BEST PRACTICES

Requirements Gathering

During requirements gathering, solutions engineers seek to understand an ISV’s current processing environment (if applicable) or high-level solutions goals if embarking on a first-time integration. This includes understanding the drivers behind the integration and what the ISV is working to accomplish, including points of pain in the current solution. As an ISV, this is your chance to articulate integrated paymentsrelated challenges and interests because the clearer the understanding, the better the engineer can solution a tailored integration to meet your unique needs.

70% OF PROJECTS FAIL DUE TO POOR REQUIREMENTS.

https://www.infotech.com/research

Onboarding

Providing a merchant onboarding experience with as little friction as possible is optimal for many reasons. For software providers, this means higher adoption rates and faster time to profitability, and for software clients, it results in a seamless setup experience. The goal of solutioning for onboarding is to understand today’s process and key consideration details that will influence which onboarding solution is right for you.

For example, is your customer vertical consistent where factors like merchant category code (MCC), risk profile, and average tickets are similar, or is it variable? Does transaction processing take place in card-present or card-not present environments, or both? With options spanning from instant boarding APIs to standard online merchant applications to white-glove inside-sales service and variations in between, your partner should strive to help you remove as much friction as possible from the onboarding process while considering all factors at play.

Transaction Processing

Here’s where the payments tech stack takes center stage and begins to come together. The process begins with the basics: defining transaction types, payment types, acceptance methods, and value-added features to support.

Commerce Capabilities

. Transaction Types: Sales, Auths, Voids, Credits, etc.

. Payment Types: Credit (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover), Debit, ACH, Mobile Wallets, etc.

. Acceptance Methods: Cloud POS Devices (EMV/Contactless), eInvoicing, Hosted Solutions, Mobile Payments, Text-to-Pay, etc.

. Value-Added Features: Tokenization, Card Account Updater, Chargeback Management, etc.

Engineers seek to understand the current client experience with special attention paid to opportunities for optimization along the way. For example, if key transaction types like voids/refunds are not supported through the current integration, resulting in software clients having to work between systems, engineers will make recommendations to remedy this pain point. Likewise, domain experts will safeguard against missing out on tech crucial for market penetration in specialty verticals.

Settlement Funding

Finally, the process concludes with defining how software clients will receive settlement funding. After understanding the current state, engineers will explain funding options, including flows and timeframes, and advise which are best suited/ available to you. For example, same-day and next-day funding options, as well as flexible funding flows where settlement deposits are disbursed into multiple bank accounts in an automated process, may be available.

Engineers will also advise on how to make your solution more marketable where applicable to your business model. This can include models where software providers can waive clients’ software subscription fees and instead assess a percentage-based fee calculated on transaction volume processed by their software clients. Funding for transactions can then be split between your client’s deposit account and your own. With the culmination of settlement funding defined, you now have the blueprint for a payments integration that can be fully commercialized and ready to embark on development.