Following the success of last year’s event, STS Payments once again invited key representatives from its partner organisations to attend its 2016 Partner Day at Guildford cricket ground. Despite the occasional shower and disrupted play, attendees were able to enjoy a full day of top class cricket with Surrey CCC defeating Sussex CCC. It provided attendees with a chance to network with others from right across the retail technology and payment systems industries, while enjoying the hospitality that was on offer with plenty of food, sweets and drinks served throughout the day.
Steve Turner, CEO at STS says, “We like to recognise the supporters of STS and we were delighted to have had the opportunity to discuss industry hot topics and exchange thoughts on the future of payments with them in a relaxed environment. Multiple companies will be involved in most payment acceptance projects which is why it is critical to have strong relationships right across the ecosystem.”
The day kicked-off with a couple of presentations and we used the event to announce our exciting plans for a new product. We are in the process of developing a smart Terminal Management System (TMS) to allow partners to effectively manage their PED estate. Unlike existing TMS solutions available on the market, STS’ would use its G8 application to provide the “smart” features, making it a one of a kind. We invited payments expert Mark McMurtrie to introduce the market needs for a next generation operational management system and he outlined why this should be an investment priority. This was followed by a pipeline update from STS’ Development Leader, Howard Buck, on our smart TMS development and a demonstration of a couple of the features our TMS will include.
Howard says, “It's always good to catch up with partners at fun events like the cricket, but this year there was a real buzz with talk of terminal management systems. It seems everybody has a problem that a TMS could help them solve. There's a clear gap in current operations teams' capability to deal with technical payments issues, for both day-to-day maintenance and urgent incident response. Ultimately it's about providing the tools and payments insight to keep merchants' systems up and running, and this is where STS are leading the way with our smart TMS.”
The day was a great success once again and we received “top scores” from all those that attended. The terminal management system subject was a real talking point and after receiving so much feedback, we are excited to see how the development progresses.