Payment Processing Helps VAR Expand Business

International Forum Systems (IFS) has been integrating POS solutions in Texas since 1963. During an RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) conference in 2003, IFS met with Mercury Payment Systems, a provider of payment processing solutions, and found that reselling Mercury's solution could provide the VAR with additional streams of revenue.

IFS recently performed a POS upgrade for La Playa Mexican Restaurant. The restaurant was having reliability problems with its existing POS touch terminals. In addition, the five restaurant waiters had to share one terminal with dial-up payment processing, which resulted in poor customer satisfaction due to long checkout wait times. IFS installed new NCR RealPOS touch terminals and PixelPoint POS software incorporated with Mercury payment processing services. To accommodate the IP (Internet Protocol)-based payment processing, the NCR terminals had to be connected to an Ethernet network at the restaurant.

Today, due to the speed and efficiency of IP-based processing, waiters at the restaurant can process customers three times as fast. As part of its service offering, Mercury provides real-time activity reports via the Web and 24/7 customer support. Because Mercury's software integrates with existing POS software, installation typically takes less than an hour. "The direct integration is a huge benefit that makes us more competitive in the POS market," says Michael Quinn, IFS partner. "We're now able to offer a 'one-stop solution' for merchants."

By reselling Mercury payment processing services, IFS receives residual checks every month based on the credit card processing its clients perform. "We currently have more than 50 merchant accounts using Mercury," says Quinn. "VARs can easily earn thousands of dollars every month by switching customers to a third party payment processor. In fact, we recently moved into a new office, due in large part to the residual checks we receive every month." IFS also has been able to increase its marketing budget with the added revenue.