QA &
Q&A HANDPOINT
Going Mobile A1 Retail chats to David Gudjonsson, CEO and co-founder of Handpoint.
Q. What was the inspiration behind the launch of Handpoint? We wanted to transform the retail experience as we were convinced that fixed location checkout process was outdated. We saw the same store layout everywhere with a big footprint reserved for the checkout and big queues at static tills. We knew that the technology could be developed to really change things. We’ve actually been in the mobile payments industry for a long time, since 1999 in fact. Myself and two class mates from engineering at university realised that there was a big gap in the market. We pioneered payments systems for airlines, initially, and that’s actually where today’s mobile point‐of‐ sale technology comes from. We had a great time and achieved some incredible landmarks. For example, we introduced the UK’s first mobile Chip&PIN solution ‐ that was at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground and it enabled the club to enhance the customer experience by offering merchandise in private boxes. We’ve been on the cutting edge of mobile payments since we started, and it’s an exciting industry, especially now that mobile technology is so advanced. At Handpoint, our aim has always been to design a mobile point of sale payment system that can transform the retail experience, both for merchants and customers.
Now that smartphones and tablets are so powerful, we can push the boundaries even further. Our latest innovation makes us the world’s first and currently only mPOS that has been P2PE certified by the PCI council. We’ve developed this ultra‐secure mPOS in order to facilitate the step from going from PCs to mobile devices as well as reducing the scope of PCI for the merchant – all of the card payment processing happens entirely on our device – this means that merchants can use their own applications on smartphones or tablets and do not have to worry about certifying their applications with the card
44
schemes and this opens up a whole new world for merchants of all sizes.
Q. How long did it take for you to be PCI P2PE certified? We started adding smartphones and tablets to our platform in 2010 and we knew we had to make the solution ultra‐secure, as smartphones and tablets are consumer devices with non‐secure operating systems. As part of this we made two very important changes. Firstly we moved all payment and receipt handling from the mobile platform and to the secure card reader, this is essential in order to enable merchants to use their own applications quickly and securely. Secondly, we decided to add Point to Point Encryption (P2PE) to the solution and this is well before the PCI council released their guidelines on PCI‐P2PE. So once the guidelines were released we saw that we were compliant and the actual certification process therefore only took a few months, but the work behind it took us about three years to achieve.
Q. What are the advantages of being PCI P2PE certified? P2PE (point‐to‐point encryption) is the new ultra secure payments standard set by the PCI Security Standards Council. With P2PE no secure card data sits on the merchant’s systems, reducing the PCI compliance scope for the merchant and ultimate promise of PCI‐ P2PE is to enable the merchant to self‐assess irrespective of their size or card volume. That would save merchants costly and time consuming system scans and audits while allowing them to modernise their mPOS / retail environments. Getting our mPOS application certified was important for us as we are enabling the bigger merchants to do mobile POS in their environment and it is the bigger merchants that are feeling the pain of PCI compliance.
P2PE gives merchants a new freedom. They can modernise tills using tablets, or they can install completely bespoke checkouts.
Imagine a fashion retailer where you could buy the clothes in the changing room immediately after you tried them on, instead of then having to go and wait in a big queue. It wouldn’t be possible with an old‐school static till, but it can happen with a tablet. P2PE gives you safety, security, and freedom. It’s so secure that you can put it into any scenario and have complete confidence.
Q. What has been your biggest challenge so far and how did you overcome it? Our biggest challenge comes from being at the cutting edge of innovation! We’re the world’s first PCI accredited P2PE mPOS application, that actually also works for PCs, and we need to ensure that retailers understand the benefits and know how they can make the most of mPOS technology. P2PE combined with our mPOS payment architecture is unique; no other payments technology will allow retailers to save money, offer high‐security and enable easy integration into existing systems. Mobile POS has the potential to change everything about the retail and payments sector, enabling retailers to reinvent the customer experience and modernise traditional till systems. We’re focused on educating retailers about these benefits so we can disrupt the sector and provide real value to our system integrators.
Q. What can we expect in the future from Handpoint? We’re going to fundamentally change the retail industry. Mobile POS with P2PE and our application agnostic architecture is a true disruptor – it makes PCI compliance easier and will eliminate the need for static tills. Retailers need only be limited by their own imagination.
Contact Handpoint
hi@handpoint.com www.handpoint.com
www.a1retailmagazine.com
A1
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84