ScanSource Partner Conference 2015: Power From The People

By Jim Roddy, VP of Marketing, RSPA

Just as you would expect at an IT distributor event, ScanSource's Worldwide Partner Conference for POS and Barcoding talked about point of sale, bar codes, RFID, payment processing, and other technologies, of course. I was pleasantly surprised that much of the March 17 general session, held at the Hyatt Regency in Greenville, SC, focused on people and services, which are truly the heart of the channel's past success and future hopes.

"One of the reasons we love to do this event here in Greenville (where ScanSource is headquartered), is it really helps us to feature what we think is one of our biggest differentiators, and that's our people," said Paul Constantine, president of ScanSource POS and Barcode North America.

Constantine detailed one of the company's hiring best practices. "We don't hire people on our sales team who necessarily have sales experience," he said. "We don't necessarily look for people who understand and know POS or bar code technology. When we hire salespeople, we're looking for people who share that same kind of sense of urgency, that commitment to customer service, that desire to do what they need to do to make you (VARs) happy.

"We can teach them the rest. We can teach them how to sell. We can teach them the technology — we have a great tech support team that can do that. We want to hire the right internal characteristics so they can provide you with the best customer service."

It would have been rude for me to shout "Amen brother!" and interrupt Constantine's presentation, but I agree with him 100 percent. Many of the skills listed on the resumes of the last three people you hired could be passé by the next summer Olympics.

But if you hire beyond skills and personality and hold out for important character traits — such as ambition, responsibility, and intellectual curiosity — you have actually future-proofed your organization.

Constantine showed how ScanSource's logo and offerings have changed over the past 30 years, but he went out of his way to note a consistency seen in pretty much every long-standing successful organization: "People are the core of our value."

Other highlights from the general session:

• John Harrison, the VP of sales for ScanSource POS and Barcode North America, highlighted EMV, POS-as-a-Service, and cloud services when talking about what's on the horizon for the distributor. "EMV solutions and payment processing is the single biggest opportunity in the point of sale space today," Harrison said.

• ScanSource announced a POS System as-a-Service bundle that includes vendors APG Cash Drawer, Epson, and Pioneer POS. This is another step towards the recurring revenue model becoming more widespread in the retail IT channel. "POS as-a-Service will help you sell to smaller retailers," Harrison said. "POS as-a-Service is a huge opportunity for you to take advantage of."
• Girish Rishi, a senior VP at Zebra, talked about the Internet of Things (IoT) at length during his general session presentation. Among the IoT applications Rishi said VARs should keep an eye on are asset management in transportation/logistics, electronic shelf labeling, customer service portals and kiosks, remote diagnostics of equipment and patients, temperature sensors, oil pipeline monitoring, and guest access via mobile device.

ScanSource's Worldwide Partner Conference for POS and Barcoding was held March 16-18 at the Hyatt Regency in Greenville, SC.