PAR Technology Becomes a Payment Facilitator, Enabling the Launch of PAR Payment Services

PAR Technology, a provider of point-of-sale hardware and software to the restaurant industry, recently introduced its own all-in-one payment processing solution called PAR Payment Services.

Complicated statements and pricing models from payments providers create a frustrating experience for many restaurant managers, according to the press release. The company set out to simplify the process of accepting payments by offering its own solution as a payment facilitator.

“PAR is proud to launch PAR Payment Services, our all-in-one payment processing solution. Restaurant operators have long been misled to sign opaque and complicated payment partnerships, PAR Payment Services was created to become the transparent and fair solution. Our launch will give our operators the opportunity to take advantage of fantastic rates, a streamlined process and the ability to offset hardware costs,” PAR Technology CEO, Savneet Singh, said in the release.

According to Barry Prentice, senior director of Merchant Services for PAR, the company operates an open platform, enabling customers to choose their own devices, gateways, and payment providers. The new offering expands the payment acceptance choices available, he said.

But the company is betting that customers will find that its own solution has distinct advantages compared to the other payments choices.

The first of these is that PAR Payment Services offers restaurants the ability to pay for hardware and services in a single monthly fee, eliminating upfront costs. Statements will clearly indicate what is included in the fee, Prentice said.

Importantly, the all-in-one processing solution also enables PAR to be the single point of support for their customers, rather than pointing customers in one direction for payments support and another direction for software support.

“It’s one hand to shake, one point of contact if there’s a problem that they’re trying to solve. It’s not trying to figure out whether it’s the POS or the devices or the gateway or the processor, with everybody pointing their fingers at everybody else. When it comes to having all the services at PAR, we take on that responsibility. It’s one person you’ve got to talk to, and we figure it out ourselves,” Prentice said.

PAR worked with Infinicept to put its PF infrastructure in place, and to meet company goals they needed to do so quickly, he said. The company had a challenging goal of launching the product before the end of the third quarter. Once the decision was made to move forward, however, the process went more smoothly than Prentice expected.

“Thanks to Infinicept’s infrastructure, integration with the backend processor was already there. We didn’t need to reinvent the model; it was already laid out for us,” Prentice said.

“Infinicept had a blueprint already mapped out and ready to go. So all we needed to do was step in, make some decisions, and just plug and play,” he said.

Ultimately, the company was able to complete the needed steps and launch its payment facilitator offering in fewer than 100 days.

PAR provides its POS solutions to more than 100,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries. The company is launching PAR Payment Services first in the U.S., with aggressive plans to expand, Prentice said.