Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By Kevin Woodward
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U.S. retailers and businesses using Roam Data Inc.’s mobile point-of-sale card reader and its software have a new tool to manage multiple readers. Boston-based Roam released Monday ROAMmcm 5, a platform for controlling the payment card readers that attach to smart phones and tablets.
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The service supports a variety of payment methods, including credit, debit, and chip cards, including chip and PIN and chip and signature adhering to the EMV standard.
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With it, entities can set connections to external fraud and risk services, assign custom risk profiles to merchants, block compromised hardware and manage user accounts. Among its other functions are transaction reporting, customer information management, receipt customization, and signature capture and storage. For example, merchants using Ingenico’s iCMP, a chip card reader that connects via Bluetooth to mobile devices, could use Mobile Commerce Manager to monitor the device. This is the U.S. version of the Roam Mobile Commerce Manager, which Roam parent company Ingenico S.A. announced in November, launching in Mexico, France, Belgium, Italy, Australia, Brazil, and Norway.
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The service is especially suited to enterprise-level needs, says Ken Paull, Roam chief executive. “What we see is demand from clients for this technology to move upmarket to support a more enterprise-grade system that requires a higher level of security, more integration capabilities, and more device-management capabilities,” Paull says. “We are being asked for multinational support, even from U.S. customers. With that comes much more complex requirements in terms of EMV support.”
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Most merchants will buy ROAMmcm 5 from a reseller, such as an independent sales organization, acquirer, financial institution, or telecommunications company, Paull says. “They white-label our end-to-end platform with their own brand, and this enables them to get to market with their own mPOS solution quickly and more cost effectively,” he says.
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Paull says the first U.S. customer is an unnamed major bank, with a large acquirer operational in three European nations and many others in test.
