Insightssuccess the 10 most trusted pos solution providers july 2017

www.insightssuccess.com July 2017

The way of business solutions

The

10 MOST-TRUSTED

POS

SOLUTION PROVIDERS

2017

Industry Trends Key POS Trends Reshaping the Retail Sector

Editor’s Opinion POS systems, turning into the technology of choice

Editorial

T

he technological advancement has fueled up the race to be ahead in the competition than ever before as the demand of POS is at its peak. The POS industry is getting benefited from higher reliance on computers in its downstream markets. While it has been observed that the POS industry is overall getting unified with the availability of a broader software market. The constant increase in the number of businesses is making the chances of growth of the POS industry more obvious.

Last five years proved to be a blessing for the Point of Sale solution provider industry, as it saw a great progress. There is a notable development in the handheld POS market, let it be a technology firm creating POS devices or industries like retail and hospitality that are using them.

Revolution to Fuel the Evolution of POS Industry

With the growing consumer demand to see the latest trends in handheld POS and the ways these devices streamline their shopping, dining, and entertainment experiences, there will be a huge increase in the demand for these devices. Furthermore, with the availability of the added security provided by pay-at-table technology, consumers will love to prefer this method for its added peace of mind.

The POS market growth is getting a boost with the increasing demand for enhanced services from the customers that are Tech Savvy. The reliance and use of e-money through credit and debit card will influence the payment systems to be more dependent on the POS technology. And it is the ease of use and high return on investment that is making the companies from various sectors opt for a POS solution. Let it be a small or medium sized retailer, everyone are increasingly adopting POS solutions with a purpose of enhancing customer experience!

The market scenario appears as if there is a shift in vendor competition from mature markets in Europe to potential markets such as the US, India, China, and Brazil. The demand for low-cost payment solutions with less emphasis on features, product brand, and enhancements is at its peak, creating a low product differentiation in the market. This situation is adding to the expectations for long-time growth, fueling an intense competition among POS system vendors!

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Ariana Lawrence Managing Editor Kaustav Roy Co-Editors David Smith Abhijeet Parade Stephanie Andrews Contributors Saurav, Rajarshi Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Alex Noel Picture Editor Vijaykumar Dudhbhate Art Editor Aparna Vanzul Business Development Manager Mark Harris Steve Smith Marketing Manager Alex Noel Business Development Executive David, Joseph, John, Mary Research Analyst Jennifer Circulation Manager Robert Database Management Steve Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

July, 2017 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.com

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CO N T E N T S

COVER STORY

08 Silverware POS: The Peerless Customer Centric POS Solutions Provider

CXO STANDPOINT

22

IoT Business will boost the Economy in the Next Decades

28

Leverage Existing SAP Solutions With Cloud Procurement

18 32

16

Mastering Big Data With Oracle Solution

Industry Trends Key POS Trends Reshaping the Retail Sector

20

Editor’s Opinion POS Systems, Turning into the Technology of Choice

Clover: Get Paid, Sell More and Run Your Business Better

Lightspeed: Providing Tools For Independent Businesses To Thrive

34

Lucova: Win the moments that matter

26

o

POS Solution Providers, Making Business Easy

ffering up-to-date sales and market data, while allowing you to identify the product and customer segments driving revenue growth, POS Solution providers provides a real growth to the business. There is a high acceptance of POS services in the hospitality, retail, warehouse/distribution, and healthcare sectors, just because of the ease of use and high return on investment.

To showcase such POS solution providers that are helping all the leading industries, let it be hospitality, retail or healthcare, we have come up with an issue of The 10 Most-trusted POS Solution providers 2017.

On the cover of this issue, we are having SilverWare POS; an award-winning developer of technology solutions designed for the Hospitality and Food Service industry. SilverWare is the pioneer who is pushing the limit of technology while offering POS that best suits your restaurant. Combining its SQL-server POS with flexible Cloud-based technology, SilverWare provides a secure and robust database with the benefits of mobile-friendly solutions.

Trusted by thousands of businesses in over a dozen countries, SilverWare designs and deploys products and services that help create a more efficient environment. These solutions include Advanced Table Service Point of Sale, Quick Service Point of Sales, Integration Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Gift Cards and Loyalty Programs, Cloud Reporting, Analytics & Dashboards, Cloud Menu Management, Omni-Channel Ordering (with integrated Online Ordering), and Mobile POS solutions.

In our bouquet, we also have Lucova, which brings technology, data and people together to enhance the human touch points in the world of offline commerce. Clover, which builds beautiful hardware and software for payments and point-ofsale, built on their open platform that enables innovation in the physical world of commerce. Lightspeed designs POS, omnichannel, restaurant and eCommerce software for independent businesses (retail and restaurant) that allows them to fully manage day-to-day sales, inventory, and employee and customer profiles. Square, making it easier for customers to shop and pay at their favorite businesses.

Bravo Store Systems, help store operators exceed expectations by offering Big Software Services affordably, easy to use, without the burden of complicated hardware. POSsible POS is a provider of innovative technology to the hospitality and retail industries. Vagaro.com, a website that allows users to find salons and Spa in their local area and make appointment online with them. RB Control Systems, a software solution for stores, and PAR Technology, offers technology solutions for the full spectrum of restaurant operations, from large chain and independent table service restaurants to international quick service chains.

In this issue of The 10 Most-trusted POS Solution providers 2017 we have included masterly articles written by our inhouse writers; POS Systems, Turning into the Technology of Choice and Key POS Trends Reshaping the Retail Sector.

Also, we are having guest writers for this issue too! While sharing their immense experience of their respective industries, Brad Hill, Director of Global Sales & Management, Vroozi writes on Leverage Existing SAP Solutions with Cloud Procurement. Also, we have with us Alex Shliakhouski, IT Director, Elinext Group, with an article, Mastering Big Data with Oracle Solutions; and we have with us José Antônio Scodiero, Director- Founding Partner, Fast Company Brazil, with IoT Business will boost the Economy in the Next Decades.

Hope you will enjoy this issue!

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WE OFFER REAL-TIME WEB-BASED REPORTING & ALERTS THAT GIVES YOU AN UNDERSTANDING OF EACH

“

ENVIRONMENT

Nick Thalas Founder & CEO

Cover Story

SilverWare POS The Peerless Customer Centric POS Solutions Provider

T

o ensure you are operating your restaurant with optimal efficiency, all you need is the POS (Point of Sale) system that can help you expedite orders, track sales data, and help better understand your costs. POS helps you simplify communications between the front-of-house and back-of-house; making everyone’s lives easier! POS systems also help environments ensure guests receive items quicker and subsequently helps tables turns faster. Additionally, it will be useful in organizing profit & loss statements and sales taxes. The Real-Time Web-based Reporting & Alerts offer you an understanding of your business.

One such POS solution provider that will fulfill all your needs is SilverWare POS; an award-winning developer of technology solutions designed for the Hospitality and Food Service industry. SilverWare is the pioneer who is pushing the limit of technology while offering POS that best suits your restaurant. Combining its SQL-server POS with flexible Cloud-based technology, SilverWare provides a secure and robust database with the benefits of mobile-friendly solutions.

Trusted by thousands of businesses in over a dozen countries, SilverWare designs and deploys products and services that help create a more efficient environment. These solutions include Advanced Table Service Point of Sale, Quick Service Point of Sales, Integration Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Gift Cards and Loyalty Programs, Cloud Reporting, Analytics & Dashboards, Cloud Menu Management, Omni-Channel Ordering (with integrated Online Ordering), and Mobile POS solutions.

POS that will help you become more efficient than ever before SilverWare POS offers the best in server and cloud technology. The company’s most user-friendly Point of Sale (POS) system available in the market allows the client to become more efficient than ever before. SilverWare arms staff with the ability to turn tables faster and bust line-ups quicker. The real-time cloud reporting and insight capabilities, along with the real-time cloud backup/storage provide business intelligence and security to management and owners.

SilverWare is a leading developer of end-to-end solutions for the Hospitality industry. The company is working relentlessly with a mission to improve the profitability of the clients by relentlessly delivering the most innovative and beneficial technologies in the hospitality industry.

The customer-focused solutions of SilverWare are installed in thousands of table and quick service restaurants, bars, private clubs, assisted living communities, corporate/institutional cafeterias, hotels, stadiums, and casinos, throughout North America, Europe, and Australia.

Revolutionary POS Solutions Since 1992 Every great solution comes into reality only after one stumbles upon a huge problem. Well, this is it! This is the story of SilverWare. It all started when, Nick Thalas, Founder and CEO of SilverWare stumbled with the problem of unavailability of a user-friendly restaurant point-of-sale system. In the early 90s, Nick and team identified a need for a more user-friendly restaurant point-of-sale system and introduced one of North America’s first Windows-based Point of Sale solutions.

“

We provide end-to-end Point of Sale

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technology for the hospitality industry

It was revolutionary for its ease of use and management, along with its fully integrated CRM and table management capabilities. Since its launch, SilverWare has continuously put the customer at the forefront of its development; ensuring not only to take the operators of the system into account but to also consider the patron when developing new solutions.

Helping our customers becomes more profitable and being part of their growth is what truly makes us tick!SilverWare

Nick Thalas began his software development career over 35 years ago. During this period, he’s been able to accurately identify sustainable technological trends. As a software engineer by trade, Nick still takes a very handson approach with the development teams today. Nick has a knack for understanding where the restaurant industry is going which has always allowed Silverware to stay at the forefront of technology. “Building great technology is one thing, ensuring these solutions can easily be leveraged by our customers is another!” says Nick.

“We pride ourselves in offering solutions that assist in providing an elevated client experience – we truly bring more to the table allowing our customers to bring more to theirs,” adds Nick.

According to Nick, this is an ever-changing industry and so the technological advances that they’ve seen since SilverWare’s inception are incredible. Nick believes that their customers are constantly looking for better ways to serve their guests. So, offering solutions to actualize this is something that continuously inspires him and his team.

Solutions focused towards customer’s convenience

“

“

Enthusiast behind SilverWare

Our customers are constantly looking for better ways to serve their guests and offering solutions to actualize this is something that continuously inspire us

SilverWare offers solutions that are thoroughly customer oriented. Customer convenience is the prime focus here.

Company’s customer-focused solutions are installed in table service restaurant chains, multi-unit counter service environments, private clubs, assisted living communities, institutional cafeterias, stadiums, casinos, and hotels. Some of the most recent installations include a global hotel chain with venues requiring over 100 stations consisting of Windows-based all-in-ones and iOS tablets.

Understanding clients’ needs and requests have helped Silverware to push development into specific directions. Being such a customer-oriented organization, they strive to offer the most advanced tools for an incredible value.

SilverWare has received tremendous testimonials from their customers. The company has created strong and lasting partnerships with thousands of operators over the years. “We are extremely proud to have such a loyal customer-base who have continuously helped us make strides when it comes to providing user-friendly and customer-focused technologies to the hospitality industry,” asserts Nick.

Team that leads the company towards success Though there were many obstacles in the successful journey of Silverware, it was the team’s efforts that drove the company towards success. Their initial obstacles revolved around market acceptance of a new player with a new product that was quite radically different than the establishment. It was a time when competitors used to narrate the prospects that Windows was a fad and table management was completely unnecessary.

When asked about the key factors that are driving Silverware towards success, Nick says, “People, people, people!! Our team means everything to us. Our staff is integral to our success. They are dedicated, forward thinking individuals who act with

integrity. Without our teams, our organization wouldn’t be what it is today. If I had to include any other factors, it would be our organization’s work ethic and drive to constantly help our customers get to the next level. We find that all restaurant operators are striving for something more – whether that is for opening more locations, offer a better guest experience, or increase the bottom line. SilverWare’s teams and products help facilitate that.”

It is the reputation of SilverWare, which is recognized as a leading developer of technology solutions for the hospitality industry, and this is the driving power for Nick and Team. Nick believes that this is something they should take very seriously. SilverWare is well aware of the current industry scenario. There are start-ups entering this market at a drastic rate, and many of these companies can take some of their market shares. But, rather getting demoralized from the situation the company has become more dynamic than ever before.

Glittering future ahead When it comes to design the success graph of the company, it has been and will be high always. SilverWare’s growth trajectory has been quite significant in the last few years. The company foresees this exponential growth to continue over the next few years as the POS landscape continues to change. Many existing restaurants are looking for a stronger technology partner, and new restaurants are looking to form long term partnerships with a provider they can grow with. Nick says, “We feel that we’re in an excellent position and that the value we offer is second to none in the industry.”

SilverWare is constantly developing new products that will be released into the marketplace. The company is seeing CRM and mobile technologies becoming more prevalent in the hospitality space. SilverWare has recently reimagined its entire mobile ordering (iOS) technology. Their customers can place orders on Windows-based computers, or iPads, or iPhone that all use the same look and feel. SilverWare will also be releasing some additional solutions to help their clients provide a more seamless and elevated experience.

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CORPORATE OFFICE Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754,(302)-319-9947 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription : Visit www.insightssuccess.com

Company Name

Management

Brief

Bravo Store Systems bravopawnsystems.com

Tally Mack CEO

Bravo Store Systems help store operators exceed expectations by offering Big Software Services affordably, easy to use, without the burden of complicated hardware.

Clover www.clover.com

John Beatty Founder & CEO

Clover builds beautiful hardware and software for payments and point-of-sale, built on their open platform that enables innovation in the physical world of commerce.

Lightspeed lightspeedhq.com

Dax Dasilva Founder & CEO

Lightspeed designs POS, omnichannel, restaurant and eCommerce software for independent businesses (retail and restaurant) that allows them to fully manage day-to-day sales, inventory, and employee and customer profiles.

Lucova lucova.com

Amit Jhas CEO

Lucova brings technology, data and people together to enhance the human touch points in the world of offline commerce.

PAR Technology partech.com

Donald H. Foley, CEO

PAR Technology offers technology solutions for the full spectrum of restaurant operations, from large chain and independent table service restaurants to international quick service chains.

POSsible possiblepos.com

Manan Mehta CEO

POSsible POS is a provider of innovative technology to the hospitality and retail industries

RB Retail and Service Solutions rbcontrolsystems.com

Rick Brunori CEO

RB Control Systems is a software solution for stores.

Silverware POS silverwarepos.com

Nick Thalas Founder and CEO

Silverware is a leading developer of technology solutions for the hospitality industry.

Square

squareup.com

Jack Dorsey CEO

Square is making it easier for customers to shop and pay at their favorite businesses.

VAGARO vagaro.com

Fred Helou CEO

Vagaro.com is a website that allows users to find salons and Spa in their local area and make appointment online with them.

Clover:

Get Paid, Sell More and Run Your Business Better

E

very business is unique. Because of this, many may find that none of the off-the-shelf point-ofsale systems meet all of their business’s requirements. Some industry-specific POS packages are available for specific verticals, such as auto repair shops, beauty and nail salons, video rental stores, dry cleaners and more. But Clover® provides hardware and software point-of-sale solutions to ensure that businesses—no matter the size, scope or vertical—can run with ease and efficiency.

With an initial launch about four years ago, Clover was designed to be a consumer-facing wallet model, focused on payment integration to make transactions easy. But founders John Beatty and Leonard Speiser quickly found it tough to integrate with a traditional point-of-sale system.

The industry standard was closed, with fragmented systems that didn’t allow for significant expansion and that weren’t adaptive to the needs of customers or merchants.

As a result, the team behind Clover leapt at the opportunity to craft a next-generation POS on a platformfirst model, enabling a developer ecosystem that could enhance the product for many types of small businesses.

About the Creator of Clover

Clover, a First Data company, builds the largest open-architecture point-of-sale solution designed for small and medium-sized business owners. Its products are changing the consumer/merchant experience for the better by offering the gamut of payment options and making transactions secure, seamless and faster. With Clover, First Data has endeavored to form the biggest open-architecture operating system for commerce-enabling solutions and applications for business owners.

A lot of Clover merchants, prior to working with Clover, ran their businesses with paper and pen. Clover’s first product, a full POS terminal, proved too big of a leap for some who were used to smaller-scale bookkeeping. So Clover instigated developing a host of more accessible devices through which merchants could still access Clover’s revolutionary platform. With these smart terminals, Clover was able to reduce merchants’ anxiety about the transition to technology.

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John Beatty, the founder of Clover, is a technology-first entrepreneur, and his history as a developer goes pretty far back. At the age of 12, he got his first developer contract with the Kansas Drug Enforcement Agency. He graduated high school a year early and finished his college degree in three quick years.

John’s attention to detail is one of the reasons behind Clover’s technological successes. That quality has inspired many of Clover’s features, such as the devices’ EMV-processing time, which is significantly faster than any competitor, clocking in at around 3 seconds. Clover was also the first line of devices to support Apple Pay in the U.S. These innovations reduced transaction time, increased customer satisfaction and helped merchants keep their lines moving.

Shaping the Business With Innovative Solutions Clover solutions include the Clover App Market, which is one of the most significant points of difference in the POS industry. For anyone starting a business, there are

| July 2017 |

countless challenges to anticipate.

Among them, competing with larger-scale businesses in the same vertical. Businesses are now expected to provide customerfacing offerings such as loyalty programs, gift cards and other programs typically associated with large companies, regardless of scale.

At the base of it all, merchants are more passionate about their industry and products—cupcakes, craft beer, yoga—than they are about business administration.

Clover takes great pride in providing merchants with tools to run their business so that they can focus their energies on the passion that sparked their business in the first place.

Merchants can use Clover’s devices simply as payment terminals, but as they gain comfort and confidence—and as their business grows—Clover can grow with them.

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Clover in the Future Today, more POS systems across the industry are transitioning to cloud-based platforms. Clover is ahead of its competitors in that regard, with over 250 connected apps in the Clover App Market already.

John Beatty Founder & CEO

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Take things further with Clover in your corner

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Through apps from the Clover App Market, merchants of all sizes can easily provide all of these offerings and more—and customize them to fit their particular needs. Merchants can use the Clover Insights app, for example, to recognize the location of their primary customers while selecting the space for a second location. This is a capability that used to be reserved for companies with the resources to collect and analyze “big data.” With Clover, even a corner pizza shop can now access this type of high-value information.

SMB merchants represent a wide continuum of technological savvy. Some want to use every capability of their point-of-sale device, while others are looking for stark simplicity. As part of the merchant onboarding experience, Clover focuses on helping merchants customize their point-of-sale system to their specific scale, needs, interests and comfort level.

When creative business owners can find simple tools that allow business owners to compete with large and well-resourced corporations, the entire marketplace wins. Clover is currently prepping the next generation of powerful and easy-to-use software and hardware that can help small businesses get paid and sell more.

Clover will soon offer platform extensions to allow merchants to serve new audiences, including multi-location businesses that need device management from a central location. As merchants grow, Clover intends to grow right along with them.

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Mastering

Big Data with Oracle Solutions D

o you know how much data is flowing in and out your company? The world produces data in amounts that cannot be digested by companies.

Well, probably you can face the challenge of capturing the data but do you understand how to master it for company’s benefit? A lot of companies leave out tons of critical data just because they underestimate the resources that can help manage their big data, analyse it and even provide solutions based on it. Oracle Big Data solutions provide best practices to manage your data, starting from its storage and making sense of every piece of it, giving you deeper insights in information cloud around your company.

1. What is the value of big data management?

Though any IT leader is familiar with the overall concept of big data and benefits big data mastering brings home, some business users still overlook the reasons why it became so crucial. Let’s look at the trends that drive big data management in the business environment: Ÿ

Ÿ

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Datafication – Companies become dependent on data, having a complex data infrastructure behind any of their business processes. Each action that seemed to be invisible earlier is now expressed as a data.

Data overflow – The data gets so excessive that it cannot be handled without implementation of big data

management systems. Simply said, we produce more data than can be processed. Ÿ

New kind of big data users – Today mastering big data is not just a matter of data scientists. Business users strive to make use of big data by themselves: search, extract, analyze, and have both automatic visualization and opportunity to create their own visualization to get specific insights that they can consequently share with others.

2. Challenges of mastering Big Data Ÿ Complex data processing “Experience shows than 80% of data mastering time and effort are spent on data preparation, while other 20 – on analysis and execution” says Jeffrey Hershberger, senior software architect at <a href=”https://www.elinext.com/”>Elinext</a>. Oracle solutions are tailored to do it faster by automating data preparation stage and focusing more on analytical initiatives.

Data silos When data is scattered across various units, it is often organized in data silos which isolates it from other data.

For your business, this is not only the separation of data clusters but your own separation from effective decisionŸ

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making. Oracle allows for manageable data exploration, loading it from Excel and csv-files, integrating it in one place with the robust capabilities for search and navigation.

Poor data governance All the notions may sound the same, however, you should distinguish data governance from data management. The latter refers to how data governance policies are being brought to life. The lack of data governance often leads to the loss of connection between big data and its value. Using Oracle Big Data Discovery, you can have the necessary data in a form of interactive catalog and have relevant data sets, user commentaries, and recommendations at your fingertips.

the Oracle architecture looks and how its components affect your data: Ÿ

Fast Data – Analyses data streams to find out the events that require action, then define the appropriate action according to the analysis made.

Ÿ

Data Management – Works with the data reservoir in Hadoop using Data Warehouse in relational databases.

Ÿ

Lack of clear business case One of the biggest challenges with data analysis in Oracle, regardless scale, is that it also requires a specific approach to warehousing, cleansing, and transformation, which should be based on your use case. A set of clear policies about your data can change the context and help you on the way to the meaningful results. Ÿ

3. Why Oracle? Oracle solutions are fast, simple, scalable and easy to integrate. The Oracle big data solution choice allows you to decide on the level of cost and capability according to your business case and change it over time as long as your business needs scale. Oracle capabilities allow for a perfect big data offering in a Big Data Cloud Service and Big Data SQL Cloud Service where the platform is combined with the top Hadoop distribution. Let’s see how

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Ÿ

Data Lab – Determines new data sets provisioning rapid data for further processing in data warehouses. Ÿ

Business Analytics – Analyses data from the Data Management layer extracting it both from Data Warehouse and Data Reservoir.

Apps – Integrates data sources and processing with the help of APIs and prebuilt adapters. Ÿ

It becomes obvious that Oracle Big Data solutions empower your organization to help you face the challenges of Big Data mastering with its business-driven data discovery “laboratory”. Bringing this lab to your company, you can focus on what’s really important and don’t lose information scattered across departments and data storages. What is more, having discovered this data, you can visualize it in digestible portions and get the value from advanced analytics delivering newly discovered data to other big data projects in Oracle.

This article has been contributed by ELINEXT.

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Editor’s Opinion

POS into the urning Systems,

echnology of

Choice A

s the world moves further and quicker into a flourishing technical age, so should the way we conduct our business. POS systems are quick turning into the technology of choice and is a definitive truth.

Regardless of what kind of retailer you are, embracing a POS (Point of Sale) system can turn your business around by giving an all-in-one answer to many regular issues. Inventories that fail to match counts, unrecorded sales, human blunders and the time wasted on amending them are for the most part genuinely normal issues confronted by retailers on a daily basis. They are for the most part easily maintained when using a POS System that precisely gathers and records data, enabling you to truly perceive how your business is working and how to ceaselessly enhance it.

With regards to inventories, organization and consistency is vital. Not simply with delivery either, but rather every single deal, damage and complementary giveaway. Envision a framework that automatically logs these in real time and database them to a database across a system that you can access remotely. Besides, you can examine the information for nitty-gritty investigation permitting you can see precisely what the most prevalent item is and what is not and how and when it’s being sold.

The same goes for reductions and exceptional offers. Unlike customary manual cash registers, POS systems naturally figure and track changes to valuing while updating the stock. This makes markdown management far simpler while giving clear criticism on how successful any advancements are, directly down to the last cent.

The prospect of utilizing technology in your business may appear a bit of overwhelming, without a doubt. With POS systems however, they are intended to be easy to use, with a sole reason of improving life less demanding and business better. They enable staff to concentrate their consideration on the client, and additionally the physical planning and sale of items, solidifying the most essential values of retail.

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| July 2017 |

Editor’s Opinion POS systems can likewise track staff themselves: the times and hours worked and the quantity of exchanges completed.

This is not disconnected to one area either. Numerous interfaces in various outlets all serve a similar database, guaranteeing consistency no matter how you look at it, in pricing, stock and records.

What you do with the information gathered by your POS systems is dependent upon you. An ever-increasing number of makers and providers are opening to statistical feedback that empowers them to adjust their own services to the requirements of their customers and clients. Likewise, the more you can figure out how to investigate your information, the more you can develop your business. Wastage is expensive and generally superfluous, however regularly disregarded or not legitimately recorded. POS systems carry out the job for you.

Just like the case with numerous PC based frameworks, POS Systems accompany various bundles and applications that serve the requirements of the client. When you have the essential equipment, you can pick and choose different devices and services that are of advantage to your own business necessities. The product would then be able to be kept refreshed to truly enable you to move with the times and take your business to the next level.

The following are the many advantages of using purpose of offer frameworks: 1. POS systems give a business a continuous detailed report of sales. This enables organizations to survey what items are being sold and what items are slacking in deals. The business would then be able to actualize marketing startegies to support sales of the well-known items. They will likewise know in real-time what is not selling so they can choose whether or not to order that item. A POS Systems gives the most recent deals reports to the day, week, month, or year.

2. POS takes into consideration improved customer service. Exchanges are handled considerably faster, items that are examined at their cost are exact which reduces sales disparities. There is additionally a wide selection of strategies to assume installments, for example, credit cards, debit cards, gift cards...etc.

3. POS gives a productive strategy for overseeing inventory. By having the capacity to see what is selling in real time, they will have the capacity to reorder items that are running low. POS software will likewise tell you when you have to reorder an item. Organizations can also monitor the time of day that specific items are selling so they can arrange advertising displays around top offering times.

4. POS takes into account the management of gift vouchers, coupons, and loyalty programs. This is powerful method for checking the program and monitoring the accomplishment of the programs.

5. POS Systems and software is very easy to learn. Most POS venders will prepare staff and administration on the best way to utilize the framework. It is additionally simple to install and keep up.

As well, POS Software can be coordinated into different applications with the goal that all areas of business management can be seen in one focal place. It gives the client better control of the business.

Also, technical help is just a call away.

6. POS retail software makes it less demanding to monitor client individual data, staff finance, client billing and shipping, vendor postings, and inventory management.

The many advantages of POS Systems make it an essential business venture. The kind of retail software a drug store picks relies upon the type of business, size of the business, measure of offers, and the type and amount of inventory.

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21

CXO Standpoint

T

he world of the Internet of Things promises to be the main engine of the global economy in the next years. In developing countries, such as Brazil, the opportunities will be even bigger. Considering the size of the local market and the pressing need that Brazil has in increasing the innovation rhythm, technology usage and development, the country can already be seen as a big global player by companies from this sector. In this moment, the more accurate motto for companies that want to act or are acting in Brazil is “Innovate or Die.” After a cycle of more than 10 years of continuous growth, that put the country in evidence on the global landscape as part of the select group of so-called BRICs (Brasil, Russia, India and China) and that stressed even more its leadership in Latin America, Brazil is now entering, in the past two years, a moment of political tension that has reflected directly in the economy. The moment now is of reviewing and restructuring. But in spite of the perception of some

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foreign executives and entrepreneurs that this is not a good time to invest in the country, it is clear that Brazil had a virtuous cycle of many years and reached a higher level. All this indicates that, for sure, not all is lost. Far from it. The time is for opportunities.

With the stabilization of the smartphone market, there’s a great potential for the technology industry - especially in the semiconductors area - in business involving connected cars, agriculture, livestock, smart cities, among others. To fully use this opportunities, it is necessary to understand in which ways it is possible to develop the best technological solutions to different regions. And the solutions to problems from different countries can only be found locally.

Investing in the right time and in the right moment Despite the low participation of Brazil in the semiconductors industry, the country has a great potential to use the Internet of Things and to develop in this sector. It is

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CXO Standpoint

José Antônio Scodiero Director - Founding Partner of FAST COMPANY BRAZIL With over 30 years of experience in areas like information technology, personal computing, semiconductors, entrepreneurship and startups, José Antônio Scodiero has already acted as a high level executive in several big and successful international corporations like: IBM; Apple Computer; OkiData, where he was president of the Brazilian subsidiary, and more recently; AMD, leader in the semiconductors segment, where he held the position of Vice-President for the Latin America region. José Antônio Scodiero is graduated in Electronics Engineering with specialization in hardware and microelectronics and has an MBA in Corporate Administrations by Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP).

As an entrepreneur, he founded lots of startup companies since the 90’s, having created his first company when he was only 24 years old. In 2009 he founded Fast Company Brazil, with the objective of catapulting multinational organizations, from sectors like digital technology, semiconductors and software that are seeking to install subsidiaries in the Brazilian and Latin American markets.

José Antônio Scodiero In 2010 he obtained the certification of Corporate Director - Founding Partner Governance from the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (IBGC) and started acting as a consulting advisor in companies in 2011. In 2012, he became president of the task force of semiconductors of AMCHAM American Chamber for Brazil and USA. Still in 2012, Scodiero was also elected Director of SBMICRO - Brazilian Society of Microelectronics, where he remains until the end of 2016. a field in which no one has the advantage yet: we are, theoretically, in the same level as United States and China.

Besides that, a chip to a sensor for IoT is cheaper and easier to develop than one made for smartphones. Therefore, it is less costly to invest in IoT. In the technology world, the innovation chain has inverted itself recently, with the large domain of big multinational companies giving space to startups and new entrepreneurs.

This movement creates a pulverization of opportunities. It is no longer something concentrated, in the domain of few big players like it used to be. There is space for companies from outside the country and also for the appearance of new local players that can learn and develop their own systems and foment the industry.

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The technology giants, that lost a wave of opportunities that emerged with the mobile business (smartphones, tablets and M2M), now are moving rapidly so they don’t miss out on the opportunities that the IoT segment will bring. There are several examples in this direction and IBM is one of them, since its announcement, in December of 2015, to return to the consumer electronics market, ten years after selling its computer division to the Chinese Lenovo. The problem is that there are a lot of companies, big and small, repeating the same strategies in the search of its own space in the technology market. This needs to change. The motto “Innovate or Die” also needs to be applied in the planning.

IoT as a transforming agent of an economy As well as in great transformations of the past, the

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CXO Standpoint

revolution caused by IoT will change the entire landscape of the career scenario. It is estimated that in time, it will be possible to see 20 to 30 million jobs migrate, and some functions might disappear, thanks to robotics, intelligent machines and artificial intelligence (AI), that will infiltrate in new corporate areas and automate the positions that are repetitive and transitional.

But what it seems like bad news is in fact a readaptation, from work stations focused on operational to opportunities in areas that demands data analysis, ability to solve problems, think creatively, innovate and work within a team. Nothing too distant from the profile that today is comprehended as a good professional. It is an evolutionary movement, driven by technology.

If the job openings in operational work stations tend to drop, the opportunities to professionals that seek qualification and even reinvention will grow a lot. It is a market that, according to IDC, will grow about US$1, 7 trillion until 2020. This amount needs, and will be, shared among the professionals that manage to keep up with the demands of the market.

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| July 2017 |

Lightspeed: Providing Tools For Independent Businesses To Thrive

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irm believer of ‘With the right technology, business owners can sell more, make their customers happier, and actually make the world a better place’, Lightspeed was founded with a motto and that was “retail made simple”.

Lightspeed designs POS, omnichannel, restaurant and eCommerce software for independent businesses (retail and restaurant) that allow them to fully manage day-to-day sales, inventory, and employee and customer profiles. th

The company is celebrating its 12 year – a milestone in the retail tech industry – Lightspeed currently powers 45,000 global customers, and manages $15B in transactions across 101 countries.

The Perfect POS Solution Inspired by the design and the simple navigation of the original iTunes playlist, Lightspeed first created a retail POS. Over time, the company evolved to offer mobile checkout, cloud-based technology, an omnichannel product and a restaurant platform. A cloud-based POS allows retailers to access their business and meet their customers anytime, from anywhere in the world.

Lightspeed recently launched Analytics, giving independents the feeling of working with a store-side data consultant that provides access to various insights of the business.

Team, the Integral Part of Success

Dream of a True Leader The idea of “retail made simple” was actually of Dax Dasilva, Founder & CEO of Lightspeed, a leader who knows that there are no limits for dreams.

Dax is the creative mind behind Lightspeed’s suite of retail, hospitality and eCommerce tools. Seeing the technological evolution of how people live, work and shop, and the need in the market for cloud-based business platforms, he was ahead of the curve when he launched Lightspeed in 2005.

Lightspeed focused on building the best product in the early years, and did not take investment until 2012. The company grew exponentially after this from 50 to 600 employees todate. While it is possible that early investment may have resulted in quicker growth, there were benefits of keeping the company scaling slowly at first, such as building strong culture, innovating the technology, solidifying the brand’s place in the market – before major growth.

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Dax firmly believes that Lightspeed is a company “infused with culture, just as much as code”. Company culture can't be built overnight – and you must consistently be open to change with a globally expanding company. As Lightspeed grew from their bilingual home base in Montreal to seven offices around the world, they recognized that each team is going to have their own unique culture.

“Connectivity within your teams becomes key to bringing talent together from all different areas, and it’s a full-time job leading the cultural bridge between different people within the company”, adds Dax. Diverse workspaces make it especially important to meet employees at every level and make people feel they can do the best work of their lives, while equally contributing to the company’s goals and successes in a meaningful way.

Customer on Top of the Priority List Lightspeed prides itself on a customer-centric approach, and they frequently engage their customers to best understand their needs. Recently, Lightspeed launched a series of global Retail and Restaurant Roundtables with independent businesses in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada – with an additional event planned in NYC for

| July 2017 |

fall 2017. The roundtables offered the opportunity for retailers from different industries to speak candidly with Dax and media/influencers, about changes and evolutions in the retail landscape – locally and globally, trends affecting their businesses, how they found success as entrepreneurs, and everyday challenges of running a business.

These fruitful discussions will act as a catalyst for change and innovation at Lightspeed, as the company moves through its 12th year.

Company culture – All Lightspeed’s offices are infused with a unique work culture, allowing open and collaborative work. Lightspeed HQ is housed in the historic Gare Viger – a renovated castle-like former railway station and luxury hotel in Montreal.

‘POS of Future’, From Dax’s Point of View Omnichannel is taking the lead in POS innovation this year. The key to being truly omnichannel is meeting your customers wherever they may be, and that includes markets beyond your home state or country, Lightspeed enables businesses to do just that. To have success in the market, all branches of retail have to be seamlessly linked.

The X Factor of Lightspeed

Forefront of innovation – Since the early days of Lightspeed, Dax saw a need in the market for a POS solution that offered a comprehensive look at a business, plus agility and mobility – Lightspeed continues to be strong innovators in the industry.

Lightspeed’s home in Montréal The city is Canada’s emerging tech hub – a bilingual merging of culture, arts, history and technology. The thriving and versatile city has given Lightspeed the opportunity to grow into the successful global company that it is today.

| July 2017 |

Dax Dasilva Founder & CEO

“ Moving forward

with a vision of blending the best of the digital and physical worlds continues to guide the company today

Lightspeed will continue to produce POS solutions that support independent business owners and help them achieve their dreams. “Lightspeed is on a quest to save city streets. The independent retailers and restaurants that we know and love, are a key ingredient in making the neighborhoods that we know and love, so special.

Our tools have been desigined specifically for these businesses and will adapt with them as retail evolves”, asserted Dax.

“

Lightspeed has an X Factor, which makes the company the best POS solution out there! It includes, the Customer-centric approach – listening to the independents and determining their needs, so Lightspeed can continue to innovate with technology that will help independents do better business.

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CXO Standpoint

Leverage Existing SAP Solutions with Cloud Procurement Brad Hill, Director of Global Sales & Marketing of Vroozi is a passionate leader and is responsible for expanding the Vroozi Product Suite, Brand Adoption, Partnership Network & ensuring our customers receive an unparalleled experience with Vroozi. Brad spent the last 20 years building Enterprise Sales and Product strategies with leading IT Services organizations. His entrepreneurial strategies have served a vast number of Fortune 500 industries and verticals. He is also an aspiring mechanic and frustrated golfer, two good reminders to keep his day job.

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| July 2017 |

CXO Standpoint

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ompanies that have already invested in SAP find that they can achieve even better results from their existing investment with cloud technology and eProcurement. After the initial investment, companies find certain roadblocks preventing mass user adoption and diminishing cost savings. Issues such as inability to stay connected, lack of insight into data, and complex and fragmented business rules stop businesses from using the full power of SAP. As cloud application technologies advance, companies gain the benefits of rapid deployment

cycles, increased self-service tools, and faster performance.

Vroozi delivers on the promise and power of eProcurement in the Cloud with seamless integration into SAP. SAP users looking to the cloud generally face a few questions, including: • How can I benefit from using cloud procurement?

• Will my transition to the cloud be cost-effective?

• How will my business processes be affected by cloud technology?

Brad Hill Director of Global Sales & Marketing

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CXO Standpoint

To understand the benefits of cloud technology to existing SAP users, let’s evaluate three procurement strategies that highlight the power of cloud procurement.

Value Realization Return on Investment (ROI) is a central factor in any procurement strategy. Buyers and trading partners of cloud procurement solutions need to feel confident that solutions will lead to cost savings and higher productivity and efficiency. Users quickly see returns by focusing on user adoption, compliance, and spend management. Spend Management allows companies to visualize purchasing spending patterns and usage and drives employees to leverage preferred pricing with contract suppliers.

To increase user adoption and compliance, the cloud empowers a mobile workforce with the right resources and experience so everyone stays connected and available so that business is not disrupted. As user adoption and compliance frameworks increase with cloud-based systems, organizations gain immediate cost savings in procurement by decreasing transaction costs and preventing spend leakage with your supply chain.

Efficiencies Process efficiency is key for a successful, healthy business. Cloud technology enables better processes by keeping everyone connected through a mobile experience and automating transaction tasks through the use of machine learning and pattern matching. With a centralized, unified system, cloud automation can yield immediate benefits in requisition to invoice and payment business processes and reduced errors and issues leading to higher productivity and decreased processing costs.

Further, by allowing employees to interact with cloud procurement via smart Phones and tablets, business can continue to move with efficiency and speed.

IT Cost Savings Perhaps no determinant is more important in realizing the benefits of cloud technologies versus traditional on premise software is in IT Cost Savings. Systems and applications which required large physical infrastructure and monetary investments can now provide inexpensive and scalable solutions through the Cloud and cloud infrastructure providers. A procurement solution that integrates with SAP is easier to access, less expensive, and takes a fraction of the implementation time companies once faced with traditional software solutions. Cloud technology relieves the user of hidden costs such as hardware, consultants, infrastructure, maintenance, and costly upgrade cycles, providing lower risk and lower total cost of ownership.

Conclusion The cloud offers little upfront expense, automatic upgrades, and pre-integrated best practices which allow organizations to focus on business growth and improved operating margins. Vroozi’s eProcurement solution that takes SAP solutions to the cloud empower users with better returns, better processes and higher savings, so their overall SAP investment’s ROI is accelerated.

According to IDC, spending on Cloud computing is growing at 4.5 times the rate of IT spending since 2009 and is expected to continue growing at more than 6 times the rate of IT spending from 2015 through 2020. (via Forbes) This massive growth is easily understood when businesses understand the power and value of cloud solutions. With the Vroozi Platform, companies can take advantage of robust eProcurement technology delivered in the Cloud and integrated seamlessly with SAP.

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| July 2017 |

Industry Trends

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n recent times, the retail industry hasn’t seen a more exciting invention since the invention of cash register.

With new and innovative technologies helping shape both online and offline experiences for consumers, the landscape is continuously changing in a way which was unimaginable even few years back. The best part is that there seems to be no end of the innovation, which only influencing the purchase decision of the consumers.

Nowadays the main focus of retailers is to create a safe, engaging, and unique shopping experience for its consumers, it’s very important for the retailers to understand the importance of Big Data and in-store analytics and adapting to the cloud. With the retail industry at the verge of massive transformation, we are listing out few key trends that everyone needs to know to be successful in the ecosystem that is transforming quickly.

Multi-system Integration Multi-system integration with various applications gets the utmost priority from top retailers. Most of the retailers list out POS integration with other applications as a key priority alongside the implementation of dynamic marketing content through mobile devices. This is mostly due to the retailer’s interest to store all the customer information and purchase history in a database, which is completely centralized that could be easily integrated with multiple applications.

However, in order to do that, a retailer needs to use an ERP database that can handle all these.

Speed People always look for quick solutions for everything. A clock starts ticking the moment a customer enters, no matter how good the product is, if the process is slow and the attention to details are missing, then customers will leave

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disappointed. As a retailer, one cannot please everyone, but with a modern and efficient POS, the service can be improved. A modern POS simplifies the communication between various departments and can save a lot of time for both the retailer and the customer respectively.

Managing Stocks Keeping and managing inventory is a nightmare for most of the retailers, and it's quite natural. Managing inventory is a never-ending task and takes a lot of effort, time, and manpower. However, it is quite important to manage inventories when it comes to long-time survival. An efficient POS system always makes the process of managing the inventory much easier. The best part of a POS is, one can monitor the status of stocked items, shipped products, and new orders anytime. This is a huge time saver for a cumbersome and a tedious process, and eventually helps retailers to focus on other important aspects of running the business.

Customized Experience With POS systems, retailers just need to provide personalization that scoops out every shopper. Every passing year, retailers are adapting to personalized technology solutions that allow an interactive user experience. Thanks to the emergence of all new mobile POS technology, now retailers can offer its customers more choices to accommodate their shopping habits by letting them to complete transactions anywhere in the store. Now with the invention of improved POS marketers and customer service teams can contact the buyer at each point of their purchase decision. With so much data retailers and consumers can have better customer service, quicker payment processes and access to better offers and real-time personalization. | July 2017 |

Industry Trends

Promotions and Marketing at its Best Nowadays with the advent of digital technology, marketing involves maintaining a digital presence as well. A POS can integrate all the advertised offers with transactions, making it easier to keep track of all the campaigns. Additionally, it can integrate with CRM and track customer behavior. When an offer gets popular among the masses, then the retailer will see it in his transaction data.

Usage of Big Data analytics In order to compete with e-commerce, retailers are now taking the help of Big-Data and in store analytics just to have a better idea about what’s happening inside the store.

Big-Data analytics helps retailers to track how frequently a specific item moves from shelf to shopping cart allows retailers to know the trends that are dominant in the market.

Analytics helps the retail industry in a big way to better understand consumer purchase pattern and behaviors.

Keeping Track of Employees To run a business smoothly a retailer, need few people. A POS system enables to manage them with great accuracy.

With a Point of Sale system in place, employees can sign on or off easily and the system will automatically log their work hours and break hours.

Security Above all, a POS system offers great security protections that help keeping customer data safe. Retail stores and businesses are always prime targets for Cyber Criminals, and a data breach is not good for a business. So, by using standard encryption and firewall, businesses can be secured from cyber-attacks and customers can swipe their cards with a peace of mind.

So, here we have listed out few of the POS trends that will shape the future of the retail industry. As we look ahead, these trends will be on focus for both retailers and customers. The main advantage of an advanced POS system is greater efficiency and optimization, it links all the departments together which eventually allows to have better control over the inventory, better profitability, and to manage processes in an efficient way.

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Lucova: Win The Moments That Matter

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rom inception, the point-of-sale and payments industry has been catering to the demand of making payment information more secure and transactions more convenient. The disruption occurring in the mobile industry is indirectly manifesting its influence across every industry, and the payments industry seems to be the most affected by this trend. Every business, banking entity, payment processor, and payment gateway is keeping a finger on the pulse of upcoming POS trends to accommodate emerging payment technologies.

communities and build meaning in people’s lives. Today, Lucova deems the entire point-of-sale structure as inadequate for appeasing the future of commerce and views the mobile device as a sensor, rather than as real estate for advertisers. With their proprietary Bluetooth proximity technology, Lucova has developed a new generation of Point-of-Experience solutions, built on top of their unique white-label mobile platform. They have translated their profound insights in customer transactions from their experience in retail, restaurants, quick-serve and hospitality verticals into the campus dining service. Today, Lucova is well established to cater to the campus dining industry, where consumers are millennial and have higher expectations when it comes to experience.

Bold Invisible Solutions, Prioritized for People

The truth is as clear as day. The future of POS will no longer belong to the accountants, but to those who expect technology to empower them at the frontline. Gradually, POS is transforming into a Point-of-Experience (POE) and Lucova is positioned at the forefront of this revolution.

Lucova is a company that has successfully addressed the three major trends:- First being, that hardware, software and payment processing is now consolidated into a single solution. Secondly, data is moving from the local server and into the cloud. Lastly, the entire POS business model is being squeezed from the loss in revenue from hardware, support services, maintenance and transaction processing fees.

A Tale of Innovation Lucova was founded to bring people, data and technology together to deliver human connections at the highest point of impact, i.e. the Point-of-Sale. They believe that small, everyday moments have the power to create strong

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From Customer Recognition software to Hands-Free Payments, to the Point-of-Experience software and everything in between, Lucova is bringing people, data, and technology to power everyday moments, in-store.

Lucova has devised a solution where it turns everyday mobile devices into smart Bluetooth sensors.

They have transformed the traditional Point-of-Sale system and created the world’s first Point-of-Experience™ Platform. This ingenious platform allows the staff to know their customers and greet them by their name once they walk in. With important customer and product data on hand, the cashiers are no longer button pushers, but essential relationship builders. The system has been designed to accept all kinds of payments, from emerging mobile payments to the traditional card and cash payments. The system also enables the comfort of managing from anywhere and anytime through a flexible cloud-based solution, which doesn’t require proprietary hardware or operating systems. With Smart Reports highlighting actionable information, the management team of the respective organization could easily access key insights

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about sales and staff performance in real-time.

he is compared to none when it comes to developing the best customer service solutions.

The Best Partner for the Best Experience

For Lucova, their clients and their customers have always been their inspiration.

The Man who Defines Customer Service An alumnus of the University of Calgary, a great thinker, a superficial strategist and an idealistic son, Amit Jhas, the CEO of Lucova is a quintessential leader. Amit has formulated strategies that have helped Lucova pass through uncharted paths. With his broad experience in the customer service sector, he has brought Lucova to the forefront as tech innovator. Taking inspiration from his father, Amit knows what customer service looks like and understands the pain points of the sector, and this is the reason why

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Like every startup, Lucova faced a great dilemma in finding passionate, talented individuals who could solve the impossible.

However, Amit was adamant to find this rare breed of talent, and after, he found those who were not only gifted but were also in sync with his vision for Lucova.

Amit’s efforts bore fruit in just eight months of launching FIIT Point-of-Experience™, when Lucova facilitated over 1.7 million transactions across multiple campuses in US. Apart from gaining 20,000 active mobile users per month, they also developed an active community of client and user enthusiasts.

Amit Jhas CEO

“

Inspired by humans, made for moments

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Lucova is completely in sync with their client’s passion in their product and continually strives every day to bring meaning to their brands with their customers through technology. Matt Clervi, CEO of Fresh Ideas Food Service Management has stated, “The Lucova Campus solution is one of a kind in the industry and truly gets how to improve the dining experience for our students.”

Amy Lunn, Director of Marketing at Creative Dining has stated, “Lucova’s responsiveness, flexibility, and customer service has proved to us that we’ve found a true partner in providing our customers with the best dining experience possible.”

Incomparable Feats and Future Deeds

It is no surprise that Amit considers his team as his biggest asset and his clients as his biggest achievement. He extends his kind gesture towards his loyal advisors and investors.

Lucova is all set to expand the features of their Point-ofExperience ™ platform, along with introducing their first Brand Moment Experience that will further drive their vision of human-centric transaction.

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