June 2019

Page B6 JUNE 2019 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on Funeral Directors Resource Partners with First American Payment Systems By Mike Jamar er side of town. I didn’t know this at the time. Maybe it was my first car that introduced me to this reality. My birthday is in early August, right before school starts, and I anticipated that my parents and I would be picking out my car on my birthday. I was half right, there was a car picked out, unfortunately I had no say in it and let’s just say it was not the one I would have ever picked out for myself. The cruel irony of it was that my dad bought a nice pickup truck and I was to be the proud driver of his previous car. Dad was not exactly a car guy, he thought cars were simply a means to get oneself from point A to point B, so what exactly the car looked like or ran like, wasn’t impor- tant to him. Why this was, I couldn’t fathom. Let me say, I was not a fan of his car when he had it, and now all of a sudden it was to be mine. I don’t remember my reaction, but I don’t remember it was a pleasant one. So, my first car turned out to be a 1960 Rambler Amer- ican. I am not going out on a limb here when I say that most people reading this column probably don’t know what that car looks like. I don’t think I have seen one on the streets in 40 years, and probably for good reason. The car was a smallish, very round, very ugly car, with a flat- head six and three on the column. No matter how high I revved the engine and then dropped the clutch, I couldn’t get a scratch. But that ended up being alright, since I didn’t want to draw more attention to myself than was necessary. The fact that it was a roundish Rambler American was bad enough, but add that it was also station wagon, and Mike Jamar is founder and co-owner of Advanced Integration Technology. Mike has been working with computers since the early 80s and started Advanced Integration in 1994. Advanced Integration specializes in Internet inventories designed for specialty vehicles and equipment. HearseHub was created through a collaboration between Advanced Integration and Nomis Publications, and is now in its fifth year of service. HearseHub brings together funeral vehicles from a number of dealerships that specialize in high quality funeral vehicles. HearseHub offers funeral directors a large, and easy to shop inventory, of funeral vehicles. You can reach him at Mike@AITAdvantage.com. www.nomispublications.com Funeral Home & Cemetery News Contributors share insights and exchange ideas. B logs suddenly my driving situation was so much worse. And to add insult to injury, it was painted fire engine red, and it shined! It didn’t matter where I was, it was nearly impossible to miss me and my car. I can still hear the laughter of my friends and the jeers from those that weren’t quite my friends. It was a very long 10th grade year and as soon as I saved up enough money, I bought a different car. It has taken me almost 50 years, but I can now look back and only slightly cringe when I think of driving around in my bright red, roundish, ugly, Rambler American. Do you have a story about your first car? Is so please send it to me at hearsehub@gmail.com. I subscribe to several car magazines and in almost every monthly issue a column will be written about someone’s first car. As you can imagine it always seems their first car was something fast, or exotic, or classic, and in some cases all three. In my small town we had a junior high that was 7th through 9th grade, and high school was 10th through 12th. The high school was a good distance away from our house and the plan was that I would drive to high school when that time came. So, when my 9th grade year rolled around, my friends and I started fantasiz- ing about our first cars. We all knew many of the high schoolers and would watch them cruise around town in their Mustangs, Camaros, GTO, Chargers. We all expected to do the same. Some of my friends ended up doing just that, but I was not quite so lucky. So, this is the story about my first car, or my preferred title “Why Did My Parents Hate Me So Much”. We were not a rich family and I grew up on the poor- Do you remember your first car? Solid Gold Chains offered at New Memorials Direct FORT WORTH,TX— Funeral Direc- tor’s Resource, one of the most trust- ed names in the funeral industry, has appointed First American Payment Systems as its exclusive payment technology partner of record. As a re- sult of the partnership, the company’s flagship funeral management software platform – Osiris – now gives its end users the ability to accept and process payments securely and easily. After evaluating other processors, Kris Gray, Funeral Director’s Re- source chief operating officer, said their decision to go with First Ameri- can came down to one critical aspect. “Everyone wants to talk about sim- ple integrations, but few can deliver on it,” Gray said. “First American not only did that – inside of 24 hours, by the way – but they also backed it up with payment options that are in high demand with funeral directors.” “First American’s recurring payment functionality was another biggie for us,” he continued. “Funeral directors need recurring payments options for pre-need funeral and cemetery plans to simplify accounting processes. For us, this was about much more than simply adding payments acceptance.” Funeral directors using Osiris had another major item on their wish lists – the ability to store customer cred- it card data and to catch when a card was about to expire. Without it, they would be spending a lot of unneces- sary time finding out why certain pay- ments were declined and working to obtain updated methods of payment. First American’s account updater tech- nology checked every box. It securely stores credit card data and verifies that the information is still valid before run- ning a transaction. Moreover, the ac- count updater program proactively updates the payment record any time credit card information is changed. “It is one of the features our Osiris user base is most excited about,” Gray said. “This is a reputation-based busi- ness; this feature can help funeral di- rectors collect monies owed while also helping them be respectful of families during a sensitive time.” “This partnership is one of the best examples of what can happen when ISVs consider the value of integrat- ed payments technology,” said Bill Lodes, First American’s executive vice president of business development and strategy. “Instead of viewing pay- ments as a transactional function alone, Osiris is focusing on how they can deliver loyalty building value to the families they serve. That includes providing a top-notch payments expe- rience, with features that are differen- tiating them in the marketplace.” Technology driven payments First American Payment Systems, L.P., head- quartered in Fort Worth, TX is a global payment technology company providing leading integrated payment solutions to more than 220,000 merchants through- out the Americas, Europe, and Austra- lia. First American provides partner and merchant payment solutions that in- clude a robust set of in-store, online and mobile payment solutions paired with the latest in payment security, across a wide range of verticals. Backed by award-winning customer service, mer- chants and partners have access to their United States based customer call center 24/7. For more information, including reseller incentives, email Chris Yurko, director of business development, at chris.yurko@ first-american.net or visit www.first -american.net. GIG HARBOR, WA— After numerous customer requests, New Memorials Direct is excited to announce that they now offer 14K solid gold chain options for their pen- dants. These new chains are available in either white or yellow gold and come in two select styles: diamond-cut rope or box. Each style is available in the following vari- ety of lengths: 16”, 18”, 20”, or 24”. The box style has a thickness of 1.0 mm while the diamond-cut rope style has a thickness of 1.5mm. Each chain features a sturdy lobster style clasp to prevent any accidental opening or breakage. These new chains are designed to be worn with any of New Memorials Direct’s solid gold jewelry items. Pricing for each chain will be based on the actual gram weight and can be viewed on the website when logged into a wholesale account. To obtain a wholesale account or to learn more about their products, visit www.NewMemorialsDirect.com or call 1-877-995-8767. 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