Today has been one of my more interesting, if not challenging days. One of my goals this week has been to locate the appropriate development tools and hardware for our new mPOS solution. For those of you not familiar with the term, mPOS is short for mobile point of sale. This emerging technology still has a few hardware vendors looking sideways at it, and only a small group have embraced it as a way to go.
What we are planning takes it one step further. So far, though I know we aren’t on the absolute bleeding edge, I’m starting to feel like it. What I need to find is mobile credit card reader that I can easily call from an HTML 5 web page, because unlike other mPOS solutions, ours is entirely web based, and not hardware dependent at all.
You might wonder where all this came from. You might even wonder why the idea even seems relevant to us. Recently, while working with a large Little Caesars Pizza franchise, we received the request to build their entire point of sale infrastructure on mobile devices like iPads, Android Tablets, and Windows Tablets. At first, we thought the idea was shaky. There were already a number of mPOS solutions, but they were dependent on an application installed directly on the device. What makes our solution special is that it is 100% cloud based, and runs inside of a web browser, without any specific hardware requirements.
What it meant for us, is taking a different look at how mPOS is handled. The further we progress, the more it seems we are off from what the rest of the industry has been thinking. Each time we make it far down the road with a potential provider, we are derailed as soon as we tell them we need to send the credit card details securely over the Internet to a merchant gateway.
This whole adventure has got me dreaming though. It’s frustrating, but I’m excited. I see a future where our devices, our companies, and even the people who buy from those companies are better connected in every way. I see a day when one company can order from another because the software that runs that part of their business communicates freely. I see a day when consumers can exchange their financial information just as securely and easily at fair or event, as they can inside of a retail store (perhaps more secure, eh?).
That is what we are truly trying to accomplish. We are trying to create a toolbox for businesses that can really make a difference. That can not only make them better, but make them more connected, more agile, more engaging to their customers, and more prepared to do business whenever the opportunity strikes. Our hearts are behind this movement because we know that it will be something that will shape the future of not only this country but the world.
When doing business locally becomes easier, and more automated, and more profitable, economies everywhere will benefit. When distances are bridged by connectivity and needs are communicated more freely, the ability to satisfy though needs will be measured, and suppliers will appear for those needs overnight. I can see the world where data trends will shape the way they companies of every size do business.
To get there we have to connect. We have to plug in. We have to improve our data collection. We have to keep better records and to do that, we have to measure more. That is where we are truly going. Social Media has started to bash down the privacy walls, and it is replacing them with honesty and transparency. We all have needs, and the more we share them, the more we are able to engage each other.
Recent Comments