The Beneficial Growth Of MWAAS
A few years ago when my team and I launched our hospitality SaaS platform (Nudge) to the hospitality sector we focused our sales effort on the mid-large hybrid* sector of operators. As with many start-ups, with what felt like a divine mission to bring excellence to the sector, we believed that other suppliers in the client eco-system would be delighted to integrate with us to provide the client with an outstanding service.
One of the first meetings we had was with OpenTable, from whom we wanted to bring in customer post-reservation data, who told us in unequivocal terms that we could go jump in a lake. Speaking to several EPOS suppliers, including Zonal and Micros, was equally unsatisfying. Ultimately, it was only when a large client threatened their EPOS supplier with switching to a new supplier that they begrudgingly agreed to integrate, even then it was a painful experience, somewhat akin to forcing a reluctant child to take piano lessons for several months (I speak from experience).
Our eco-system integration strategy became haphazard and based principally on coercion, with our advice to clients typically being 'if you want an integration between 'X' and us then you need to get onto their CEO'. Of course, some of the more organised suppliers have partner programmes you can join, but these were typically targeted to larger enterprise clients and were prohibitively expensive for a nimble young business. Compounding the issue was the variety of versions of supplier software deployed across clients, which meant that, generally each integration had to be undertaken as a custom project, with a higher associated cost, time to deliver and risk of failure. All of which slowed our sales efforts and made the market harder for us to penetrate.
Obviously, as a start-up it was harder to be taken seriously by the major software vendors, but even ResDiary (who acquired Nudge), a software business with a global footprint, spent many many months negotiating, planning and programming an integration with Micros Oracle.
Thankfully, a new SaaS sector has emerged over the last few years to provide a solution. Middleware As A Service, is an approach whereby integration is done with the middleware software, who has, in turn a relationship with the end supplier. There are numerous benefits for all parties involved; a standard set of integration protocols, a reduction of customer support requests, and the removal of a necessity for lengthy negotiations, all of which mean faster deployments with less hassle.
Probably the best known for connecting Apps is Zapier but they don't tend to have integrations with enterprise software suppliers. For that, in the UK hospitality market there are only a couple of options. Flyt (once FlyPay) set themselves up as a MWAAS operator after building mobile payment apps for a number of years, however their recent acquisition by JustEat may put an end to that strategy as JustEat will probably focus on them becoming the payment provider for their service. They're also not cheap, requiring both a significant upfront cost per deployment plus a monthly licence fee. The other newer entrant for integrating with UK EPOS systems is Sparkle who claim to be able to integrate with EPOS systems with their software plugging in as a peripheral to the chosen EPOS system. Whilst interesting, the concern with Sparkle is that it could be seen as integrating without permission and therefore it would be a simple matter for the EPOS platform to cut it off.
It seems to me that there is a good market opportunity for a common platform for integrating with multiple software vendors in the UK hospitality software market. Enabling the rapid evolution of digital eco-systems that bring together the best of multiple suppliers, enabling a client to build a custom solution to meet their unique requirements that doesn't cost the earth or take an age to deploy. Hopefully we will see more powerful MWAAS suppliers emerge, perhaps as a joint venture between major software vendors, who recognise the opportunities that open data creates.
*By hybrid we mean operators who transform their venues from restaurants into late night bars or event venues and are able to attract a full day audience of customers.
