Salt Lake City-based Spark Solutions Group LLC has acquired distribution rights for the Spokane market for Maryland-based Micros System Inc.’s point-of-sale products, including touch-screen computers that restaurants use to track orders, cash registers, and back-office software.

Spark Solutions purchased the distribution territory from DirectPOS, a division of Meridian, Idaho-based Abacus Credit Card Solutions. Spark Solutions also acquired the Micros Boise market from DirectPOS.

Jason Cowan, president of Spark Solutions, says the company began the process of acquiring rights to the territories last September. 

Cowan says both markets previously had multiple authorized Micros dealers. Spark Solutions worked with Micros to acquire the distribution rights in the two markets, Cowan says. He declined to disclose the terms of the transaction.

Spark Solutions supplies point-of-sale systems to businesses in the hospitality industry, such as restaurants, resorts, casinos, and hospitals. It also sells credit card processing systems, gift cards, paper, ribbon supplies, and support services. 

“It was a good opportunity for us from the standpoint that the previous company wasn’t hospitality focused,” Cowan says. “We realized we could provide a more dedicated focus to the restaurant market.”

He estimates there are about 300 Micros clients in the Spokane area, and the company is focused on growing its service to the region, which includes Coeur d’Alene. Spark Solutions will be providing 24/7 help desk customer service, Cowan says. 

“We want to work closely with the restaurateurs and the Washington Restaurants Association to make sure we’re providing good value,” he says. 

Spark Solutions has been operating in Salt Lake City for 40 years, Cowan says. The company started as Cowan’s Retail Systems, and then was rebranded in 2011 to Cowan’s Restaurant Services, before finally becoming Spark Solutions Group in 2013. 

Cowan says the company retained two salespeople in the Spokane area who already were selling MICROS systems here, and is hoping to add at least two more. 

“We have employees in Spokane, and we rely on them to maintain the relationships with the customers,” he says. “They’ll get additional support from the team in Salt Lake City.”

Micros Systems also is an international supplier of other technologies besides POS systems, such as property management, reservations, customer information, and loss-preventions systems.