The way payments are made is changing rapidly, shaping the future of modern point-of-sale systems. The traditional payment process is becoming a key part of the customer experience, as customers expect speed, flexibility, and smooth integration.

While cash is losing importance, contactless payments and mobile wallets are becoming dominant, with many providers enabling customers to make payments directly from their smartphones. These shifts put constant pressure on retailers to update their systems. The demand for mobile, contactless, and secure payment solutions keeps growing.

Market trends determine success

As a globally operating company, SAP keeps a close eye on the latest trends, looking not just to adapt its solutions but to rethink them. SAP Customer Checkout, the intelligent integrated point of sale (POS) solution for retail, merchandising, and catering, relies on strong partnerships to stay ahead and keep pace with those trends. Speed and the right collaborations make the difference.

“The POS market is in constant flux. Competitors are alert and customers arrive every day with new demands and ideas,” said Harald Tebbe, development lead for SAP Customer Checkout, speaking to the scale of change in the market. “Ultimately, market trends decide who stays successful and who doesn’t. Even though payment processes aren’t our direct business, our focus is on offering customers a wide range of payment options to make the end customer’s shopping experience as simple and convenient as possible. Payment infrastructure is a critical component of that experience. Our trusted technology partnerships are what make it possible, which is why we’re continuously looking for new collaborations.”

End-to-end solution through SAP Customer Checkout and Viva.com

As the first tech bank in Europe for businesses and being active in 29 countries, Viva.com offers customers an integrated omnichannel payments, banking, and financing platform.

Viva.com’s leading Tap on Any Device payment technology takes centre stage. It turns any Android device—from fixed and mobile payment terminals to self-checkout tills and handheld devices—or iPhone into a secure card terminal, optimizing the customer experience and helping customers pay wherever they are. Tap on Any Device by Viva.com supports over 40 payment methods, DCC, surcharge, offline payments, while the tech bank delivers real-time settlement 365 days a year and a cashback scheme reducing transaction fees to zero percent.

Since SAP Customer Checkout was built to be hardware-independent, works across a variety of devices, and integrates with different payment terminals, the partnership creates an ideal end-to-end solution for customers in retail, consumer goods, food service, and other sectors. Open API interfaces in SAP Customer Checkout and Viva.com’s Terminal Integration Hub made the integration straightforward and quick to implement.

“With Viva.com, SAP Customer Checkout customers in 29 European countries get integrated payments and banking in one platform: From omnichannel payments and our leading Tap on Any Device technology to fast, seamless access to tailored financing options -no need to switch providers,” Harry Xenophontos, Chief Business Officer at Viva.com, said. “That’s the unique proposition we’ve built with SAP.”

Secure data communication for customers

Integrating SAP Customer Checkout with Viva.com requires a dedicated plug-in, which simplifies the connection between the POS system and the payment terminal by ensuring data is transferred via the HTTPS protocol, keeping communication secure. This matters in a period where both innovation and the protection of sensitive data are front of mind.

Customers also benefit from a particularly fast setup process and the freedom to choose from a wide range of devices to use as payment terminals. With three possible integration options, the system offers flexibility so merchants can find the right fit for their specific needs.

The joint project supports the development and delivery of forward-looking POS solutions that work well for both merchants and end customers.

Elena Vavitsa is a senior solution specialist for SAP Customer Checkout.

Top image courtesy of Viva.com

There is a lot of noise around AI right now. New tools, new models, new promises. Much of the conversation is focused on speed: how AI can help us write faster, code faster, produce faster. That matters, of course. But in a recent conversation with Casey West, lead developer advocate at Google Cloud, we explored a more interesting question: what if the real value of AI is not only that it helps us move faster, but that it helps us think better?

West made a point that stayed with me. Using AI simply to generate more output is only the beginning. The more powerful use case is to treat AI as a collaborator in the thinking process: something that can challenge assumptions, ask questions we might not have asked, and help us see a problem from a different angle. In that role, AI is not replacing judgment, it is creating useful friction around it.

That shift matters because the work of building technology is changing. Developers are no longer just writing deterministic logic and controlling every outcome in advance. Increasingly, they are working with systems that are creative, probabilistic, and less predictable by design. That opens up huge possibilities, but it also raises the bar. Quality, guardrails, metrics, and trust become even more important when software starts to reason in ways that are not always fully scripted.

The advice West offered to developers was simple and probably more durable than any specific tool or framework: fall in love with the problem, not the solution. The technologies will change. The models will change. The implementations will change. But the ability to understand a problem deeply, stay curious, and apply AI with judgment will remain valuable.