Around Town Monday April 29 Wiz-Tec
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Calgary-based companies making waves across the country are what helps make this city such an exciting place to do business. Especially notable are ones that are able to use technology to transform lengthy, time-consuming and boring jobs into speedy and accurate transactions, simplified through technology advances.
Wiz-Tec Computing Technologies recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, since launching into the point-of-sale (POS) industry that has amassed a client base spread across the country.
It was co-founded in 1991 and current president Bill Macdonell runs the company along with Jim Wang, who acts as both CEO and CTO. Wang came to Canada as a medical doctor but while re-certifying he was introduced to coding and decided to stick with that field and be a part of this city’s burgeoning hi-tech community.
Wiz-Tec has developed a commanding leadership role in building systems with simple, reliable and comprehensive POS and payment combinations.
Proudly committed to making solutions that work for everyone, Wiz-Tec pioneered solving problems for First Nations clients who had to deal with complex rebate systems for their Indian status tax exemption claims. The solution was an all-in-one POS pump control and Indian Tax Exemption (ITE) rebate service system.
The built-in software allows retailers on reserves to process ITE transactions automatically during a sale resulting in them being able to save time, improve their operation and get rebates back faster from provincial governments.
The user-friendly interface works throughout all provinces and to date Wiz-Tec enjoys exclusive contracts with reserves across Ontario, Quebec and the Northwest Territories, but across the country it serves First Nations customers in more than 350 gas bars.
Filling up at one of the gas stations using Wiz-Tec systems, a driver simply scans a status card to validate authenticity and after using the pump of choice payment is made with the taxes already taken off.
The transaction is recorded and the retailer’s claim is automatically submitted to the government, reviewed and processed for rebates.
Rebate claims for status tax exempted tobacco products can also be processed through the use of Wiz-Tec’s single software platforms, with check-out and control features able to handle all transactions throughout a retail operation as well as for fuel and car washes.
Wiz-Tec currently codes 30,000 to 50,000 lines of data per month and handles five million lines of code each year.
Reduction of paperwork and time are obvious benefits, but POS electronic systems also decrease the possibility of fraud.
Thirty years of experience in the fuel and retail POS industry also allowed Wiz-Tec to re-imagine the way car washes operate. The efficiencies have resulted in the company creating a car wash system that is capable of controlling equipment, automatically reconciling sales data and processing transactions all from a single touchscreen.
Simplified attendant experience is made possible for operators to monitor, control and manage bays and equipment directly from their in-store POS.
As a result, it has become the market leader in Canada for car wash payment and POS combinations. Some of the prime benefactors are commercial truck washes like an eight-bay facility in Calgary that — after presenting a charge card — allows the driver to clean his vehicle and leave, knowing that the charge will be tracked back to his employer while he goes quickly on his way.
Wiz-Tec has many clients off-reserve and is currently in a marketing campaign to broaden its reach to bring its payment solutions to more gas retailers across the country.
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Olds College and Cervus Equipment signed a Memorandum of Agreement to collaborate in the operation of the college’s Smart Farm.
The five-year agreement resulted in a full fleet of John Deere equipment being used to support the management of the farm during the 2020 growing season, including seeding and harvest.
The Olds College Smart Farm is essentially a giant lab through which the college is leveraging its 2,800 acres, existing agriculture operations and applied research programming, in order to provide a product development and demonstration venue to accelerate agriculture technology and agri-food development.
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Restaurants have had to be very creative during the pandemic and one winner has been Antoinette’s Royal Afternoon Teas held weekends in the Artisan Gardens at Bow Valley Ranche — sold-out until mid-May. But Royal Affair under-the-dome dinners are still available from Wednesday to Sunday; great food in your own bubble.
David Parker appears regularly in the Herald. Read his columns online at calgaryherald.com/business. He can be reached at 403-830-4622 or by email at info@davidparker.ca.
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