Paymentech Merchants Will Get PayPal

Hi touchpoints,

I come across the best event to happen in B2B E-commerce and payment industry. Two big giants able to see synergy and join hands.

Online merchants handling sales through electronic payment processor Paymentech could see a significant boost, thanks to a new deal with PayPal. As a result of that agreement, Paymentech starting in early 2005 will be able to offer its merchants the ability to accept and process transactions that use PayPal, the eBay-owned giant of alternative payments.

Through the deal, Paymentech will resell and fully integrate PayPal's online payment service onto its proprietary processing platform. Its merchants will be able to consolidate PayPal transactions into their existing settlement and reporting processes -- in other words, they won't have to radically revamp their systems or sites to accept the alternative currency.

Paymentech, which by some estimates handles upwards of a half of all Web-based e-commerce transactions, is already a key player in processing online transactions -- and the move is likely to only increase its standing. For one thing, the agreement with eBay and PayPal serves to make Paymentech more enticing to online merchants, beefing up its existing payment options, which include credit cards, electronic checks and ACH/EFT.

Most importantly, merchants who use Paymentech also stand to benefit. The sheer scale of PayPal's operation -- boasting more than 56 million accounts in service -- make it an important alternative currency to support.

"PayPal has more than 56 million accounts around the world, which translates to new buyers and incremental sales for Internet merchants," said Scott Cruickshank, Paymentech's chief marketing officer. "Our goal is to offer merchants the broadest range of payment methods, and through this agreement, that's exactly what we are doing." Also, adding new forms of payments to your site is seen as a way to better your conversion rates. Recent research suggests that accepting multiple payment or currency types can help in converting visitors to buyers.

In addition to standard one-time transactions, Paymentech's platform also support gift certificates, "Bill Me Later" functionally, and recurring payments (useful for subscriptions.)

The deal with PayPal comes amid online payment processors' efforts to improve offerings for Web merchants. CyberSource recently added "Bill Me Later" functionality to its own lineup, helping e-commerce sellers reach buyers who may not have credit cards, but who seek ways to purchase higher-priced goods and services.

Black Monday Dec 3,2004 - La Memorie De Sorrow

It is not good to remember bad part of history but, some historical events remain in our mind as bad as it was.

Let us go down that memory lane which is full of blood sheds of more than 1 lac pepole - circa Dec 3,1984 it was black monday. Winter cold in UP has decided to become lethal. American company Union Carbide's Gas plant started creating deadly cloud hovering over Bhopal.

Few early factory goers got up and did not see the sight of early rising Sun as Sun was eclisped by the thick guts of gas. Nostrils of many guys sleeping in sweet last hour of winter child morning died with out knowing the reason. 3000 pepole died and 20,000 were treated in hospital to salvage with life long disability.

What is the fate of those who died as well as who survived. ????
Mid of goverment change, inflation going down, stock market going up, Indian business go global why the story of BHOPAL GAS is so STATIC after 20 years.

More coverage on BBC new Site which is giving the in depth analysis and facts as "ONE NIGHT IN BHOPAL".

Integrated Change

Change....Change...Change...........................Change Management....

M & A... BPM.....BPI..... BPR...... RTE.....UML...TIBCO..........................

.....so many Industry jargons becuase somebody thinking loud on top.

Strategy buzzword "CHANGE" was always ongoing echo in our ears. Don't use any Anti Noise device to defaten it but, feel it like music. Yes. Strategy planning will be always prioirty item till 2010. BASEL II, Check 21, e-purse, Bluetooth are some the technology changing the way we deal with payment system.

At the fag end of 2004, let us learn from Learned. ET Corporate Excellance Awardee for 2004 Dr. C.K. Prahalad - Teaching Corporate Strategy at University of Michigan Business School. His book was recently identfied as best book of 2004 by Strategy and Business - Booz,Allen and Hamilton. Larry Bossidy is one of the change manager known for last 25 years. He has played critical role in restructuring GE with Jack Welch. He was ranked higher than Jack welch in Top Ten American MAnager by FORTUNE MAgazine in 1995.

Few exerpts are as follows:
Integrated ChangeAlthough business gurus have documented the inadequacy of the linear strategy-first-execution-next view in today’s business environment, no one has provided businesspeople with actionable concepts they can use to replace the old thinking. A new framework is needed — one that views strategy as an integrated change program linking together multiple dimensions of strategy: external realities, internal activities and business processes, financial targets, and customers. We think of this as “integrated strategy.”
The three books we selected for this review make the most substantive contributions this year to the development of a new, integrated view of strategy:

1. Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (Crown Business, 2004);

2. The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers, by C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy (Harvard Business School Press, 2004); and

3. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes, by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (Harvard Business School Press, 2004).

November 30, 2004

'Cash back' cards: Will Citibank be rewarded?

Citibank recently launched its 'cash back' credit cards in several Asian countries amid fierce market competition that has seen a proliferation of cards offering typical rewards. Competitors say they are not worried.

Within the last month, Citibank, the world’s largest credit card issuer, has launched its version of a ‘cash back’ credit card in India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore and will introduce the card to two more markets in the region this year in the hope of replicating the success of its card in the US. “We felt first mover advantage was critical,” Lillian Wang, Citibank Singapore cards marketing director, said of the reason behind the global bank’s regional initiative now. Pioneered by Discover Financial Services in the US in 1986, ‘cash back’ cards or cards that ironically provide rewards in cash and not just points exchangeable for goods and services, has “taken the US by storm,” Yuen Kum Fai, Citibank Singapore business director for credit payment products, said during the recent launch of the card in the city-state. Over the past three years, cash back cards made significant inroads into the saturated US cards market, now constituting close to 40 percent of cards issued, Yuen pointed out. There, cash back cards offer far higher cash rewards with the Discover Card just finishing a special offer of up to 10 percent cash back on restaurant meals. In Asia, credit card issuers already have cash back type cards in one form or another, but the Citibank Dividend MasterCard, or, in some Asian markets, Citibank Cash Back MasterCard, is the first ‘dedicated’ cash back card. In Singapore, cardholders get an actual check in the mail of up to two percent or three percent of purchases, depending on the market, instead of rewards, rebates or special promotions. Based on the average annual spend of a Citibank cardholder in Singapore, the bank has estimated that cardholders would get an average of S$50 back per quarter. Yuen said the cost of the incentives and promotions for this card portfolio would actually end up being twice that of the bank’s existing cards that are primarily rewards-based, but it also expected to achieve a similar 20 percent increase in spending as was achieved by the card in the US. In terms of card growth, Yuen said Citibank expected to grow its current card base of about 600,000 cards by 30 percent over the next two to three years. In Malaysia a 15 percent expansion in its existing base of one million cards was projected, while in Thailand, where it has been more than a month since the cash back card was launched, the reception was reportedly ‘encouraging’. Wang said she would not be surprised to see competitors follow Citibank’s move with similar cash back cards, but other issuers were unimpressed. “Consumers are more discerning today than the smartest marketers,” Andy Chan, group head for unsecured lending and credit cards for Singapore-based OCBC Bank, told The Asian Banker at the recent launch of that bank’s Titanium credit card, which sports a unique design, caters to the high end market and offers golf and spa membership privileges and other benefits. In terms of discounts at petrol stations, Chan pointed out that OCBC credit card holders could already get a rebate of six percent at the point of sale on top of the usual five percent discount, so a three percent cash back where the cardholder would have to go to the bank and deposit a check would not be convenient. “Cash back is already embedded in a lot of our products and services,” Chan pointed out, adding that aside from point of sale discounts, bonus or reward points earned by cardholders can also be converted into vouchers which can be used immediately and there is no need to wait for a check every quarter. “People want instant gratification,” he asserted, noting that, in the US, the cash back card may have worked because point-of-sale discounts are not readily available. - E. Torrijos

NCR Stresses on Service Delivery makes India as Service Point

Dayton Business Journal:
In a move to strengthen its lagging customer services division, Dayton-based NCR Corp. opened a $6 million facility in Mumbai, India, early this month that will serve as one of three major customer service hubs around the world.

The 48,000-square-foot center, operated by the customers services division and expected to have at least 250 employees, handles service calls primarily for the growing area of automated teller machines (ATMs) in India, along with retail scanners, data-warehousing products and technology systems, spokesman Jeff Dafler said. This is the third major call center for NCR and will increase the number of ATMs NCR is able to manage in India from about 6,000 to 25,000, he said. The center is targeting customers in India and Asia primarily while other sites are handling other areas of the world.

He said NCR is working hard to cut costs in its customer services division and boost its sales by focusing on markets where it dominates. While the three prominent divisions of ATMs, retail and data-warehousing are expected to expand sales this year, NCR said customer services should see sales edge down 2 percent to 3 percent. But operating larger hubs saves NCR money and gives customers a one-stop shop for customer services, Dafler said.

And India is a strong market for NCR. Late last year the company launched what it said was the first ATM designed specifically for the Indian market. Since then, it won a contact for the ATMs from Cosmos Bank in India and also picked up a technology award.

Dafler said banking customers are increasingly opting to outsource the ATM network management to NCR and the new center will service that growing client base, he said.

"We are, by and large, the market leader in ATMs in India," he said, adding the market is slated to grow 40 percent annually. "That's an important position to defend and we want to capitalize on that."

The new building in India comes after NCR recently announced a $6 million expansion at its headquarters in Dayton as part of an effort to consolidate nearby sites.

Matt Summerville, an analyst with industrial technology analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland, said NCR has increased its capital expenditures to about $250 to $270 million this year from $229 million in 2003 and $194 million in 2002.

"They've been talking about (increasing) spending for some time, about lowering their cost structure," Summerville said.

The site in India will work in conjunction with two other customer services hubs, one in Columbia, S.C., and another in Lanarkshire, Scotland, which opened in May. The site in India is targeting customers in its home country and other areas of Asia; the center in Columbia, S.C., takes care of customers in the Americas; and the Scottish site takes care of customers in Europe.

However, Dafler said NCR works with each customer to find the site that is most appropriate, even if the customer isn't in the same part of the world the service site is located. He also said NCR operates about 10 smaller customer services sites around the world that can be used by customers.

He wouldn't speculate on whether there could be more hubs for the company on the horizon.

Designing Branches by Walking Around

BAI's RETAIL SHOW in Las Vegas (Nov. 16 to Nov 18 2004)

Prophets of Industry suggesting to move on value chain from Customer Relation (CRM) to Customer Experience (CEM).


It isn’t often that a conference speaker takes his shoe off to make a point, but that’s what Paco Underhill did in a Thursday afternoon General Session. Underhill, a retail anthropologist and author of Why We Buy, spoke on the general theme of applying retailing principles to banking.

To underscore the theme that institutions often design their branches without carefully considering how customers actually use those facilities, Underhill took off his shoe and held it up.

Instead of working behind a desk at a PC, he said, branch designers need to invest in some good rubber-soled shoes and walk around their facilities as actual customers do in order to understand the full ramifications of the customer experience. Underhill had earlier showed some amusing video clips of customers in actual retail situations, which demonstrated that the needs of customers can be unpredictable.

Sound Financial Infrastructure improves Op. Margin of Retail Store Chains

Enabling Technology – DigitalDeposit™ – Premiering At BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo
Mosinee, WI, November 17, 2004 – Wausau Financial Systems (WFS), a leading provider of image-based payment processing solutions and a pioneer in Point of Presentment technology announces the debut of DigitalDeposit™. The technology positions a financial institution to offer commercial clients the a bility to save millions annually in maintenance fees by controlling processing cut-off times and relieving courier dependency.

According to a ChainstoreAge.com article dated January 1, 2004, a large national retailer with 6,000
company-owned stores that maintains a separate account for each store will pay approximately $2 million per year in account-maintenance fees alone.

WFS will showcase DigitalDeposit™ during BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo – Las Vegas
Convention Center November 16 – 19, booth 3061. Demonstrations displaying DigitalDeposit’s ability to provide significant improvements in the areas of accelerated clearing, reduced operational expense, extended processing hours and improved exception item handling will be available. Additionally, the power to improve fraud reduction and faster funds collection will be demonstrated.

Recognizing its bottom-line value, a top-tier financial institution has engaged the DigitalDeposit™ solution. With implementation already in progress, and expectant deployment across thousands of workstations around the world, the solution will serve as a delivery engine for enabling “virtual branch” expansion, depository account consolidation and enhanced corporate relationships through faster, more efficient andmore secure funds availability.

"Corporate depository relationships are dramatically enhanced due to DigitalDeposit's virtual collection
design,” said Mark Pitman, EVP of sales with Wausau Financial Systems. “A financial institution can now leverage corporate relationships across their existing region, across the nation, or around the globe, without concern for brick-and-mortar-based territory restrictions. Beyond new revenue growth through a stronger customer base, enhanced collection services drive additional benefits such as fraud reduction and improved funds availability.”

About Wausau Financial Systems WFS provides transaction-processing applications
for all size companies ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to independent local financial institutions and commercial businesses worldwide. In addition to software and hardware options, the company offers comprehensive training,consultation, international image solutions, a unique associate reseller channel, 24-hour customer support, consumable supplies, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Currently, WFS employs more than 400 associates supporting over 650 customer sites worldwide. www.wausaufs.com.

Selling Experiences and Dreams

Retail Delivery '04 wrap-up:
Most prestigious show on the earth know about happenings in banking technology was held and concluded recently. Pick up the latest by clicking on the image above to visit for more photos and interesting product announcement.

Most important part was the Wrap Up by Management guru Tom Peters closed out Thursday’s General Session with a series of amusing anecdotes and stories designed to underscore some important lessons for retail bankers. Peters, whose most recent book is entitled Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, said companies that “can’t compete with China on cost and Wal-Mart on price” (which includes about everyone) need to focus on adding value. And one of the best ways to do that, Peters said, is to market experiences and dreams to customers. As examples of companies that have been able to do that successfully, Peters cited Starbucks, Harley Davidson, and Ritz Carlton. Interestingly, New Jersey’s Commerce Bancorp was one of the few financial services companies that met Peters’ criteria for excellence. Peters also made the point that bank marketers need to focus more of their attention on female customers, since women tend to make most of the important purchase decisions in American households.