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environments, call centers, live chat sessions and she said. "We're seeing an industry-wide shift away
recordings. The patented, PCI-compliant solution uses from owning assets and toward subscribing to essential
dual-tone multifrequency masking to disguise dial tones business capabilities."
and numbers, company representatives stated.
Wakefield said subscription models create pricing
"Agents who work from home or at call centers never see certainty. "It's easy to anticipate costs on a consistent basis
or hear credit card data," said Graham Preedy, Product when your maintenance, support and repair services are
Manager at Semafone. "Credit card numbers entered on a bundled into a monthly subscription," he said. "Verifone's
phone will appear as stars or monotones and notifications subscription services include contactless, EMV updates
when data fields are complete. Cardprotect's API simplifies and card brand mandates. The cost of these upgrades is
integration with CRMs and hosted web pages." spread out across your subscription base."

Mobeewave, a global technology company headquartered Chat bots and sales enablement
in Montreal, designed a contactless payment solution San Jose, Calif.-based magia.ai, an artificial intelligence
that works on mobile phones. Launched in 2012 as part startup founded in 2016, is an autonomous selling platform
of Mastercard's fintech accelerator program, the company that uses virtual sales assistants to create a human-like
deploys its patented solution with ISO, payment facilitator shopping experience across online and in-store channels.
and acquirer partners. It has entered into a strategic The company initially launched its Cognitive Selling
partnership with Samsung and has pilots in progress with Platform in wine stores, a complex vertical category. "Not
U.S. acquirers. "In this digital era, user experience is key," all wine specialists can match a user's need with the most
said Vincent Alimi, Vice President, Products and Business optimal selection," said Cheng Zou, CEO at magia.ai.
Development at Mobeewave. "We're making it easy and "magia not only helps find the optimal wine, but also
seamless for anyone to accept money using their mobile explains to a user why it is so."
phone."
Zou pointed out that preconfigured responses and
Mobeewave facilitates PCI-compliant, peer-to-peer and workflows can limit a selling bot's ability to engage with
micro-merchant transactions by leveraging mobile phone shoppers. Next-generation bots with enhanced capabilities
security and capabilities. "In contrast with traditional can guide shoppers through complex decisions, choices,
processing, micro merchants do not have to lease or feature considerations and personal concerns. He noted
buy terminals or pay monthly charges and PCI fees," that a magia virtual sales assistant can continually adapt
Alimi stated. "They add the service to their smartphones' to the shopper's thought process, using a combination of
software and pay only when they use it." selling techniques and natural language dialog to create
Subscribe and pay-as-you-go buying rationale by explaining how products match
shoppers' needs.
In a recent report titled Headwinds, Undercurrents &
Tailwinds: How Equipment Finance Companies Can Learn Cohen cited sales enablement as a key differentiator for
and Benefit from the Fintech Phenomenon, the Equipment MLSs. In the tech-driven world of unified commerce,
Leasing & Finance Foundation cited data analytics, mobile MLSs can help merchants navigate payments and one-
and cloud technologies as leading factors in the global on-one sales engagement, which Stripe doesn't do well,
movement from asset ownership to subscription services. he acknowledged. "MLSs need to be more like VARs, by
understanding the technology stores need and working
"Cloud technologies created inexpensive new data-storage with upstream partners to implement that technology," he
facilities, while mobile technologies made it simpler to shop said. "Focusing on markets they understand and solving
for and purchase many products online," report authors key software problems is a better approach than trying to
wrote. "Marketplace funding models have capitalized be all things to all people."
on these developments, offering electronic applications,
documents, and signature capabilities, to reach and attract Wakefield suggested visiting merchants at peak business
prospects. Fintechs also use proprietary credit-scoring hours, looking for pain points, and then asking retail-
algorithms to speed funding decisions." ers how they would like to easily enable their customers
to order by phone and pick up in store, for example, or
Deborah Reuben, President at Reuben Creative LLC, a ask restaurateurs how they would like to automate their
technology consultancy based in Minnetonka, Minn., waitlists, not with ugly beepers, but with elegant tablets
and contributor to the report, has seen forward-thinking that can keep track of who's there and send texts to their
equipment finance and leasing companies use modern phones. "We need to move from being business cost con-
technology to create flexible, usage-based financing. sultants to business competitive consultants," he said.
"Today's technical possibilities can make leasing business
equipment as simple as a PayPal or credit card transaction,"

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