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By Sarah O’COnnOr

Ingenico, the global enterprise with 32 million terminals in 170 countries, is embracing innovation in a major way and the proof is their new connected screens. Part digital out-of-

home advertising platform, part contactless payment terminal, connected screens were developed in partnership with French start-up Think&Go NFC and made their Canadian debut last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). They promise to bridge the gap between marketing tools, including coupons and loyalty programs, and payments while offering merchants a brand new sales channel, ideal for high-traffic retail environments and public spaces beyond the traditional storefront. For customers, it means convenience and a truly seamless payment experience for both physical and virtual goods.

In April 2016, Ingenico Group acquired Think&Go NFC, which had developed the software behind the connected screens, enabling any kind of digital display to interact with connected objects like smartphones or transit passes. Prior to the acquisition Ingenico Group and Think&Go NFC had been working together since 2015, investigating how to use contactless payment technology to transform digital advertising displays into genuine points-of-sale.

“We are confident that this solution will be a big hit with merchants,” stated Michel Léger, EVP Innovation at Ingenico Group and the head of Ingenico Labs in a press release. “Integrating Think&Go NFC—which will still be managed by its founder, Vincent Berge—into Ingenico Labs gives us greater opportunity for expansion in the field of connected objects. This acquisition exemplifies the way we are implementing our Strategic Plan 2020, whose aim is to strengthen Ingenico Group’s leadership in omnichannel payment acceptance.”

“Connected screens are designed to keep pace with market trends driven by societal change. With their combination of payment features and marketing features, they hold tremendous potential,” added Vincent Berge, the Chairman of Think&Go NFC. “The power of Ingenico Group will enable us to accelerate uptake of connected screens and deliver seamless, matchless solutions to our customers.”

The acquisition has allowed Think&Go NFC to increase its projected number of connected screens deployed over the next three years by 2,000 per cent, by drawing on Ingenico Group’s sophisticated research and development capabilities as well as their global network.

Red carpet Canadian debut at TIFFFollowing the acquisition of Think&Go NFC, Ingenico was looking for the perfect opportunity to share this technology with the Canadian market. “The idea of doing TIFF came up in a meeting in February and TIFF was September 6th,” explains Suzan Denoncourt, Ingenico’s managing director, Canada. “So that was less than seven months to crank out a net-new solution in the Canadian market—and the Canadian market is not an easy one to put something out.”

They partnered with Visa to give festival goers the chance to

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Ingenico’s connected screens open new sales channel

experience the connected screen by making a two or five dollar donation to the TIFF Pocket Fund, an organization focused on ensuring every young person has access to TIFF’s educational programming regardless of financial status. All that it took was waving a Visa payWave-enabled credit card or device in front of the screen.

“In this day in age, it is almost impossible to impress somebody,” observes Ingenico’s VP Strategic Development Chris Tyghe, “people are used to having really cool digital experiences.” That’s why the enthusiastic response from the public and payment industry experts alike at the TIFF event was all the reassurance Tyghe needed to know they were on the right track with the connected screens.

Denoncourt notes that as a dominant enterprise facing pressure from FinTech, Ingenico is focused on fostering a culture of innovation. The challenge of preparing for the TIFF event with an interdepartmental team doing something completely new and outside of their usual comfort zone was invigorating for a company accustomed to a dominant position in the marketplace.

Tyghe, who before joining Ingenico in January 2016 had exclusively worked at start-ups, was impressed by the team’s response. “People were handpicked to be part of this team and it became a sort of internal black ops team. They worked on this exclusively and they put aside their old ways to do something different. For a traditional incumbent it was a straight-out-of-the-gate innovation project and I didn’t see anybody falter, everybody was up for the challenge.”

Ingenico’s connected screen is expected to be in market in earnest by the second half of 2017. “We are banking on doing it right,” says Denoncourt, “as quickly as we can, but doing it right and putting it out there with a solution that makes sense. People are hopefully just going to be banging on the door saying, ‘hey, how do we get in?’”

In terms of use cases, at this point the only limit is the imagination of merchants. “[The connected screen] is just a digital canvas,” says Tyghe. “It’s a blank slate.” According to a

report by Gartner, the Internet of Things will grow to 26 billion units installed by 2020 and that IoT product and service suppliers will generate revenue exceeding $300 billion by the same year.

“There’s that sweet spot between collaboration and innovation,” says Denoncourt, “and it’s the marriage between the start-ups and the incumbents that’s going to be what will generate the great success stories.”

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Published in Payments Business Jan/Feb 2017

Reprinted with permission. © 2017 Lloydmedia Inc.

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