Our Product Pick

Zebra Technologies Corporation (Lincolnshire, IL) has unboxed its ultra-compact label printer, the ZD410. In size of 8.6 in. (L) x 4.5 in. (W) x 6 in. (H) and weight of 2 lbs., 3 oz., the ZD410 creates direct-thermal labels, receipts, tags, and wristbands. It delivers maximum print speed of 6 inch/152 mm per second at 203 dpi and 4 inch/102 mm per second at 300 dpi. Maximum label and media width is 2.4 inch/60 mm. A standard movable media sensor accommodates off-center black marks, die-cut notches, or multiple labels across the width. A choice of connectivity includes USB, Auto-Sensing Serial, or 10/100 Ethernet, as well as 802.11a/c and Bluetooth 4.1. An optional disinfectant-ready plastic housing addresses healthcare.

Zebra ZD410 Label Printer

COMPANY BUSINESS

Star's Cloud Gathers Apps

Star Cloud Services, an extension of Star Micronics America (Somerset, NJ), has launched Receipt Flip, the first two-sided color digital receipt, specifically targeting the SMB. It falls in line with AllReceipts, the company's cloud-based digital receipt solution unveiled in 2015. A long-standing supplier of thermal printers, well-known to readers of RRN.Com, Star Micronics distributes its Cloud Services for free.

In comparison to standard digital receipt solutions, which require customers to take photos, Receipt Flip--as well as AllReceipts--employs QR Codes. Now customers may view both sides of their receipts, similar to print. Retailers simply upload their content in the dashboard, whether terms and conditions, store policies, watermarks, or promotions and marketing offers. As another benefit, its digital receipt methodology doesn't require customers to share personal information, according to Star Cloud Services.

Star Cloud Services Launches Two-Sided Color Digital Receipt Capacity

A Mutual Xtraction at Wavelink

Wavelink (Salt Lake City, UT) now offers real-time reporting, dashboards, and analytics by Xtraction Solutions for its Mobile Enterprise Productivity Suite. Both Xtraction and Wavelink are part of network software provider, LANDesk, with Xtraction recently purchased in August 2015. Wavelink, one of the pioneers in mobile device management, was purchased earlier, in June 2012. A new, combined bundle from the two companies spans the server and connector sides of things.

It tells administrators where their devices are, which operating systems are running on them, and the time since the device last contacted the network. It also allows businesses to identify any surplus or deficit in any given location, helping them to improve efficiency across the entire enterprise. Further, it illustrates asset lifecycles, so administrators can see which assets are out of compliance, need updates, or are in need of renewal.

"In an industry where fine-tuning a process can save hundreds of thousands of dollars, our customers will benefit greatly from this new integration," proposed Steve Bemis, VP of Worldwide Sales for Wavelink. "Our customers have massive device populations and they want the insight and ease of use provided by Xtraction. We're delighted to be able to offer this capability. The customers who have seen this connector have readily embraced it."

Enterprise-Wide Service Operations Overview for Mobile Devices Provided by Xtraction

Worth Your While

NGA Show 2016
National Grocers Association
Feb. 28 - March 2
Las Vegas

Transact 16
Electronic Transactions Association
April 19-21
Las Vegas

WERC 2016
Warehousing Education and Research Council
May 15-18
Providence, RI

NRA Show 2016
National Restaurant Association
May 21-24
Chicago

ALL IN THE FAMILY

It's Prime Time at POSBANK

An increasingly visible player, POSBANK USA (Plainview, NY), has shipped its high-end All-in-One POS terminal, labeled Imprex Prime. With stylish, fluid contours for its base, and bezel-free true-flat design, Imprex Prime has 15" or 17" projected capacitive touchscreen LED LCD, built-in 3-inch/76-mm thermal receipt printer, and full suite of ports. A fanless configuration, aluminum die-cast frame, and industry-grade components extend durability, according to the vendor.

As processing, Imprex Prime employs Intel's Haswell Core i3, i5, and i7 or Intel's Celeron Quad-Core J1900. Both versions offer SSD Storage at 64 GB and RAM at 4 GB (expandable to 16 GB for the Haswell and 8 GB for the J1900). Also, Haswell includes RAID. As peripherals, POSBANK offers customer-facing displays, magnetic-stripe and smart card readers, and battery with UPS.

"Installation and maintenance have never been easier with our tool-less design that enables fast and easy service," relayed Grace Goo, VP of Business Development for POSBANK USA. "With modular technology, there is no need to send the whole system for service if breakdown occurs. Upgraded technology provides the processing power needed to improve business efficiency and speed up customer service."

Imprex Prime All-in-One From POSBANK USA

Bixolon Gets Busy

A long string of new products will roll out from printer leader Bixolon America (Torrance, CA) in 2016. Announced at last month's National Retail Federation (NRF) Show in New York City, this next-generation will encompass upgrades, new models and functions, as well as state-of-the-art communication schemes. It's lead by four early models: the mobile SPP-R200III, mobile SPP-R310, waterproof thermal receipt printer SRP-F310II, and dot-matrix SRP-275III.

As upgrades, the 2-inch SPP-R200III (extending the SPP-R200II) and 3-inch SPP-R310 (extending the SPP-R300) bring state-of-the-art characteristics. The SPP-R200III increases receipt print speed by 10% to 4 inch/102 mm per second while supplying 7-ft./2.1-m drop protection. For the SPP-R310, footprint and weight have been significantly reduced to 4.1 in. (W) x 5 in. (L) x 2.3 in. (D) and approximately 1 lb. with paper roll and MSR. Both employ direct thermal printing of receipts and labels, carry Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Serial, and USB, and support iOS, Android, and Windows. Also, the SPP-R310 has NFC auto pairing, as well as the print speed of 4 inch/102 mm per second at 203 dpi.

In the case of the SRP-F310II (pun intended), Bixolon has addressed waterproofing. With front exit of receipts, it includes an exterior cover, dual layers on both sides of the printer, and an outlet for liquids that may have seeped through the cover button. It meets electrical protection level of IP-12. Also, the SRP-F310II features receipt print speed of 14 inch/350 mm per second, measures 6 in. (W) x 8 in. (L) x 5.8 in. (D), and weighs 4 lbs., 6 oz. As the fourth new model in this next generation, the SRP-275III, with 3-inch dot-matrix printing, has USB + Ethernet + Serial, internal kitchen buzzer, and enhanced paper jam-free technology. More to come from Bixolon America.

New SPP-R310 Mobile Printer by Bixolon

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ALLIANCES

CipherLab's Pit Stop

A new strategic partnership has formed between CipherLab (Plano, TX) and Petrosoft (Pittsburgh, PA). Specifically, Petrosoft has embraced the CipherLab 9700 rugged mobile computer for use with its cloud-based back-office solution, 'C-Store Office.' Running Windows, the CipherLab 9700 has Texas Instruments OMAP CPU at 1 GHz, one- and two-dimensional barcode scanning, three keypad options, 802.11a/b/g/n, "push-to-talk," and an IP-65 rating for water and dust.

"Our strategic partnership with CipherLab reflects the proven value it delivers to our customers," indicated Sergey Gorlov, President and CEO of Petrosoft. "Although Petrosoft integrates with the industry's leading inventory scanning technologies, the CipherLab 9700 is the only inventory scanner included in Petrosoft's product catalog. Our decision to add CipherLab to our point-of-sale, made-to-order, back-office, and fuel management technology is based on their product reputation, value, and ease of integration with C-Store Office."

"Using Petrosoft's retail solutions with the CipherLab Model 9700 mobile barcode scanner, in-store operations are simple to perform," enthused Luis Wu, VP and GM of CipherLab USA. "Convenience stores, gas stations, and liquor stores can now easily track inventory, receive deliveries, place orders, and perform price checks. Retailers will realize great value with Petrosoft's solutions and CipherLab's hardware."

Petrosoft Recommends CipherLab's 9700 Rugged Mobile Computer

NCR: Sit Right Down

A leading third-party table management player for casual dining, entitled Nowait (for "No Wait"), has been integrated with NCR Aloha. This hosted solution will enable thousands of sites with Nowait--which seats 25 million diners per month and 250 million to date--to integrate, deploy, and maintain their table-status services across the installed base of NCR Aloha POS. Interestingly, Nowait uses open check data as well as table status to refine its proprietary algorithm, thereby increasing wait-time accuracy for restaurant owners and guests.

"As the largest player in the casual-dining market, NCR perfectly complements our table management technology," proclaimed Ware Sykes, CEO of Nowait (New York City). "Connecting them with their guests on this deeper level means offering them more meaningful and intuitive data, directly from the central nervous system of any table service restaurant--the host stand." An accompanying Nowait Guest App supports iOS.

"NCR is leading the omni-channel revolution in the restaurant industry," suggested Paul Langenbahn, President of NCR Hospitality (Duluth, GA). "Providing a solid and secure integration platform to our core solutions is critical to delivering on that strategy. We are happy to welcome an innovative partner such as Nowait to our Cloud Connect Program and to help our collective customers improve their overall casual dining experience for their guests."

Aloha Integrates With Leading Fast Casual Table Management Player, Nowait

Code Corner

Sage (Atlanta, GA) has opened its Sage Marketplace for ISVs. It showcases and distributes add-on components integrated with payment products such as Sage One and Sage Live. Customers buy directly from the ISV. Early examples include cash flow support from Fundbox (San Francisco, CA) and e-commerce extensions from Magento (Campbell, CA). Sage Marketplace follows the launch of the Sage Global Partner Program for the portfolio of Sage One, Sage Live, Sage Impact, and Sage X3. According to the company, the Sage Global Partner Program provides "world-class" benefits and incentives. "This is just the beginning for the Sage Marketplace," indicated Michael De Jongh, VP of Global ISV and Developer Program for Sage. "A fantastic opportunity for ISVs to join our growing community and grow their business with Sage."

Michael De Jongh, VP of Global ISV and Developer Program, Sage

ENVIRONMENTS/PLATFORMS

OMG for Epson OMS

A formal name, Epson OmniLink Merchant Services (OMS), as well as pilot participants, have been announced for the printer chieftain's cloud-based suite of solutions for hospitality and retail. Epson OMS, which seeks to recruit in "value-add" areas such as inventory, staffing, loss prevention, merchandising, logistics, and business intelligence, will be fully released in Q2. As initial partners, revealed at the recent National Retail Federation (NRF) Show in New York City, Epson America (Long Beach, CA) listed DTT Surveillance, Expensify, GuestDNA, Livelenz, Mobivity, NimbleSchedule, PnP Loyalty, Spendgo, and VenuMenu. Expect many more.

A logical conclusion for the company's OmniLink technology--which put PC functionality into Epson America's line of popular receipt printers in 2013--Epson Cloud (and OMS) will greatly profit VARs and ISVs, RRN.Com was told in an earlier interview. A trio of opportunities results: margin on the hardware, revenue share from subscription-based solutions, and on-site installation, service, and warranty. Outfitted models include the Epson OmniLink TM-T88V, TM-T70II, TM-70, TM-T20II, TM-L90, and TM-H6000IV. For the cloud, billing passes through Epson.

"We are looking forward to taking part in Epson's OMS," emphasized Sasha Poljak, CEO at NimbleSchedule. "Access to meaningful business data is the single largest challenge facing hospitality and retail today." A further benefit cited by many: greatly simplified development across diverse platforms of POS.

Epson America Kicks Off OmniLink Merchant Services

As the World Turns (for Datacap)

Datacap Systems (Chalfont, PA) keeps the ball rolling with U.S. EMV Level 3 certification of its payments middleware with another of the major processors, WorldPay (Atlanta, GA). Initial release of NETePay for WorldPay utilizes the VX 805 PIN Pad from Verifone that supports EMV, MSR, PIN, and NFC. Additional hardware for signature capture, unattended applications, and mobile solutions will be released shortly via subsequent re-certifications, according to Datacap. ("An evolving list of PIN Pads through one simple 'out-of-scope' interface," in the phrasing of Datacap.)

Current EMV-certified versions of NETePay now include Vantiv, Paymentech, Sterling Payment, First Data ("Rapid Connect"), and TSYS, with more to follow. (As of February 1, it should be noted, Mercury Payment Systems and Element Systems have been combined under the banner of "Vantiv Integrated Payments.") In advance of the release of Datacap's "Tran" Apps, embedded PC providers can utilize Datacap's "PDC" to communicate with an EMV-enabled version of in-store NETePay, Justin Zeigler, Marketing Director of Datacap, told RRN.Com.

"We're very pleased to announce our U.S. EMV certification with WorldPay's host-based processing platform," shared Zeigler. "The Datacap/WorldPay product usage program has been a solid source of recurring revenue for the channel and we're looking forward to building upon the current program with support for U.S. EMV transactions." In addition to its usage program, NETePay for WorldPay, like its brethren, may be purchased outright.

Datacap Launches NETePay for WorldPay

Key Advertiser Links

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

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

Barcode & Transaction Printers
Brother Mobile
Citizen
CognitiveTPG

Cash Drawers
MMF POS

Cyber Security for POS
Signature Systems/PDQ

Data Collection
CipherLab
Code Corporation

Integrated Payment Solutions
Cayan
Datacap Systems
Discover
iPayment Inc.
Vantiv IP

Keyboards & Mobile POS
Cherry Americas, LLC

Receipt Printers
Bixolon America
CognitiveTPG
Star Micronics

Thermal Printers
Seiko Instruments USA

Touchscreens & Monitors
Elo Touch Solutions

INSTALLATIONS

Wakefern Checks Out Toshiba TCx

Wakefern Food Corporation has called upon Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions (Research Triangle Park, NC) to support its installed base of self-checkout systems from NCR. Owner of leading supermarket brands such as ShopRite, Price Rite, Fresh Grocer, and Dearborn Market, Wakefern has chosen Toshiba TCx as the single point of contact for its hardware support in this area. Already, Toshiba has existing contracts to provide traditional POS systems and TCx Amplify Mobile for Wakefern.

Under this pact are self-checkout areas of 129 ShopRite and Fresh Grocer stores in the Northeastern U.S., covering 665 lanes and 130 attendant stations. Toshiba will also support all self-checkout peripherals at these locations, including handheld scanners, scanner scales, receipt printers, and UPS. "We selected Toshiba for its multi-vendor expertise in retail store technology to ensure the same specialized support with one simple touch point," noted Cheryl Williams, CIO at Wakefern.

"Wakefern Food Corp. has an impressive record and enviable goal of helping independent retailers compete in a big business world," volunteered Eugene Shvartsman, Executive Director, North America TCx Care at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions. "Our team is proud to expand the existing scope of vendor products serviced within TCx Care to include NCR self-checkout systems." In September 2015, Toshiba unwrapped its TCx700 and TCx300 POS with more modern design, enhanced performance, and new designation (formerly, lineage of IBM, "SurePOS").

Toshiba TCx Supports NCR Self-Checkout Stations for Supermarket Giant

Bluefin P2PE Fits 3DRetro

Bluefin Payment Systems (Atlanta, GA), and its gateway service provider, USAePay (Los Angeles, CA), have signed the first merchant for "Decryptx." A hipster toy store, tagged 3DRetro, located in Glendale, CA, has deployed this Decryption-as-a-Service (DaaS), with Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), on the USAePay platform. It boosts security and reduces the scope of PCI. Under the pact between these two companies, Bluefin will manage devices, key injection, shipping, and chain of custody requirements. Both retail and call centers may be addressed.

"PCI-validated P2PE is extremely valuable to our merchants," confirmed Martin Drake, EVP at USAePay. "Not only does it prevent clear-text cardholder data from being available in the device or the merchant's system where it could be exposed to malware, but merchants that implement P2PE throughout their POS environment are eligible for PCI's 35-question SAQ P2PE-HW--a significant reduction from the 332-question SAQ D." On its website, USAePay addresses VARs and ISVs in POS.

"According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), there have already been 53 data breaches and 1.3 million records exposed since the beginning of 2016," elaborated Greg Cornwell, SVP of Security Solutions at Bluefin. "PCI-validated P2PE solutions protect cardholder data by making it useless to fraudsters while also saving merchants time and money on their annual PCI audit. We are excited to offer our validated P2PE solution through trusted and established payment partners like USAePay."

Bluefin Payment Systems Gains First Merchant for Its Decryption-as-a-Service, Decryptx

Channel Factoid

A majority of medium and large enterprises in the U.S. plan to increase their spending on cloud computing by as much as 50% in 2016, according to new findings by business-to-business research firm, Clutch. At the same time, nearly 30% will maintain their current spending and only 6% will reduce their cloud computing budget. Increased efficiency was cited as the main benefit from the technology by 47%. In terms of applications, the highest priority for enterprise cloud usage is file storage (70%), followed by back-up and disaster recovery (62%), application deployment (51%), and application development and testing (46%). "Spending on the cloud has increased because companies realize they are getting a lot of value," observed one technical provider, Jason Reichl, CEO of Go Nimbly. "The cloud is building ROI." In terms of retail, specifically, IHL Group, which knows such things, has predicted 26% of software spend this year in North America will focus on cloud solutions. As cited in "Total Retail Software-as-a-Service Market," it reaches 60% for e-commerce, 53% for business intelligence/analytics, and 30% for POS.

Greg Buzek, Founder and President, IHL Group

HELLO GOODBYE

ECR Stocks the Shelves

ECR Software (Boone, NC) has promoted Don Edwards to VP of Business Development for Grocery. He brings more than three decades of experience in store systems for this vertical segment, with focus on both the reseller channel and POS. Previous employers have included NCR, Arrow ECS, Agilysys, Kyrus, and, fittingly, Kroger. He joined ECR Software in May 2015 as Director of Business Development.

"There is a great need right now in the grocery industry for an omni-channel, unified retail platform that includes native business solutions such as e-commerce, supply chain management, inventory management, enterprise configuration management, Mobile POS, and data analytics," related Edwards. "ECRS has a proven retail-ready system which has contributed to its recent success. I look forward to strategically guiding ECRS in becoming the top provider of retail automation to grocery enterprises throughout the U.S and internationally." He reports directly to ECRS President, Founder, and CEO, Pete Catoe.

Don Edwards, VP of Business Development for Grocery, ECR Software

Eyeing Sales at CBS

Custom Business Solutions (Irvine, CA), one of the prominent restaurant POS VARs, has engaged Tom Saenz as its National Sales Manager. Previously, Saenz held sales management positions at 3M Health Care and Shimano American Corporation. "Tom is the consummate sales management professional," remarked Art Julian, CEO of Custom Business Solutions. "We're thrilled to welcome him to the team."

Also, Custom Business Solutions has partnered with Mirus to provide the Johnny Carino's restaurant chain with an integrated system that combines Mirus' reporting modules and Custom Business Solutions' NorthStar Order Entry POS. An advanced solution for the VAR, NorthStar runs in the cloud and accepts orders across platforms such as tablets, self-service kiosks, and the web. A recognized leader in restaurant performance management, Mirus is based in Houston, TX.

"The ability to have our business intelligence tool speak directly and seamlessly to our POS system is no longer a luxury, but a necessity," testified Rick Baker, Director of Operation Services for Fired Up, Inc., which runs 100 locations of Johnny Carino's in the U.S. "Mirus and NorthStar helped us achieve just that. The process of integrating these systems was smooth and completed on time. As a company, we are stronger and more agile with our new reporting capabilities."

Tom Saenz, National Sales Manager, Custom Business Solutions