HOUSTON -- A credit-card company, a software firm, a bank and now tech consultants are spinning into the same circle for a firm hoping to provide an entry point for retailers who want to execute mobile payment at the pump.
Houston-based P97 Networks—a name that harkens back to 1997 when in-pump point-of-sale (POS) reinvented the dispenser—announced yet another partnership, this one with W. Capra Consulting Group, Chicago, as an extension of its technology advisory and execution capabilities.
Previously announced partnerships included Microsoft Business Solutions, MasterCard, Chase and Fiscal Systems.
“As an emerging player in the mobile space, they’ve created high-level alliances with MasterCard and Microsoft that are very appealing,” says Patrick Raycroft, founding partner at W. Capra. “With mobile payment, there’s a lot of moving pieces—all the other mobile players are facing the same thing.”
With this most recent partnership agreement, P97’s clients will have access to W. Capra’s methodologies, workshops and services that help petroleum and convenience-store retailers incorporate mobile commerce.
Although he noted that W.Capra is not operating exclusively with P97, Raycroft told CSP Daily News that mobile strategies go beyond payment to include digital offers, customer-relationship management (CRM) and loyalty.
W. Capra’s services include education, business-case definition, channel strategy, solution design and integration, project delivery and operating-model implementation.
“W. Capra’s depth and strength in the petroleum c-store industry and deep understanding of mobile commerce will complement P97’s product and services resulting in quicker implementations,” said Don Frieden, CEO and founder of P97. “Naming W. Capra as a preferred, professional-services partner enhances our merchants’ design, implementation and operation of mobile-commerce channels.”
Through its PetroZone brand, P97 offers a cloud-based, mobile commerce and marketing platform, as well as a retail-fuels module that is also cloud based.
Here’s a summary of the company’s recent partnerships:
- Microsoft. P97 announced that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft paired its “Dynamics AX R3” hosted and managed POS with P97’s PetroZone retail-fuels module, which is now available for deployment to oil companies and retail merchants.
- Fiscal Systems Inc. Huntsville, Ala.-based Fiscal Systems will partner with P97 to provide P97’s PetroZone as a certified, mobile-commerce platform so c-store and gas-station retailers can offer smartphone-based payment options at the pump as well as for in-store POS purchases.
- MasterCard. Purchase, N.Y.-based credit-card giant MasterCard announced a global partnership with P97 to tie its card-holder base to mobile-phone purchases at the pump. The new solution will enable fuel companies to develop mobile apps for consumers to search for and navigate to the nearest or preferred gas station, make mobile payments at the pump and c-store and receive personalized offers for in-store purchases.
- Chase. P97 partnered with New York City-based Chase to allow Chase Pay customers to pay at the pump and make in-store purchases with their smart phones. Chase is the U.S. consumer and commercial-banking business of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- MCX. P97 has a similar payment agreement with the retailer-backed mobile-payment firm, Merchant Customer Exchange LLC, Waltham, Mass.
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