NEW REPORT: mPOS Goes Back To School

Whether it’s a college student paying for a dining hall lunch with a selfie, or a family looking for a faster way to get their meal, mobile technology is a major presence in the restaurant and food service industries.

With the majority of American smartphone owners using their mobile devices to place food orders, the mobile revolution has come to the restaurant and dining industry. And this month, several companies looked to get their slice of the mobile dining pie by debuting new or expanded mobile POS (point of sale) restaurant solutions.

In the September edition of the mPOS Tracker, PYMNTS explores how mobile devices are causing a culinary sea change and motivating mPOS technology providers to dig in.

Notable Recent News from around the mPOS World

Several providers recently debuted new solutions designed to make dining more mobile.

Moneris Solutions, for one, debuted its new mPOS product, dubbed the Moneris iPad POS Solution, to help businesses in Canada embrace mobile payments and commerce. And, across the continent, Outback Steakhouse franchisee group Cerca Trova Restaurant Concepts said it would add Ziosk tabletop mPOS devices to its tables at more than 100 Outback locations in the Southwestern U.S.

Meanwhile, Lavu recently released a new suite of features designed to allow restaurant and other food service business owners to customize tax calculations based on local tax regulations. It’s meant to help deal with rules like those recently announced in Rhode Island, which calls for all purchases made via an mPOS device in a restaurant — including non-food purchases — to be subject to sales and use taxes.

For a rundown of notable mPOS news from the past month, check out the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

mPOS Goes Back to School

With the fall semester just starting at most colleges and universities across the country, dining halls are up and running — and, as it turns out, quite a few schools have integrated mobile payments into their dining operations. If there’s anyone who’s ready to adopt the latest mobile technology when it comes to dining, its college students, who always have their smartphones in hand. So, it should come as no surprise that colleges are looking to give their dining halls a modern twist.

For the September mPOS Tracker’s feature story, PYMNTS caught up with Kris Lensmeyer, COO of Fresh Ideas Food Management, which creates dining experiences for colleges, universities and other institutions. Lensmeyer said that mobile payments at dining halls are helping those institutions push the boundaries of what a dining hall can offer.

“We were at a college last week, and they’re actually doing delivery with it,” Lensmeyer said. “They have a pizza area, a coffee area and a retail area with food, so students can go to the delivery part of the app and order a latte, a pizza and a burger and the order will go to three different printers, and [staff] will gather it together and deliver it.”

To read the story on Fresh Ideas Food Management and find all the latest mPOS news and trends, along with a ranked provider directory, featuring 287 major players in the space — including four new entries this month — check out the latest PYMNTS mPOS Tracker.

To download the September edition of the PYMNTS mPOS Tracker, click the button below…

About the Tracker

The PYMNTS mPOS Tracker is your go-to resource for staying up-to-date on a month-by-month basis. The Tracker highlights the contribution of different stakeholders, including institutions and technology coming together to make this happen.