Software developers are currently creating a wide range of specialized applications designed to facilitate business processes in a variety of markets from private/day schools to insurance companies, recreation centers, business services, medical services, non-profits, security monitoring services, and many others. One thing these diverse industries have in common is that they typically bill customers a set amount on a regular schedule. Most business software is designed to enable customer tracking, invoice generation and invoice printing. However, most business software applications don't take the logical next step of enabling automatic billing and collection of monthly charges.
By omitting this crucial last step, the software vendor unnecessarily complicates and lengthens the receivables process for users and also passes up the potential for additional ongoing revenue streams.
The easiest way to provide this functionality is to partner with a payment processing company that can provide a turnkey module that integrates with the core business application. The following are tips for selecting such a partner.
Revenue Sharing—Look for a payment processing provider that offers ongoing revenue sharing for all transactions processed by your customers. This way you not only provide additional value to your customers, you also generate an additional recurring revenue stream.
Easy Integration—Make sure that the payment processing system has a robust API interface that will easily integrate with your business software package.
Branded Interface—Look for a payment processing system that can be branded as an integral part of your business software package, not one that looks like a separate application.
Minimize Risk—Everyone is aware of the potential risks of fraudulent electronic transactions. As a business software application provider, managing risk is not your core business. Make certain that the payment processing provider assumes all risk related to transactions originating from your system.
Customizable Interface—Make certain that the payment processing module is custom configurable to accept the business software package's proprietary fields and any other customer field requirements.
Free Support—Look for a payment processing provider that will provide 24/7 technical support for all of your customers using its system.
Free Training—Make certain that the payment processing provider supplies complete user guides for its system, and that it will provided free training to all your customers who choose to implement the payment processing functionality.
Combination ACH and Credit Card Gateway—Don't offer customers half a solution. Look for a payment processing system that provides processing for both credit card transactions and for ACH (electronic check or direct-debit from checking or savings account) transactions.
Low Fees—To generate the most revenue and return on your investment, you want a large percentage of your customers to adopt the payment processing functionally. Thus, it is important to select a partner with low set-up fees, low transaction fees, and low monthly gateway fees in order to get maximum penetration of your customer base.
No Cost Marketing Program—To achieve maximum penetration of your customer base, and maximum revenue from your integration effort, make certain that the partner you choose has a robust program in place to support marketing and sale of the payment processing module. Some providers will handle the entire process, from marketing to post-sign-up account configuration, for you.
Lisa Hephner is the PaySimple marketing manager. PaySimple provides effortless electronic payment processing via a simple web-based interface used to perform auto recurring billing, electronic check processing, direct-debit and credit card processing. PaySimple's industry-leading partner program not only provides unlimited free technical support and training for integrators aand end-users, it also provides revenue sharing for all partners integrating PaySimple into their applications. To learn more about PaySimple see http://www.paysimple.com To learn more about the PaySimple partner program see: http://www.paysimple.com/partners.html To contact Lisa Hephner email lisa@paysimple.com |
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