In Episode 134 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy talks with Jim Hilton, Director of Networks and Connectivity at distributor BlueStar. Among the topics discussed are networking and connectivity opportunities for retail and hospitality VARs, what VARs need internally to seize these opportunities, how these technologies generate recurring revenue, and what’s around the corner in networking and connectivity. 

“The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.  

Watch Episode 134 now: 

“The Trusted Advisor” is also available on Amazon Audible, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Podcasts, and Spotify, subscribe today!

Full episode transcript via Apple Podcasts:

00:00:01.040 –> 00:00:14.800
Roddy: Hi, Jim Roddy here from the RSPA, jumping in before today’s podcast to make sure you know, Registration is now open for RetailNOW 2025, the Retail Technology Channel’s number one trade show, education conference, and networking event.

00:00:14.800 –> 00:00:23.260
Roddy: Join RSPA and Retail IT Channel leaders live and in person, July 27th through the 29th, on the strip in Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace.

00:00:23.260 –> 00:00:28.440
Roddy: With nearly 200 exhibitors, RetailNOW is one-stop shopping for VARS and ISVs.

00:00:29.040 –> 00:00:35.300
Roddy: With an expected 1,600 or more attendees, it’s the place for extreme industry connectivity.

00:00:35.300 –> 00:00:41.760
Roddy: Across just 48 hours, you’ll meet new partners and new solution providers who can accelerate the success of your business.

00:00:41.760 –> 00:00:50.460
Roddy: Now, as I record this, early registrations are trending well ahead of many prior years, so don’t miss out on what could be the best RetailNOW ever.

00:00:50.460 –> 00:00:58.600
Roddy: If you’re serious about the Retail IT Channel, you have to attend RetailNOW 2025, again, July 27th through the 29th in Vegas.

00:00:58.600 –> 00:01:01.580
Roddy: RetailNOW is where the industry meets.

00:01:01.580 –> 00:01:08.260
Roddy: For all the details and to register at discounted early bird rates, visit the RetailNOW website today at gorsp.org/retailnow.

00:01:11.140 –> 00:01:12.860
Roddy: Again, gorsp.org/retailnow.

00:01:16.460 –> 00:01:17.820
Roddy: I hope you enjoy today’s episode.

00:01:24.703 –> 00:01:32.323
Roddy: Welcome to another episode of the Trusted Advisor Podcast and video series powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association.

00:01:32.323 –> 00:01:38.163
Roddy: Our goal on the pod is to accelerate the success of today’s and tomorrow’s leaders in the retail IT industry.

00:01:38.163 –> 00:01:39.663
Roddy: I’m Jim Roddy back with you again.

00:01:39.663 –> 00:01:41.483
Roddy: Thank you so much for joining us.

00:01:41.483 –> 00:01:46.283
Roddy: Now, as always, we talk with leaders in the Retail IT channel and seek advice from them.

00:01:46.283 –> 00:01:53.823
Roddy: Now, in this episode, we’re gonna talk with someone who can help lead retail and hospitality solution providers into two emerging technologies.

00:01:54.363 –> 00:01:59.943
Roddy: So Jim Hilton is the Director of Networks and Connectivity at Value Added Distributor BlueStar.

00:01:59.943 –> 00:02:06.843
Roddy: Jim has nearly 45 years of experience in the IT channel, about 15 of those with Symbol, Motorola, Zebra.

00:02:06.843 –> 00:02:09.943
Roddy: So he’s at a front row seat to industry acquisitions as well.

00:02:09.943 –> 00:02:16.283
Roddy: And before he joined BlueStar, he was with Advantic Solutions as their Director of Strategic Growth.

00:02:16.283 –> 00:02:31.163
Roddy: And among the other titles Jim has held over his career are Director of Product and Sales Strategy, Director of Vertical Marketing, VP of Sales for Mobile Solutions, Senior Director of Manufacturing and Field Mobility, and Company President for an Integrator.

00:02:31.163 –> 00:02:33.163
Roddy: Jim, you and I have been talking for years.

00:02:33.163 –> 00:02:36.103
Roddy: It is great to have you as a guest on The Trusted Advisor.

00:02:36.103 –> 00:02:43.443
Hilton: Well, thank you very much for inviting me in, and I look forward to the next hour and visiting with your group.

00:02:43.443 –> 00:02:43.923
Roddy: Excellent.

00:02:43.923 –> 00:02:51.383
Roddy: And so let’s give our audience a little bit of background of the genesis of how this podcast came to be, and then you can tell me if I’m telling the story accurately.

00:02:52.003 –> 00:03:06.683
Roddy: So January of this year, January 2025, we were at the NRF event, and I was just outside the show floor, and bumped into you and Mark Fraker, and you had just started with BlueStar, and we were talking about your new role.

00:03:06.683 –> 00:03:14.163
Roddy: And I was intrigued because many traditional point of sale VARs are hesitant about networking, right?

00:03:14.863 –> 00:03:17.083
Roddy: It’s outside their comfort zone, it’s more in their panic zone.

00:03:17.083 –> 00:03:19.263
Roddy: And so we said, we should do a podcast.

00:03:19.343 –> 00:03:22.683
Roddy: And so the goal of this podcast is twofold.

00:03:22.683 –> 00:03:34.223
Roddy: One is to inform VARs of the opportunity in these technologies, but then also to lower their hesitancy to expand into offering solutions that are related to networking, mobility, and connectivity.

00:03:34.223 –> 00:03:36.203
Roddy: So Jim, did I say that accurately?

00:03:36.203 –> 00:03:37.963
Roddy: Is there anything you would add to that?

00:03:38.043 –> 00:03:39.023
Hilton: I think you did.

00:03:39.023 –> 00:03:51.783
Hilton: Probably the only thing I would suggest is change is coming, change is already happening, and we can ignore it or we can take advantage of it.

00:03:51.783 –> 00:03:53.363
Hilton: That’s our choice.

00:03:53.363 –> 00:03:53.923
Roddy: Exactly.

00:03:53.923 –> 00:03:54.323
Roddy: Very good.

00:03:54.323 –> 00:03:55.503
Roddy: I agree with you 100 percent.

00:03:55.503 –> 00:04:07.063
Roddy: So as we mentioned at the outset, so your background includes working with networking and connectivity technology in retail and hospitality, but then also in the more traditional applications like warehousing.

00:04:07.063 –> 00:04:18.483
Roddy: So can you talk first about the different definition that you see it of networking in retail and hospitality versus the more traditional definition of it in other verticals?

00:04:18.483 –> 00:04:18.883
Hilton: Sure.

00:04:18.883 –> 00:04:21.603
Hilton: First of all, let’s dissect that.

00:04:21.603 –> 00:04:31.723
Hilton: In that category of networking, that is very much a part that is changing dramatically.

00:04:31.723 –> 00:04:41.023
Hilton: And as we brought that up, stood up this division within BlueStar, we took careful aim at that title.

00:04:42.083 –> 00:04:47.923
Hilton: Networking today is very different than what we would think about 10 years ago.

00:04:47.923 –> 00:04:50.963
Hilton: Networking 10 years ago was, what’s your Wi-Fi?

00:04:52.443 –> 00:04:54.963
Hilton: Tell me about that router.

00:04:54.963 –> 00:05:13.203
Hilton: Today, we think networking takes every physical form of connection at the edge to bring data back to the house, up to the cloud, whatever term that you want to use for that and bring it back at a time where it’s still actionable.

00:05:13.203 –> 00:05:29.803
Hilton: So the key point there to networking is providing actionable visibility to whatever component, whatever management needs that data while they can still do something about it.

00:05:29.803 –> 00:05:31.343
Hilton: Yeah, that’s network.

00:05:31.803 –> 00:05:33.103
Roddy: Okay, some more to read, Tom.

00:05:33.103 –> 00:05:34.043
Roddy: Okay.

00:05:34.043 –> 00:05:38.043
Hilton: Connectivity is an animal unto itself.

00:05:39.343 –> 00:05:57.043
Hilton: We all saw somewhere around 2003, 4, 5, the idea of wide area connectivity became viable and economical enough to look at putting it into the enterprise.

00:05:58.183 –> 00:06:14.983
Hilton: It was candidly shoehorned into the industry by a lot of great carriers, partners of ours, that took consumer-based connectivity and tried to fit it into our industry.

00:06:16.043 –> 00:06:58.143
Hilton: That has evolved, and probably five years ago now, it took a dramatic evolution in that the idea of multi-carrier connectivity, in other words, one SIEM, one eSIEM that could recognize multiple carriers around the country, around the state, around the region, around the world, and literally in a nanosecond move from one strong signal, one strong tower to another, to another, to another, therefore operationally keeping that edge connected.

00:06:58.923 –> 00:07:16.243
Hilton: So, connectivity is a use case unto itself, and there’s lots of choices out there, and you almost have to peel back the onion to see how that fits as a bar goes to market, how they want to take that to market.

00:07:16.243 –> 00:07:16.503
Roddy: Great.

00:07:16.503 –> 00:07:16.923
Roddy: Thank you for that.

00:07:16.923 –> 00:07:18.943
Roddy: We’re going to talk about use cases in a second.

00:07:18.943 –> 00:07:20.083
Roddy: I want to ask you about that.

00:07:20.083 –> 00:07:31.763
Roddy: But where does IoT fit into this, like the Internet of Things, which I have to say, as some of my backgrounds in communications and English and all that, just having something that’s called things, it’s like it couldn’t be more vague.

00:07:31.763 –> 00:07:34.303
Roddy: Like people are like, why are people confused with Internet of Things?

00:07:34.303 –> 00:07:39.063
Roddy: It’s like the two most general terms of the world, Internet and Things, just kind of cramped together.

00:07:39.063 –> 00:07:46.023
Roddy: So where does IoT fit in, and is there a better phrase or acronym that we can use?

00:07:46.503 –> 00:07:54.543
Hilton: I watched that buzzword get born in fourth-generation manufacturing scenario.

00:07:54.543 –> 00:08:03.883
Hilton: It literally is almost the way, I’m very operational in my book, my background and my thought process.

00:08:03.883 –> 00:08:23.423
Hilton: The Internet of Things optimizing for the Internet of Things is what I’ve already said one time, putting actionable visibility in front of the component or the management that can still do something about it to affect change.

00:08:23.423 –> 00:08:25.303
Hilton: That’s IoT in my view.

00:08:25.303 –> 00:08:25.723
Roddy: Got it.

00:08:25.723 –> 00:08:26.563
Roddy: Okay.

00:08:26.563 –> 00:08:28.323
Roddy: So it’s all tied into this.

00:08:28.323 –> 00:08:28.643
Hilton: Yeah.

00:08:28.643 –> 00:08:33.183
Hilton: And its definition changes depending on the use case.

00:08:33.183 –> 00:08:33.623
Roddy: Got it.

00:08:33.623 –> 00:08:33.903
Roddy: Great.

00:08:33.903 –> 00:08:34.283
Roddy: Thank you.

00:08:34.283 –> 00:08:34.703
Roddy: All right.

00:08:34.703 –> 00:08:36.143
Roddy: So let’s talk about those use cases.

00:08:36.143 –> 00:08:42.303
Roddy: Let’s first talk about networking and connectivity use cases in retail.

00:08:42.303 –> 00:08:44.703
Roddy: And then I’m going to ask you next about hospitality.

00:08:44.803 –> 00:08:51.143
Roddy: So give us a retail use case that involves, I’m going to say, networking and connectivity, not Internet of Things.

00:08:51.143 –> 00:08:51.783
Hilton: There you go.

00:08:51.783 –> 00:08:52.443
Hilton: There you go.

00:08:52.443 –> 00:08:53.143
Hilton: All right.

00:08:53.143 –> 00:08:55.003
Hilton: So and these are fun.

00:08:55.323 –> 00:08:56.623
Hilton: These are very real examples.

00:08:56.623 –> 00:09:25.283
Hilton: First of all, every research document I’ve seen from Gardner to Forrester, to even just this past week at a conference, one of the vendors actually presented very valid 50 to 60% increase over the next three to five years in 5G movement in retail and hospitality.

00:09:26.583 –> 00:09:29.763
Hilton: So we can’t ignore that.

00:09:29.763 –> 00:09:36.843
Hilton: We can leverage it and move to it and provide for it.

00:09:36.843 –> 00:09:48.443
Hilton: Some great examples in use cases, if you think about something that we’ve driven by every summer, in my memory, think about a fireworks tent.

00:09:48.943 –> 00:09:55.223
Hilton: That pop-up is there and it’s only there for a month.

00:09:55.643 –> 00:10:03.103
Hilton: And yet, they’ll take your credit card and they’ll take your $100 or $500 or whatever you’re going to spend on that.

00:10:03.103 –> 00:10:06.203
Hilton: That is a retail operation.

00:10:06.203 –> 00:10:11.983
Hilton: And it’s almost stating the obvious that they’re a 5G scenario taking that charge.

00:10:12.623 –> 00:10:14.223
Hilton: All right?

00:10:14.223 –> 00:10:29.823
Hilton: Walk through a mall and suddenly you find more time, many times that a kiosk sitting in the middle of a retail operation is actually doing transactions.

00:10:31.023 –> 00:10:35.603
Hilton: If you peel back the onion of that, it’s a pop-up.

00:10:35.603 –> 00:10:37.323
Hilton: They brought their own network.

00:10:38.943 –> 00:11:03.743
Hilton: And in simple terms, underneath the table or right around their POS or maybe just simply attached to the tablet that they’re working or the credit card device that they’re working with, they are connected to the cloud and they can do a transaction in a split second and they can do it all day, every day, all night, every night.

00:11:04.463 –> 00:11:05.643
Hilton: There is a great example.

00:11:05.763 –> 00:11:08.263
Hilton: I’m going to give, if I can give a second example.

00:11:08.263 –> 00:11:19.563
Roddy: Yeah, the more the merrier because I think it’s going to make way clear in the mind of our listeners, like how exactly does this apply because even like I said, Internet of Things is just couldn’t be more vague.

00:11:19.563 –> 00:11:22.663
Roddy: Networking connectivity can mean a whole bunch of different things.

00:11:22.663 –> 00:11:24.683
Roddy: So yeah, the more use cases, the better, Jim.

00:11:24.683 –> 00:11:25.043
Hilton: All right.

00:11:25.043 –> 00:11:31.103
Hilton: So let’s coin the phrase, they brought their own network, bring their own network, okay?

00:11:31.103 –> 00:11:33.423
Hilton: Next example is more industrial.

00:11:33.423 –> 00:11:38.163
Hilton: So it fits my history and my comfort zone a whole lot better.

00:11:39.443 –> 00:11:49.463
Hilton: Substantial, I’ll keep all these names to myself, but substantial operation is looking at a proof of concept for a dramatic improvement in RFID.

00:11:52.063 –> 00:12:10.743
Hilton: Okay, so how do they prove that out without taking extensive time to work with the existing network administrators and actually fit that into a store environment to do a full test?

00:12:10.743 –> 00:12:15.623
Hilton: It could take months just to get the proof of concept ready to stand up.

00:12:15.623 –> 00:12:18.663
Hilton: Or you can take your own network.

00:12:19.323 –> 00:12:53.023
Hilton: You take your devices, you take your software that’s involved in that, and you put a 5G only router sitting in the back of the store, access points spread across the store, and stand up in a matter of weeks, maybe even days, you stand up that proof of concept that’s a very real flow of goods or flow of data to solve that out.

00:12:53.023 –> 00:13:03.263
Hilton: And that allows for that proof of concept to move forward, that allows for that sales cycle to move forward, and speed along to actually turning it into a real thing.

00:13:03.263 –> 00:13:08.803
Hilton: Now, the beauty of the one in my mind is it can stay that way.

00:13:09.823 –> 00:13:15.383
Hilton: Once the proof of concept gets set up and gets proven out, and they say, this is good, let’s keep it that way.

00:13:15.383 –> 00:13:17.023
Hilton: Yes.

00:13:17.023 –> 00:13:41.183
Hilton: You can keep it at 5G, particularly with today’s connectivity, that we’ll get to in a moment, but it can stay that way, or it can be folded into the network in place permanently, and take the steps after the fact, rather than taking the steps just when it’s a flyer, that this might be something that the organization wants to do.

00:13:41.403 –> 00:13:59.583
Hilton: So in the case that I’m talking about, it was an extensive RFID asset tracking use case, and it stood up very quickly in a matter of three or four weeks, and is candidly running still today.

00:13:59.583 –> 00:14:00.083
Roddy: Interesting.

00:14:00.083 –> 00:14:00.383
Roddy: Great.

00:14:00.383 –> 00:14:00.623
Roddy: Yeah.

00:14:01.383 –> 00:14:07.963
Roddy: It’s funny, your first two examples were very small, and then your last example was on a way broader, larger scale.

00:14:07.963 –> 00:14:09.303
Roddy: So that was retail.

00:14:09.863 –> 00:14:16.943
Roddy: Can you share with us a hospitality use case, or more than one that you think would be instructive for our listeners?

00:14:16.943 –> 00:14:20.843
Hilton: How many times have you walked into McDonald’s in the last six months?

00:14:20.843 –> 00:14:21.263
Roddy: Me?

00:14:21.263 –> 00:14:22.343
Roddy: My wife is a vegan.

00:14:22.343 –> 00:14:26.603
Roddy: I’m a vegetarian, so our McDonald’s visits are incredibly low.

00:14:26.603 –> 00:14:32.163
Roddy: But we walk into like Subway, Chipotle, places like that.

00:14:32.163 –> 00:14:37.043
Hilton: So instead of people behind the counter standing there saying, can I take your order?

00:14:37.043 –> 00:14:39.463
Hilton: All of a sudden, you’re on a self-serve kiosk.

00:14:39.463 –> 00:14:41.203
Hilton: Yep.

00:14:41.203 –> 00:14:48.483
Hilton: That kiosk could be attached to the Wi-Fi like it’s always been done.

00:14:48.483 –> 00:14:52.823
Hilton: It could be attached to the Wi-Fi with a failover.

00:14:52.823 –> 00:14:55.443
Hilton: There’s a new term that we’ve talked about here.

00:14:55.443 –> 00:14:58.063
Hilton: The audience knows about failover.

00:14:58.063 –> 00:15:06.083
Hilton: But the same way that a POS system in a grocery store, my first exposure to failover is that.

00:15:06.083 –> 00:15:11.323
Hilton: The kiosk could be on the Wi-Fi except it has a 5G failover.

00:15:11.323 –> 00:15:21.263
Hilton: In case the Wi-Fi goes out, they can keep doing transactions and keep selling those burgers in the case of where I just talked about.

00:15:23.223 –> 00:15:27.343
Hilton: Or bring your own network.

00:15:27.343 –> 00:15:34.883
Hilton: In other words, it is primarily a 5G, it could be only a 5G scenario.

00:15:34.883 –> 00:15:43.883
Hilton: And have literally that transaction go exactly the same way as the reason why I use that Pop-up Fireworks 10 as an example.

00:15:43.903 –> 00:15:57.103
Hilton: Exactly the same scenario except now we’re standing in front of a Quicksort restaurant and you’ve got five kiosk there that five people can go get their own order, take their own order and process the order.

00:15:58.363 –> 00:15:59.183
Roddy: Got it.

00:15:59.183 –> 00:16:02.963
Hilton: That’s a good, quick hospitality, Quicksort.

00:16:02.963 –> 00:16:04.763
Hilton: I’m going to give another one though.

00:16:04.763 –> 00:16:05.483
Roddy: Please.

00:16:06.203 –> 00:16:26.703
Hilton: And I was really blown away with robotics in one of our, one of the BlueStar events where effectively a robot was in the, I think they were in the back room of a grocery store cleaning the restroom.

00:16:27.723 –> 00:16:30.463
Hilton: The robot was cleaning the restroom.

00:16:30.463 –> 00:16:34.883
Hilton: Now, that robot effectively loses its mind if it’s not ever connected.

00:16:37.303 –> 00:16:48.483
Hilton: So, we think about a 5G-enabled robotic unit that is charged and architected to go take care of job X.

00:16:48.483 –> 00:16:54.583
Hilton: That’s another use case, kind of a out on the cutting edge kind of use case.

00:16:54.583 –> 00:17:09.983
Hilton: But that same robotic scenario where that robot has its task, it could be in nursing homes moving refreshments around the room.

00:17:09.983 –> 00:17:14.963
Hilton: It could be in hotels delivering room service.

00:17:14.963 –> 00:17:22.503
Hilton: In every one of those cases, there is a network inside that robot and there’s a 5G connection.

00:17:24.003 –> 00:17:34.103
Hilton: Or if they want to put a risk to it, it could be on the Wi-Fi, but the moment you do that, then you’re at risk of the infrastructure of the Wi-Fi.

00:17:34.103 –> 00:17:36.163
Roddy: Yes, yes.

00:17:36.163 –> 00:17:40.123
Roddy: It’s interesting you bring up that application because we’re recording this.

00:17:40.123 –> 00:17:50.143
Roddy: The same week that I attended the Restaurants Canada show and that the RSPA had our Canadian Community Networking event in a brewery, but it had a large open area there.

00:17:50.143 –> 00:17:54.043
Roddy: And BlueStar was one of the sponsors of the Canadian community.

00:17:54.043 –> 00:18:04.283
Roddy: And one of your colleagues was walking around, like getting the lay of the land for everywhere and then programming the robot to make sure it went in the right areas there.

00:18:04.283 –> 00:18:16.703
Roddy: And so the robot was roaming around for most of the show, and it never really struck my mind that it’s got to be connected, or else it’s like a runaway lawnmower or vacuum cleaner, I guess.

00:18:16.743 –> 00:18:19.563
Hilton: Yeah, pretty much, or it stops.

00:18:19.563 –> 00:18:22.783
Roddy: Yes, yes, which doesn’t help at all with that.

00:18:22.783 –> 00:18:28.403
Roddy: So, and let me ask two other use cases as well, and this will all kind of tie together.

00:18:28.403 –> 00:19:10.623
Roddy: Like I said, at the Restaurants Canada show in their startup alley, there was a restaurateur there who would come up with his own solution, and it was he put tags of some sort underneath all his tables or devices, and then gave devices to all of his servers, and so that way when they got with an X amount of feet of the table, it kind of like reset this reporting that they had where it just had the time, and it was like green, yellow, red, and you can just preset it, and that way the servers can say, when’s the last time I was at that table, they’d be able to look at the screen and it would say, it’d be flashing red, it’s been more than five minutes and something like that.

00:19:10.623 –> 00:19:13.803
Roddy: And so he uses that, and he said the server is self-managed, right?

00:19:13.803 –> 00:19:16.843
Roddy: They just look at it at a glance and go, who have I not seen in a while?

00:19:16.843 –> 00:19:26.103
Roddy: And he said it increased exponentially the spend of those tables because they were going back to them at the right frequency and not neglecting anybody.

00:19:26.103 –> 00:19:31.963
Roddy: So I guess, does that fit into your use case of networking and connectivity in the hospitality space?

00:19:31.963 –> 00:19:32.603
Hilton: It does.

00:19:32.883 –> 00:19:48.563
Hilton: It’s what’s called that local, but it literally is the craft that we took or the care that we took in naming the division kind of opens up to what is at the edge and how does it need to be connected.

00:19:50.323 –> 00:19:51.723
Roddy: Got it.

00:19:51.723 –> 00:19:52.023
Roddy: Great.

00:19:52.023 –> 00:19:52.763
Roddy: No, thank you for that.

00:19:52.783 –> 00:19:55.483
Roddy: It was funny because the guy is like, it’s a really simple solution.

00:19:55.483 –> 00:19:57.443
Roddy: He kind of taught himself program.

00:19:57.443 –> 00:19:59.823
Roddy: He’s like, I don’t want to grow this too big, too fast.

00:19:59.823 –> 00:20:01.223
Roddy: We’re like, this is neat.

00:20:01.223 –> 00:20:05.283
Roddy: Like we thought a lot of folks would be interested in having that.

00:20:05.283 –> 00:20:12.103
Roddy: So another application, I think you and I believe had talked about this when we were planning this podcast.

00:20:12.103 –> 00:20:18.083
Roddy: You talked about sensors on a beer keg that are able to tell the temperature and location.

00:20:18.083 –> 00:20:20.743
Roddy: Can you talk about that application a little bit more?

00:20:20.763 –> 00:20:24.543
Roddy: I guess how that would work and what would be the value of that?

00:20:24.543 –> 00:20:26.703
Roddy: Since I brought up breweries, like let’s talk beer.

00:20:26.703 –> 00:20:28.023
Hilton: So let’s talk beer.

00:20:28.023 –> 00:20:28.463
Hilton: Yeah.

00:20:28.463 –> 00:20:31.003
Hilton: So that’s kind of a fun project.

00:20:31.003 –> 00:20:34.383
Hilton: Matter of fact, it’s blown into several other projects as well.

00:20:35.743 –> 00:20:41.503
Hilton: So it’s one of the more simple point solutions that I’ve ever been around.

00:20:41.503 –> 00:20:55.243
Hilton: Candidly, the form factor would be more difficult if we were a couple of years ago and needed a physical SIM and we haven’t really dove into connectivity at that level yet.

00:20:55.243 –> 00:21:05.903
Hilton: But there’s an eSIM scenario and then there’s a physical SIM, like we’re all accustomed to the small chip that we put in the laptop or put in the phone.

00:21:05.903 –> 00:21:25.043
Hilton: But the ability to have an edge device sensor that can be coded to communicate, hence eSIM, effectively allows that sensor to be a form factor conducive to something like a beer keg.

00:21:25.043 –> 00:21:26.903
Hilton: It’s not over bulky.

00:21:26.903 –> 00:21:30.303
Hilton: It’s not gonna get knocked off because it’s more or less tiny.

00:21:30.863 –> 00:21:32.823
Hilton: But it’s doing its job.

00:21:32.823 –> 00:21:37.163
Hilton: And what its job is, is where is the keg and how cold is it?

00:21:37.163 –> 00:21:39.843
Hilton: And by the way, tell me that right now.

00:21:40.943 –> 00:21:50.183
Hilton: All right, so there is the solution, to your point on the other gentleman, it is a straightforward point solution that says, what’s my job?

00:21:50.183 –> 00:21:51.403
Hilton: Okay, I got it.

00:21:51.403 –> 00:21:52.523
Hilton: Here’s the answer.

00:21:52.523 –> 00:22:10.903
Hilton: And connectivity back to a dashboard in the cloud that actually allows that management with actionable visibility that somebody’s cooler is dropping our outer parameter on the temperature and our beer is going bad because it’s getting warm kind of thing.

00:22:10.903 –> 00:22:14.103
Hilton: Or the beer kegs are walking away on us.

00:22:14.103 –> 00:22:18.343
Hilton: They have a value to them, even if they’re empty.

00:22:18.343 –> 00:22:21.043
Hilton: And this helps track that.

00:22:22.783 –> 00:22:27.803
Hilton: Think about, put your sales head on, everybody on the call has got their sales head on.

00:22:27.803 –> 00:22:34.883
Hilton: Think about how many hundreds of thousands of beer kegs there are in North America.

00:22:34.883 –> 00:22:40.303
Hilton: Now expand that to the Americas and now expand that to the world.

00:22:40.303 –> 00:22:44.323
Hilton: How much fun would it be to go attack that market?

00:22:45.283 –> 00:22:47.483
Hilton: And that’s what’s happening right now.

00:22:47.983 –> 00:23:02.803
Roddy: Yeah, I’m thinking a lot of our listeners have relationships right in those restaurant space or the nightclub or the breweries or things like that, that they’d be able to go beyond the point of sale and really help in the inventory standpoint.

00:23:02.803 –> 00:23:12.623
Roddy: So some folks might be listening to this and saying like, okay, I know, like we just said, I have the relationships, but I don’t know the skills related to this technology.

00:23:12.683 –> 00:23:19.563
Roddy: So are there unique skills and knowledge that VARs and ISVs need in order to offer networking and connectivity solutions?

00:23:19.563 –> 00:23:25.963
Roddy: Or is it just more simple that they could lean on their vendors, lean on their distributors to go and bridge that gap?

00:23:25.963 –> 00:23:30.883
Hilton: Well, candidly, that’s the right, the last part of that I believe is the right answer.

00:23:30.983 –> 00:23:37.563
Hilton: Candidly, all due respect, that points people to us.

00:23:37.563 –> 00:23:48.203
Hilton: But that said, you don’t, I cut up over my 45 years, I don’t have to know the answer, I have to know the people that have the answer.

00:23:48.203 –> 00:23:50.543
Roddy: Right.

00:23:50.543 –> 00:23:54.723
Hilton: And I’ve made a practice of that over my career.

00:23:54.723 –> 00:24:20.403
Hilton: So in this world of technology and connectivity, I’m gonna go back to that five year evolution from a very traditional carrier centric, where hardware pushes connectivity, pushes hardware, pushes connectivity, and we’d like to have you for three to five years.

00:24:20.403 –> 00:24:32.383
Hilton: In an enterprise-grade connectivity solution, the vendor that you contract, contact really needs to know these kinds of answers.

00:24:32.383 –> 00:24:48.023
Hilton: Well, how in the world can I ensure no matter where that the keg is that it’s in the country, that I’m going to have one communication pipe that will get that data to my management in real time?

00:24:49.303 –> 00:24:55.203
Hilton: I don’t, if I’m the seller, if I’m the bar, I don’t have to have all that expertise.

00:24:55.203 –> 00:25:00.903
Hilton: I just need to align myself with the provider that does have that expertise.

00:25:00.963 –> 00:25:05.043
Hilton: And what, this is probably the only commercial, I’ll try to refrain from that.

00:25:05.043 –> 00:25:12.363
Hilton: But what we did, as we stood up this division, is we seeked out, did a lot of due diligence.

00:25:12.363 –> 00:25:14.263
Hilton: You already talked about my prior life.

00:25:14.723 –> 00:25:30.723
Hilton: I went out and did some searching outside the US and found a couple of solutions that are just tremendous in that regard and brought them into the fold of BlueStar.

00:25:30.903 –> 00:25:48.783
Hilton: So that said, whether it’s BlueStar or whether it’s someone else, if you ask the right five questions, you can generally get an enterprise-grade answer in that quick due diligence and take that to your customer.

00:25:48.783 –> 00:25:49.083
Roddy: Got it.

00:25:49.083 –> 00:25:58.903
Roddy: And so they can guide the vendor, the distributor can guide the reseller in terms of what questions they need to have or site survey or things of that nature.

00:25:59.423 –> 00:26:09.943
Roddy: And then it seems like from an installation standpoint, because I can remember, I don’t go back quite 45 years, but now I’m like, oh my gosh, I go back in like 30 years in this space almost.

00:26:09.943 –> 00:26:19.923
Roddy: And I remember early on where it was talking to a VAR who did some form of networking, but he was like, I got to bring in people to pull wires, right?

00:26:19.923 –> 00:26:21.863
Roddy: Like I got to partner with an electrician.

00:26:21.863 –> 00:26:23.523
Roddy: It seems like those days are over, right?

00:26:23.523 –> 00:26:25.703
Roddy: This stuff, nothing has to be wired.

00:26:26.103 –> 00:26:29.663
Roddy: And so that lowers the barrier for setting these up.

00:26:29.663 –> 00:26:31.763
Roddy: Am I understanding that correctly?

00:26:31.763 –> 00:26:32.223
Hilton: You are.

00:26:32.223 –> 00:26:37.243
Hilton: And to maybe take it a place that you were taking it.

00:26:39.123 –> 00:27:06.783
Hilton: The beauty of today’s technology is when you have yourself aligned with the right vendor, provider, communication expert, in that conversation with the end user, and you’ve got your expert sitting right next to you, somewhere in the first 30 to 45 minutes of Q&A in there, it moves from presentation to questions.

00:27:06.783 –> 00:27:09.023
Hilton: Those questions start to sound like Provid.

00:27:11.983 –> 00:27:14.003
Hilton: Simple as that.

00:27:14.003 –> 00:27:41.223
Hilton: The beauty of today, that connectivity scenario is that can be proven simply by saying, okay, we’ll set up two of your devices in your field or in the end user’s field, and we’ll run that thing for about three weeks, and we’ll show you every week your own data in that test, and two things happen there.

00:27:41.223 –> 00:28:04.463
Hilton: Number one, operationally, you see that it happened, that connectivity did occur at a 99 plus percent rate, and at the same time, you get to see the value prop of the dashboards that are provided to give that actionable visibility to management that I’ve harped on already in this book.

00:28:04.463 –> 00:28:05.303
Roddy: Yes.

00:28:05.303 –> 00:28:06.763
Roddy: Yes.

00:28:06.763 –> 00:28:14.503
Hilton: So the sales cycle is as simply as, tell me about it, prove it, propose it.

00:28:14.503 –> 00:28:16.423
Hilton: Great.

00:28:16.423 –> 00:28:28.043
Roddy: So before I take a quick commercial break, I guess almost, I think of this like as a warning to our audience, because I know one reseller talked about how he got burned on this, where he was like, I’m not doing Wi-Fi, I’m not doing this angle of the restaurant.

00:28:28.383 –> 00:28:39.483
Roddy: Well, then someone else came in and did the Wi-Fi, and then they got to know the owners, and then they pitched them on the point of sale system and displaced them and he was like, I’m never letting that happen again.

00:28:39.483 –> 00:28:42.603
Roddy: So some of this stuff is outside folks comfort zone.

00:28:42.603 –> 00:29:06.303
Roddy: What’s going to be really outside your comfort zone is when some of the other people come in and say, oh, point of sale payments, I’m so doing it, I guess, something that you’ve seen over the years, one of these providers or someone before you.

00:29:06.303 –> 00:29:08.583
Hilton: Well, that has happened to me.

00:29:08.663 –> 00:29:09.083
Roddy: Okay.

00:29:09.083 –> 00:29:09.723
Hilton: Yeah.

00:29:09.723 –> 00:29:24.663
Hilton: I have won a sales cycle, a substantial one and only to have an individual or a carrier come in four days later and say, well, why are you paying for that industrial-grade device?

00:29:24.663 –> 00:29:27.723
Hilton: Why don’t you take this free device?

00:29:27.723 –> 00:29:30.003
Hilton: And all of a sudden we won and then we lost.

00:29:30.063 –> 00:29:34.843
Hilton: So I felt a lot of pain and I’ll never forget it.

00:29:34.843 –> 00:29:44.583
Hilton: To that point, as we do our due diligence for the vendors, and as you should do your due diligence and the vendors, account control is king.

00:29:44.583 –> 00:29:46.263
Hilton: It just is.

00:29:46.263 –> 00:30:01.183
Hilton: So if I’m going to have a sell-with scenario, I’m going to make sure that that partner that I’m selling with is respectful of that sale cycle and that protective globe around that.

00:30:01.183 –> 00:30:17.023
Hilton: And then the other side to it real quick before your commercial is the idea inside your organization of assigning a champion is, okay, you are the…

00:30:17.023 –> 00:30:19.743
Hilton: Oh, it’s the same thing BlueStar did with me.

00:30:19.743 –> 00:30:25.523
Hilton: They brought in a person that is responsible for networking and connectivity.

00:30:25.603 –> 00:30:32.823
Hilton: And you think about all the lines that BlueStar has, and all the thousands of customers that BlueStar has.

00:30:32.823 –> 00:30:42.443
Hilton: And they brought in and forget about me personally, they brought in an individual that my charters to get up every day and focus on X.

00:30:42.443 –> 00:30:43.163
Roddy: Yep.

00:30:43.163 –> 00:30:47.143
Hilton: That can happen inside of any bar.

00:30:47.143 –> 00:30:52.583
Hilton: And I highly recommend if this is going to be a practice, operating that matter.

00:30:52.583 –> 00:30:53.103
Roddy: Yes.

00:30:53.103 –> 00:30:57.803
Roddy: We always recommend the concept of a PDR person directly responsible.

00:30:57.803 –> 00:31:06.303
Roddy: Because if you have one PDR, stuff is going to get done, you have somebody you can turn to, but if it’s shared among everybody, everyone’s going to look at each other and go, I thought that was you, I thought that was you.

00:31:06.303 –> 00:31:07.663
Roddy: So, all right.

00:31:07.663 –> 00:31:13.443
Roddy: So let’s pause here for a moment to let our listeners and viewers know about the Retail Solutions Providers Association.

00:31:13.443 –> 00:31:20.203
Roddy: The RSPA is North America’s largest community of retail technology bars, software providers, vendors and distributors.

00:31:20.303 –> 00:31:25.983
Roddy: To accelerate your success through an RSPA membership, email membership at gorspa.org.

00:31:27.423 –> 00:31:34.083
Roddy: Also, we want to say thanks to these companies who support the RSPA community and make this podcast and video series possible.

00:31:34.083 –> 00:31:44.063
Roddy: Our gold sponsors are Cocard, Epson, Heartland, and ScanSource, and our platinum sponsor is Jim Hilton’s employer, BlueStar.

00:31:44.063 –> 00:31:48.963
Roddy: Then finally, we want to make sure everybody knows that registration is now open for RetailNOW 2025.

00:31:49.463 –> 00:31:53.783
Roddy: The Retail IT channel’s number one trade show education conference and networking event.

00:31:53.783 –> 00:31:59.343
Roddy: This year’s event is set for July 27th through 29th at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

00:31:59.343 –> 00:32:02.643
Roddy: For more information, visit gorsp.org.

00:32:02.643 –> 00:32:07.843
Roddy: For slash retail now, RetailNOW is where the industry meets.

00:32:07.843 –> 00:32:15.523
Roddy: All right, Jim, so we were talking about the opportunity, we’re talking about the technology, the use cases, how to implement it.

00:32:15.523 –> 00:32:20.023
Roddy: But solution providers are like, okay, new technologies are interesting and they like that.

00:32:20.023 –> 00:32:25.263
Roddy: But they really love new technologies that offer high margins and recurring revenue.

00:32:25.263 –> 00:32:30.823
Roddy: So talk about the margins and recurring revenue opportunities with networking and connectivity.

00:32:30.823 –> 00:32:37.023
Roddy: Then also if you can tie in talking about the typical sales cycles for these solutions as well, that would be helpful.

00:32:37.483 –> 00:32:45.443
Hilton: All right, so first thing, let’s touch on because I already touched on the idea of the two concepts.

00:32:45.743 –> 00:33:01.943
Hilton: The idea of in the networking component having a proof of concept, it gets sped along, particularly if you have 5G or that’s the slang word today for that, even though 6G will be here soon enough.

00:33:03.363 –> 00:33:18.763
Hilton: Right now, the buzzword like your term IoT before, in this real time connectivity, 5G is the buzz that says, okay, that’s a SIM card or an eSIM.

00:33:18.763 –> 00:33:28.583
Hilton: Okay, so in that regard, the proof of concept scenario, I would embrace that.

00:33:29.363 –> 00:33:32.983
Hilton: The Provid mode, I would embrace that.

00:33:32.983 –> 00:33:35.243
Hilton: That speeds along the sale cycle.

00:33:35.243 –> 00:33:36.443
Roddy: Okay.

00:33:36.443 –> 00:33:48.683
Hilton: And having that 5G connectivity built into your proof of concept allows you to bring your own network and prove out that solution that you’re proposing very quickly.

00:33:49.923 –> 00:33:55.043
Hilton: So you kind of look at, I’m going to put my bar head back on for a moment.

00:33:57.003 –> 00:34:00.223
Hilton: You kind of look across your scenario of offerings.

00:34:00.223 –> 00:34:01.623
Hilton: What do you want to deal with?

00:34:01.623 –> 00:34:04.463
Hilton: What do you have the most right to compete with?

00:34:04.823 –> 00:34:06.643
Hilton: And what are you best at?

00:34:06.643 –> 00:34:21.443
Hilton: And by the time you answer those three questions, now you’ve got your first couple of three proofs of concept where you want to streamline this down to where it can be proven very, very quickly.

00:34:21.443 –> 00:34:22.783
Hilton: Okay.

00:34:23.363 –> 00:34:24.283
Hilton: That’s the first thing.

00:34:26.303 –> 00:34:35.523
Hilton: With that and with connectivity like we’ve already talked about, get ready for recurring revenue.

00:34:35.523 –> 00:34:36.983
Hilton: I know we all talk about it.

00:34:36.983 –> 00:34:38.223
Hilton: We all wish we had it.

00:34:38.983 –> 00:34:42.003
Hilton: There’s a moment of negative in that.

00:34:42.003 –> 00:34:51.823
Hilton: If I’m used to getting a purchase order for $100,000 or a million dollars, recurring revenue doesn’t work that way.

00:34:53.883 –> 00:35:03.543
Hilton: This is effectively bits at a time that you have to be committed as you ramp.

00:35:03.543 –> 00:35:13.983
Hilton: And as you ramp that, your scope is where do we want to be in 12 months, 24 months, 36 months in this recurring revenue stage.

00:35:13.983 –> 00:35:17.663
Hilton: The beauty of it is it just keeps on giving.

00:35:17.663 –> 00:35:24.643
Hilton: The negative to it is where you used to get $100,000, you’re getting $1,000.

00:35:26.063 –> 00:35:44.023
Hilton: So MRR, Monthly Recurring Revenue, just gets another definition and it takes a commitment and a kind of an excitement about where we can be in 36 months versus where’s my check today.

00:35:44.023 –> 00:35:44.923
Hilton: Does that help?

00:35:45.123 –> 00:35:46.063
Roddy: That does help.

00:35:46.063 –> 00:35:48.423
Roddy: And then how about the margins for this?

00:35:48.463 –> 00:35:51.983
Roddy: Because again, I was back at the restaurant in Canada.

00:35:51.983 –> 00:35:55.303
Roddy: We’re talking to some startup person and they’re like, I don’t know if this really worked for the channel, right?

00:35:55.303 –> 00:36:00.223
Roddy: We sell our solution for like $6 a month or something like that.

00:36:00.223 –> 00:36:03.563
Roddy: And they’re like, I can’t share a lot of revenue from that.

00:36:03.563 –> 00:36:06.343
Roddy: So what are the margins with these solutions?

00:36:06.923 –> 00:36:12.603
Hilton: The traditionals and we know I’ve had a prior life and I’ve got a current life.

00:36:12.603 –> 00:36:15.863
Hilton: Traditionals, they’re in a sell with mode.

00:36:16.243 –> 00:36:20.983
Hilton: And I’ll come back to the the elevated level of that.

00:36:20.983 –> 00:36:38.143
Hilton: You can expect 10 to 15 percent of the proposed to the end user coming back to you in a recurring revenue month.

00:36:38.143 –> 00:36:40.743
Hilton: And the way I look at those, you say, well, how does that work?

00:36:40.743 –> 00:37:04.923
Hilton: If I think about, if I’ve got, let’s go with the hospitality scenario or a quick serve restaurant and I’ve got 1,500, 2,000 restaurants, I’m going to drop a solution into each one of those, then there’s recurring revenue that’s happening in each one of those, in each one of those facilities coming out of that.

00:37:05.043 –> 00:37:13.923
Hilton: So, that’s the way to view that dollar figure and that’s in a sell with scenario.

00:37:13.943 –> 00:37:15.583
Roddy: What do you mean when you say sell with?

00:37:15.583 –> 00:37:16.403
Hilton: Yeah.

00:37:16.403 –> 00:37:36.783
Hilton: So, one of the due diligence that we did as we looked at our vendors in connectivity that we wanted to work with is the, when I think everybody on the call knows that probably that BlueStar never goes to the end user, we work through value-added resellers.

00:37:37.903 –> 00:37:50.123
Hilton: So, when you are selling with or with your listeners are selling with our connectivity solution, the agreement is between you and them, right?

00:37:50.123 –> 00:38:27.903
Hilton: So, there’s an elevated, if I want, if I’m the value-added reseller and I want more gross margin and I’ve got kind of a decent support desk that I could stand up and tool up to take our first-line support and I would like to brand this as my own bar logo, then because I’m willing to take that first-line support off the hands of our vendor that we’re bringing to you, you can add substantial percent to that.

00:38:28.523 –> 00:38:32.163
Hilton: Maybe up to 10% on top of.

00:38:32.163 –> 00:38:49.243
Hilton: And that turns into, take that 1500 or 2000 retail stores and you just almost doubled your, you certainly took it up by two-thirds, your gross margin on that, still in a recurring revenue framework.

00:38:50.443 –> 00:38:52.623
Hilton: It’s a pretty good number.

00:38:52.623 –> 00:38:53.643
Roddy: Yeah, no, that is good.

00:38:53.643 –> 00:38:54.883
Roddy: Thanks for spelling that out.

00:38:54.883 –> 00:39:03.443
Roddy: And I don’t, recurring revenue isn’t just something that you recommend because as we mentioned at the outset, part of your background is serving as the president of an integrator, right?

00:39:03.443 –> 00:39:05.943
Roddy: You’re leading a solutions provider.

00:39:05.943 –> 00:39:25.363
Roddy: So can you share from your perspective how important recurring revenue is to Avar today, again, because you’ve lived it and for anybody out there is thinking, boy, because people like recurring revenue, but they want to make sure they’re able to get more of it, but not have to sacrifice tons and tons of labor to get there.

00:39:25.483 –> 00:39:29.643
Roddy: So talk about your perspective on the importance of recurring revenue for Avar.

00:39:29.643 –> 00:39:41.623
Hilton: I’ll tell a fundamentally basic story of when I was president of Avar Little Company.

00:39:41.623 –> 00:39:49.183
Hilton: It was in the world of license, working your heart out to get a purchase order, selling your software.

00:39:49.303 –> 00:39:57.043
Hilton: We were back in the day of back-end systems that were very special to segments of market.

00:39:57.043 –> 00:40:02.543
Hilton: It was a license plus maintenance method of pricing.

00:40:02.543 –> 00:40:05.683
Hilton: So we’d sell our heart out, the customer would have to trust us.

00:40:05.683 –> 00:40:16.843
Hilton: And if the license fee summed up to $500,000 or a million dollars, that was the large number that we would try to go get.

00:40:16.943 –> 00:40:21.863
Hilton: And then we would get our recurring revenue part would be maintenance.

00:40:23.483 –> 00:40:26.803
Hilton: We didn’t know the meaning of SaaS back then.

00:40:26.803 –> 00:40:29.023
Hilton: I think year 2000.

00:40:29.023 –> 00:40:35.883
Hilton: But my CFO partner and I got this bright idea of, we called it a usage agreement.

00:40:37.343 –> 00:40:48.163
Hilton: We repriced everything as a setup fee and a usage agreement spread over five years and we took that to test.

00:40:48.163 –> 00:40:53.183
Hilton: So took that to market to about ten customers and everybody loved it first.

00:40:55.883 –> 00:41:02.703
Hilton: Unexpectedly, they started negotiating because we spread that usage agreement over five years.

00:41:02.703 –> 00:41:07.463
Hilton: They started negotiating for year five, month one.

00:41:07.463 –> 00:41:11.623
Hilton: We came out and out of ten, I bet seven of them did that.

00:41:12.223 –> 00:41:19.223
Hilton: We came out of each one of those scenarios and we said, all right, this is a good idea.

00:41:19.223 –> 00:41:24.083
Hilton: I’ll negotiate for year six, all day long.

00:41:24.083 –> 00:41:40.143
Hilton: Let’s go ahead and get this done, to get the project because everybody on call that sells software, knows that even the maintenance overload or maintenance load associated with the customer, diminishes over years because they know how the software works.

00:41:42.003 –> 00:41:50.183
Hilton: So we literally exploded because we would go into the account saying, here’s the best part, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this.

00:41:50.183 –> 00:42:01.843
Hilton: And oh, by the way, in year six, we’ll adjust your usage agreement by a substantial percent and everybody would get started with that.

00:42:01.843 –> 00:42:10.003
Hilton: So that was a very successful trial that sped into practice.

00:42:10.963 –> 00:42:17.663
Roddy: Nice, so it seems like in the sales process, you’re making the sale, but you’re talking about some discount or lower rate, but it’s years down the road.

00:42:17.663 –> 00:42:20.983
Roddy: So it’s great that it’s like that implied, hey, we’re going to go with you.

00:42:20.983 –> 00:42:25.783
Roddy: But let’s talk about a really long term relationship, which is what I’d say our listeners are looking for.

00:42:25.783 –> 00:42:27.923
Hilton: Yeah, it’s what you want.

00:42:27.923 –> 00:42:40.683
Roddy: And then it’s not just helpful for the day to day operations, it’s also at some point, some of the folks who are listening to this, if they own their bar business, or ISV business, they’re going to sell it to somebody.

00:42:40.683 –> 00:42:48.983
Roddy: And a VAR that was on stage at the NCC conference back in March was preaching recurring revenue.

00:42:48.983 –> 00:42:53.883
Roddy: He was telling everybody, when someone looks to buy your business, nobody cares what you sold last month, right?

00:42:53.883 –> 00:42:56.623
Roddy: They want to see that recurring revenue.

00:42:56.623 –> 00:42:59.143
Roddy: I’m guessing, is that something that you’ve experienced as well?

00:42:59.143 –> 00:43:08.243
Roddy: And like the more recurring revenue, that is the actual value of your reseller business or your ISV business, it’s not the product or I had a big month or a big quarter.

00:43:08.243 –> 00:43:08.723
Hilton: Yeah.

00:43:08.723 –> 00:43:16.403
Hilton: Two times in the sale of companies, that very math equation has ventured.

00:43:16.403 –> 00:43:17.963
Hilton: They want to know the recurring revenue.

00:43:18.223 –> 00:43:19.683
Hilton: What’s going to happen over five years?

00:43:19.683 –> 00:43:21.503
Hilton: I don’t care what you did last week.

00:43:21.503 –> 00:43:23.663
Hilton: Yeah.

00:43:23.663 –> 00:43:23.923
Roddy: Great.

00:43:23.923 –> 00:43:24.343
Roddy: Thank you.

00:43:24.343 –> 00:43:26.843
Roddy: So a couple of questions I left for you, Jim.

00:43:26.843 –> 00:43:35.423
Roddy: Can you help us see around the corner, like what are some of the next advancements that you’re expecting in network and connectivity in the retail and hospitality segment?

00:43:35.423 –> 00:43:35.783
Hilton: Okay.

00:43:36.383 –> 00:44:04.943
Hilton: First thing around the corner, right around the corner, as I started this call, even last week, and it was at an Ericsson Conference, I’ll go ahead and share that, that the speakers validated in connectivity, the movement from traditional Wi-Fi to a 5G-connected network.

00:44:04.943 –> 00:44:12.063
Hilton: Whether it’s failover or whether it’s primary, it’s going to happen.

00:44:12.123 –> 00:44:13.903
Hilton: It is happening.

00:44:13.903 –> 00:44:24.703
Hilton: And every number that I looked at in those research, the research that I read is greater than 50% over the next three to five years.

00:44:24.703 –> 00:44:36.063
Hilton: And even at the conference, a gentleman on stage posted, I can’t validate his number, but he seemed to be right in line with all my research that I had gotten.

00:44:36.063 –> 00:44:37.023
Hilton: I think it was 59%.

00:44:37.923 –> 00:44:38.923
Hilton: Movement to 5G.

00:44:41.443 –> 00:44:43.443
Roddy: Away from Wi-Fi, just some understanding.

00:44:43.443 –> 00:44:54.003
Roddy: Like, instead of having, hey, I have to go into this hotel or restaurant or mall and log on to their Wi-Fi, you’re saying that’ll end up running through 5G that everybody can connect to.

00:44:54.003 –> 00:44:54.943
Roddy: Is that right?

00:44:54.943 –> 00:44:55.623
Hilton: That’s correct.

00:44:55.623 –> 00:45:02.263
Hilton: That’s what all the research even validated by let’s say, gentleman on stage.

00:45:02.263 –> 00:45:15.283
Hilton: I was enlightened that what I was reading, as valid as those sources were, that here’s yet another person talking about the same thing, and it wasn’t even part of his storyline at that point.

00:45:15.283 –> 00:45:18.703
Hilton: So that was pretty powerful in my view.

00:45:18.703 –> 00:45:21.283
Hilton: So that’s what’s right around the corner.

00:45:21.283 –> 00:45:28.843
Hilton: The next thing, in connectivity, I’ve already talked about the last 5 years watching these multi-carrier scenarios.

00:45:29.363 –> 00:45:31.183
Hilton: There’s a ton of them out there.

00:45:31.183 –> 00:45:37.683
Hilton: So you have to ask the deeper questions to find out how they do what they do.

00:45:38.003 –> 00:45:42.363
Hilton: In their technology stack, are they just resellers of others?

00:45:42.363 –> 00:45:47.343
Hilton: Or are they, is their architecture, their technology stack built by them?

00:45:47.343 –> 00:46:02.923
Hilton: And those answers are very important, not only to your flexibility in a go-to-market plan, but it’s also important to what the end price is going to be to your end user.

00:46:04.663 –> 00:46:22.223
Hilton: That said, if you find the right group or recognize that this is going to continue to evolve, more research papers that are read, it’s affectionately called SATCOM, Satellite Communications, is available today.

00:46:22.223 –> 00:46:23.823
Hilton: It’s just pricey.

00:46:23.823 –> 00:46:24.663
Roddy: Yeah.

00:46:24.663 –> 00:47:01.043
Hilton: Okay, so what’s gonna happen with that is that’s going to evolve to the point of these idea, I think, this is Hilton personal opinion, and if we’re having this conversation five years from now, the idea of hopping from a tower to a tower to a tower on earth is gonna be replaced with, I’ve got real-time connectivity always, no matter if I’m on the highest mountain away from any tower simply because my signal is coming from and going to through satellite communications.

00:47:02.903 –> 00:47:16.723
Hilton: That’s the other thing that I looked at in that technology stack as we looked at the vendor choices that we made for our customers is, are you building it and where are you taking it?

00:47:16.723 –> 00:47:21.103
Hilton: And I got my right answers and that’s why I aligned with who I did.

00:47:21.103 –> 00:47:21.463
Roddy: Got it.

00:47:21.463 –> 00:47:30.143
Roddy: It’s an interesting shift if VARs right now say, hey, I provide the Wi-Fi for my restaurants or retailers, that whole Wi-Fi solution could be going away.

00:47:30.283 –> 00:47:34.743
Roddy: Somebody could come in with something that’s better, faster, cheaper.

00:47:34.743 –> 00:47:35.883
Roddy: So we got to be on guard.

00:47:35.883 –> 00:47:39.843
Roddy: So, Jim, we’re almost out of time and we’ve covered a lot today.

00:47:39.843 –> 00:47:45.963
Roddy: But in like in 30 seconds, what would be your final advice for our audience related to networking and connectivity?

00:47:45.963 –> 00:47:47.323
Hilton: Well, I’ve got two commercials.

00:47:47.363 –> 00:47:49.023
Hilton: You already made one.

00:47:51.103 –> 00:47:54.543
Hilton: RetailNOW, I would go and we have a booth.

00:47:54.543 –> 00:47:57.243
Hilton: BlueStar has a booth, please stop by.

00:47:57.243 –> 00:48:02.483
Hilton: The other thing is to dive into the connectivity side of us.

00:48:02.483 –> 00:48:08.603
Hilton: We have a webcast slated for April 30th.

00:48:08.603 –> 00:48:12.663
Hilton: That’s going to be an hour long, let’s call it a lunch and learn.

00:48:12.663 –> 00:48:16.143
Hilton: Simple as that, not sales pitch at all.

00:48:16.143 –> 00:48:20.543
Hilton: You’ll be coming to a BlueStar event and you’ll be talking and hearing and listening to us.

00:48:20.543 –> 00:48:29.543
Hilton: But it will be one of the most educational things in this genre that I think you can have.

00:48:29.543 –> 00:48:50.283
Hilton: And my recommendation would be to, number one, think about if you really are dedicated to this, think about who you would sign as a champion inside your group and explore and challenge whoever you use in this regard to simply prove it.

00:48:52.583 –> 00:48:53.223
Roddy: Excellent.

00:48:53.223 –> 00:48:57.003
Roddy: That’s my advice and that does it for this episode of The Trusted Advisor.

00:48:57.003 –> 00:49:03.023
Roddy: If you enjoyed our discussion, be sure to subscribe to the RSPA YouTube channel and the Trusted Advisor Podcast so you never miss an episode.

00:49:03.023 –> 00:49:06.683
Roddy: Before we go, big thanks again to Jim Hilton for sharing his wisdom with us today.

00:49:07.283 –> 00:49:15.923
Roddy: Thanks also to RSPA Marketing Director Chris Arnold for his production work, Joseph McDade for our music and last but not least, thanks so much to you for listening.

00:49:15.923 –> 00:49:23.303
Roddy: Our goal at the RSPA is to accelerate the success of our members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections.

00:49:23.303 –> 00:49:27.143
Roddy: For more information, visit our website at gorspa.org.

00:49:27.143 –> 00:49:30.763
Roddy: Thanks for listening and goodbye everybody.