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IndustryUpdate

RESEARCH

Juniper explores chatbots,
contactless payments
Juniper Research Ltd. predicted chatbots will rede-
fine the customer service industry, with healthcare
and banking sectors benefiting most. The study,
Chatbots: Retail, eCommerce, Banking & Healthcare
2017-2022, claimed chatbots will result in cost sav-
ings of over $8 billion per annum by 2022, up from
$20 million in 2017.

In another report titled Contactless Payments: NFC
Handsets, Wearables & Payment Cards 2017-2021,
Juniper predicted contactless card payments will
dominate transaction values and top $2 trillion glob-
ally by 2021. Research author Nitin Bhas noted that
from a payments and convenience perspective, it
will be difficult for mobile wallet providers to gain
existing market share from contactless cards unless
providers are able to deliver innovative services.
Symantec assesses Internet security threats

Symantec Corp. released its 2017 Internet Security
Threat Report, which highlighted several prominent
threat trends, including breaches through non-
secured access points, as well as financial system
heists, a resurgence of malicious email, increased
ransomware attacks, and emerging threats within
the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-based environ-
ments.
SPA issues smart payments report

The Smart Payment Association revealed top indus-
try findings from its 2016 annual review of the smart
payments market. Data collected from SPA members
revealed that over 2 billion payment chip cards were
shipped globally in 2016, up 4 percent over 2015
shipments. Of that quantity, over 50 percent of the
shipments in most regions were contactless cards,
SPA noted.

PARTNERSHIPS

Avalara partners with Heartland
Avalara Inc. teamed with Heartland Commerce in the
hospitality sector, where Heartland claims to have a
19 percent share in the U.S. restaurant POS market,
including 83,000 independent restaurants and 11 of
the top 25 quick-serve brands. Heartland clients will
now have access to Avalara's Compliance Cloud plat-
form and its tax content database containing complex
tax rates, rules, and regulations for thousands of U.S.
and global tax jurisdictions.

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