John White, CTO/EVP The biggest trend since EMV was introduced in the U.S., is the capability to accept compliant mobile payments—Pay-at-the-table, pay-at-the-curbside, and pay-at-the-door,” enunciates John White, CTO/EVP, Signature Systems, Inc. “Being EMV compliant protects merchants from frauds and liability chargebacks.” To counter the ever-increasing incidences of data breaches and network hacking, the payment card companies today strictly enforce a myriad of requirements set forth with PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) and EMV (chip card) compliance standards. As such, Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) and pizzerias accepting credit/debit cards are stuck with the onus of comprehending these mandates and seeking third-party companies that can assist them in becoming and remaining PCI compliant. “In the quick-service industry Pay-at-the-door can be a game changer for deliveries, where leveraging a POS with EMV-compliant solutions and security solutions can be a turnkey option for merchants.”
With an extensive and credible experience that spans 30 years, Signature Systems, Inc., caters specifically to the restaurant industry with their award-winning, fully integrated point-of-sale (POS) system. The firm has managed to place themselves well ahead of the compliance curve by developing a comprehensive cyber-security solution to holistically protect both card and company data, in turn simplifying the complexities of PCI compliance. “We pride ourselves on providing feature-rich enterprise-ready, PCI compliant POS systems to the quick service industry,” extols White. “We also realize that our tenure in the restaurant space has made us uniquely qualified to provide our compliant cyber-security solution to any merchant—regardless of the POS they are using.”
QSRs and Mobile EMV
Signature Systems has also harnessed the technology for accepting compliant mobile EMV (chip card) payments for pay-at-the-table, pay-at-curbside, and pay-at-the-door. While its EMV solution for POS was in place well prior to the advent of the October 2015 liability shift in which credit card companies shifted the costs of card fraud away from themselves and on to merchants who continue to swipe chip cards rather than using a compliant EMV card reader for card processing, the quick service industry—especially merchants who offer delivery—ultimately needed a solution that enabled them to accept EMV payments from a mobile device. “That was the driving factor for us to be a leader in the EMV mobile payment space,” said White. “With EMV ‘card present,’ the merchant is protected against chargebacks and card fraud, so our compliant pay-at-the-door solution is a real game changer for pizzerias and QSRs.”
For their groundbreaking work in mobile EMV, Signature Systems was recently honored with the “POS Pacesetter Award” for innovation from the Restaurant Service Providers Association (RSPA) and Business Solutions.
Our award-winning, PCI compliant security platform comes with our feature-rich POS system or standalone in concert with your current POS provider
A Cybersecurity Offering for PCI Compliance
Constantly assessing best-in-breed security solutions, Signature Systems prides itself for being the only QSR POS provider to offer a holistic, in-house, compliant, cybersecurity solution with remediation. “There are three kinds of data that we're concerned about, that is data in use, data in motion, and data at rest and our solution called PDQ Vision covers all that and goes beyond the requirements mandated by PCI,” delineates White.
As a part of their security offering, PDQ Vision is a feature-rich platform that combines a unified, managed suite of next-gen products: Unified Threat Management (UTM), Endpoint, and Unified Security Management (USM) with Security Intelligence and Monitoring. This state-of-the-art, award-winning platform also provides incident remediation. PDQ Vision plays a crucial role in simplifying the complexities of PCI compliance and is also available as a stand-alone offering for merchants who do not own PDQ POS.
“We go one step further in providing the incident remediation which is a huge differentiation for us among other POS providers as we're not only monitoring for all these threats and vulnerabilities,” extols White. “We're actually going into our customers' networks and remediating them and applying patches and identifying threats real-time, 24/7.”
Paving the Road Ahead
With a culture that raises the bar for excellence and then resets the bar even higher the next time, the Signature Systems leadership team maintains its top-rated industry position by using the voice of the customer as a guide for the ongoing creation of innovative solutions. “I don’t want to be the “second elephant”, trunk-to-rear behind the leader,” said White, jovially. “After all, with technology, it’s all about vision—being out in front and way ahead of the curve!”
Moving ahead, Signature Systems has plans for geographic expansion in Canada to cater to the POS needs of independent pizzerias. “There’s a lack of meaningful competition with regard to serving independent pizzerias in Canada,” elaborates White. “And competition among providers is a advantage for the merchants.” The firm has taken into account customer feedback and industry trends to populate their POS roadmap with features and enhancements to aggregate big data, engage more customers, and effectively leverage smart device technologies.
Clearly, Signature Systems’ 30-year tenure as a POS provider to quick service restaurants and pizzerias gives the firm an unparalleled understanding of the industry’s unique cyber-security needs.
