What should I look for when choosing a POS lifecycle services partner?

Most teams end up looking at a few core competencies. First is scope, can the provider actually handle the full lifecycle, or just pieces of it? Then coverage, do they have technician density, or are they relying heavily on third parties? Inventory is another one, especially if you’re dealing with older or hard-to-find models. And finally, experience. Retail, grocery, QSR, and hospitality all operate differently, so that background matters more than it might seem.

At IW Technologies, those areas tend to come together. The work spans the full lifecycle from procurement and staging to deployment, low-voltage cabling, ongoing support, and end-of-life disposition. Most of it runs through our 240,000+ square foot facility in Elgin, where staging, kitting, repair, and depot operations are all handled in one place. That setup also supports a large inventory position, with over 18,000 pallet locations across new and refurbished hardware.

On the service side, coverage comes from a network of more than 1,850 field technicians, which allows for response within about 100 miles of most U.S. locations. And with experience across retail, grocery, QSR, convenience, and hospitality going back to 1976, there’s a level of familiarity with how these environments operate.

That kind of depth tends to matter most when things aren’t straightforward…large rollouts, tight timelines, or when something goes off plan and needs to be fixed quickly.