Eight Must-haves When Choosing a Cards and Payments Services Provider

  • Paul Sweetingham, Global Solutioning Leader at DXC Technology

  • 17.08.2018 12:15 pm
  • payments

There are so many factors to consider when a business starts looking for a cards and payment services provider.  The new kids on the block, fintechs and start-ups, are challenging the norm, bringing technological customer expectations with them – consumers what the latest tech. Alongside this, regional markets are shifting, and regulations continue to bring about massive change in how we do business. So, what do you really need to look out for when deciding who will deliver and manage your cards and payments?

As a starting point, any partner should be providing an end-to-end solution that’s built on an open architecture. This provides greater scalability, agility and flexibility compared with traditional infrastructure with bespoke interfaces. Open architectures will meet industry standards and ease integration with other platforms and help you avoid proprietary development. But you’ll want to look for more features and functionality.

Eight partner must-haves

While there are myriad factors that will affect your decision on which cards and payments service provider, the following eight points are my absolute must-haves:

Client-centric approach: No two operations are alike, hence the cards and payment services you choose should be designed with your operations and specific needs in mind. Look for a partner who designs your solution with you. One way to ensure a design is focused on your needs is to see if the provider offers client-centric design workshops that pair the provider’s solution architects with the right stakeholders in your organisation. This guarantees satisfaction and a great customer experience.

A digital core: A digital core processing engine with a web service architecture should be the foundation for your cards and payment solutions, as well as any traditional card-based and  new payment instruments, such as mobile, wearables and biometrics. Having a digital core allows you to link any type of payment instrument securely to a transactional account and provides an omni-channel service to your customers while reducing operational costs.

Integrated applications: Having a suite of value added applications provides additional functionality with pre-proven integration in place. This removes any new build costs and integration testing provides an innovation roadmap, delivering economies of scales.

Global to local: Ideally, the service provider you work with has services that can support the compliance and customisation requirements of global, regional and local operations. The cards and payments industry is full of local service providers who are capable of delivering services to meet local geographies. All too often these providers struggle to scale, can’t access new markets, and don’t have operating models or price points amenable to global operations. This is vital for those companies that operate globally.

Old World to New World: This point is subtle but important. Can the service provider work with what you have today and help you progress towards a modern, more secure digital platform? In other words, can the provider manage any legacy cards and payment operations while guiding the transformation to a digital operating model? And can they do so at the pace and with the risk profile that’s right for your business? This is a crucial point if companies want to stay relevant for their customers.

Change freedom: For most organisations, bringing in a service provider doesn’t mean you want to relinquish control. Gone are the days when a platform provider forces your business to make a change, often at the worst possible time. Ask potential providers how they handle change requests and upgrades and see if their solution suits your operation. in the best-case scenario the majority of changes should be implemented via parameterisation, removing the need for IT code development.

The right staff: Look for a provider that specialises in technology and operations within cards and payments. That means technology + people + process + governance across the value chain.  Remember, good people means good service. What kind of training do the provider’s employees receive? What level of experience is on their team? This should help to ensure your customers remain loyal to you.

Intelligence. Automation. Robots: In 2018, cards and payment providers need to be offering the latest technologies designed to deliver services that continuously improve, reduce costs and create new opportunities. That means they need to incorporate intelligent automation, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI)to examine data from both inside out (IT/business) and outside in (customer viewpoint). They also should include robotics process automation (RPA) services to stay abreast of the latest offerings.

There has been a huge amount of change in the cards and payments industry recently, meaning your old parameters for choosing a provider may have shifted dramatically. These pointers I have outlined above should help businesses to cut through the noise, and really focus on what is important when choosing a trusted partner.

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