Welcome to The PayFAQ: Embedded Payments podcast brought to you by Payrix. As payments and software experts that eat, sleep, and breathe Embedded Payments, were as passionate about you as you are about your customers. Each podcast episode will provide insights about Embedded Payments designed to help you feel the transformation and growth of your software business. You’ll learn from industry experts, Payrix customers, and leaders on the Payrix team about the latest trends, best practices, and real-world guidance from payments experts to help you take your software platform higher.
Bob Butler
Hi, everyone. Welcome to the PayFAQ podcast brought to you by Payrix. I’m your host, Bob Butler. And today I’m going to be talking with Tony Braden, the Head of Product and Enterprise Solutions for Payrix, about the options Australian software providers have when choosing a payments model for their business. So hey, Tony, welcome to the show.
Tony Braden
Thanks, Bob. Nice to be here.
Bob Butler
Oh, it’s great to have you. So just to get started, can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself and your software and payments experience?
Tony Braden
Sure, I’ve been around a while and I’ve been lucky enough to ride the IT revolution over the past 35 years, early years worked on bespoke HR and payroll systems, then develop package systems that really could adapt to lots of different company requirements in Australia. And of course, ranged over the different types of machines at the time from mainframes, minis, eventually through to PC based and client server texts. From there, we built a business, basically a consulting business where we did bespoke add-ons for many large Australian corporate clients. Again, around the payroll HR was very lucky on suggestion from my next-door neighbor at the time, he ran a recreation center in Melbourne and he needed a front of house system with integrated POS and suggested we write one, which we did originally in DOS. Interesting. Here we got it going and it made quite a difference to them. And over the time, we rewrote it as the technology got going sound from over to Windows and other things. This eventually evolved to a product called Links, which became a market leading software in the gym and recreation space in the Australia and Asian market. And we actually took it across to the US, New Zealand, and UK. In about 2009, we joined forces with some guys up in Brisbane that had great payment expertise. And we started IntegraPay, we’re basically I’ve moved across to and I’ve worked both on the business as a director and in the business, managing product development, IT, and other things. So, I guess my career has sort of progressed from that sort of developer in the early days through project management, product management, and business governance. So, I’ve been very lucky to have such a good career.
Bob Butler
Well, it sounds like you’ve seen it and probably heard it all, at least over the past 30 plus years. How has payment software evolved specifically in the Australian, Asian, New Zealand marketplace?
Tony Braden
Sure. So, I’d say up until 15 years ago, there are a few exceptions nearly all the Card Not Present, and particularly the Card Present transactions were dominated by the four banks in Australia. And since that’s sort of got out of their domain, the evolution of payments in Australia has been dramatic, and it’s been a real blast to be a part of it. Back in the day. With Card Not Present, we literally captured credit cards and stored them, the full PAN, then printed reports weekly or fortnightly, which the admin person from the rec center or gym would literally take down to the bank to process someone at the bank would sit there and retype or rekey each card and amount into a terminal. Talk about security. Unbelievable. It got better once they got the faxes. Of course. The reconciliation was done by bank statements that would come in literally posted the next week. So very difficult for the gyms to track who paid who hadn’t those sorts of things. As the banks in Australia sort of improved their tech, were able to send the reports over the wire as a file via modems and eventually to the internet. Of course, payment tech companies over here really started to evolve, I guess mid first decade of 2000, where they could add value by offering recurring scheduling single points of integrations for schemes, bank debits or ACH is, you know, an e-Commerce for shopping carts. So, it’s really sort of going from there. In the Card Present or POS world, the banks have really kept tight control over that. And there’s until recently integrations to POS was through installed software on clients. It was a really bad experience and very costly in support and implementation. So, businesses often just didn’t bother doing the integration, particularly the SaaS companies. It wasn’t, it was just too expensive.
Bob Butler
So, they literally had a payment device and ran their business on a separate software.
Tony Braden
That’s right, and then still wait for the statement to come in. The next day so they could do the reconciliation. I guess now we live in the world of terminals built on phone technology, wallet payments, and alternative payment methods. It’s much, much more accessible, and a much better experience for everyone. It’s interesting for me anyway, that the bridge between Card Present and Card Not Present is really only starting to happen. They’ve really run a separate transaction lines. And I think that’s going to make quite a big difference to security and ease of use for starting recurring payments in SaaS products.
Bob Butler
So, when you think about the gap in the market, obviously, Australia different market, how did all of that lead you to founding IntegraPay?
Tony Braden
Yeah, from the SaaS side with Links before we had IntegraPay, I guess, we had to maintain different file formats and connections to each of the four banks. And every time we did an implementation, we had to educate the merchants on how to connect and how to send the files and all that sort of stuff. And receiving results back was either manual reports in different formats. So, it was not something that was easy to reconcile for the gyms. IntegraPay gave a single point of integration and an easy method of receiving results. Aggregated settlements, default is your reconciliation. So just gave a much easier implementation. And in the end, we didn’t have to educate as much the merchants or the clients on the other side. IntegraPay basically took away the management of the different banks, it was more secure. Support was so much cheaper for Links because we didn’t have all those connection problems. So, the benefit was easy, and it was easy to sell to the merchants easier, safer, less work more accurate, because a good call.
Bob Butler
That’s really interesting, Tony, so can you describe a couple of use cases early on that confirmed you had something pretty unique with IntegraPay for the Australia/New Zealand market?
Tony Braden
Yeah, sure so Links and LinksPay was the first integration we did. It was built for Links, which was the gym and rec center software. And it was really moving from a macrocycle in Australia and New Zealand and the US without things having to rewrite new connections everytime it went to a different geographical area, a different currency, you’re moving between switches in Australia. For Links, we didn’t have to learn all the different banking systems and legislation, we could just use IntegraPay and manage all that and Links could get on with what it did best, which is gaining healthy income, not only through selling and growing its rec business. But also, you know, there’s a transaction volume increased, so did the revenue from that as well. So, from the success of Links, IntegraPay, we basically went out and found other partners in other industries like IT management, SaaS, trade services. And we found that not only could we help them transact in Australia, but the ability to jump to other countries, New Zealand being the usual first stopping point for an Australian SaaS company. And then the US without them having to rebuild all the integrations and relationships worked really well. Some had extra requirements as we went through. So 3d secure, automated resubmits, follow up communications, all those sorts of things we built in. And what happened was the partners all got value from that not just the individual one who made the request. So, our product grew.
Bob Butler
I mean, it sounds like what you built was new and unique and special, especially in the Australian market. And so that’s certainly what we saw when we were looking from the Payrix point of view to go into the Australian market, but bringing it to the current day, you start to think about software providers that are out there, what should they be considering for their customers, when thinking about an integrated payment solution?
Tony Braden
I think what they should be looking to do is to take a lot of the pain of payments away from having to develop themselves. So if it was me, I’d be looking for a single point of integration. So not have integrations for different payment types, those sorts of things. Or for different countries, it should be a single point of integration, that connection and supportive payments in the countries that they want to grow to. So easy onboarding of merchants. And this is really important, as they bring their customers and try and get them onto the payments, they really need an easy boarding mechanism for the merchants through the provider. Obviously, security goes without saying that payments needs to be very secure. And that cost of security should be something that is taken away from the SaaS provider and really provided by the payment solution. Another important thing is the company they’re working with should have a lot of payments expertise, and that should be accessible. So, it shouldn’t be just here’s an API go and build it. The other thing of course, is the revenue stream that’s going to come from using the particular integrator. From a functional point of view, obviously, you need card schemes, Card Present and Card Not Present, bank debits, or ACH for recurring payments. As we get into the alternative payment world absolutely need Apple Pay, Google Pay, but also some of the specialty ones – BPAY in Australia, and I’d be looking for a company that’s innovating. So. looking at things omnichannel, card schemes, enhancements, in Australia new payments platform, that’s really important.
Bob Butler
Well, that’s quite the list. How should a company, a software company, measure integrated payments success, from their point of view?
Tony Braden
It’s probably a few metrics. The obvious measurements, transactions, process, rejection rates, those sorts of things. And obviously, uptime and availability payments has got to be ready 24/7 365. I think measurement also is getting the merchant onboarding and making sure that happens quickly, it’s almost essential to get them up and processing as soon as possible while they’re interested. So, the slick onboarding process is necessary. Again, looking at the company and the innovation, making sure there’s always product scope improvement, I guess the ultimate measurement is client retention and usage. The clients are happy. That’s what you want.
Bob Butler
Absolutely. We’ve talked a lot about your background, the history of the company. What do you think software providers should be considering as they look to take payments global? Like, is there anything like the three points that you would say, when you’re thinking about going global from a software company’s point of view? What should they be?
Tony Braden
Look I think it’s really important to have a single point of integration and not have to reintegrate every time you’re bouncing across countries. So being able to process in multiple countries and currencies is really important. Local presence I think, makes a difference so that there’s someone in the country that really understands the nuances of the payment industry in that country. Innovation, I know being on a bit about that. But in particular, in this industry, the product standing still it’s actually falling behind. And I guess, really, these companies should be looking at their payment providers as true partners that’s mutually assured success. So find a payment partner that will actively help your business just not leech off the number of transactions you produce. I think that probably sums it up.
Bob Butler
That’s great. And I couldn’t agree with you more on all of those. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to leave the audience today?
Tony Braden
Payments is becoming more and more important in all SaaS businesses. And there’s a lot of noise and a lot of companies going in different directions. But what you’re really looking for is SaaS is not just local, but global, and you should be looking for global partners to take you on the trip around the world.
Bob Butler
I couldn’t agree with you more, Tony. So I’ll really want to thank you for being on the show.
Tony Braden
Thanks, Bob. It was good fun.
Bob Butler
You know, I know we’re both big believers in sharing knowledge and experience. So, I really appreciate you helping us kick off our global integrated payments track on The PayFAQ podcast. At Payrix, we want to be a trusted resource for software providers who are out there trying to make sense of integrated payment offerings, and to help them get the education they need to make the business decisions their customers and key stakeholders will thank them for.
Thank you for joining us today on The PayFAQ: Embedded Payments podcast brought to you by Payrix. For more information about Embedded Payments, subscribe to our show at payrix.com/podcasts.
