How credit card processors changed the POS world.
Years ago the POS landscape started to change. Back in the day POS systems and card processing stayed in their own lane. As the merchant services industry became more competitive the business model began to change. The first player to start disrupting the traditional model was HarborTouch. Offering their POS system (white labeled DinerWare) for what they called “Free” as long as you used HarborTouch merchant services. First Data entered the fray when they brought Clover to the market. The trend continued Heartland also entered the fray when they released restaurant 360 into the marketplace selling it directly through their credit card reps. As this trend grew both Heartland and HarborTouch started buying more POS systems, however one of them made a major move to set them apart from the rest of the herd mentality.
Heartland learns POS Dealers make a big difference
Jump forward a number of years and you find out Heartland has bought three major POS systems. They started with the purchase of Dinerware from Seattle and Cash Register Express from NY. Not long after that they bought Menusoft the makers of Digital Dining in VA. As a dealer for Digital Dining I can say we were a little nervous having a main product of ours being bought by a very large credit card processing company. I’m sure you can imagine the thoughts going through our minds as we learned the news. Well fast forward three plus years and we can now clearly see this was the best thing that could have happened to Digital Dining and our dealership.
How about a dealer model and opening their POS open to any card processor.
Not only did Heartland buck the trend of going to direct sales they are changing the POS landscape again. They figured out that restaurants are served better by dealers in their communities. Not only did Heartland keep dealers that have made them stronger with innovative programs and partnerships with credit card representatives in the same communities. They increased their leadership in the POS and Credit Card marketplace buy acquiring Mobilebytes a year ago and re-branding it as Heartland Restaurant POS. One of the decisions Heartland made is still not believed by many but is having a major impact. You can use any merchant services you would like with any of the Heartland POS products. Their biggest competitors don’t allow that. In our case you can use our POS but keep your merchant services relationship with your local bank perhaps or whoever you use.
Contact your local Dealer in Seattle, National Business Systems, Inc.
We can be reached at 253-839-9636 or on the web at Seattle Heartland Dealer. We would love to set up a demo in person or online.