The 10 Most Promising Payment and Card Solution Providers, 2020

SEPTEMBER 2020

REDEFINING THE BENCHMARKS OF ONLINE AND MOBILE PAYMENT

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Leaders Viewpoint Tech Trends in the Financial Sector

Tech Insights Emerging Technology and Business Environment

Robust Networks Accelerator for digital transformation

THE 10 MOST PROMISING

PAYMENT AND CARD SOLUTION PROVIDERS

EDITOR’S NOTE The Future of Digital Payments

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he US has always been the 1 mover in most services and products.

From the me the con nent came on its own, its being a mecca for unabashed spending meant that anything new was accepted with open arms here. In most cases, the “new” did mean something that brought added value and saved me, money and made life easy for its users.

Something similar is the case with payments or for that ma er the en re banking industry in general. What was ll yesterday the preserve of big banks with huge office on important streets-corners, is slowly tricking down to en es in varied domains including telecom, fintech and pure Informa on technology. What gives the la er an edge over tradi onal banks and financial intermediaries is the use of advance so ware whose feature keeps changing faster than the blink of an eye.

Digi za on and the internet have been loyal servants in this drive. If you think you have seen all there is in the domain of digital payments, you could be very, very mistaken. Because in a short while (as short as 6 months), changes are expected in this field which today may seem very, very far-fetched.

Social media suppor ng payment gateways If you can discuss your most in mate of details on social media, why not transact business which includes sending and receiving money? Novelty besides, it helps buyers get what they want right where they are without the need to wait and browse. Gen Z being prolific smartphone and tech users, this is one service whose usage can be expected to grow poten ally in the days to come. Services such as PayPal, Venmo, Snapcash, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and Twi er Buy are of great help when transac ng business on social media with user’s interests remaining quite secure.

Unified apps for all money-related ma ers be it banking, money transfer, credit-cards, or loans In a way Google Wallet, Apple Pay and Amazon Pay already provide this service where mul ple banks can be registered on the app for payments and receipts. In the present these apps help process fairly simple daily transac ons. In days to come, and with Gen Z’s fixa on with saving on me and hassles, there is a tread towards unifying all financial transac ons, be it credit or debit, receipt or payment, loans, mortgages and investment through a single app. Research shows that a quarter of mobile wallet users think likewise, and would want their exis ng service provider to help do so. This though is making banks wary, given that the consumer has more accessed to the intermediary app-provider than the bank itself. Imagina on, and the right resources being the only criterion, it will not be long before another en ty (or even one from those men oned) just parks an app which does the job of banks and other financial and investment intermediaries. The consumer would certainly be KING!

The 10 Most Promising

Solution Providers Networking even in the payment domain between banks, intermediaries and fintech companies!

At the start of the millennium, banks wanted to go the whole way in ge ng clients and retaining them. Tech, connec vity, data-storage, and security, they did everything. Till they realized that they could not outpace specialized en es such as fintech companies, wallets, and the likes when it came to providing the impact which typically disrupters were good at.

Today they are doing the next best thing! Tying up with the disrupters to understand and streamline alternate forms of moving money and sa sfying customer needs. Even as late as the mid-2000s, most banks were not sure of the outcome of P2P ini a ves and even tried to build rivals to Paypal. That was then. Today en es like Zelle has with over two dozen partners en es providing everything from assistance in money transfers to knowing balances and do so for over a thousand banks in the US! Another such alliance is in the offing. Called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, it shall bridge technology, finance, enterprise, and the government to support the use of Ethereum, a blockchain pla orm which is the keel to lay out most smart inviolable smart contracts.

Tokeniza on of important financial details What if the most important details to accesses one’s financial assets are not the usual set of numerals and alphabets but a string like a so ware code which differs from site to site and situa on to situa on? A hacker could be le dumb fold for the longest of me! And this precisely is what EMVs are doing these days and chances are they shall do it in a big way in some me.

Called Tokeniza on, every financial asset’s accesses keys can be changed into something like so ware codes which itself can be changed at will. Using a mix of block-chain and AI, one is actual iden ty can be kept safe at a distance while le ng out only tokens to access accounts. While a great idea in itself, it may just be as confusing and s fling to those with less of pa ence and knowledge!

Why the change?

Compe on, cost, and convenience.

net. Technology on its part saw to it that while making things simple, secure and smooth, costs too would reduce as is the case with net-based transac ons where the cost of each transac ons is way lower than that through physical means.

Speaking of convenience, myriad services given to consumers to ease their pains in banking is today are leading to a situa on where consumers want more (witness Gen Z which is perennially stuck to its mobile gadgets!) of the good stuff!

In sum, the domain of digital payments is a very interes ng one where the services of tomorrow could just be the dreams of today. Between them, there would always someone with the right resources to turn a bright idea into an awesome reality!

This edi on, The 10 Most Promising Payment and Card Solu on Providers, features Prominent companies that are making their mark in the FinTech space with their innova ve solu ons and services.

On the cover of this edi on, we have, PAYMENT ASIA, which is a leading e- Payment and eCommerce company across Asia, providing the most secure and innova ve technology for online and mobile payment solu ons to local and global businesses. Over the past decade, the company has reformed its businesses by comprising digital marke ng, eCommerce consul ng and ar ficial intelligence to suit clients’ business needs.

Other significant brands that have been featured, include, 2TouchPOS, a state-of-the-art Point of Sale system developed

by Xenios LLC; Na onal Bankcard, a leading provider in credit and debit card-based payment processing solu ons for customers across the United States of America; and Payworks, which provides clients with next genera on PoS payment gateway exper se and solu ons.

We hope you enjoy reading this edi on as much as we did while cura ng it for you!

Free enterprise (albeit controlled by laws!) in banking and financial transac ons saw compe on bringing in newer and be er features to garner a bigger slice of the clientele pie. It included technologies rela ng to digi za on and access to the

Rohit Chaturvedi

Cover story

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PAYMENT ASIA Redefining the Benchmarks of Online and Mobile Payment

CXO

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Tech Insights Emerging Technology and Business Environment

Leaders Viewpoint Tech Trends in the Financial Sector

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CONTENTS Article

20

Robust Networks Accelerator for digital transformation

24 2TouchPOS

Payworks

Transforming Business Transactions

Empowering Commerce Globally

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32 National Bankcard Providing Processing Solutions Effectively

Abhishaj Sajeev Editor-in-Chief

CONTENT

Senior Editor Alan Swann Executive Editors Rohit Chaturvedi Alex Spellman

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October, 2020

COVER STORY

PAYMENT ASIA Redefining the Benchmarks of Online and Mobile Payment

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“Do not position ourselves as just a service provider with our clients but a life-time business partner!”

CoverStory

THE TEAM Payment Asia

Payment Asia provides crea ve and cosy environment to its employees.

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ased in Hong Kong, Payment Asia was established in the year 1999. It is a leading ePayment and eCommerce company across Asia, providing the most secure and innovative technology for online and mobile payment solutions to local and global businesses. Over the past decade, the company has reformed its businesses by comprising digital marketing, eCommerce consulting and artificial intelligence to suit clients' business needs.

The company's mission has always been providing eCommerce and digital advantages to clients. The vision and roadmap of Payment Asia today will be a key success to clients in their online and offline business eco-system. From generating traffic through online social media and providing a payment gateway, and by client engagement modules, such traffic is converted into sales. Payment Asia then follow-ups using data analytics/big data analytics to create loyalty and retarget audience in order to magnify the client's business potential.

Services to Rely On Payment Asia takes pride in delivering its services to its clients. It provides clients with the solutions they need to receive payments and offers them services which will improve their sales via digital and data-driven marketing. Payment Asia is dedicated to helping them achieve their goals by bringing a steady flow of targeted traffic of individuals whom are converted to leads and eventually to sales. It also offers them the strategies and techniques that will attract quality traffic which will engage a high possibility to convert.

Payment Asia provides omni-channel eCommerce and e-Payment solutions today to help clients handle not only local businesses but also international multi-level transactions. Having been in Hong Kong since early 2000, the company also acts as a bridge to help Asian clients go international while bringing international clients to the region.

The company assures that it listens to clients in order to fulďŹ l their requirements and at the same time it is being very creative and out of the box to achieve growth hand in hand with them. Payment Asia is a unique payment service provider in the market that truly has its own digital and datadriven marketing team to work closely with clients on not just payment processing but also participation in their sales and marketing.

Embracing Digitization The company recognizes that COVID-19 has changed the way of life of people around the world. Most people are advised to stay home at all times, and as a result, these people are now being more active online. Because of the practicing of social distancing, contactless payments have come up as a new option for consumers. Merchants have been encouraging their clients to use electronic payments because paper money might help the spread of the virus. When people have succeeded in trying new ways, it can be expected that once the pandemic is over, the brand-new business model will signiďŹ cantly reduce the demand for 'shop fronts' or 'physical services'. To face this post-COVID-19 world, digital transformation is critical.

All the shiny industry awards are reected in the high standard of support that Payment Asia give to their merchants.

Making a Difference In 2019, Payment Asia successfully organized a marketing campaign at the Hong Kong Book Fair, tagging along with AlipayHK and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. This event was about the experiential marketing of its brand and services through promotional events. During the Book Fair, the company showed how it uses technology to transfer traditional businesses to something more mobileoriented which gives extra value to the clients for their businesses.

In the past, people sold physical tickets, but now things are changing, and people prefer e-tickets. Thus, the company also showed that it is developing e-tickets that can be used in payment platforms. “This means you just open the payment app, then click the fill-in button and buy tickets. After you have purchased a ticket, you will be sent a coupon or a QR code for safety reasons,” the team of Payment Asia emphasizes. This service is for the public.

Hong Kong Book Fair is an experimental marke ng event of its brand and services.

But for the clients, they sign up for the service, and will be provided with a smart device for further procedures.

In the Fair, the company also showed how customers can buy a book and pay through the online payment gateway using the QR code. This avoids the trouble of carrying liquid cash.

Overcoming the Challenges To keep up with the challenges of the ever-evolving payment industry, we have started integration of artificial intelligence with the form of chat bots to solve merchant queries real-time. It will allow companies to address customer queries and concerns in a timely manner.

With the help of the data technology team, the company has offered top-notch technology services for data analytics, chat bots, data segmentation, consumer behavior analysis and data retention. With the joint use of analytics techniques and statistics, the company is

able to find new opportunities and gain new insights that help in providing meaningful information for making better business decisions.

Moreover, the company affirms that it will continue to stand next to its clients by offering them the one-stop solutions to leverage Data, Digital, Payment and AI technology into their businesses in order to emerge stronger and stand taller before the world!

The Team says The world is changing in a rapid speed today and everyday there are new startups that will stunt the world! We believe in maintaining strong team spirit not just within the company but also with our clients as part of the team; and have always encouraged an “out of the box” thinking while reminding ourselves on dedication and humbleness.

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Eric Elwell Founder & CEO

2TouchPOS Transforming Business Transactions

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he retail market has shown a tremendous growth in the following decades. This surging rate of growth has demanded an efficient management system to cater to various essential requirements. One of these requirements is a Point of Sale (POS) system which is predominantly used by the retail industry. The POS system software can handle innumerable customer based functions such as sales, returns, exchanges, customer loyalty programs, discounts, etc. This list of easily operable functions within a POS system which assists in the efficient management of retail sales has spiked its demand.

To meet this surging demand, Xenios LLC developed 2TouchPOS for bars, restaurants and nightclubs businesses in the US. 2TouchPOS is more than just a point of sale system. The software provides a business management framework and is the leading edge of data capture used for improvement strategies. 2TouchPOS has both the expertise and resources required to satisfy the customer requirements.

A Leader’s Ultimatum Any idea that was ever converted into a business, evidently

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involved the mainspring of an efficient leader. It was with Eric Elwell the Founder and CEO of Xenios LLC that the idea for 2TouchPOS Software began. Eric brought together a dynamic team to influence the way the restaurant industry handles day to day operations. A former real estate investor and mortgage broker, Eric left the housing industry and became a business consultant in 2002. After calling on businesses for several months and gaining extensive training in business process improvement, he pieced together a commonality between requirement and provision.

He focused on revolutionizing the business landscape for restaurant, bar, and nightclub owners.

Eric plans to achieve this feat with a Point of Sale Technology that can tie transactions to a comprehensive dashboard providing an improved method for monetary management and business visualization. Armed with proven data from actual results, Eric graphically demonstrates the impact that this progressive technology can have on the bottom line.

hospitality and payments industries through the course of time.

The Versatile Software Xenios offers 2TouchPOS Software as a service. The package not only provides the software but a custom menu programing and installation services. The service division offers learning platforms including remote access training with a technician, live support, next day Q&A, telephone support and menu engineering, and YouTube videos of the software’s user learning management system. The 2TouchPOS Software Package can provide tested and durable hardware that includes stationary terminal, tablets, and payment processing options at tableside.

2TouchPOS is a hybrid cloud installation, i.e., the data originates on premise and is published on the cloud. This is a proven secure process for the customers and their businesses. Through OData feeds and web services it provides a secure, automated way to transport transaction data and reports to accounting, inventory, and payroll processing systems.

A Journey through Time 2TouchPOS has been in the market since early 2000, but Eric decided in 2008 to concentrate solely on selling this system without the distraction of other business objectives vying for attention. To accomplish the goal of becoming the Point of Sale expert, Elwell asserts “We made a couple of key hires internally to focus on systemization, and basically what we realized is that if we don’t get help from the people writing the software, and listen to the people using the software, then it will be hard to grow.” With the acquisition of the company Xenios LLC was created and the software renamed 2Touch Point of Sale and the company continues to operate within this structure. Elwell has taken conceptual writings and combined them with his own practical experiences to develop a winning atmosphere for himself, his team of experts, and the customers he serves. Xenios LLC has seeded a major transformation in the retail,

Delivering Control within Simplicity POS Systems provide transaction data that helps one to measure progress toward set goals and the effectiveness of a business, thereby satisfying customers all the while maintaining profitability.

Choosing 2TouchPOS allows for quick data entry, comprehensive data reporting and embedded payment processing. The 2TouchPOS software configures transactions and report data with the goal of providing useable data that can be implemented to enhance profits. Not only does the software provide a precise tool to capture data through the software but the customers can control how much of the software they wish to implement and can decide how much support they will need to accomplish their goals. Each configuration is unique and individualized; wherein the customers are open to buy only just what they need.

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“Transforming payments with 2TouchPOS.”

2TouchPOS offers streamlined data capture and payment processes that are configured especially for the hospitality industry, and all this at affordable pricing. With 2TouchPOS, customers get a business tool that extends itself from the beginning with data retention, order processing, through to payment processing and balancing, to finally using the data to build the business further. 2TouchPOS is the software for the present and the future.

with customer data. This, in turn, brings about a radical change in the methods of making payments and utilization of customer data.

The Future Holds Evolution 2TouchPOS’s mission is to design, build, to perfect, and deploy operating systems that get tangible results for the customers. The company envisions a franchised network of Point of Sale specialists that helps get the revenue generating product into the hands of customers, with the highest standards of reliability and quality as affordably as possible.

The Process of Progress 2TouchPOS comprehends that the most valuable asset one’s point of sale system creates is performance data. Gathering sales data explains business success and shortcomings. “At 2TouchPOS we believe that collecting your customers’ names and spending habits, will help you influence customer visits and spending while on site,” says Eric Elwell.

2TouchPOS will also continue to focus on the peculiarities of the hospitality market. The small distinctions of how a restaurant operates and the nuances that require specialized development would also be in focus. To assist need of the customers, to be able to rapidly adapt to changing customer desires and have methods to manage business processes will be one of the future goals. Staying focused on becoming more flexible, increasing customer controls and 2TouchPOS aims at creating additional tools and revising the existing ones to keep up with the demands of advancing technologies. With the automated tools continuing to evolve, 2TouchPOS will continue to update and enhance alongside.

2TouchPOS is under constant innovation. The company is updated up to 6 times a year and is highly customizable in the most complex scenarios. In addition to these, the flexible API makes working with custom applications easier. Given the rapid state of change and ever-increasing security restrictions in the payment industry 2TouchPOS’s development focus has continued to center on payment needs. The software assists in building your customer network with communication, marketing and activity information and then collects and works

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Accelerator for Digital ransformation 20

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Robust Networks

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t’s not anymore a mystery how the evolution of technological era has taken place. Technology has revolutionized the perspective of the global population. The imprints of technological advancements can be seen in almost every sector. For example, blockchain technology is creating a digital record that verifies any transaction at a certain time and sequence, and AI is enabling new ways to interact with consumers via chatbots and artificial personal assistants.

organizations. Network Infrastructure, if developed effectively, enables businesses to maximize productivity, reduce operational costs, and manage complex consolidations. Moreover, managed network services help businesses run the applications that fuel their day-to-day business, enhance their communication and sharing tools, and improves business flexibility and agility.

The use of internet has brought people from the different corners of the world closer than before, and computers have simplified data-processing, analyzing the organization, and communication for individuals as well as businesses.

The one thing that keeps everything connected is Network.

Be it accessing the internet, downloading a file, printing documents or emailing an urgent presentation, a sound network infrastructure is required. Networking Solutions have become a requirement of almost every individual and more importantly, businesses.

If we consider the current pandemic situation, it has changed the way businesses operate and communicate.

COVID-19 has enforced businesses to operate remotely. Employees working from multiple locations resulted in a need to inculcate integrated network monitoring solutions, as staying securely connected became a challenge. The chances of security risks and inherent physical limits like latency and bandwidth, which would hamper speed, seemed to occur for businesses.

In today’s business world, companies are adopting e-commerce module to reach out to the customers globally and making their shopping experiences simpler. In order to ensure the smooth running of such business modules, a suitable networking infrastructure is vital as it provides speed, connectivity, and ultimately value to the users as well as businesses, making it a winwin situation for both the parties. We can safely put that comprehensive networked systems are at the very heart of e-commerce.

It has become crucial for businesses, irrespective of sizes, to have a robust network infrastructure as it is also counted as an essential component to enhance the agility and productivity of

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Addressing Current Crisis

Companies with sound network monitoring solutions were successfully able to fight against the business effects of COVID-19. Adopting a network monitoring solution can assist companies in ensuring the smooth running of business networks and processes.It became evident that how secured network solutions can be resourceful in a crisis like situations. In fact, the research suggests that industrial networking solutions market size is expected to grow to USD 23.84 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21.0% during the forecast period (2017–2022).

Security is Still a Concern Networking along with value-added features also increases the chances of | September 2020 |

cyber threats, which can make the company’s private data and emails vulnerable. Data being the core aspect of business requires high security.

Businesses have immensely become dependent on computers and cloud technology to control large money transfers, store data, or communicate with the communities. They cannot afford any kind of security breach.

Thus, network security is a vital aspect of businesses nowadays.

Regardless of size, industry or nature of businesses, every organization can be a victim of cybercrime and thus, require a degree of network security solutions. Past instances of large-scale businesses, who admitted a loss of their sensitive data due to an internal or external security threat, exemplify why network security is of utmost importance. They had to pay a huge amount to recover from a security breach.

Digitization has brought a drastic transformation in human lives as well as in the corporate world. Every business that aims at delivering products or services as per consumers’ demand must keep their network infrastructure secured, to earn the trust of their customers. Network Security not only protects them from cyberattacks or threats, but it also protects the reputation of businesses.

Some common security threats active on the Internet are: Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, Spyware and adware, Hacker attacks, Zero-day attacks, also called zero-hour attacks, denial of service attacks, data interception, and theft, and identity theft. Network security is available in the form of firewall protection, email security, anti-virus and anti-malware software, network segmentation, access control, application security, behavioural analytics, data loss

prevention, mobile device security, security information and event management, VPN, Web Security, Wireless Security, etc.

Upcoming Trends Shaping the Future of Networking • Wi-Fi 6 The upcoming development in the field of wireless connectivity is Wi-Fi 6. It is anticipated to change the face of networking solutions in the coming years by increasing the device density that can independently coexist in a single space without impacting the speed on a single device.

• 5G It is the most awaited high-speed networking technology that would be providing blazing fast internet speed.

5G will be competitive in terms of performance, speed and latency with wired connections currently.

• Digitized Spaces An intersection of IoT, sensors, mobile networks, and digitized spaces will make companies data-smart and derive deep customer and business insights by strengthening the networking solutions ecosystem for enterprise uses.

• SD-WAN SD-WAN is a framework that will be agiler, more robust and enable organizations to route a huge amount of network traffic based on centralized roles and rules, promoting high-end data security.

Future is Promising With the above mentioned upcoming trends, one can safely assert that the future of networking solution is set to be revolutionized. It doesn’t come as a surprise how new and emerging technologies have always driven networking best practices and will continue to do so. For example, it is believed by many tech experts that a combination of machine learning and artificial intelligence will aid network managers to create next-generation networking solutions to achieve highend security and optimize network performance.

To wrap it up, every size of business would require robust and secured network infrastructure to boost the performance of employees, productivity, and scalability. The current pandemic crisis has highlighted the need for integrated network solutions and how it can ensure the smooth running of businesses. Many network solution providers are walking an extra mile to come up with topnotch network security solutions to address the need of the small, medium as well as large scale enterprises. The pace at which the advancement in networking technology is growing with other evolving technologies and the future of networking solutions from here looks promising.

These trends are truly shaping the future of networking technology and are optimizing network performance for modern businesses. Harnessing the latest in the field of networking solutions, many network solution providers are developing integrated solutions to deal with the challenges businesses are facing.

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Jon Monge CEO

National Bankcard Providing Processing Solutions Effectively

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Committed to Provide Best Support to the Merchants

ith the growing usage of the internet and plastic money the demand of debit and credit card-based payment systems are increasing every day. So, enters National Bankcard, a leading provider in credit and debit card-based payment processing solutions for customers across the United States of America. The organization takes great pride on itself on having the lowest processing rates backed by its award-winning customer service.

Thanks to its customer service, National Bankcard has achieved one of the highest merchant retention rates in the industry because it is dedicated to ongoing account support. Its highly trained customer service team educates merchants, so as to make informed decisions about payment processing solutions with no hidden charges. National Bankcard has created a transparent sales model based on honesty.

National Bankcard never charges a setup fee, it also provides a free EMV credit card machine or a free mobile card reader or both. The organization also offers free shipping with all equipment orders and free training to show how to use the new device.

When it comes to cancellation fees, National Bankcard never charges one. The organization’s “no cancellation fee” policy reinforces its commitment to provide the best ongoing support to merchants. If any one of the clients ever need to close his respective account, one simple call will let him close the same in the same day itself. Hence, there are no risks trying out National Bankcard.

That’s not all, setting up National Bankcard is a very quick and easy affair. The organization has a simple one-page electronic application that can be filled out for the client by National Bankcard. The organization can then text or email the application and the client can sign it with his mouse or finger depending on the device he is using. The application takes about five minutes to fill out most. On an average the application can be approved within 1-4 hours after submitting; once the application gets approved National Bankcard ships the free credit card machine or the card reader with free shipping.

Also, the organization’s low processing fee helps merchants focus on what they do best –run their businesses. Additionally, National Bankcard’s “no cancellation fee” policy reinforces its commitment of providing the best ongoing support to merchants.

National Bankcard makes the process of accepting payments easy, secure, and cost effective. It protects the merchants with a chargeback and fraud department that provides the highest level of security.

The Undisputed Leader

Entering the Segment as a Unique Organization Jon Monge the CEO of National Bankcard started the organization in 2005, and for the first 2 years he was the only employee of National Bankcard, doing everything, from sales, to customer services, tech support, programming terminals, designing the needed web pages and marketing materials.

However, Jon enjoyed managing every part of the business as it was a full education on how to start an ISO from the ground up. Nowadays, a team of 20 plus admins and sales representatives help share the work flow. Jon was able to teach them how to run an efficient business from the first-hand experience from those first two years.

The Payment and Card Solution Providers segment badly needed a new player in the marketplace, which would offer better customer service at lower costs.

Before the entry of National Bankcard, most of the merchants used to pay too much in processing and on their equipment costs. Using the internet to market to merchants proved to be a more efficient model that enabled National Bankcard to offer a better service at a lower pricing.

Upon receiving the equipment from National Bankcard, the respective account manager will call the client to train on how to use the new terminal, or

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mobile card reader, or Virtual terminal, or Clover POS. This is a very important step and something that many of National Bankcard’s competitors neglect. The organization helps its clients through setting up their equipment and runs them through a test transaction. National Bankcard also goes over on how to view the account activity online in their merchant portal. If a client has purchased a Clover POS, National Bankcard walks him through uploading his inventory into the system and trains him on how to use it from A-Z.

By lowering credit card processing costs and streamlining the payment process, our merchants stay with National Bankcard year-after-year.

One of the Most Exciting Business Sectors According to National Bankcard, the payment industry is one of the most exciting business sector to be a part of. There are new products coming to market each year that help businesses run their operation more smoothly. The organization is always looking to resell these innovative products to its merchants’, so that they have the best for their businesses.

When it comes to the future, National Bankcard is planning to build out the country’s best customer service team and continue to sell the best technology in the payment’s industry.

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Emerging Technology and Business Environment

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nnovation is a wild beast, which needs taming and flexibility. It requires partnerships and combinations of emerging technologies to start with and the injection of new blood too. Innovation is about spotting the ability to embrace best-of-breed emerging technologies implemented in one industry and transposing them to another sector with far greater benefits. Financial institutions are copying other financial institutions, retailers from other retailers, etc.

This overused practice of benchmarking and business process reengineering (BPR) has stifled innovation in many businesses across the world. Today, with this new industrial revolution, everything is fast. Information is available, and you can process it and predict the future.

There are no boundaries in the digital era, and every day someone is pushing the envelope. For example, it might be stuff people take from the telecom industry, and you adapt for utilities, or from the financial market to the health industry.

vision of the entrepreneur of where the business is directing, not where it is. The strategy should also offer the basis for decisions making and defining the policy that will lead the company to this.

To be beneficial, strategic statements must be understandable and concise for main stakeholders, such as investors, customers, and employees. They should also discourage investments and activities that, while appearing to be attractive, would drain the corporation's resources. A strategy that is formulated so broadly that it allows a corporation to do anything is equivalent to no strategy at all. For example, requesting to be in the entertainment and leisure business doesn't prevent a tentmaker from making films or running casinos. Describing a business as a high-achievement outdoor equipment company offers much more useful goals.

No amount of hard work can transfer a kitten into a lion. When a new venture fails, entrepreneurs have to tackle major economic crises. For example, many persons are involved in personal business matters, such as tax and laundry preparation services, because people can only start and run this corporate through hard work. They do not need to worry about raising large capital, developing proprietary technologies, or facing large competitors. However, the aspects that make it easier for entrepreneurs to start such a business often stop them from achieving their long-term objectives.

Companies based on an entrepreneurial enthusiasm to work hard usually face other equally strong-minded competitors. Also, it is hard to make these businesses large enough to help infrastructure and employees.

Besides, if personnel can do what the organizer does, they have little reason to remain in the business.

Originators of these businesses often can't live the lifestyle they wish, no matter how much capable they're. Unable to use their skills, they can only eat what they kill.

Options suitable for one business may not be suitable for another. Entrepreneurs have an incredible amount of decisions to make, and they have to make decisions that work for them.

Setting Strategy: Many entrepreneurs begin their businesses to take advantage of temporary opportunities without thinking about a long-lasting strategy. However, successful entrepreneurs will soon shift from planned to strategic coordination so that they can start to create critical resources and opportunities.

Expressing a sound strategy is more important to a fledgling company than dealing with hiring, establishing accountability relationships, developing control systems, or describing the role of the founder.

Enterprises based on best strategy can survive poor leadership and confusion, but organizational structures and complex control systems can't compensate for unreasonable strategy.

However, strategies for capturing the hill will not necessarily keep it. A model established on one or two strong points becomes obsolete because success breeds imitation. For example, competitors can easily eliminate the innovative product of an entrepreneur.

However, it will be much more challenging for them to reproduce systems that include many additional and different features. It is not easy to copy business with an attractive product line, close relationships with distributors, well-integrated logistics and

An entrepreneur who needs to construct a sustainable company must express a clearer and bolder strategy.

The strategy should merge the entrepreneur's ambitions with a particular long-lasting policy regarding the requirements that the company will serve, technological experiences, it's geographic reach, and other strategic concerns. To support attract resources and people, the strategy must reflect the

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About the Author Dr. Raheela Al Karim owns and runs multiple businesses including Plush Event Planning, Plush Multimedia, Shahi Banquets, Shahi Nihari & Chopsticks, and not for profit organization Al Karim Foundation. As a transformational leader she always finds the balance between business foresight, performance, and character. She has vision, courage, integrity, humility and focus along with the ability to plan strategically and catalyze cooperation amongst her company team.

manufacturing, a culture of customer responsiveness, and the ability to generate a continuous stream of innovation.

The tough infrastructure that an entrepreneurial company needs depends on its strategy and goals. Some entrepreneurs want to create geographically distributed companies, gain first-mover benefits through fast development, understand interactions through resource sharing between business units, and finally go public. They have to invest more in the infrastructure of an organization than their corresponding item, who want to build simple enterprises with a cautious pace and a single territory.

Entrepreneurs, with their strong action bias, often prevent thinking about the large crisis related to strategies, opportunities, and goals.

Eventually, they must deliberately structure this exploration of their lives and their companies. Sustained success needs entrepreneurs to keep questioning tough queries about where they need to go and whether the path they are going will lead them there.

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Christian Deger CEO & Co-founder

“We work with leading payment providers and innovators at the Point of Sale to deliver the fastest, simplest and most secure Point of Sale technology for businesses.�

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W

ith the ever-increasing use of cards and online payment systems over past decades, Point of Sale (PoS) payment gateways have been garnering a lot of attention. It was with these developments in mind that Payworks was founded.

providers to move away from legacy technology and this has continued to be a major driver of his business strategy at Payworks.

Prior to founding Payworks, Christian built PAYRETO in Southeast Asia. It is one of the leading BPO companies for payment providers. Christian attended TU Munich, Georgia Tech and CDTM Munich. He holds degrees in Business Administration and Technology Management.

The vision of Payworks is to make card payments compatible with all Point of Sale solutions through technology that is simple and easy to use. To make this vision a reality, the company provides clients with next generation PoS payment gateway expertise and solutions.

Using its technology, developers of PoS solutions for merchants can quickly and cost-efficiently integrate card payment functionality into their applications, and securely process EMV, contactless, and mobile wallet transactions at the point of sale.

Supporting Growth and Internationalization Payworks supports its clients’ goals of growth and internationalization by supplying technology which is built to simplify rapid business expansion.

Developers simply integrate the powerful Payworks Pulse SDK into their internal systems. Once this integration with Payworks is complete, the solution can be used for global deployment without changing its original integration.

With headquarters in Germany and offices in the US, the UK and Spain, Payworks provides its technology to leading acquirers and payment providers in North America, Europe and Africa.

The technology Payworks has developed supports both acquirers and payment service providers working on a global scale, as well as merchants who need a reliable system on which to conduct international transactions.

The Accomplished Leader Christian Deger is the CEO and Co-founder of Payworks. He is responsible for setting and implementing the overall strategic plan and direction of Payworks, while also leading its senior management team.

Payworks clients have come to expect faster technology integration. Through a platform based fully on API, the company allows for fast and flexible integration of card readers into any PoS application and environment, regardless of whether it is stationary or mobile.

He makes critical corporate decisions, and manages the overall operations and resources of the company.

Christian has focused his career on enabling solution

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Since it offers a pre-certified solut on that includes both software and hardware, the company’s clients are able to go to market faster.

This can be a matter of days instead of months, as the case can be with less-advanced solutions.

provide technology that does the heavy lifting for its clients. Payments and the Point of Sale are both intricate and the clients understand that they can trust on the company to be the experts they need.

Traditional gateways are locally hosted and expensive to run. They require specialized knowledge and merchants typically have to contend with complex setup structures. Another inherent problem is their limited ability to integrate card terminals with PoS systems and support card present only.

The company’s next generation payment gateway technology is operated in the cloud and provided as a Software as a Service model to payment providers.

With Pulse, developers of Point of Sale solutions are able to integrate payment acceptance in less than 5 minutes. Additionally, with Pulse, Payworks has simplified card acceptance by offering a cloud-based, pre-certified, and easily accessible gateway technology significantly, facilitating innovation in the integrated Point of Sale space.

With Payworks, clients can expect a cloud-based and cost-efficient solution. It doesn’t require specialized knowledge, supports self-service features, is easy to use and supports digital onboarding of merchants.

The company’s technology is built for developers, and this enables quick integration.

Entering the Segment and the Differentiating Factor Payworks saw the need for a modern payment technology platform to challenge decades-old systems that should be made obsolete. The company was inspired by the ability to bring new ideas for modernizing payment acceptance at the Point of Sale.

Best of all, Payworks enables all payment channels while promoting global solutions.

Painting the Bright Future The company is witnessing great progress in the industry, but believes that there is still lots of room for growth and further progress. When it comes to the future, Payworks will continue to promote and develop modern payment technology at the Point of Sale.

It has brought a new level of innovation into the market at a time when POS solutions were lacking the technology needed to keep up with consumer payment habits.

Payworks has a competitive advantage over other payment service providers because it is able to

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Ángela Álvarez Founder & CEO Aglaia Capital

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Leaders Viewpoint

TECH TRENDS in the

FINANCIAL SECTOR - By Ángela Álvarez, Founder & CEO Aglaia Capital

I

t is said that the growth of human beings is at its highest when they face new challenging situations and go out of their comfort zones. And that is where we can express our nature better as human beings and achieve our highest potential. The ability to do so also defines us as human beings as we are a product of constant changes and selective evolution.

“

Evolve every day embracing the gift of the new discoveries.

Dare to follow your dreams.

In the recent few months, a new reality has shaken us challenging our way of dealing with our day-to-day world and accelerating many of the technological evolutions that may have happened in the following years.

We are living a new industrial revolution shaped by Emerging Technologies such as artificial intelligence, inter-connectivity, and digitalization, through a new generation of financial infrastructure driven by Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT)/ Blockchain, digital assets and digital currencies.

“

In a world in continual changes with alternative options moving fast, innovation driven by emerging technologies has been converted more than ever in the difference that will make the companies to stay longer in the corporate world.

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Banking system and capital markets are tied to the emerging technologies. Financial service is one of industries where their adoption will transform mostly of the tasks and the way that the industry is conceived. Embracing them can make a difference for a selective evolution of institutions, in an environment of boosting efficiencies, and scalability, driven by the consolidation and reinforcement of the institutions, as well as improving the consumer experience, and facilitating financial inclusion as a fuel for economic growth, allowing the unbanked population to participate in the economy.

Emerging Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Distributed Ledger Technologies/Blockchain will play a key role in making a sounder and more efficient financial industry, and help to improve some of the main challenges of the global financial industry such as effective tools to provide liquidity to the markets, to increase the speed of processes and transactions, measure better the small and medium companies credit risks, manage more efficiently the Assets and Liabilities of the Financial Institutions as well as their assets under management, or facilitate the financial inclusion of the unbanked populations areas.

The key role of emerging technologies such as DLT/Blockchain for the evolution of the world’s financial infrastructure is considered as an essential catalyst, making it more efficient, resilient and reliable, and becoming the foundation of the next generation of technologies for the financial services industry, particularly in the multi-trillion value transactional, payments, and

asset management areas. Among their main benefits, DLT enables disintermediation and considerable cost savings, facilitate access to new markets by automating low valueadded tasks, and provide a standardised and immutable method to interconnect financial institutions, and the trillions market of financial assets that they have under management.

DLT are databases set up and maintained by multiple independent participants, called nodes. The nodes record, share and synchronize transactions in their respective electronic ledgers, and synchronously maintain the latest version of the database. The participant at each node of the network can access the recordings shared across that network and can own an identical copy of it. Any changes or additions made to the ledger are reflected and copied to all participants in a matter of seconds or minutes. The database is appendonly and all the new entries are linked to the previous ones.

Blockchain is one type of a distributed ledger for which new entries are stacked in blocks to be appended. Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger used by bitcoin.

A distributed ledger solves the failure issues found in centralised systems, which is the type of ledger that most companies use, more prone to cyber-attacks as they have a single point of failure. Its decentralised nature and cryptographic algorithm make DLT very robust to any type of manipulation or cyber-attack. This makes the data contained within DLT virtually immutable, being ideal for organisations which require a single source of trust shared between various stakeholders.

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Remarkable is the impact of Emerging technologies on financial inclusion, improving the access to finance for unbanked populations without an access to a bank account.

With the increased penetration of mobile and Internet, the primary focus would be to accelerate technology enabled digital financial inclusion to capture that non-official economy. The increasing interest of the Central Banks on the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) shows the impact of the new emerging technologies and Blockchain on the evolution that the financial sector is experimenting.

Tied to this current challenging business environment, lies also a continuous flow of increasing opportunities for the expression of our creativity to solve the challenges that we are facing, where emerging technologies as well as entrepreneurs play a key role to boost the engine of evolution.

Technology can be linked to Human Sciences to evolve without losing humanity. In a new world where technology will do most of the tasks, more than ever, creativity, imagination and passion - human traits that technology does not replace, will also make a difference in the future.

This is a unique opportunity for the entrepreneurs of our century to explore, and be the drivers of new improvements and discoveries on how create new ways of doing things with emerging technologies in order to enhance people’s lives, and to enrich our society.

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