Equipping your business and your teams with a credit card payment processing solution that integrates seamlessly with your financial and manufacturing software can speed up collections and reduce late/missed payments which is better for your cash flow. This gives your customers the option to pay online. This is a good move for any business, but sometimes they shy away because of the challenges associated with accepting these payments.
Challenges of Processing Online Payments
Growing areas of fraud
In recent years we have witnessed large companies like Target and Yahoo get hacked, putting important customer information (and their own reputation) in jeopardy. Businesses are no longer safe with just a physical security system (lock and key) because most of them have a virtual presence. This makes it easy for hackers to breach and access sensitive data at any time.
Businesses need a solution that can process their payments securely and keep their customer information safe.
Complex Compliance Requirements
Linking back to the first challenge, in their search to find ways to combat fraud, financial institutions, credit card companies and governments have had no choice but to increase the rules and regulations companies have to follow while making money transactions. Without the right solution, complying with these requirements can become frustrating and costly.
Integration Requirements
In their efforts to save money, business owners often shy away from investing in new technology that can easily integrate with payment processing solutions that boost efficiency and save time. This leaves them with their legacy systems and their patchwork of disorganized processes to link different parts of their business like inventory, accounting, payments, project management; together.
The other challenge small businesses face is that despite having upgraded systems they do not have the money or expertise to use the APIs for customizing and integrating the payments system with their business systems.
Rising Customer Expectations
People are accustomed to purchasing all kinds of goods and services online – clothes, airline tickets, food, haircuts, massages, etc., and have come to expect the same user experience and payment options from other businesses. Manufacturing businesses are challenged to keep pace with what their customers know and expect and must deliver in order to stay competitive.
The Solution
If you are one of those companies who wants to maintain their competitive edge and are willing to adopt new technologies but are hesitant to take the risks involved with accepting, processing and storing sensitive credit card details, we can help you put your fears to rest.
BatchMaster ERP with SAP Business One offers integrations with reliable credit card processing solutions to make it quick, easy, and error-free for you to complete transactions wherever or whenever your business requires. With credit card processing in SAP your clients have the ease of making payments online without the involvement of your staff which frees up your team’s time from doing manual tasks and gives your clients the ability to monitor upcoming payments, as well as schedule and control the payment mode.
The biggest advantage of having a built-in payment processing system is that it is PCI compliant and offers tokenization which together provide high-grade security for all your transactions. An integrated payment processing solution also means that you can take payments directly in your SAP system, which eliminates double data entry and decreases the chance for human error. It creates a single, secure platform for receiving payments across your enterprise and ensures that you get paid faster with secure, automated transactions.
What is PCI Compliance and Tokenization?
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was formed in 2006, in response to increasing data theft, for managing the security of credit cards. The five largest credit card brands—Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, JCB—implemented the security standard to prevent consumer and bank data breaches. All companies that process credit card information must maintain PCI compliance, regardless of their size or the number of credit card transactions they process.
Tokenization is the process that digitally converts sensitive data to a token that has no value outside a specific gateway system. The gateway system that provides the tokenization service has tight security and uses best practices to store, audit, authenticate and authorize payments made using credit cards. A simple example of this process is the conversion of real money into casino chips. The stolen chips cannot be used to purchase goods or services and thus, have no value outside the specific casino.
Tokenization is more secure than encryption because a token cannot be mathematically reversed into usable data. With encryption, data can be converted back into its original format with the correct key, and hackers have created sophisticated programs that can untangle encrypted data.
Benefits of Integrating with a Payment Processing Solution
There are obvious benefits to integrating your SAP Business One with a payment processing solution. Some were already discussed above like being able to automate your processes which save time and reduce errors. Also, you get peace of mind knowing that the transactions and the sensitive data will be secure. Here are some more:
- Increases your revenue streams – Customers love having options and when you offer an additional method of payment, they will gladly use it if it suits their needs.
- Decreases the risk of security breaches – It offers fraud management and bank-grade security. PCI compliance reduces the likelihood of a breach and the need for an audit. Tokenization and access to multiple payment gateways adds another layer of security.
- Supports multiple credit cards in a single transaction – this gives customers the flexibility to make their payment using different cards, if they don’t want to put the entire payment on one card.
- Provides automation & saves time – You can accept credit, debit, and ACH payments directly in BatchMaster ERP with SAP Business One, and credit card details automatically update in your system. This saves the time and effort it takes to manually enter payment information into your system.
- Boosts customer confidence – Customers are becoming more careful and aware of compliance protocols and regulations. When they see that your payment solution is PCI compliant, they will trust your company which will help build customer loyalty.
- Avoid expensive data breaches – Data breaches are costly monetarily and cause the loss of customer confidence. Costs can include paying fines, compensating customers for their loss, investigation and audit fees, lawsuits, etc. PCI compliance and tokenization through multiple gateways protects you from these avoidable expenses.
- Streamline payment processing – Since payments are taken directly in your SAP system, it simplifies the process and increases its efficiency.
Imagine having to deal with a cyber-attack and losing a database that contains credit card details that haven’t been tokenized. It can put your customer’s information and your reputation on the line. But, our solutions are compliant with security protocols, so you get fraud protection and bank-grade security, eliminating your liability in case of a data breach. In case of a data breach the perpetrators will only get access to useless tokens that cannot be transformed back into credit card details.
The PCI Security Standards Council is a strong advocate of the benefits that tokenization brings to companies that process payment cards. If you wish to integrate your SAP Business One with an ERP payment gateway solution to future-proof transactions and prevent data theft, contact us today.
