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6 October 2025

Ep. 1: Why do ISV integrated payments need better terminal deployment? With Nigel Tanner and Sophie Garlick of EIT

Ep. 1 - From customer, to vendor, to market leader; the European Information Technology journey

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EPISODE GUESTS

Nigel Tanner, CEO of Blue Scorpion Limited and European Information Technology Ltd, has over 20 years of experience in the payments and retail technology industry. He specialises in PCI DSS compliance and helping businesses improve security and efficiency.


Sophie Garlick, Chief Operating Officer at European Information Technology, specialises in driving operational excellence and scalable business growth. She has strong expertise in operations, leadership, and improving business performance.

SHOW NOTES

Key Topics Discussed:

  • Nigel Tanner and Sophie Garlick’s journey with EIT, Blue Scorpion and payment terminal installation

  • EIT’s journey from payment terminal installation to payments operations

  • Why Payment Hub was built for ISOs, acquirers and partner support

  • Payment terminal deployment, dispatch, swaps, returns and error reduction

  • How ISV integrated payments rely on terminal choice, EPOS flexibility and strong support

  • The role of automation, APIs and dashboards in improving payment terminal management

  • P2PE, security certifications and operational discipline in payment device management

  • The build-versus-buy question for ISOs and acquirers

  • EIT’s plans to grow Payment Hub as a SaaS-led platform

Episode Summary:


In this episode of The Payments Shed, Grant Evans and Justin Hanna speak with Nigel Tanner, CEO of European Information Technology, and Sophie Garlick, COO of EIT, about Payment Hub, payment terminal deployment, ISO support and the infrastructure needed to manage payment devices at scale.


The conversation starts with EIT’s journey. Nigel explains how his background in payments, acquiring and ISO sales shaped the business after Blue Scorpion acquired EIT. Sophie brings the operator view, talking through the processes, documentation, technology and certifications needed to keep a growing payments business under control.


What happens after a merchant services deal is sold?


A sale can look great on paper, but the merchant experience can still fall apart if the terminal arrives late, arrives with the wrong MID, carries the wrong collateral, or cannot be supported properly once it is live. That is the problem EIT built Payment Hub to solve.


Why Payment Hub matters for ISOs and acquirers


Payment Hub was built from a real ISO frustration. Nigel describes the pain of selling a merchant, then having no clear view of where the terminal was, whether it had been configured, or when it would be dispatched. When terminals arrived with the wrong branding, wrong MID or wrong setup, the commercial impact was obvious: the merchant became frustrated, and another ISO could step in with stock ready to go.


That is why payment terminal deployment matters commercially. It is not just a warehouse process. It affects revenue recognition, merchant trust, partner confidence and the speed at which an ISO or acquirer can turn a sale into a trading customer.


Payment Hub gives partners better visibility across order status, stock, payment terminal dispatch, configuration, support workflows and returns. It is designed to remove the manual mistakes that happen when teams are handling multiple terminal brands, SIMs, acquirers, MIDs and merchant requirements at volume.


For ISOs and acquirers, that means fewer avoidable errors, faster deployment and less time spent chasing updates.


What ISVs need from integrated payments partners


The episode also explains why ISV integrated payments are becoming more operationally demanding. ISVs want payment options that fit their software, their merchants and their route to market. Merchants want choice. ISOs and acquirers want to support that choice without creating a helpdesk and logistics burden they cannot control.


EIT’s answer is an agnostic model. Nigel explains that the business works across multiple terminal solutions, ISVs, acquirers and partners. The point is not to force everyone down one hardware route. It is to give merchants and partners more choice while keeping the support model simple.


That is where integrated payment solutions need more than a neat front-end integration. They need the right payment terminals, clear deployment workflows, consistent support, stock control, returns handling and partner visibility. Without that, choice quickly turns into complexity.


For ISVs, the value is simple: they can offer payment options that fit their platform without having to learn, manage and support every terminal route themselves.


Payment terminal support is part of the merchant experience


One of the strongest parts of the episode is Sophie’s explanation of the support and logistics workflow.


If a merchant calls the helpdesk with a terminal issue and a swap is needed, the support team can trigger the swap while the merchant is still on the phone. The replacement moves into the logistics queue, and the system automatically creates the return against the right merchant, ISO, partner and terminal type.


That level of payment terminal support matters because support is part of the merchant experience. A merchant does not separate the sale, the device, the helpdesk and the acquirer relationship into neat internal departments. They just know whether the payments setup works, whether someone answers the phone and whether the issue gets fixed.


Good payment terminal management connects those dots. It brings together deployment, helpdesk, logistics, returns, reporting and partner account management into one operating model.


Automation reduces errors, but people still protect the relationship


EIT is clearly using payment terminal automation to scale. Nigel talks about APIs, removing human error and dispatching terminals quickly without mistakes. Sophie talks about dashboards, process documentation, monthly partner packs and using technology to keep operations consistent.


The important point is that automation is not presented as a replacement for service.


Sophie explains that partners and merchants still value speaking to familiar people who know the account and understand the issue. Automation takes repetitive errors out of the process. Good people keep the relationship strong when something needs judgement, reassurance or speed.


For payments operators, that is the useful lesson. If you want to scale merchant services operations, the answer is not just more people or more software. It is better process, stronger visibility and a service model that knows where technology should do the heavy lifting.


P2PE, payment device management and operational trust


The episode also touches on the security and compliance layer behind payment device management. EIT discusses P2PE, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials and SafeContractor as part of its operational framework.


This is not a deep technical guide to P2PE. The episode does not fully answer how point-to-point encryption works. What it does show is why secure device handling, documented processes and operational discipline matter when a business is managing payment terminals at scale.


For ISOs, acquirers, ISVs and platforms, trust is not only about the payment product. It is also about knowing where devices are, how they are configured, how support is managed and how returns are controlled.


Should ISOs build or buy payment operations software?


Grant and Justin also ask a sharp build-versus-buy question: could ISOs and acquirers build this type of payment operations software themselves?


Technically, yes. Nigel’s argument is that EIT has already learned many of the hard lessons by working with a large base of ISOs and turning that feedback into Payment Hub. Building the software is only part of the challenge. The harder work is designing for the operational edge cases: wrong MIDs, incorrect collateral, failed dispatches, partner reporting, terminal swaps, billing, returns, support workflows and compliance requirements.


For a growing ISO or acquirer, that is the real commercial decision. Build in-house and learn through trial and error, or use infrastructure that has already been tested against live operational pain.


What this episode answers


What are integrated payments?

In this episode’s context, integrated payments are payment capabilities connected into the software, EPOS systems or platforms merchants already use. The episode looks less at the front-end definition and more at what has to happen behind the scenes to make integrated payments work properly for ISVs, merchants, ISOs and acquirers.


What do ISVs need from integrated payments partners?

ISVs need choice, reliable deployment, strong support and an operational model that reduces complexity. EIT argues that terminal choice, agnostic hardware support, helpdesk consistency and Payment Hub’s deployment workflows help ISVs and partners offer more payment options without carrying the full operational burden.


How do integrated payment solutions simplify merchant payment acceptance?

They simplify it when the merchant does not have to manage the complexity behind the scenes. That means the right payment terminal turns up, works with the merchant’s setup, is supported by people who understand the issue and can be replaced or returned without chaos.


Should ISOs build or buy payment operations software?

The episode does not say every ISO must buy. It does make a strong case for being honest about the hidden cost of building. Payment operations software needs to handle real-world mess: dispatch, configuration, support, returns, billing, reporting, partner visibility and compliance. That is where proven infrastructure can save time and reduce operational debt.



Listen to this episode if you work with ISV integrated payments, merchant services, acquiring, ISO partnerships, payment terminal deployment or payment operations. It gives a grounded view of what happens after the sale and why the operational layer can make or break the merchant experience.


The big takeaway: ISV integrated payments need more than good technology at the front end. They need reliable infrastructure behind them. Get payment terminal deployment right, and partners can scale with more confidence. Get it wrong, and even a strong sales engine can start to leak value.

MEET THE HOSTS

Grant Evans

Co-Host and Co-Founder of The Payments Shed Podcast

Grant Evans

Grant Evans is a leading voice in the fintech industry and the creator of the widely followed ‘The Payments Shed Newsletter’. With more than 15 years experience shaping commercial strategy and driving partnership growth, he is recognised for turning complex topics such as embedded payments, BNPL, unified commerce, and open banking into clear, actionable insights that resonate with global audiences. Named a LinkedIn Top Voice in both 2024 and 2025, Grant has built a community of over 27,000 engaged professionals, merchants, and innovators who look to him for commentary on the trends redefining global commerce. A sought-after speaker and panelist, his thought leadership is regularly featured in financial services publications and at flagship industry events including Money 20/20, FTT Fintech and the Global RegTech Summit.

Justin Hanna

Co-Host and Co-Founder of The Payments Shed Podcast

Justin Hanna

Justin Hanna was recently named the #1 Head of Sales Top Voice by the National Sales Conference for good reason: he’s redefining what sales leadership looks like in the modern era. With deep B2B sales experience and a people-first approach, Justin earns trust through insight and practical strategy, not tired tactics. A respected voice in payments, he’s also built a 22,000-strong LinkedIn following by making complex topics relatable and actionable. His influence has been recognised widely: a LinkedIn Top Payment Systems Voice (2024), one of the top 30 voices shaping the future of payments, banking, and fintech (2025), and celebrated by the National Sales Conference as the #1 Head of Sales Top Voice. Known for challenging the status quo, Justin’s unfiltered take on leadership, culture, and growth resonates because it’s honest, and his ability to lead with both expertise and empathy has made him one of the most influential sales voices today.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome everyone to the launch of The Payments Shed podcast with your hosts, myself Grant Evans and my co-host Justin Hanna.

This is the podcast where we'll be diving into the big topics, trends and people shaping the worlds of payments, fintech and business leadership.

For our very first episode, we were thrilled to be joined by Nigel Tanner, CEO, and Sophie Garlick, COO of European Information Technology, or EIT as it's known to many.

Now, EIT are one of the few organisations in Europe certified for point-to-point encryption, or P2PE. EIT has been securing, deploying and managing payment devices for over two decades, helping merchants to stay compliant and protect their customers.

Nigel and Sophie sat down and shared their insights on how the payments landscape is evolving, what it takes to stay secure in 2025 and beyond, and a bit about the journey that EIT have been on in recent years.

It's really a great episode and we're delighted to be starting our very first season with the EIT team.

However, just before we kick off episode one, I just want to say a big thank you to our headline sponsors, Tammy AI.

Tammy is the market intelligence and lead generation platform built for sales and marketing teams who want precision, not guesswork. Tammy helps businesses to identify their best fit prospects, gain deep market insights, and boost revenue growth.

It really has become the go-to solution for the payments and fintech industries. Both Justin and I have used this tool in the past at various organisations we've been involved in, and I really can't speak highly enough about just how good the Tammy product is.

We wanted to say a big thank you to the team for supporting us because podcasts really don't grow and scale without the support of great sponsors behind them.

So, we're excited to go on the journey together. However, without further ado, let's kick off season one, episode one. Enjoy.

We are delighted to be joined today by Nigel Tanner, CEO of European Information Technology, and Sophie Garlick, COO of European Information Technology.

Welcome guys to the podcast. Please, can you give us a brief introduction to yourselves? Should we start with yourself, Nigel?

Yeah, of course. So, I'm Nigel Tanner. I'm the CEO of EIT and Blue Scorpion Group.

My primary role, I guess, is to look at the strategic path of the business and where we go. I try and build out my relationships with the larger acquirers and ISOs to understand what their pain points are, really, and to try and innovate that into our technology to provide them a better service.

I'm Sophie Garlick, Chief Operating Officer at EIT, and predominantly my role is everything operations. So ensuring that all of our processes are documented, streamlined.

I sit with every department to make sure and listen to what their pain points are and what we can take away and how we can improve. Overall, for me, it's the smooth running of our company. So that's what I do every day.

Everybody needs a Sophie by the sounds of it, right?

I'm not sure what we'd do without Sophie.

Your journey as a business is really interesting. You've gone from being a customer to a vendor and now really, a market leader in the UK for what you guys do.

Can we maybe just jump into the background of EIT, how it came about and how you started on that journey?

Yeah, so I've got 27 years' payments experience. I started in payments in January 1998, a company called Com Idea. They were very well known for their gateways and payment solutions. It was a blast from the past.

We moved into 2003 when Chip and PIN was released and then obviously formally launched in 2006. We needed to find a partner that helped us recognise our revenue quicker because it was very easy to install software on till systems and get it deployed really quickly and easily.

But what we found is that when we moved to Chip and PIN, we needed a physical installer. So we met EIT back then through one of our mutual coffee chains that we do a lot of work with, and EIT did such a fantastic job. That's how we met.

So when Verifone then subsequently bought Point and Com Idea, I moved to EIT as Sales and Marketing Director in 2012, and then subsequently bought the business in 2017.

So that's where the journey started. I came over to EIT with my payments head on, if you like, to try and help them move more into the retail space, doing more installation work for what are our competitors now.

Nice. What do you think was the hardest piece from moving from a vendor to more of a supplier itself?

I'd probably say having to wear different hats. So from going to supplying that service, we now need to make sure that we're ticking all the boxes that we needed ticked, predominantly in the past.

I'd probably say, for me, it's wearing all those different hats and sitting as each individual element throughout that journey. It's how you then can manipulate that, I'd say.

With Blue Scorpion having worked with EIT before, you obviously go through that acquisition process. How did the Blue Scorpion business shape the new direction of EIT after that acquisition?

Yeah, ultimately, the reason I built Blue Scorpion was to do everything hand in hand with EIT, and the purpose being I wanted to do a management buyout of EIT.

I built Blue Scorpion to do everything like payments and ISO. We did PCI compliance products and services, but of course everything we did, EIT needed to install.

So that's how we brought over our payments knowledge to EIT. As I mentioned, in 2017, eventually Blue Scorpion bought all of the shares for EIT, and that's how we took it over.

Very good. I guess you've been on a real growth journey with that as well.

What for you have been the biggest milestones in terms of smaller operator into the big beast that you are now?

It's a good question. Ultimately, the biggest milestones for us were because of our success and what we'd been building in our white-labelled helpdesk and our services.

We outgrew our facility very quickly, and also we had an office over in East Malling for Blue Scorpion and an office in Crayford where I acquired EIT. So we had two bunches of people working very departmentally against one another rather than with one another.

Probably the biggest milestone, Grant, was the move to our main office in Crayford and then subsequently the move to our warehouse, which has allowed us to expand our growth into big acquirers and doing distribution for much bigger ISO channels.

So that's definitely probably the key milestone for me.

One thing we've definitely seen, and we've gone through it as well where I've worked previously, is when you have mergers and acquisitions, sometimes you have multiple people doing similar roles, right?

I think other businesses may experience that over the next couple of years. Who do you pick from these two different businesses to do the one role?

It's not just fintech. It's not just payments. It's any business. I think you then start seeing people fight out who is actually the best at their role right now to be able to help the group as a business as they move forward.

Yeah, of course. We were quite lucky because I built Blue Scorpion around what EIT needed to achieve. One did the services and software and the other one did the installation. We didn't really have that.

All I really had to do was redirect the salespeople to stop selling ISO payment terms because we didn't want to be in competition with our ISOs.

So, we stopped doing the ISO business, but we learned a lot from it. Then we built Payment Hub and things that we'll go into later.

We built the platform so that it delivers a much better service. So really, it was changing the salespeople to learn how our platform works to sell that to ISOs.

Perfect.

Sophie, from your point of view, with the growth that has come from that merger acquisition, how have you refined the operational side of things as a result of the scaling up that you guys have done as a business?

I think it's come with its challenges, but predominantly for me it's our processes and documentation.

Making sure that everything is documented so that anyone and everyone can pick it up and run with it. Using technology.

It's quite nice when we get new heads on board and they come along with, "Have you tried this product? Have you tried this or that?" It's actually listening to them and going, "Actually, let's embrace that," and bringing that in.

So technology, definitely, and utilising what's on the market. But also our certifications have played a big part. We've got a variety, but just to name a few, ISO 27001 for our information security and ISO 9001 for our quality.

The task of dealing with that, luckily we've got a team for that. Very tedious, but as senior leadership, we have to be fully aware of it because they come in and quiz you.

Approval though, right? There is a lot of merit that comes to having that.

Let me tell you, during COVID, I had to take over ISO 9001 because we left things to the rather last minute and I sat up until 3:00 in the morning finishing the documentation. I was like, "We need to employ someone to do this."

Yeah, absolutely.

So we got ISO 9001 as well for our quality. Both of them provide such a good framework to work towards and a clear set of rules, if you want to call it that, to really adhere to.

We've got Cyber Essentials for our data security. I think that's a good one.

We've also got SafeContractor. All of our engineering team that are out on the road, so the side of our payments where we've got a suite of engineers driving across the country, SafeContractor keeps them in check with our health and safety and whatnot.

Then lastly, our P2PE. Our whole facility is P2PE approved. That's another certification that just keeps us in check. Have we got the right security system? Have we got the right CCTV system? What do we need to operationally improve to make sure that we're ticking those boxes?

Do you think there was a bit of a pivot as well going from more like the B2C side? You talk about stripping out your ISO business because ISOs then become your customers, but then you're very much pivoting from B2C to B2B.

How did you handle that as an operations team, dealing more with partners than the end merchants anymore?

I think we've had to change that up a bit.

Our account management style, making sure that we've got set monthly pack templates to hand out monthly, I think has been key. Rather than having that ad hoc phone call type relationship, it's definitely more structured process now.

We have monthly meetings with them all. We've got set templates where we look at all of our stats, review what we've achieved, percentages, and make sure we're delivering.

The other things are things like Power BI, where we've been building out, and our Payment Hub platform has got a dashboard so our partners can log in real time and see where we're up to with everything we do.

So we've adapted our knowledge from knowing what we did as an ISO into knowing their pain points, listening to their pain points and adapting the platform to associate itself to that.

I think as a buyer as well, when you're working with somebody like an EIT that has an understanding of your pain points, it makes life a lot easier to be able to then sell to them as well, right?

Well, sales becomes natural, doesn't it? You're no longer selling. You're consulting rather than selling. You're finding a solution to their problem.

I think that's it. We're not a sales-led business. Ironically, back in my days at Com Idea, we had a team of 47 salespeople, of which you'll know many of the people I used to work with.

Ultimately, that was a sales-led business and it was a sales engine. It was really difficult for me to grow and build an operational type business and make it operational, which is why Sophie runs the main operational teams from engineering, logistics and helpdesk.

So for me, there are only a few salespeople in our building because we don't really need to sell. The product should be selling itself, and that's the difference.

Nice.

When you talked about consistency there, what do you think from an EIT perspective it takes to actually deliver that consistency to your customers and future customers as well?

I think for us it's all been around our technology. We are very innovative in the way that we work.

We've built APIs. We try and remove human ror. We have built a platform whereby we can dispatch terminals incredibly quickly without any rors.

We don't accidentally put the wrong MIDs on terminals and they go out with the wrong transacting data on them and things like that.

So that's how we've kept consistent. Our technology allowed us to grow at pace. That's really the main thing.

You've mentioned Payment Hub a couple of times already, and the way I see it, that's the jewel in the crown of your business, right?

What were the frustrations that led to you building Payment Hub in the first place?

For me, again, it comes down to that learning journey.

On Blue Scorpion, we were going out and Harry, our sales guy, fantastic, he was cold calling at the time. He had just come new into a sales role from a recruitment agency, and he was out banging phone calls out and making sales.

Then the frustration came where we didn't know where that terminal was. It would go out to one of the distributing parties and we didn't know where it was, when it was configured, when it was going out.

We'd phone three days later still going, "Hey, where's my terminal?"

Then when it did go out, it went out with the wrong collateral. It went out with someone else's logo. It went out with the wrong MID. All these things were a huge frustration.

Then, of course, before it, one of the bigger ISOs has gone in there, boot stock, dropped a terminal straight into the merchant. You've just lost the sale. Thank you for that, Mr Distribution Chain.

So it's all of those learnings that we've taken and put into our platform to enable ISOs to do it really quickly and efficiently, and know in real time where their data is and where their terminal is.

I think it's quite a big thing there as well. You mentioned around you can have salespeople calling prospects all the time and doing the sale, but the sales-to-service model is so important in what you're promising the customer to actually delivering on that.

It sounds cliché and it sounds cheesy, but as a business you want to be able to make sure you're giving the tools to your sales team and they're delivering on the promise that they've sold.

So you mentioned there, how can we stop any issues from a customer going live after the first initial conversation? I do agree, recruiters actually are the best salespeople sometimes, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Sophie, from your point of view, again probably with the operations hat on, what makes Payment Hub special for you and the ops team?

There's loads of things, really, I suppose. But for me, if we think about the main aim of Payment Hub, it's for the smooth dispatch of payment terminals, right? That's the main aim aside from everything else it does with its abundance of features.

From my perspective, the analogy that I always used when we first started developing Payment Hub, what, seven years ago now, was if we can get 74-year-old Mum in our warehouse to do a pick, pack and dispatch, then we've mastered it.

That's what's always been in our mind. We laugh because we say it in every pitch now. It's just part of the Payment Hub DNA.

What was really funny is my mum didn't know that I owned my own business and she also didn't know how big my warehouse was. She went, "What? This is all yours?" I went, "Yeah."

But yeah, she could pick, pack and dispatch.

You can't accidentally pick the wrong product. You can't accidentally put the wrong SIM in it. You can't accidentally do anything.

Even if you picked up a different ISO's terminal, the platform will go, "You've picked up the wrong stock," or, "You've picked the wrong model up. It's not got Bluetooth in it."

It's absolutely done that, hasn't it?

Yeah. We've made it, excuse the word, but idiot-proof. We've tried to make it so that you cannot get a terminal out wrong.

It's interesting because I always get feedback and hear feedback where wrong terminals have been sent. It drives you mad. It must drive the ISOs mad and it certainly drove us mad at Blue Scorpion at the time.

So for us, it should go out 100% of the time, every time, accurately.

There's more kit out there than ever before, right? A lot of ISOs in the market will not just use one manufacturer. They probably lean into having a whole suite of different hardware solutions.

That must come with some complication for you guys as well in terms of the different types. I'm just envisioning, do you have packs here and Ingenico here, Verifone there? How do you split that up?

No, that's what makes us unique, I think. That whole agnostic approach, Grant, is where we came from.

If I take back from my days in Com Idea again, we were very good at what we did. We had a low-cost solution. We had fully integrated into ISV platforms and services, and we did it with one terminal manufacturer, Verifone at the time.

We grew into a massive company overnight from doing that.

So now we've got five or six terminal solutions and we are working with all the ISVs, all the main acquirers and most of the partners. It's opening up a huge channel of opportunity.

The beauty is they've got the same helpdesk and the same phone number answering the questions. So you phone up every day as that merchant, and it just halts attrition.

The ISOs and the partners can then go in knowing that they can put a new platform in. As the technology is changing and growing for the merchant, and they're outgrowing it and they need omnichannel, we can now provide them that platform.

What makes it really simple is we take away that legwork of learning the product and supporting it, and not having five support numbers to call. You can have a mixed estate and grow with the technology.

From an ops perspective, how do you find it dealing with different partners on the terminal side?

It seems to happen quite smoothly, to be honest.

The whole way that the platform is designed is just so that we can deliver. If a merchant calls into a helpdesk, our helpdesk are all multi-skilled to start with. It doesn't have to be routed to a certain team.

For example, if they've got an issue with their terminal, the different brands allow us to either remote in and take control of it, or we walk the merchant through it.

If a swap is needed, the helpdesk team will carry out that swap whilst the merchant is on the phone. I'd probably say 95% of the calls are still ongoing and that swap is already in our logistics queue, being picked and packed and out the door.

So, as long as it's before cut-off, it goes out.

Operationally, we've coded the system to create an automatic return. At that point, our logistics team know that they're expecting a return back from X merchant. It's this terminal type, this model number, and it's for this ISO, partner or merchant.

That way, when all these terminals turn up via DPD or whatever at the end of any given day, we know exactly what order they relate to and then they can follow the exact loops that we need.

Do you use partner feedback to define your roadmap as well?

Absolutely. We get a lot of feedback from our staff internally.

The teams that use it, helpdesk and logistics, live and breathe in Payment Hub effectively. So we do get a lot of feedback from them.

It might be simple things like, "It would be really great if that button was over in this corner because we could do it more efficiently." Absolutely, we take that on board.

Before we embark on any development, we always look at a SWOT. We look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

If we were to go on and develop a whole new reporting section, for argument's sake, we would internally make sure: what is that going to bring to the table for Payment Hub? What strengths is that going to give our partners? What's the weakness of that? Are we giving over too much detail, or is that report actually needed?

We make sure that we develop everything with everyone's feedback in mind where possible.

Is there an opportunity in the market right now where you guys think as a business you could be doing something different?

I think for us it's more around the ISVs at the moment.

I think what the ISOs and the merchants are looking for is integrated solutions with as much technology as possible that can fit. The Android platforms have fit really well with our business model and our agnostic approach.

I think we just need to continue building out our product set so that we enable merchants and partners to make the choice. I hate the thought of forcing someone down a particular terminal brand. I like them to make the choice.

Back in our days of making sales to people, let's say you take a high street retailer and they're looking at multiple different EPOS systems. The beauty is, at Com Idea, we always won the deal because we integrated to all of them.

That's where we're trying to put EIT, so that it makes them get the choice. They've got the stickiness with their partners and their merchants.

ISVs obviously want to have different terminal options. Technology is growing so fast that it's really hard for the ISVs and the ISOs to keep up with it.

For us, it's about if we take away that pain, make it available in Payment Hub, all you have to do is place an order.

Where Paymentsense did well back in the day, even when they were in their early stages, they really lent into getting as many of those EPOS providers hooked into their kit as possible.

Having dealt with EPOS providers over the years, they tend to make a decision and then that's the final decision they'll make for a few years, right? So it becomes a little bit of a closed ecosystem.

Something we talk about a lot on the show, guys, is build versus buy, and I think that's pretty relevant to you guys when you sell to ISOs and acquirers predominantly. You could argue that they're companies that could potentially build solutions themselves.

So why is it that you guys have been so successful selling in that market, and that they lean into the EIT relationship rather than building some of this stuff in-house?

Really good question, G.

Ultimately, it's because we've obviously been there as an ISO in the past. We know a lot of their challenges, and because we listen to what many of the ISOs, 190 plus ISOs that we work with, we are getting feedback from all of those.

We've built the technology for what some of them won't have even experienced as a problem yet.

Things like automation. Like I said earlier, we can pick, pack and dispatch one of the terminal brands in three seconds. Then all we've got to do is a test card transaction, put it in a bag and make sure the right logo is on it.

Some of the things that we've done and the lessons that we've learned, and the other ISOs have learned, we can put into the technology they need.

So, why do it yourself and then learn the hard way? Why don't you use a platform or a bit of technology that's already been built and proven?

We spoke before around it being a very competitive market, right? And you've spoken around the consultative approach.

If you were to become a merchant yourself, rewinding time, how would you approach going to market?

That's a really good question. It's a tough one, right? I think a lot of high street retailers now are probably getting a little bit fed up with door knockers.

I think they're all getting a little bit fed up with 105 ISOs coming in a week to try and pick.

So, I think if I was a merchant, I'd probably go and talk to my acquirer because it's the trusted partner. That's my honest opinion. I think I'd go and talk to my acquirer and I'd trust what they tell me is available.

Which is interesting based on the news of AIBMS being acquired by Fiserv. It's the same thing, right? The excuse that everyone used in Ireland was, "We trust our acquirer."

So now it's opened up the channel to all the other ISOs out there, and there's no acquirer actually doing payments anymore and merchant services.

It's a really interesting point, but I think, me personally, I'd probably go to my acquirer, see what their options are and start my route from there.

I think I'd do the same.

By the way, I think the job of account managers now in operations and commercial roles, and managing accounts, is to understand what their merchants are trying to achieve in the future as opposed to just paying an acquiring invoice.

Yeah.

Sophie, from your point of view, again with that merchant hat and supplier hat in mind, what has been the biggest thing for your team in terms of building trust with your customers and partners over the years at EIT?

I think it's just about being ourselves, really, and being who we are.

I'd like to say we're a very approachable team. We're relatively small, but we've got such a big achievement, and the team can remain quite small because we've got a lot of automation in place with the latest Payment Hub.

Our scalability is there with that smaller team in place.

I'd like to say that customers ringing up and speaking to the same people on helpdesk, they get to know their names. The amount of feedback in the emails that we get: "Joshua's lovely," or "George has done a fantastic job," because they're ringing up and they're speaking to the same people.

So topical at the moment as well, because you've got businesses using AI to potentially replace people and you're obviously saying the big feedback you get is that personal touch, that individual that you actually know, providing a great service as well.

If you consistently provide a fantastic service, you're going to consistently get new business. That's why I've always said we're operational-led as a business.

If we consistently rinse and repeat great service, that's why we work to our values. The word is agile: adaptability, growth, innovation, loyalty and excellence. That's what we really focus everything we do on.

In fact, down to the point of even doing appraisals internally, we put the growth objectives against our AGILE values.

Every individual has got an adaptable objective. What can that person bring to the table to put that tick in the box effectively? We do it through all the letters.

We've got TVs across the office, because we install digital signage as well for a lot of high street retailers. We've got a lot of digital signage around our office that pops up with our customer logos, our quotes and our value chain.

Then we test people as well on our half-year and annual.

When people are walking out the door at night, I'm like, "What does AGILE stand for?" They're like, "I just want to go home."

Businesses, when they're scaling at growth like you guys have, sometimes find it quite difficult to revert back to those values and how we got to where we are today.

How do you continue to keep the culture in the business and the value proposition as you grow three, four, five times? The fact you're still doing it is kudos.

At the end of the day, we're nothing without our customers, are we?

If we can continue to keep driving our innovation and our technology to help our customers provide their terminals, like the analogy I used right at the very beginning, where Blue Scorpion was selling a payment and getting really frustrated.

Why did we build Payment Hub? Well, that is the core of our business. We built it because we don't want these people to get frustrated. We want them to rinse and repeat, and then we continue to get helpdesk services, thousands and thousands of terminals.

That's how our model works. What we do now and the excellence we put into what we achieve is just driving revenue.

Looking to the future then, 190 ISOs is a phenomenal book of customers, growing by five a month.

That just shows that the ISO market is not slowing down first and foremost. What does that lead into for you guys for the next big opportunity? You're looking beyond the UK and Ireland at the moment?

It's UK and Ireland.

Again, another really interesting point. For me, it's about being global. There's no reason why our platform can't become a global platform.

It's happening a lot at the moment. One of our main ISOs and gateways that we work with has opportunities in lots of countries, and they were like, "Well, look, we've API'd into Payment Hub, so what do we do?"

We said, "That's no problem," because we've been trying it for many years with another acquirer out in Ireland, and they've got their own warehouse in Ireland. They've been using Payment Hub for three or four years and absolutely love it, to the point they now do all of their distribution for their whole business, even outside of us, through Payment Hub as a SaaS product.

So we've proved the concept of it. Now there's no reason why I can't pick that up and take it into every country.

We've already got an opportunity for North America, which we're looking at opening. We've only just opened our Ireland warehouse, which sits outside of the other Ireland facility that's there, that's not ours.

There's no reason why an ISO can't place an order into our platform and it routes to the relevant country for its pick, pack and dispatch. Then it goes back through the same billing platform, the same infrastructure.

We invoice them the same. We can put their cost centres in. Everything is completely automated and driven via their API.

Would that see you guys then leaning into more joint venture partnerships in other European countries?

Yeah, we've looked at that. Ultimately, what we could do is Payment Hub can literally just pick up as a SaaS product into somebody else's building.

Providing they've got security, if it's P2PE they need to have a P2PE facility with the relevant acquirer, or QSA certification. Ultimately, we can literally pick our products up and put it in someone else's building, as long as they've got staff there. They can do a pick, pack and dispatch out of their office in reality.

That's the reality of it. We give them the technology they need.

Back onto your point earlier about why they wouldn't do this themselves, it's because we're giving them the technology that can do it now. Why build a business in another country? We can just provide you the software.

So we don't actually necessarily need to invest in buildings or infrastructure, which I doubt we will. I very much will partner with other people, I would think, like you've said, either a joint venture or SaaS.

Fantastic. As we move on to our final segment of the podcast, our favourite piece, the Shelf of Shame.

Guys, please do nominate something you think should be banished and never return to payments again.

For me, I don't know about you gentlemen and how much you hold in your wallets, but I can't stand plastic loyalty cards.

I think we should shove plastic loyalty cards because you've got so much great digital wallets and technology out there, like the likes of Zilch that uses your card and tokenises it. Every time you use that card, you're going to get your loyalty and you're actually going to redeem it because it's prompting you on the device.

Whereas a plastic loyalty card, you just don't remember to use your card. So for me, that is the one I will shelf.

I'm going to have to agree with that. Even the coffee here, right, you can get a loyalty card, you have to stamp it. How can we digitise that for everybody?

Yeah.

There's a little brew pub in Bath I go to and I must have about 10 of the cards. Instead of getting your free beer, I just go with 10 with one stamp, like, there you go, from the bottom of my bag.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Sophie, what about yourself?

For me, it's outdated finance systems.

I think operationally, the finance element is such a key bit to make sure that you get right. There's the old saying that if it's not broke, then don't fix it. But I think unfortunately finance systems have become such a beast in big corporate setups, so it becomes very overwhelming to change.

But if we can just park that and we could get some fresh systems in place, I think actually that would allow for scalability.

It is exactly what we've done in-house with Payment Hub, partner commissions and all of our automated billing.

So yeah, outdated finance systems for me.

You updated yours recently?

We have. We have actually.

That would have been really awkward, wouldn't it?

Ironically, Payment Hub is literally just being interfaced into it. We've actually changed because we needed one with a really advanced API, and it's cost us a fortune, but it's physically automating absolutely everything.

One of the areas we had a full-time person in finance literally doing the daily dispatches. Had we still had that method in place, we'd have needed 10 people to do the number of dispatches that we do every month, just to work out the billing and the commissions for every ISO and what price they should be charged.

So for us, if we hadn't done those and we hadn't updated the platform, now we're taking that to the next level with the new API and it's going to physically automate.

We don't need a human scaling at growth, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Fantastic. Thank you very much for your time, guys. Really appreciate it.

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