Tyro, Australia’s business-only bank, today announced a deal that will see it deliver an API platform designed to remove the complexities and expense of integrating multiple apps and point of sale (POS) systems, by providing a single integration solution.
Expanding on its deep experience in payments integration with POS systems, Tyro’s platform will sit at the centre of a network that seamlessly connects POS systems and apps. It will eliminate the need for POS players to build and maintain multiple integrations, and in doing so, they will benefit from significant cost savings, and an increased value proposition to their customers. For small to medium enterprises (SMEs), it will radically simplify how they onboard, manage and switch between the plethora of apps available to businesses and those that are increasingly being demanded by consumers.
Initially focusing on the hospitality industry, Tyro has formed partnerships with six leading POS providers in the sector to develop and deliver a much-needed transformation to the connectivity between POS, apps and merchants. Central to the agreements is Tyro’s role as the exclusive app integrator and platform provider for these six POS providers in respect of certain integrations (including but not limited to delivery, ordering, reservation, data and analytics, logistics and workforce management apps). Tyro believes that this innovative ‘one-stop’ solution will encourage other POS providers to sign up alongside foundation partners, Bepoz, Fedelta, Idealpos, OrderMate, Redcat and SwiftPOS. Tyro already has a number of arrangements in place with app providers and is looking to significantly increase this number over the coming months, focusing on those that provide the best experience for merchants and their customers.
As it stands today, consumers are ’loving’ the accessibility of order-ahead apps – they can order from anywhere to anywhere at their convenience, receive offers, discounts and loyalty points instantly, and save time. Meanwhile, merchants are weighed down, currently requiring the installation of multiple separate devices and plug-in points in order to service the range of different order-ahead, loyalty and booking apps their customers want to use. This causes clutter and mayhem at the front counter. At the end of the day, reconciliation of the orders generated from each separate app is a labour-intensive chore.
Robbie Cooke, CEO of Tyro, said, “Merchants are increasingly interacting with their customers through order-ahead apps, loyalty and rewards apps and bookings apps, amongst others. While customers are loving how easy these apps are to use, the complexity of juggling multiple systems to accommodate different apps and POS systems is an onerous by-product of meeting customer expectations, not to mention the counter space all the devices occupy and the tangle of cables.”
“Tyro is uniquely positioned to solve this problem and streamline merchant processes with our POS partners. Currently, we directly integrate with more than 240 POS and PMS systems, more than any other bank in Australia, and we have the in-house technical capability to take a lead creating a broad ecosystem of POS software providers and apps.”
Mr Cooke said the scaling potential for the platform is exciting and far-reaching. Merchants will not need to be payments or banking customers of Tyro to access the connectivity benefits of this initiative.
Tyro is diversifying its offering and responding to merchant needs through innovative design and a single-minded focus on delivering a better business experience. The platform will extend Tyro’s offerings outside its existing EFTPOS and banking space.
Tyro’s launch into app integration is another indication of its strong commitment to SMEs following the release of its industry-first least-cost routing product, Tap & Save, and the launch of Flexible Settlements, which allows merchants to choose a daily settlement time to suit their business operations.[1]
“In time, we intend to extend the platform to offer benefits to retail and health merchants, as well as other uses including staff management, analytics, loyalty, marketing, booking and inventory management. The platform will also enable us to consolidate and deliver insights gathered across multiple applications to help merchants run their businesses,” Mr Cooke added.
Tyro plans to bring the platform to the hospitality sector during financial year 2019 and roll out across other sectors shortly thereafter.