Electronic PaymentsBlog

December 15, 2025

IMPACT25 Recap: What You Missed at EPI’s Biggest Event

Electronic Payments Team

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IMPACT25 brought EPI partners together for a full look at what’s next: new products, real-world strategy, and the practical moves agents and ISOs can make to stay competitive as the market shifts toward software-first experiences.

From an early look at TableTurn® POS to a strong spotlight on Handpoint and how to win with an ISV strategy, the event delivered a clear theme: control the workflow, reduce friction, and help merchants run better day to day.

This recap highlights the biggest moments and takeaways—from live demos and breakout sessions to candid peer discussions and founder and CEO Michael Nardy’s keynote on perseverance, partnership, and building products that make partners stronger.

TableTurn® Debuts as the Answer to the Hospitality Vertical

This year’s IMPACT marked the first major discussion of EPI’s TableTurn POS.

Throughout presentations, panels, and Q&As, attendees saw firsthand how TableTurn POS offers a fresh restaurant management platform built for the hospitality vertical.

Live Preview

During a live demo, we walked through the core TableTurn features your merchants will love:

• Quick ordering, order naming/tagging, and customizable hot buttons
• Modifier screen, with required vs. optional modifiers, combos/specials, and flexible tender setup
• Special pizza ordering features to capture unique customization needs
• Online ordering fully synced with your POS
• Customer-facing display with promos, tip options, and text receipts
• Online portal with intuitive menu builder
• Modern tableside checkout and payment—thanks to mobile devices powered by Handpoint
• Offline functionality that keeps restaurants running even during outages

The biggest takeaway was how customizable TableTurn is, with features that can be configured to match how a restaurant actually runs. The interface keeps key menus visible without getting buried in dropdowns, and it’s designed to help servers move fast without sacrificing accuracy.

Breakout Session: QSR and Pizza

The quick service and pizza breakout zeroed in on speed, guided ordering, and workflows built for high-volume environments.

For QSR, the session leaned into operational control: role-based access that keeps teams in the right lanes, quick-entry patterns that reduce checkout time, and practical tools for busy shifts—like repeatable actions for common tickets, pre-built combos and specials, and on-the-fly adjustments managers can make without disrupting the line.

For pizza, the emphasis was on structured ordering that protects accuracy and ticket size. TableTurn’s pizza builder routes users through the right modifier steps (like sauce), supports build-your-own by whole, half, or quarters, and adds suggested-ordering upsell prompts (think sides like breadsticks), with discount options that can be customized for common use cases.

Panel Perspective: Real-World Confidence

This year’s panel included EPI partners who have participated in our TableTurn beta programs, specialize in high-touch boarding experiences, and proven success building top-performing POS portfolios across key verticals.

We heard that TableTurn feels familiar to staff, installs cleanly, and reduces the “daily friction” of other systems. From a user point of view, TableTurn stacked up feature-for-feature against well-known competitors (but without the burden of high ongoing support fees). One participant described running TableTurn side by side with Toast, finding that employees immediately took to TableTurn, and shut off Toast the same night.

Development & Progress

TableTurn’s development started in November 2021, with its first installation in January 2025 at The Bell and Anchor, an upscale Long Island restaurant. More installs followed throughout the year, including a Fresno restaurant (April), The Beacon (May), Goldberg’s Bagels (June), and Fēniks (September), plus external betas beginning Summer 2025 with additional operators.

With a successful beta program well underway, TableTurn is moving closer to general release. The EPI team is excited to showcase TableTurn with all of our partners at our upcoming events; stay tuned to hear more!

Handpoint and ISV Strategies Take Center Stage

Handpoint, the newest member of the EPI family, was a standout highlight of IMPACT. Handpoint leader—Jody Muehlegger, COO—took the stage to share Handpoint’s capabilities and share a meaningful message: the market is changing, and software is what’s driving it.

Software-Driven Sales

The largest SMB channel is now Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and many traditional providers are losing meaningful share as merchants choose software-first experiences that bundle payments by default.

The takeaway for ISOs: you’re no longer just competing against other processors—you’re competing against software companies, and they’re winning your merchants by owning the workflow. So it’s time to partner and build bridges to where merchant demand is headed.

“Every time there’s a massive shift, there’s massive opportunity.” – Jody Muehlegger, Handpoint COO

ISV Strategies: How to Win with Handpoint

Handpoint is a card-present EMV payment tool; with Handpoint, merchants can integrate third-party payment terminals with their POS, creating a smoother checkout and keeping everything in sync. By driving demand and helping merchants adopt the solution, agents and ISOs can turn the integration into more deals and longer-lasting residuals.

“Why choose Handpoint? Every business runs on software, which means you’re competing with software companies that are winning your customers. Handpoint gives you the same power to compete — and win them back.”– Jody Muehlegger, Handpoint COO

IMPACT attendees received these tips on how to protect and grow their business with an ISV strategy:

• Step 1: Place your branded SmartPOS app on everyday terminals so merchants see your brand while you deliver easy activation, remote support, and secure, full-featured payments.
• Step 2: When they’re ready, upgrade merchants from standalone to integrated POS on Android without a rip-and-replace (including options like TableTurn that integrate with Handpoint).
• Step 3: Grow faster by partnering with ISVs using Handpoint APIs/SDKs to scale secure integrations, enable modern payment flows, and unlock real-time data visibility.

ISVs want modern integrated experiences, but they also need merchant-side execution—activations, support, distribution, and industry knowledge. Your leverage is the combination of platform, residual potential, and the real expertise and relationships that software can’t replicate.

“Change isn’t the end of what you do. It’s your upgrade.” – Jody Muehlegger, Handpoint COO

Peer Growth: Agents Discuss Strategy and Real Challenges

At the roundtable session, The Agent Experience Unfiltered, agents spoke about retention: what works, and where they’ve had losses. This discussion ultimately led us to three principles for agents:

• Merchants leave when tech isn’t right (or training wasn’t). Placement starts with asking better questions.
• Merchants leave when the agent disappears. Visibility, responsiveness, and simple gestures matter.
• Merchants leave when a new offer shows up. The best defense is education—helping merchants evaluate offers beyond price and focusing on technology and service.

Participants swapped practical tactics for success, like setting clear emergency response expectations, giving merchants a simple one-page contact/login reference to reduce frustration, and building referral engines through trusted communities and small loyalty gestures that keep your name top of mind.

Other Sessions Focus on Reduced Friction & Fast Scaling

Beyond the headline announcements, several packed sessions reinforced a key message: partners thrive when selling and support are simpler, and platforms help protect margins.

• Making Sense of Level 2/3 Interchange & Visa’s CEDP Program: Level 2/Level 3 data quality is becoming a real lever, not a checkbox, as validation and classification increasingly influence interchange outcomes. For agents, that means prioritizing the right POS/terminal configuration and invoice-accurate details (tax, PO data, and more) over “filler” inputs—turning stronger data discipline into a practical advantage that helps protect economics and reduce downstream issues.
• Visa’s Evolving Role in Commerce: Innovation, Compliance & the Future: Electronic Payments and Visa leadership delivered an energizing look at what’s next in commerce, exploring Visa’s bold vision on stablecoin for cross-border, high-value transactions, what the Visa/Mastercard settlement really means for merchants, and why clean commercial card data is becoming mission-critical under the Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP). They also unpacked how AI will transform shopping, automation, and fraud defense, shaping how consumers and merchants interact. Above all, they discussed Visa’s evolution from a card network into a dynamic “network of networks” built to power faster, safer, smarter transactions worldwide.
• What’s New with Valor PayTech: Valor’s update centered on a “single pane of glass” approach to omnichannel, bringing ecommerce, in-store, and mobile payments into one centralized portal that’s easier to sell, demo, and support. Practical roadmap additions like Lite POS/Lite Inventory, modifiers, enhanced mobile invoicing, and multi-MID—paired with expanded training and partner resources—were positioned as straightforward ways to reduce friction from onboarding through day-to-day management.
• Under the Hood with Dejavoo: Dejavoo dove right into their expanding payment ecosystem, highlighting omnichannel tools, Tap to Pay, alternative payments, and the iPOSpays gateway with strong reporting, security, and QuickBooks® integration. They also showcased SPIn—Dejavoo’s one-and-done cloud-based integration tool that streamlines ISV connections—and a growing hardware lineup across the QD and P Series, plus compact and vending-ready options. These advancements reinforce Dejavoo’s focus on innovation, reliability, and partner success. See the Dejavoo presentation deck.
• Make an Impact with Clover: Clover leaned into speed-to-live and operational value, with updates to get merchants up and running faster and stay engaged longer. Tools like AI Menu Builder streamline restaurant setup, while broader enhancements across payroll/employee tools, loyalty, and refreshed SaaS packaging reinforce Clover’s role as a software-led platform built for vertical depth and scalable commerce.

Michael Nardy Talks about What’s Next

EPI founder and CEO Michael Nardy focused on EPI’s strategy in a market that’s moving fast:

1. Treat our agents and ISOs as true partners
2. Remove friction for agents
3. Keep building products that increase portfolio control and “stickiness.” 

Michael spoke about building EPI from a college startup into what it is today by treating setbacks as fuel instead of stop signs. While many doors closed, each setback taught him a valuable lesson in risk: keep moving, stay honest when things get difficult, and don’t mistake a “no” from the market as the end of the road.

“When someone puts a roadblock in front of you, that doesn’t mean it’s a stop sign. You can persevere.” – Michael Nardy, EPI Founder & CEO

Michael’s message was that long-term growth comes from perseverance + partnership. For EPI, progress means continuous improvement and investing in products that make partners stronger—not dependent. 

As EPI looks toward continued expansion and more platform development—like Cygma, TableTurn, and Handpoint—Michael made a clear commitment to staying hands-on with partner support as the ecosystem grows. EPI is leaning into product depth so partners can compete with modern, integrated solutions—and preserve the long-term value of their portfolios.

“If you’re going to be fanatical about your business, then we’re going to give the same back to you.” – Michael Nardy, EPI Founder & CEO

IMPACT in Review

IMPACT25 reinforced a clear direction for the channel: growth belongs to partners who lean into software-led strategy, reduce friction for merchants, and build stickier portfolios with modern, integrated solutions.

Want to dive deeper? Explore all available IMPACT25 decks (PDF format) here: IMPACT25 Presentations & Resources.

IMPACT26: Save the Date

We’re already planning next year’s event—this time in Puerto Rico, November 8–12, 2026. Keep an eye on our social media channels and the IMPACT website for updates.

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