In the first post of this series, there was a quote that bears repeating:
“Efficient integrations to payment services are only a portion of the equation when providing commerce APIs. Ensuring the development community is enabled throughout their commercialization process is paramount…”
- Alfred ‘Chip’ Kahn, IV, CEO IP Commerce
There is a danger inherent in offering open APIs to the developer community. Time after time, in all industries, companies are caught in the trap of assuming that their responsibility is complete at the time a Software Company or Developer successfully leverages their APIs to complete an integration.
Integration, however, is only the beginning.
The “commercialization process” is where money is to be made…or lost…and where the efficacy of APIs and your partnership will be largely judged. The process of qualification & boarding is where your business (as a payment service provider offering APIs) will be judged most heavily by the Software Company. Why is this? What is it about this portion of the process that is so important to the Software Company?
In our last post, we mentioned Support being key in establishing a “posture of partnership.” If you are attempting to attract Software Companies it is important to understand their needs. Their most basic need, first and foremost, is to satisfy their customers. As such, your services become an extension of the software their customers have chosen to purchase. If you increase their service or support costs, you’ll have no shot at partnering with the Software Company community.
If this is a “Message From the Edge”, perhaps a quote will be helpful. This was sent to us from a Software Company who has leveraged a payment companies APIs to build a solution to meet their customers’ requirements.
“The waiting game seems to be the standard in the payments industry.
Average turnaround time with startups: measured in hours.
Average turnaround time with bank: measured in weeks.”
Clearly, providing just APIs is not sufficient. How you partner with the Software Company throughout the entire commercialization processing including; integration, boarding their customers, supporting their customers, addressing issues that arise with the service, etc. will determine how you are viewed by the development community.
The lack of an efficient, standardized process that meets the need of Software Companies is stifling innovation in payments. Payment companies must recognize that targeting Software Companies is much more than providing APIs – you must support the entire commercialization process.
The first payment company that truly addresses the complete commercialization process (APIs to live transactions), including effective and efficient underwriting and boarding, will win the hearts and minds of Software Community and their customers.
We’ve been speaking from our experience as developers and on behalf of developers in the marketplace. Let us know if you have had a different experience than the point of view above by leaving us a comment below or send in your own Message from the Edge with our Contact Us form.
About the Author:
Peter Osberg is the Sr. Vice President, Business Development & Marketing for IP Commerce. With extensive senior-level experience in highly competitive, multi-sided markets, Peter is a well-established entrepreneur with a proven ability to plan, execute and administer successful sales and business development initiatives.
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