TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Mobile Payment Technology
for the Construction Industry
Accepting on-site payment is now a simple tap on a cell phone
By Samuel Mulligan, Mobeewave COURTESY OF MOBEEWAVE
The construction industry in North America is facing
considerable pressure to decrease costs, improve
productivity and improve its competitive edge with
respect to quality of service and customer satisfac-tion.
Recent advancements in mobile technology provide
new ways of addressing all of these issues. The role of emerg-ing
mobile technologies is becoming more important as a
way to enable the construction industry to remain competi-tive
because it offers access to real-time technology, more
accurate and organized reporting information, and a greater
ability to integrate information. Moreover, mobile technol-ogy
facilitates more efficient on-site payment. This aspect of
mobile technology is especially important for contractors.
As society moves towards being fully cashless, the
gaps between physical and digital payments are closing.
However, there remains one type of payment that needs to be
addressed – cash-in-hand transactions. One North American
company is enabling construction companies to address
this gap. Montreal-based Mobeewave has been a pioneering
force in the mobile payment space since its inception in 2012
and has created a patented solution enabling contactless
payment on smart devices such as a cell phone. This tech-nology
is revolutionizing the way small- and medium-sized
businesses operate.
Mobile banking presents great opportunities for con-tractors
and construction companies to meet the growing
expectations of consumers with regards to ease of payment
in this new mobile age. A technology that provides a mobile-only
solution rather than other 20th century payment
solutions, such as cash or cheques, is an important advance.
Mobeewave’s solution enables anyone to accept money
from a contactless card or a mobile wallet using only a smart
mobile device – no other hardware is required. This technol-ogy
enables micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses to
collect payments from their customers with the swipe of the
customer’s credit card against their mobile phone.
The flexibility of the Mobeewave solution means that
the platform is not limited by geographical restrictions. The
fact that it can offer value to licensees in both mature and
emerging contactless markets means that the platform could
ultimately be deployed globally. Currently, Mobeewave has
deployed its technology in Canada, Australia and Europe –
with roll outs in other markets, including the United States,
to be announced shortly.
Last year Mobeewave signed a global partnership agree-ment
with Samsung Electronics – making its platform
available on over 250 million Samsung devices around the
world. Through this strategic partnership, Mobeewave’s
technology enables anyone with a Samsung phone to col-lect
payments from their customers by having the customer
wave his or her credit card against the payment collector’s
Samsung phone.
Resistance to new software technology, especially in the
field, is a challenge faced by many construction companies.
Software suppliers have responded by making user interfaces
more intuitive by improving the performance of and support
for their products, and by making it easier to integrate appli-cations
and data across workflows. Real-world experience
over the past decade has also created a wealth of proven best
practices for deploying mobile technology successfully. The
construction site is not viewed as a leader in the use of mobile
technology, but studies reveal that it is being used by more
than half of construction professionals on construction sites.
It is, therefore, a short step for many construction companies
to employ mobile technology for payment purposes.
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