Africa Business Communities

[BLOG] Barry Coetzee Column: Changing the Game

The point about “game changers” or “changing the game” is that it is an irreversible process. Mobile telephony is a game changer. The internet is a game changer. There will never be a reversion to a planet without mobile phones or the internet.

This does not mean immortality for the game changers. Cheques were once a game changer and they are slowly declining as they are “changed” for electronic funds transfer. Cash was a huge game changer with an extremely long and successful lifespan. I am not even sure if all the financial alternatives to cash (mobile, card, cheques, etc) are even making a dent into the cash’s game.

One thing that is always true about game changers is that they also change the rules. More accurately, they bring in new rules for the new game that they are changing to. As the market embraces the new systems and new rules the incumbents, current players, will have essentially three reactions to the game changer. Move to new game. Protect their turf by creating huge barriers of entry for the game changers. Bet that the game will not change and carry on business as usual. All three of these reactions are valid, mainly because not all game changers are successful, especially in the highly regulated world of financial payments. The payments universe is actually designed to keep game changers out.

But every now and then a game changer breaks through.

I know that mobile in payments is an irreversible game changer. I also know that it is still in its early days, and that it is going to be bigger than we think.

This came to me recently when I was considering the impact of MPos (Mobile Point-of-sale) on POS terminals. Initially it did not look that big. As a matter of fact, I briefly thought that it may not even be a game changer at all. After all, why would one replace a POS (even a mobile enabled POS terminal) with a combination of a smart phone and a MPos terminal. I now know that this is going to be big. For the first time (game change) many merchants will be able to put intelligence and efficiency into their payment acceptance. Easily. The game changer is not the POS terminal. This is still required as it deals with the essential security elements of payment. The game changer is using an app on a mobile device to drive the POS terminal. We have moved from a device that processes payments to a device that manages businesses ... including payments. Just as a merchant would have an app to do their banking, they now will have an app to run their store. This would include a POS terminal which is integrated in the business flow in the app.

 Game Changer

Integrated payments have been the bane of some of the biggest players in the payments market for years. The ability to have transaction data within your business process has, until now, been costly, generally only for big business and required huge integrations. With the advent of MPos a single lane coffee shop has a choice of which app suits his personality best, and in many cases the cost will be free or nearly free.

Game Changer

MPos is also bashing down the barriers to entry that are normally thrown up to protect incumbents. It is provably as secure as the incumbents. It normally costs substantially less and does not require any special skills from merchants. Watching the reaction of the incumbents is also telling the story. There is NO BUSINESS AS USUAL. Everyone is changing. There will be no going back.

Game changer.

Author: Barry Coetzee,

CEO, Iveri Payment Technology

South Africa

Barry Coetzee is a regular columnist on Africa Business Communities

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