The Principles of Collaborative Payment Processing
The world of electronic payment processing is now turning into a sort of virtual Babylon. Every processor and acquirer speaks its own language, lives according to its own rules and requirements, and imposes them on its clients. However, the collaborative payments platforms that emerged recently help merchants drive costs down and succeed in the new world of payments.
Companies with low processing volumes might not feel it. But as their volumes grow, their needs become more sophisticated. They need to partner with new gateways and processing platforms that are capable of meeting these unique needs. As a result, they constantly have to “learn the ways” of their new partners.
So, what should your company do in order to access the advanced functionality offered by your target processors?
Well, most companies resort to one of the three conceptual strategies:
- Integrate with several third-party gateways. Each one of these gateways is, usually, integrated with one or several of the target processors and acquirers. The solution is a bit similar to bringing a squad of interpreters to an international meeting. One for each language. You have to pay each of the “interpreters”, of course. And each of them has hisher own whims.
- Develop your own payment gateway product from scratch. On the contrary, this strategy allows the company to get the highest degree of control over the process. However, it requires tremendous development efforts. Plus, do not forget about PCI compliance, as well as integrations with and certifications by every target processing platform. The solution is similar to developing an electronic translator for all languages. It is good, but you have to do all the work yourself.
- Integrate with an already existing payment gateway technology. The option works best if the technology integrates with target processing/acquiring platforms. By integration with such a payment gateway technology, you get access to all the platforms its other users are integrated with. You get additional benefits if the payment gateway technology is an open-source licensable one. In this case, you can further customize it according to your needs. For example, some integration is missing. Well then, you can implement it yourself or ask the license provider’s team to do it for you. The solution is similar to purchasing a universal multi-lingual electronic translator. It already supports most of the languages. And you can always add another language if necessary.
Payment platforms that use instances of the same payment gateway technology form a cloud. Thus, any node of this cloud can use the integrations of all other nodes. As a result, they can benefit from each other’s payment processing functionality. This approach is collaborative payment processing.
The advantages of collaborative payment processing are:
- You save integration time. If you integrate with a processing platform, you have to spend several weeks on each integration component. These include real-time and batch processing, chargeback management, account updater logic, merchant onboarding, and others. As a result, it might take you at least half a year to actually start processing. In case of integration with a universal payment gateway technology, you only need a month in total.
- You save integration efforts. You only have to implement one integration for all processing platforms and functions. It is the integration with the universal payment gateway technology.
- You do not need to adapt to new requirements, data formats, and standards. The unified payment gateway technology integrates with the target platforms. It also supports the majority of your target functions. So, you enjoy all available integrations and functions through the payment gateway cloud.
- You save money on processing. Your processing volume becomes more consolidated under the unified payment gateway solution. So, you have better chances of negotiating better processing terms with your partners.
So, how does it feel when you implement a robust payment gateway technology and share it with other users worldwide? Well, some compare the experience of joining some fashionable clubs. Or, perhaps, some Esperanto-style club, where everyone speaks the same language. Or a commune, in which everyone enjoys common benefits.
Do you think it is beneficial for your company to join a “payment gateway cloud”? Well, then you are welcome to try collaborative payment processing for yourself. Such payment gateway software providers offer cloud payment gateway solutions as United Thinkers. Are you seriously considering the ways of improving your payment processing arrangement? If the answer is yes, take a look at UniPay Gateway technology. It is already implemented by many companies worldwide. Feel free to consult payment experts at unipaygateway.com. They will be glad to help you implement the technology in your payment ecosystem.