The goal for any successful strategic partnership is to build value by leveraging skills, assets and expertise that one party doesn’t possess. In the payment processing space, most software vendors have recognized the value of an integrated payments strategy to improve work flow and capture additional revenue. For example, companies such as Omedix, have developed integrated payments into their Omedix patient portal and online billpay solution. By offering additional patient payment solutions Omedix has seen significant increases in adoption of thier solutions as well as an increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. These are common goals for many software companies, but how does one develop a successful Saas payments model and build strong strategic partnerships with experts in the field?
Start here! View our API and begin the process of building integrated payments partnership.
For software vendors looking to build a successful Sass payments model, there are a few primary concerns to consider when evaluating payment processing vendors: Security, Flexibility and Price.
Security
With the increasing velocity of data breaches in commerce, a secure payments strategy is critical for the long term viability of your software solution. Many companies falling victim to breaches either feel it would never happen to them, or they neglected the proper research for a secure payment solution.
In today’s market, there are a few basic security features to demand from your payment processor.
1) EMV devices for point of service transactions – EMV “Chip” cards create unique transaction codes for each transaction and have virtually eliminated fraud in the countries it has been fully adopted.
2) Point to Point Encryption (P2PE) – Do not confuse this with simple encryption! P2PE is recognized by the PCI Security Council as the most effective method for securing credit card data at the point of sale. The way it works is simple, card data is encrypted at the device level, so no card data ever flows beyond the hardware utilized to capture the transaction.
3) Tokenization – Assigning an irreversible “Token” to the encrypted card data allow merchants with the ultimate flexibility to support any type of payment needed.
Flexibility
Why limit processor choice when a true integrated payments strategy could include a processor agnostic payment vendor? The value of this option extends well beyond the ease of support.
1) Focus on what you do best, and sell more software – By providing more processor options, remove your software company from the payments decision and no longer attempt to justify one processor over another.
2) The last payments integration you’ll ever need – A single, processor agnostic payment vendor enables you to integrate payments one time, but offer services to a wider range of prospects. Many of your clients have already negotiated favorable rates for payment processing. Allow them to keep those relationships in tact.
Price
Ever wonder why Stripe has a $9 Billion valuation? What was originally positioned as “Price Transparency” and “Simple Pricing Strategies” have evolved to profit engines driving significant margins. While many tout the easy integration, there is significant amount of evidence to support the notion that your developer may not have the best person to choose your payment vendor.
By breaking up the monopoly on integrated payments, and providing processor choice, your clients can benefit from more competitive pricing strategies, such as Interchange plus pricing, which bills at the transaction level, as apposed to the aggregate volume like we see with Stipe, Square and Braintree. With an average decrease in fees between 0.50% – 1.00%, your clients will thank you for putting their bottom line ahead of your convenience.
See for yourself how easy it is to integrate a secure, flexible and price competitive payment solution for your software application.