Point of intelligent sales hits the mark

When Benseron Information Technologies Inc. publicly launched its Bevo POS software at the 2013 Northeast Acquirers Association conference, the hybrid technology that linked handheld tablet devices for tableside ordering and payments with a cloud-based database had already been field-tested with franchise owners for nearly a decade.

Developed by Onur Haytac, who founded the Naples, Fla.-based company in 2004 and now serves as its Chief Executive Officer, the software has an interesting back story. Known for his ability to fix computers, Haytac received a late night phone call during finals week when he was working toward a master's degree in computer science. It was from a friend who owned 150 Subway stores. The POS system had crashed in a store slated to cater an event the next day.

Within a few hours not only had he fixed the Subway POS system, but the experience sparked an idea. Haytac felt he could improve upon the system. "I made a deal with a Taiwanese manufacturer and brought in an all-in-one POS terminal, and I gave them two systems to test," Haytac said, adding that he also wrote software to check backups, deliver enterprise-level reporting and send email alerts to franchise owners.

"People loved it," he said. "My life literally changed. Within six months I was in 400 Subway stores and a year later 1,000 stores." To understand first-hand how franchises operate, he bought a Subway store and continued to write software. He also partnered with other restaurant vendors before launching the next product, Bevo Charisma, a POS system backed by analytics for food service and retail businesses, not just franchises. Unified systems approach Responding to increased demand for custom-built software and upgrades to existing offerings, Benseron opened a software development center in Chennai, India, in July 2014. Through this collaboration, it has since released cross-platform and fully redundant POS applications.

Another integral piece was the acquisition of online restaurant ordering platform RestaJet in July 2015. With each addition to the platform, ease of integration remains a top priority for Benseron. "You can literally put in your restaurant name, add your menu items, and within 30 minutes you own an online ordering site," Haytac said, noting that with a push of a button, Bevo users can download all menus to RestaJet. The app also features a store locator, so customers can place orders with the stores nearest them.

Another critical component in the suite was the July 2015 integration of Comodo SecureBox, a containment and endpoint solution that allows users to safely interact with mission-critical applications without compromising cardholder data, even if the device has been infected with malware, Benseron stated.

"We were the first company in the world to adopt this technology," Haytac said. "Right now everything we ship, it goes with Comodo. Malware can sit in the POS, but it doesn't matter. With Comodo it cannot touch my application."

More on the way

A project in development is the Linga POS system, scheduled for release in 2016. The cloud-based system is expected to operate much faster and consolidate data from disparate systems operating independently in different regions of the globe into a single database. Haytac said the new system will provide real-time analytics on customer frequency, peak sales hours, top selling items, staff conversion of first-time customers into repeat visitors and other key metrics.

With the next launch in sight, Haytac hopes to transform business intelligence. "The intelligence behind this new technology is going to be huge," Haytac said. "I don't even call it POS anymore. I call it POIS, Point of Intelligent Sales, which changes the concept."

Benseron offers a reseller program that allows agents to keep 100 percent of residuals, whether they are joining independently or as part of the company's ISO, Hybrid Payments. He noted that partners can maintain existing relationships with processors like First Data Corp., Global Payments Inc., Total System Services Inc. and others.

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