This month’s INSPIRE conference, hosted by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), provided a forum for the industry’s top players to network while also offering a glimpse into the future of point of sale and how deals are getting done.

Jeremy Julian, COO, and Ryan Williams, client services and marketing manager, from Custom Business Solutions attended the conference, participating in panels and leadership meetings.

Here are a few of their observations:
Consolidation abounds. A common occurrence in maturing tech sectors, consolidation combines players of various sizes and strengths into powerhouses. Sometimes the smaller companies offer great technology and the match up with the larger organization gives that innovative technology the muscle it needs for greater adoption. This is just starting in the point of sale sector and it will be interesting to see which products and companies will be leading the pack over the next few years.

Consolidation = one-stop shopping. As companies combine complementary technologies into a single portfolio, it’s now possible for operators to get their tech needs met in one place. This may not be the case for every operator but there is more one-stop shopping taking place in the hospitality tech sector than ever before.

Operators are driving this as much as tech providers. They need partners, not just vendors in the business to successfully go to market.

More people means more kiosks. Kiosks are changing the way operators do business and deliver customization and control into the hands of their consumer. But the investment isn’t cheap and operators who can amortize their investment across more locations are the ones who are taking the big steps forward. This financial investment is aligning with higher population markets. As a consumer, you are more likely to find a restaurant with a kiosk in New York City than perhaps Peoria, IL.

Security and cyber crime are the next frontier. This has been an issue for some time, and the focus on security in the hospitality business has been moving to the forefront. Hospitality businesses complete thousands of transactions a week per location, and multi-unit operators are prime targets for hacking and scraping.