RetailNOW 2015: Initial Impressions

By Jim Roddy, VP of Marketing, RSPA

I know it’s early – the clean-up crew is still tidying up from Sunday night’s Welcome Reception as I type this – but I already have some observations from RetailNOW 2015 in Orlando, the leading retail IT conference for the channel:

• The level of optimism among executives I talked with is high, and it’s connected with today’s reality, not based on wishful thinking for the future. Solutions providers told me they are excited about their current growth rate. One told me “everything is tracking up” while another said his 2015 sales could be double last year. The most common growth catalysts I heard cited were: a general uptick in the economy, selling a wider range of technologies to current customers, and hiring key employees who are freeing up the owner to grow the business. Let me briefly expand on two of those points with some specifics below.
• One longtime POS reseller said he’s been selling more digital signage and video surveillance systems which are easier to add on now that they’re all attached to the merchant’s POS network. “And I’m doing everything as a service,” he told me. At Business Solutions, we’ve promoted the concept of becoming a Total Solution Provider and improving margins through the as-a-Service business model, and this VAR is another example of that.
• Impactful hiring is occurring on both sides of a solutions provider’s business – technical and sales. One VAR said holding out for a great technician gave him the freedom to focus more on sales and work “on” the business. “I used to have to spend so much time each week solving technical problems, but now those problems are solved before they get to me,” he said. Another solutions provider said he’s seeing growth simply because “I stopped hiring [expletive deleted] sales people.” Now is probably a good time for me to plug my Wednesday morning hiring seminar here at RetailNOW.
• In the previous paragraphs, I used the terms “solutions provider”, “VAR”, and “reseller” … and I’m actually uncomfortable doing that because none of them are completely accurate. All the successful companies I talked with sell POS but they also boast a strong managed services offering, so are they MSPs (managed services providers)? The term formerly in vogue at RSPA events was “dealer” – symbolizing a mostly hardware offering – but that’s miles away from where solutions providers are today.
• The most popular topic on the RetailNOW education agenda is EMV with a total of five sessions. The next most popular are mobile POS, as-a-Service, and omni-channel. And you could almost give omni-channel a bonus point due to the session on “the digital consumer.” With an attendee base with its roots in brick-and-mortar retail and hospitality, discussing the digital consumer is basically talking omni-channel.
• The topics that came up most often during my opening-weekend conversations at RetailNOW focused on (1) how managed services and the as-a-Service business model are impacting reseller organizations, (2) growing competition from acquirers, ISVs, and financial institutions, (3) the consumerization of retail technologies, and (4) channel sustainability – getting more Millennials involved in our industry. EMV was mentioned frequently as well, but I haven’t heard much different compared with conversations I had earlier this year.
• An executive made a great point to me about the key to VARs shifting from break-fix to the recurring revenue business model. “The owner of the business has to be 100% committed to as-a-Service,” he told me. “They can’t hand this off to someone else because as-a-Service affects every part of your organization.” That’s true. Everything from invoicing to pricing to marketing and everyone from sales to technicians to accounting would experience significant change. The owner is the only one who can push this change – and communicate the importance of making this change – to every level of their business.
• Finally, everyone at the show agrees that the rate of change the retail IT channel has experienced the past 5 years is faster is multiples – maybe 10X faster – compared with the prior 50 years combined. Plus they agree things aren’t slowing down anytime soon. This is both an opportunity and a threat for our channel, and I think it requires VAR executives to become more active acquiring knowledge through trade publications, white papers, case studies, webinars, conferences, and conversations.

For more articles on RetailNOW 2015, August 2 to 5, 2015, at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, and the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), go to www.BSMinfo.com/solution/InsideRSPA.