The quadrilingual Sonny Su makes an apt addition to the TransAct Technologies Inc team as the company becomes increasingly globalised
TransAct has been on a tear in international markets. In the three months ended 30th June, international sales of its printers—which specifically do not include sales made to domestic distributors or other domestic customers who may in turn ship those printers to international destinations— surged 131.4% year-on-year to US$5.0 million, accounting for 30.6% of the company’s total sales for the quarter. International sales had only accounted for 15.3% of total sales in the same quarter of 2009.
“Due to TransAct’s success in Asia, we’ve had to further expand our local office and workforce,” comments Andrew Hanley, the company’s Vice President-International Sales. Two months ago, Mr Hanley hired Sonny Su as Technical Sales Manager for Asia and Australia. Dr Su’s role will not only be to offer day-to-day support to the casinos, but “we also have a number of new manufacturers coming on that are building machines for around the world, and Sonny is a big part of the integration process,” adds Mr Hanley.
Dr Su was a veritable find—not only does he hold degrees in electronic engineering and a doctorate in image processing, but he also speaks the key Chinese dialects of Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien, in addition to English. This makes him especially well positioned to not only work with and train technicians at casinos in Macau, but also to accomplish the vital task of integrating TransAct’s printers with new equipment manufacturers, who are predominantly based in Taiwan and mainland China. Cantonese is the dominant language in Macau, Hong Kong and the key manufacturing base of Southern China, while Mandarin is spoken more widely across China and Taiwan. Hokkien is prevalent in Taiwan—around 70% of Taiwan’s population speak it—and is also commonly used in the emerging casino market of Singapore.
Born in mainland China and having pursued his higher education in England, Dr Su has the cultural sensitivity to work well with clients in both the Greater China region and farther afield in Australia, where his jurisdiction extends. Previously, Dr Su worked for IGT in Macau for four years as a Systems Engineer, while at the same time lecturing part-time about Information Systems & Management Systems Technology at the Asian International University (Macau).
TransAct’s success in Asia has been largely driven by the famously reliable and robust Epic 950®—its negligible 0.025% failure rate means more of Dr Su’s time can be devoted to the more enriching tasks of training and integration, rather than making repairs. Not only is the printer easy to service and use, but it is also decidedly ‘green,’ featuring a paper low sensor that can be set to activate when only five to seven tickets are remaining, whereas competing products can signal ‘ticket low’ with as many as fifty left in the stack. With tickets usually being supplied in stacks of 200, those competing products can result in wastage of 20%—10 times more than the Epic 950.
TransAct displayed its next generation printer, the Epic Ten80™, at G2E Asia, held at the Venetian Macao in June. The Epic Ten80 is up to 30% faster than the Epic 950 and offers additional flexibility by having four different types of connectors built in—two serial and two USB. The Ten80 was first released to the original equipment manufacturers in June, and is currently being integrated into their products and compliance tested, with the expectation it will be available to casinos in the autumn. Hot on the heels of the Ten80, TransAct is planning yet another new product launch at G2E Vegas in November, which could spur further sales growth around the world.
In addition to Asia, South America will be another key driver of international sales, with TransAct having recently appointed a Latin American distributor with offices across the continent. According to Mr Hanley, “we’ve also been very fortunate to get some success with some casinos and manufacturers over there [in South America]. That region is a big part of our plans going forward as well.”
