By Don Bunt, President of Bunt Software
July 1st brought some significant changes impacting merchants using Panasonic SMP. New rules regarding card practices took effect and included PCI DSS changes as developed by the PCI Security Standards Council.
When Panasonic decided to concentrate on their workstation business last year, they discontinued support for their software products, including the System Manager Pro (SMP) point-of-sale software. That left nearly 3,500 merchants and quick service restaurants (QSR) at a loss. As the SMP software is no longer certified to the current PCI rules, merchants using SMP fell out of compliance with PCI.
Merchants failing to comply with the new standards can incur substantial fines, or worse, be prevented from accepting credit cards.
This is serious business. I am not trying to scare you. Yes, of course, I have something to sell, but the fact is that without utilizing PCI compliant POS software, merchants are facing exposure to a possible breach of cardholder data.
The good news is that Bunt Software and Merchant Link have partnered to create a PCI compliant solution for Panasonic SMP users. SMPLink™ is a payment interface that replaces the existing SMP credit interface. The software is immediately available for merchants and QSRs.
In addition, SMPLink has been PA-DSS validated. A key standard under PA-DSS is removing sensitive data after authorization. Using Merchant Link’s TransactionVault® technology, credit card data is tokenized and removed from the POS system, thus, lowering the risk of data breaches and dramatically reducing PCI compliance efforts for the merchant.
For users of Panasonic SMP that are looking to make the switch, this is an easy solution that will allow you to remain PCI compliant and will give you the peace of mind that sensitive data is secure.
P.S. I have also created a forum called Old Skool Pos Forum where owners and dealers of old school point-of-sales systems can chat and interact as well as ask for support.