Technical details: What to share and what to spare
By Dale S. Laszig
Castles Technology Co., Ltd.
Have you ever felt like a deer in the headlights during a whiteboard exercise? Merchants can feel that way when we get too technical. Most wouldn’t know the difference between an 8-bit and 32-bit ARM processor. They get brain freeze trying to read a self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ). They [...]
Need intelligence? Tap the feet on the street
By Dale S. Laszig
Castles Technology Co. Ltd.
Want to know what’s happening in payments right here, right now? Ask a merchant level salesperson. MLSs know the players: merchants, acquirers, manufacturers, distributors and value-added resellers. They know what’s hot and what’s not. If you want to craft strategy, invite a few MLSs to your next focus group [...]
Beyond Professional Courtesy
By Dale S. Laszig
Castles Technology Co. Ltd.
The term “professional courtesy” can be traced back to the times of Hippocrates, when physicians treated each other’s families at no charge. The practice has evolved over the centuries to embrace a broader definition of special favors. Professional courtesy in the payments industry may include waiving cancellation and restocking [...]
If clicks could talk: Five things they’d say about selling
MLS agents are the Kings and Queens of selling. We build our empires on millions of transactions and every one of them is a sale. Every transaction is a successful close. Every time someone says yes to our merchants, we all do a little bit better. Imagine all the sales that occur every second, over [...]
Crossing the POS chasm
By Dale S. Laszig
Castles Technology Co. Ltd.
Now that 3-D technology has entered our living rooms, older 2-D movies may begin to look dated and flat. Acceptance of the new technology will vary among consumers.
* Innovators will experiment with 3-D software to improve their viewing experience.
* Early adopters will form long lines at retail stores when [...]
Ripples on the mobile Web
By Dale S. Laszig
Castles Technology Co. Ltd.
There’s a theorem in quantum physics that the observer affects the observed. That’s certainly true for the mobile Web, a shape-shifting phenomenon that’s changing our world. Each end user has a ripple effect on the mobile Internet and its always-on, always-connected community. Even die-hard laggards have been dragged into [...]
POS Unplugged
Remember the early days of relationship marketing? Our job back then, as merchant level salespeople (MLSs), was to show merchants how to optimize customer-facing POS solutions, from PIN pads with basic black and white monitors to full-color signature capture touch screens.
Product Review: Vega7000
The Vega7000 combines magnetic stripe and smart card reader technology in a compact EFT countertop terminal with multiple options for transaction processing and connectivity. A clam shell thermal printer makes paper loading easy. A flexible operating system and multiple Secure Access Modules (SAMs) stand ready to support a variety of applications.
Vega7000 is configurable for multiple [...]
