Epson and Fishbowl Announce Strategic Partnership

GRAPEVINE, Texas, Aug. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson America, Inc., a leading supplier of value-added Point of Sale (POS) solutions, and Fishbowl, an intelligent marketing automation and analytics platform provider for the restaurant industry, today announced their partnership at RSPA RetailNOW, allowing Fishbowl to source data from Epson's new OmniLink^® Merchant Services (OMS) platform. The joint solution, which facilitates access to customer data and enables restaurants to gain actionable insights, will be demonstrated at RSPA RetailNOW, July 31- August 3 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, in Grapevine, TX, Epson booth 801.

According to Hospitality Technology's 2016 Restaurant Technology study, "40% of restaurants are looking at cloud-based software, landing this technology at the top of the R&D list." The study adds that customer engagement solutions also dominate the list and stresses the importance of data analytics.  "Industries that are on the frontline of customer interactions have to realize that customer insights are their single biggest weapon in the relevancy war." The study also sites poor system integration as a top challenge.  Epson's OMS partner network is designed to help restaurants and solution providers easily access and leverage customer data via the cloud.

The addition of Fishbowl to Epson's OMS suite of cloud and mobile applications gives users the ability to unravel complex business insights and take action on those insights, leading to improved customer engagement.  Epson's OMS platform offers an integrated solution that will work across tablets, mobile devices, multiple locations, and with any POS system that might be sitting on their counters.

"Our partnership with Fishbowl gives brands and marketing stakeholders the ability to leverage advanced analytics and drive personalized promotions in real time, sourced from the Epson OmniLink receipt printer data, independent of their POS system," said Joel Doherty, global business development leader for Epson's Business Systems Division.  "By collaborating with Fishbowl, we are offering a strong marketing analytics and automation solution for the restaurant industry in one easy-to-use, integrated platform that will significantly enhance business efficiencies and drive increased sales."

"The lack of a simple, easy-to-use, access point for all restaurant data has been an industry challenge," said Dev Ganesan, CEO of Fishbowl. "Epson's OMS cloud platform enables efficient, consolidated multi-data source access that can be used for advanced analytics and greater marketing efficacy - a mission critical mandate in this highly competitive vertical industry.  By leveraging rich insights from the data, restaurant operators can acquire new customers and retain existing ones through more relevant content and engagement – driving greater sales and traffic – via Fishbowl's multi-channel marketing platform.  We are excited about the possibilities that the Epson and Fishbowl partnership offers."

About OMS
Epson's OMS platform addresses the fundamental market challenge of disparate POS solutions and the lack of a common data language in the industry.  Epson's intelligent receipt printers provide a secure data gateway which drives cloud and mobile solutions to manage inventory, staffing, loss/prevention, merchandising, logistics, analytics, loyalty, online ordering and more without having to worry about costly POS integration. To date, 10 Epson partners have adopted the OMS platform, which opens up the options and choices for brands and restaurant operators to access a global network of cloud and mobile-based tools, best practices, business data and expertise. Partners include DTT Surveillance, Expensify, Fishbowl, GuestDNA, Livelenz, Mobivity, NimbleSchedule, PnP Loyalty, 7Shifts, and Spendgo.
To learn more about  Epson OMS, please visit  Epson.com/omnilinkmerchantservices

About Fishbowl
Fishbowl delivers decision sciences & data-driven marketing automation to help restaurants unravel complex business insights and convert that into tangible business outcomes via powerful 1:1 customer engagement. Highly scalable, the Hadoop-based SaaS platform ingests and blends data from POS, eClub, SMS, direct mail, social, online ordering, reservations, loyalty and more to provide clients with actionable insights.  Fishbowl is headquartered in Alexandria, VA, with offices in Silicon Valley and London. For more information, please visit our website, follow us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and visit our LinkedIn.

About Epson America, Inc.
Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Long Beach, CA, Epson America, Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. For over 40 years, Epson's advanced technology has been at work in millions of POS systems around the world. Today Epson's Business Systems Division continues to bring industry-leading, open architecture, smart technologies to the point of service. You may also connect with Epson America on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/Epson), Twitter (http://twitter.com/EpsonAmerica), and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/EpsonAmerica). 

EPSON is a registered trademark and EPSON Exceed Your Vision is a registered logomark of Seiko Epson Corporation. OmniLink is a registered trademark of Epson America. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE Epson America, Inc.