ONBOARDING BLOG SERIES - Integrated Payments 101: How Can Software Companies Benefit from Payment Integrations?

First thing’s first, let’s set the stage by giving you our best definition of an ISV. An ISV is the acronym given to independent software vendors; organizations in this vertical develop and sell software often used by other businesses. ISVs primarily provide robust management platforms for specific industries with an underlying goal to consistently provide a seamless experience for their users. That means they’re likely partnering with other companies to leverage integration opportunities to continue building more comprehensive solutions. When an ISV is able to participate in a partnership to integrate payment acceptance into their platform, their software becomes even more valuable to their business users.   

What Are Integrated Payments? 

Integrated payments refer to the addition of payment acceptance technology into an already existing platform, software or system. When ISVs that offer B2B solutions implement integrated payments into their software, they’re able to offer payment acceptance as a standard feature of their platform. This becomes an additional asset to businesses using those software programs, as they are empowered to accept payments from customers directly within the software they already know and love. This means instead of using several separate tools for operating a business, organizations can use one single software platform for a simplified and seamless experience.

What’s the Value of Integrating Payments? 

Let’s revisit our first question: “How Can ISVs Benefit from Payment Integrations?” There are a variety of tangible benefits that ISVs can take advantage of when implementing integrated payment processing into their platform. We’ve highlighted a few below. 

More Comprehensive Offerings 

If you’re an ISV providing merchants with a software that makes running their businesses simpler, you’re already on the right track. Integrating payment acceptance into your software will in turn transform your offering into a more complete solution. When organizations looking for business management tools compare your single-source, one-stop-shop solution to another company who hasn’t put in the same integration work that you have, it will be clear who has the more comprehensive offering.   

The last thing a busy business owner wants is to be forced to use several different systems to run their business. Today’s world is marked by the simplicity that is driven from technological integrations – why not benefit from that?

Data Security You Can Count On

Thanks to technological advances, data breaches are commonplace for many businesses – big or small. For ISVs in particular, the stakes are higher because their software platforms typically store a large volume of sensitive user information, making them even more vulnerable to a data attack. When choosing a payments provider to partner with, an ISV should look for one that also provides PCI-certified security solutions.

High Quality Support   

ISVs that do their research and enter into a partnership with the right payments provider will be backed by a team that delivers the dedicated support services they deserve. You should expect a high-quality, white-glove, customized experience from the first point of engagement, during implementation and throughout the (hopefully) long life of your partnership. During the development phase of your integration, you should be given access to a sandbox or testing environment in order to test transactions for successes or failures, prior to shifting to your production environment.    

The future of payments resides within the vast opportunities that are realized through the integration of payment acceptance technology and already existing software that helps businesses manage their operations. Why not bring a single-source solution to your software users?