STRATEGIC PARTNERS
With its recent acquisition of third-party ATM processor RBSA, the Colorado-based Logix Companies intends to serve as many of the needs of convenience stores and other retail businesses as possible, from helping clerks check IDs to processing debit, credit and ATM transactions.
January 2, 2002
A day in the life of a typical convenience store clerk involves checking IDs and ringing up purchases, whether they are made with a credit card, debit card, check or cash.
Recognizing this, Colorado-based The Logix Companies, which already offered credit card and point-of-sale processing as well as identification technology, decided to add ATM processing to its menu of services.
The Logix Companies: |
The Logix Companies on June 1 acquired third-party ATM processor RBSA, based in Carrollton, Texas, in a majority stock-interest deal.
Scott Bahneman, The Logix Companies senior vice president of business development, believes that ATM processing is a logical service for his company to offer.
"Many of the same services are all in line, but not necessarily on the same piece of hardware," he said. "But the information comes back to the same processing point."
Third-party partner
Speaking from his Incline Village, Nev., office, Bahneman said that the RBSA acquisition means more Logix Company products that support the typical RBSA customer and vice versa. Clients that use existing Logix Companies products and services also often have ATMs, and thus need ATM processing.
"We've found that our typical customer is also RBSA's typical customer," Bahneman said.
RBSA's client base consists of more than 80 ISOs. The third party processor drives more than 7,000 ATMs across the U.S., with about three million transactions a month.
Typical clients for The Logix Companies include convenience stores, such as the Tom Thumb chain, gas stations and, most recently, the Pittsburgh Penguins, which debuted a pilot program to police underage drinking by using the company's ID Logix product.
John Willmon, former RBSA president and now president of the newly-named EFTLogix, said, "It's going to give us a lot of leverage in the industry. We have a better partner now that can offer more products and services. The synergies are fantastic."
RBSA's new name, EFTLogix, is in line with The Logix Companies' other division labels.
Under its PaymentLogix division, the company sells POS terminals and offers processing for credit and debit card transactions.
Its IDLogix technology is a POS verification system that validates driver's license data. Store clerks swipe the customer's ID through a Lavinna L100 terminal that reads the magnetic stripe on the back of identification cards.
The company also offers customer relationship management (CRM) technology, by gathering customer demographic and purchase information through credit card, check or ID card processing.
A processor by any other name
RBSA's new name also means it is less likely to be confused with RBSI, the holding company that owned half of RBSA until its recent acquisition by the Logix Companies.
According to Willmon, RBSA was owned in part by himself and two other partners, in addition to RBSI's half ownership.
Willmon said RBSA was the only profitable entity of RBSI, which also held ATM International and SmartCash ATM. RBSI was rumored to be financially strapped in recent months.
The recent acquisition was "partially the Logix Companies' desire to have a full range of products and partially RBSI's need to get cash," Willmon explained.
While the privately held companies declined to release stock acquisition details, Willmon said that RBSA sold off its RBSI half and also sold stock held by a silent partner of RBSA.
Things to come
Bahneman said that RBSA's client base, which is mostly ISOs, will not change. Neither will the home office location of Carrollton, Texas. All 17 RBSA employees will be part of the new company, he said.
This summer, The Logix Companies plans to launch CheckLogix, a system which converts a written check into an electronic transaction at the POS. Store employees will run checks through a horseshoe shaped reader to be scanned, and an image of the check is archived for records, Bahneman said.
The company is also likely to add ATM hardware sales to its business plan.
"ATM is a small portion of everything we're doing, but it's an integral part," Bahneman said.
