POS POS sees changes in market

The POS market has changed over the last 10-12 years and barriers between specialised POS and IT products have shrunk significantly.

Avner Danielli, CEO at POS POS, an Australian-owned niche distributor, said the market is no longer confined to products for the retail and hospitality market.

"As far as we see, the market can be split into four segments of retail, data capture, mobility and handheld devices and kiosk OEMs," he said.

"Logistic companies like DHL need to use products like handheld and mobile devices, while kiosk OEMs can even incorporate lottery machines."

Danielli told CRN the main change occurred in the year 2000 for the Australian region, with the changes and rulings regarding the GST forced companies to buy new technology.

"People moved away from manual cash registers to sophisticated technology to capture more information," he said.

"Then bulky mobility handheld devices became smaller and more rugged and easier to carry for logistics and transport companies.

"There are even plumbers who used to post their bills to customers, now they have devices which they use to produce invoices and process payments electronically."

Danielli said resellers that want to be a part of the market must have a good understanding of the solutions they are selling.

"The products are different from the usual IT products, yet in some aspects of the technology it's part of the industry," he said.

"There's definitely good margins to be made for any reseller - it's very healthy.

"Resellers can't just sell the hardware we distribute, they have to have the right software (because we don't deal with that part of the sale) and a good understanding of the services."

According to Danielli, the way distributors work in the market has also changed.

"Resellers need to be aware that distributors don't just hold boxes," he said.

"There's value added- training, we also go with them to make presentations to clients and generally work hand in hand with them.

"In the past, distributors used to keep vendors from the reseller, and in turn resellers kept the end user away from disties, now it's about working differently to teach them about the products we have."

He said it was essential for distributors in the market to work with resellers otherwise they are "just box shifters".

With so many changes to the POS market, Danielli said Ingram's recent acquisition of NZ-owned POS distributor - Vantex - was part of the ongoing changes in the IT market.

"Recently, big name vendors have merged, no doubt this will trickle down to the distribution market," said Danielli.

"There will be more distribution consolidation."

POS POS was incorporated in 1996 and before that was a subsidiary of Rosh-Tech, he said.