported Noah Glass, Founder and CEO. "As our existing restaurant clients are seeing the majority of digital transactions ordered by smartphone, new restaurant brands are getting excited about digital commerce." Glass has been called "Twitter's Forgotten Founder," and for an explanation, see Google.

Noah Glass, Founder and CEO, OLO

RedFin CEO Letter to Shareholders

From Jeffrey Schultz, CEO, RedFin Networks, Ft. Lauderdale, FL:

"As the transaction processing landscape continues to change, so does the need to maintain and adjust to these new technologies across the diverse offering of transaction processing devices. RedFin over the past 12 months has been able to stay ahead of industry changes and we believe our shareholders will see that these focused changes will significantly enhance revenues in 2013."

"In an exclusive partnership with Blue Bamboo, RedFin released the H50A, our highly anticipated upgrade of our longstanding flagship product, the H50. This upgraded device carries the same look and feel of the original H50, with enhanced performance. I believe that improved connectivity, faster transaction speeds, the ability to process credit, PIN, debit, check, gift, loyalty, and EBT transactions, and the ability to track P.O. Numbers, Invoice Numbers, and customer/employee ID's provides the opportunity to position this device as a true leader in the mobile market space."

"As a transaction solution provider, RedFin has also entered into a strategic partnership with several proven software development groups to release our own hospitality and retail POS software to be marketed as RedFin Restaurant and RedFin Retail. These offerings, software only and software/hardware packages, are very competitively priced and are being very well received by our reseller network and their customers. The RedFin network PCI-compliant payment gateway continues to be enhanced and provides the most secure and available service connecting over 10,000 merchants with over 40 processing platforms."

"Most importantly, we have made adjustments to our internal payroll overhead resulting in a reduction of nearly 30%. That, along with increased sales margins, we believe will allow RedFin to reach its goal of becoming cash flow positive and profitable in 2013 translating into increased shareholder value. RedFin also entered into a financing agreement with TCA Global Credit Master Fund. We thank all of shareholders for their continued support in 2013."

POS Provider Sets Plans for 2013

Key Advertiser Links

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

POS & Auto ID Distribution
Metropolitan Sales
Wasp Barcode Technologies

POS & Peripherals
Harbortouch
Partner Tech
Pioneer POS
Posiflex
POS-X

POS Systems - Hospitality
PAR

POS Systems - Retail
LightSpeed Retail

Barcode & Transaction Printers
Zebra Technologies

Cash Drawers
MMF POS

Data Collection Terminals
CipherLab
Datalogic ADC
Janam Technologies
Trimble

Data Collection Software
Wavelink

Integrated Payment Solutions
Datacap Systems
Merchant Warehouse
Mercury

Keyboards
Cherry, ZF Electronics Corp.

Receipt Printers
Bixolon America
Citizen Systems America
Epson America
Star Micronics

Scanners
Code Corporation
Honeywell

Thermal Printers
Seiko Instruments USA

Touchscreens & Monitors
Elo TouchSystems

INSTALLATIONS

Juicing Up at Micros

Micros Systems (Columbia, MD) will serve as exclusive technology supplier for Performance Food Centers (Pottstown, PA) and its network of 1,300 juice bar and cafe clients across the U.S. As part of the partnership, the Micros e7 Series will be offered, with its All-in-One POS terminal, optional above-store reporting via the mymicros.net business intelligence platform, and installation, training, and support from the Micros distribution and service channels. This turnkey package will provide enhanced functionality in customer ordering, labor and productivity, restaurant operations, and inventory management, according to the two parties.

"Micros is a highly recognized hospitality technology leader and we are proud to offer its Micros e7 POS solution to our clients," commented John Hocker, VP and COO with Performance Food Centers. "With the Micros e7, our clients are offered a total technology solution package at a competitive price with complete software, hardware, and support after purchase." PFC's customers include health clubs, eateries, universities, general stores, hospitals, and federal facilities, many of whom self-brand.

"With the trusted endorsement of Performance Food Centers, Micros is eager to leverage our partnership and provide POS technology services to the specialized juice bar and cafe market," remarked Ed Chapel, EVP of North American Restaurants for Micros. "We look forward to working with PFC and its juice bar and cafe clients to deliver the best POS solutions and experience possible." In its latest financial statement, covering 2013 Q2, Micros enjoyed record revenues of $325 million, an increase of $54 million, or 20%, versus the same period last year.

Health Food Provider Selects Micros e7 POS

Merchant Link, Griddle King

Merchant Link (Silver Spring, MD) has been renewed as the payment gateway provider for IHOP through 2017. IHOP, or International House of Pancakes, first signed with Merchant Link in 2002, and four years later became one of the first major brands to implement Merchant Link's Transaction Vault cloud-based tokenization scheme. As its name suggests, Transaction Vault removes sensitive cardholder data from the POS for storage in the secure, hosted "vault," increasing security while reducing PCI scope. At present, Merchant Link supports more than 1,100 IHOP locations in the U.S.

"We selected Merchant Link after conducting an exhaustive search and evaluation process that ultimately revealed we had the most reliable, flexible, secure, and scalable solution on the market today," recounted Randy Bogart, Executive Director of IT at IHOP. "The company's comprehensive support services for our franchisees and their tight integration with Micros POS systems further set them apart." Future plans call for another layer of security by implementing Merchant Link's point-to-point encryption technology, dubbed Transaction Shield.

"We are pleased to continue our long relationship with IHOP to keep their customers' payment data safe, and we are proud of our ability to support national restaurant brands," relayed Laura Kirby-Meck, EVP of Sales & Marketing at Merchant Link. "We will continue to provide IHOP the services it has come to depend on and we look forward to meeting its requirements for years to come." Among its partners, Merchant Link lists Agilysys, AJB Software, SpaSoft, Squirrel Systems, and Xpient.

IHOP Extends Contract With Merchant Link

Channel Factoid

Does the quip about weather apply to the customer shopping experience? ("Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything.") According to "Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era," from Oracle, 93% of senior-level executives say that improving customer experience is one of their organization's top three priorities in the next two years, and 91% wish to be considered leaders in this area. However, 37% are just getting started and only 20% consider the state of their capability to be advanced. Perhaps the impact on business has been underestimated. The study found that 49% of executives believe customers will switch brands due to poor service, yet 89% of customers report having done so. Undeniably, social media has captured the spotlight. Eighty-one percent of executives feel that leveraging social media has become critical. But again, 35% have not established such platforms for either sales or customer service purposes. As factors undercutting customer experience, executives list inflexible technology, siloed organizations and systems, and insufficient investment. One average, businesses estimate they will increase spending on customer experience technology by only 18% over the next two years. "This report demonstrates that organizations around the globe and across many industries are beginning to understand the real business impact of not offering great customer experiences, but are facing execution challenges," summarized David Vap, Group VP at Oracle. "We recommend that organizations map their customers' journeys to identify specific improvement areas that will help them cross the execution chasm."

HELLO GOODBYE

Touch Dynamic Gains VP, Aldelo Approval

Touch Dynamic (Irvington, NJ) has promoted Dave Graber to VP, with leadership responsibilities in areas of planning, operations, sales, and human resources. After attending the University of Louisville, Graber joined Touch Dynamic in 2003 as Southeast Sales Manager, moving to Business Development Manager in 2007.

"I am very excited about the opportunities that I can bring to Touch Dynamic as the new Vice President," stated Graber. "My previous positions at Touch Dynamic equipped me with the knowledge and skills to continue to make a positive impact." Touch Dynamic, as many RRN.Com readers know, supplies All-in-One POS terminals and server-class PCs to the channel.

Dave Graber, VP, Touch Dynamic

Strategy Session at Cynergy

Cynergy Data (Alpharetta, GA) has enlisted Alvin Mayers as its SVP of Product Strategy. In his new role, Mayers will be responsible for planning, competitive intelligence, and product positioning for all of Cynergy Data's sales distribution channels. Previously, he served as VP and Director of International Product Strategy for TYSYS. Before that, he held similar titles with Century Payments and Global Payments.

"Alvin brings a strong resume with over 13 years of experience in product management and corporate strategy spanning the financial services value chain," noted Kim Fitzsimmons, Cynergy Data's CEO. "His expertise will be a tremendous asset to our company, and we are confident he will excel in his new role." Cynergy Data now processes in excess of $10 billion annually in the U.S.

Also, Cynergy Data recently introduced DonateWiseNow, another methodology to encourage charitable giving at the POS. Customers are empowered to make "quick and discrete" micro-donations whenever they swipe their credit or debit cards through the payment terminal. Funds may be designated for local causes or distributed to one of the charities for whom DonateWiseNow has been pre-approved.

Alvin Mayers, SVP, Product Strategy, Cynergy Data