Reaching retirement, Claudio Carli reflects on Ingenico Italia’s transformation over the last two decades
Ingenico Italia's journey to becoming an industry leader is woven with the experiences of Claudio Carli who has been an integral part of the company for an impressive 22 years. From spearheading technical support to driving new marketing initiatives, Claudio shares his reflections on the milestones, challenges, and the transformative moments that defined his career at Ingenico Italia. As he reaches retirement, what are his biggest achievements and thoughts?
Claudio, tell us about your experience at Ingenico
I joined Ingenico Italia 22 years ago when Ingenico Italia had just been established. The company was forming a new structure, employing experts with new ideas who, over time, led the company’s growth to become "Number 1" in the industry in Italy.
My role has always been to support sales and marketing activities. Thanks to my technical background and relationship skills, I started immediately collaborating with Sales Account Managers to support them technically in their offers and during their meetings with customers. At the same time, I began to collaborate directly with the General Manager in the marketing promotion of the company.
Since then, many successes have followed, made possible by our great products and innovative technologies, and by the development of solutions in line with customer requests and growing market needs.
What are your greatest achievements at Ingenico?
First solution based on contactless cards
I remember in 2001, Ingenico Italia was the first POS supplier to introduce smart card management when the "Chip & PIN" was still unknown in Italy. Similarly, in 2007, we were the first to promote the "Tap & Go" solution in Italy with contactless cards (the launch of the first contactless service, carried out in collaboration with major market players, was very exciting!).
Introduction of mPOS solutions
Our design capabilities also led us, in 2014, to successfully introduce the first mPOS solutions in Italy, which allowed our banking customers to provide a simple and cost-effective acceptance solution to a new segment of customers, that is small and micro-merchants. This included media coverage led by a major bank, and advertisements in the press and on TV.
First "Open Payments" solutions
Moreover, I want to recall the effectiveness of the great promotional work that Ingenico Italia carried out in the years 2016-17 among public transport operators, to convince them to experiment with the first "Open Payments" solutions (on-board payments by credit card). These are now widespread in all the major Italian cities (from Milan to Rome, Naples to Venice, and Genoa to Bari) and have changed the habits of many citizens.
Of course, over the many years I worked at Ingenico there were some challenging situations. However, thanks to the high quality of our devices and the strong relationships with our major customers, we have always been able to overcome those difficult moments.
Today, I am very excited about some of our new advanced technologies, such as Android and SoftPOS. In particular, I believe that our SoftPOS solution (Phos by Ingenico) will lead the company to confirm its leadership position as an innovative payment and acceptance solutions provider in all the merchant segments.
What was Ingenico for you?
Ingenico Italia has been my home for a long period of my life – throughout the years of my “professional maturity".
To me, Ingenico was not just a place of work, it was a place of friendship and emotions, populated by many people who I appreciated and respected. The collaborators who grew (professionally) up with me were also very dear to me and I hope they appreciated my teachings.
The workplace itself, my "office", has become a part of me over the years. I have never loved smart-working, preferring to concentrate and dedicate myself to the company sitting at my desk on the 15th floor in the Milan head office, where everybody can meet me anytime!
Ingenico will always remain in my heart, as will all the colleagues I worked with. I will follow their evolution even after my retirement: it will be difficult to detach myself from everyone! I hope my wife will understand my “second love” and she won't be too jealous!
