A cordless transaction terminal won this year's Hong Kong Awards for Industry Consumer Product Design category. Spectra Technologies' Mark Mak talks with Natalie Ho about its development.

In today's information age, not only are skills in management and corporate strategy the requisites for success in business, having a technological edge is also becoming necessary. Spectra Technologies, one of the overall winners of this year's Hong Kong Awards for Industry, emerged as a victor owing to the company's expertise in high-tech product design, creativity and a thorough knowledge of what the market really needs.

The product that earned the much-coveted award was the S9000i cordless transaction terminal, an all-in-one electronic transaction machine wholly designed by the Spectra research and development team. Incorporating all communication standards and protocols, it can read the major credit cards and smart cards as well as cash and charge cards. The terminal is used by 90 per cent of acquiring banks.

According to Mark Mak, business development manager at Spectra Technologies, the S9000i series, although not the first of its kind in terms of function, is innovative in its adaptation to the Hong Kong and regional market.

"Hong Kong is an important financial centre but the equipment used by the financial institutions was predominantly US or European-made. We saw a gap in the market that had yet to be filled by a versatile local company who could provide transaction terminals and data management systems as well as after-sales services," he said, revealing how the idea of the cordless transaction terminal was born.

"Not only do we provide the terminals, we also design the 'invisible' systems that are behind every transaction."

"One example is the purchasing system that we developed and maintain. A customer at a particular shop buys something with a credit card. The terminal then connects to the bank which in turn contacts the credit card centre for authorisation of the transaction. All this happens very quickly," he explained.

Since shop space in Hong Kong and many other Asian cities is usually very limited, the highly compact and fully integrated terminal was designed especially for Asian retailers.

"Hong Kong and perhaps Asian businessmen are also more demanding than their Western counterparts about how their machines look and what sort of image they convey to customers. Therefore we put a lot of emphasis on design so that our terminals are aesthetically pleasing," Mr Mak commented.

Other value-added features of the S9000i include its large LCD screen which caters for the graphical nature of most Asian languages. Its ergonoraic design also make it easy and comfortable to use.

Earlier versions of the S9000i terminal were developed by US companies and, according to Mr Mak, they usually consisted of six to seven individual machines that needed two power sources.

"Our advantage was that we were able to make it so small and compact. Since the focus of US and European companies is not on this market, they have paid little attention to this kind of product development. However, we are committed to serving the Hong Kong and Asia markets. That is why we strive to tailor our products to this region and provide as much flexibility as possible," he noted.

The S9000i transaction terminal has about seven competitors in the greater China region but Mr Mak believes that they pose little threat to Spectra's product because of its strength in operating capabilities and after-sales services.

The S9000i terminal won the Hong Kong Awards for Industry in September, beating 73 other entries in the consumer product design category. Mr Mak attributes this success to the product's competitiveness.

"I think the judges were most impressed with the fact that we were able to break into a market originally dominated by US and European-made products," he remarked.

One question Mr Mak is frequently asked is how Spectra has gained the trust of its customers and captured a market share of 60 per cent despite its short history of just three years.

"The company was established in 1993 but our founders had been developing financial transaction technology for ten years," he explained. "However, gaining the trust of our customers, the banks, has not been easy. It was our concept of customer-oriented design that convinced them to try our product. This is actually what I consider a new way of doing business, in which the concept is the most important selling point."

Spectra takes pride in telling people that their corporate mission is to "serve the world from Hong Kong". Mr Mak believes the transformation of Hong Kong's industry to technology-intensive manufacturing is necessary and inevitable. "It is natural that the labour-intensive industries will eventually move out of the territory because of rising labour costs. On the other hand, Hong Kong still has a favourable environment for high-tech manufacturing because in this sector, high salaries are less of a problem. The only thing we lack is adequate government support," he said.