How Vista Technology Support became a leading retail and hospitality tech services provider in the UK and Ireland
Established in 1995, Vista Technology Support embarked on a mission to deliver top tier EPoS and retail IT hardware maintenance services to prominent retail businesses across the UK.
Its journey began with Primark as its inaugural customer, a physical retailer with ambitions for expansion throughout the UK and Europe.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Vista's growth surged as it secured EPoS maintenance contracts with some of the largest and most recognised names in the UK's retail and hospitality landscape.
Today, it is the largest independent provider of retail and hospitality technology services in the UK and Ireland and trusted by over 100 retail, hospitality, and pharmacy businesses. The company specialises in delivering technology transformation projects and providing ongoing remote and on-site IT support services.
Are you investing in retail or hospitality technology? Return on investment in technology can be adversely impacted by poor installation.
Vista’s Project Services teams are highly experienced and have played a key role in digital transformation projects for some of the most well known retail, hospitality and pharmacy chains.
Its Project Service managers understand the pitfalls and challenges that can be encountered and assist our customers in navigating such challenges, offering expert advice on technology, store Wi-Fi, data cabling, project implementation and types of materials to be used.
The company’s project methodology, systems and expertise along with its approach to risk identification and mitigation mean that customers have the assurances that all technology is installed to manufacturer’s specification, on time and on budget.
Vista Technology Support manages technology projects for its customers which range from small but complex technology changes to major technology refresh projects, network infrastructure cabling and full new store and restaurant openings.
Vista’s impressive staging lab is at the centre of the Project Services division and is used to configure and stage all new technology before being deployed into customers’ stores. This environment is often used by customers as a virtual store to test software and hardware updates prior to being released into the stores and restaurants.
When projects are in flight and equipment is being staged, the Project teams are busy completing on-site works which will often include site surveys, power and data cabling, and first and second fix, and once staging is complete, the installation of the network technology, back office systems, Point of Sale, self-service kiosks or checkouts.
The team of project experts install all technology contained within the four walls of a retail environment and sometimes this extends to the car park with the team installing parking machines and drive- hrough technology.
UK based retail and hospitality technology service desk
Once technology is installed within a store, restaurant or pharmacy, the service desk is on hand to provide proactive or responsive remote support to customers’ store and restaurant colleagues.
Vista provides remote monitoring and management (RMM) of key systems including networks, servers, EPoS and self-checkout which enables its analysts to identify potential problems with technology and resolve remotely, often before the store even notices that there is an issue.
If the store identifies a problem with its technology, they can use Vista’s Level Zero self-service portal to look up frequently asked questions and resolve simple issues themselves. Alternatively, they can log a ticket with an analyst to investigate the issue via the portal or by phone.
In the last 12 months, Vista’s UK-based service desk analysts have resolved remotely over 240,000 technical incidents for customers.
On-site technology engineering – wherever your locations, it has things covered.
Vista now has the most extensive team of retail technology specialist field service engineers in the UK, with an average tenure of over 10 years. Its team of experts is on hand to attend and resolve technology incidents at customers’ stores, restaurants and pharmacies throughout the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland.
Its technology maintenance services or “break-fix” as the industry occasionally describes the services, offers customers the unique opportunity to have a fully inclusive and responsive maintenance contract delivered entirely by Vista’s own employed workforce.
In addition all key elements of Vista’s maintenance contracts are managed by its in-house developed IT management system.
Its maintenance contracts also include: Inventory as a Service (IaaS) and Repair as a Service (RaaS) which means that retail and hospitality IT execs can rest assured that all elements of IT hardware asset lifecycle support and management are covered by a single service provider.
Vista’s inventory of EPoS and retail IT parts is extensive and unrivalled with over 5,000 different SKUs in stock. The technology Vista maintains ranges from legacy technology of 20+ years to the latest technology being deployed in-store.
When it comes to repair of technology, Vista achieves a 97% repair rate within its in-house repair facility. The Repair team diagnoses and repairs faults down to surface mount component level meaning that IT asset lifecycles are extended.
Vista’s sustainability credentials are excellent as all defective equipment is either repaired, re-purposed or recycled.
Continue reading…