Castles expands Smart Volution support for Register

Castles Technology has expanded its partnership with Smart Volution to provide full helpdesk support for Smart Volution Register. The agreement gives merchants and resellers a single point of contact for payment hardware, payment applications and EPOS software.

The move builds on a relationship of more than four years. Under the expanded arrangement, Castles will support Smart Volution's Android-based Register software alongside its own payment terminals and the CastlePay payment platform.

For merchants and resellers using the combined offer, the main change is operational. Instead of dealing with separate suppliers for terminal hardware, payment software and EPOS software, users can now raise issues through a single support channel.

Castles said its helpdesk team has been fully trained on Register. The companies have also introduced a batch-loading process to onboard merchants to the software automatically, with the aim of simplifying larger deployments.

The arrangement covers Castles' Android terminal range, including the S1F4 device. It applies to both direct-on-device and semi-integrated setups, giving partners flexibility in how they deploy payment and EPOS functions.

The broader support model reflects a wider shift towards integrated payment and point-of-sale packages, particularly in retail and hospitality. For resellers, reducing the number of providers involved in installation and support can cut complexity when systems are rolled out across multiple merchant locations.

Smart Volution's Register software is used by partners serving businesses in hospitality, retail and payments. Castles already provides technical support for the integration of Register with CastlePay, allowing Smart Volution partners to access multiple acquirers through the same payment platform.

Support model

The latest expansion is intended to remove vendor hand-offs when technical problems arise. That can be a significant issue in payment environments, where merchants may need to work out whether a fault sits with the terminal, the payment application or the EPOS layer before it reaches the right support team.

By training one helpdesk across all three parts of the system, Castles and Smart Volution are aiming to shorten that process. The addition of automated merchant onboarding also suggests the partners are targeting larger reseller networks and wider estate rollouts.

Justin Coward, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Volution, described the support arrangement as unusual in the market.

“Castles have been an excellent partner. For a hardware manufacturer to support not only the hardware and payment application but also the EPOS software is a unique offering, and the quality of their helpdesk has really stood out. That matters more and more as our deployments scale. The Castles S1F4 is also a perfect, cost-effective device for semi-integrated deployments, cutting typical hardware costs by around 70%,” said Coward.

The reference to lower hardware costs highlights another market pressure. Resellers and merchants deploying Android-based payment and EPOS systems often need to balance upfront terminal spending against the benefits of tighter software integration and a simpler estate.

In semi-integrated environments, the payment terminal and EPOS software remain linked while operating as separate elements. That approach can appeal to merchants looking for a lower-cost route to integrated payments without moving every function onto a single device.

Rollout focus

The new batch-loading mechanism is designed to support scale. Rather than setting up each merchant individually, partners can configure and deploy Register in larger volumes, which may help acquirers, resellers and software partners managing multi-site merchant estates.

The support extension is available to Smart Volution partners deploying Register on Castles terminals. Castles has built its business around Android-based payment acceptance products, serving banks, merchants, payment service providers and software partners across several regions.

Jean-Philippe Niedergang, Acting Group Chief Executive Officer and Chief Executive Officer EMEA, Pacific & LATAM at Castles Technology, said the aim was to simplify support for partners.

“Merchants don't want to know which vendor owns which layer but want one number to call. By supporting Register alongside our terminals and payment application, we're giving Smart Volution's partners a complete Android solution, and automated onboarding means they can roll it out fast. We look forward to supporting the next phase of growth across their network,” said Niedergang.