Pulse of Payments: Swipe Right on SoftPOS: Unlocking Payment Freedom with Mike Barnes, Ingenico | Episode 331

The world of payments is rapidly evolving, and Ingenico's SoftPOS technology is at the forefront of this revolution. In this episode, Mike Barnes, Sales Director and Head of Banks and Acquirers at Ingenico, dives deep into the innovative features and capabilities of SoftPOS, offering valuable insights into its integration, customization, security, and future evolution.

SoftPOS is a game-changer in the payments industry as it transforms any NFC-enabled mobile device into a seamless payment terminal. This means that merchants can accept payments on their smartphones or tablets, unlocking a world of possibilities. Mike Barnes emphasizes the importance of clear communication and ongoing collaboration between partners and Ingenico during the integration process.

Security and payment flexibility are paramount in the world of payments, and SoftPOS by Ingenico delivers on both fronts. SoftPOS is an app-based solution that simplifies transactions, protects sensitive data, and ensures the highest level of security with stringent PCI certifications and software-based security measures. 

We share compelling success stories, like how SoftPOS provided reliable payment solutions during network outages, and explore the future evolution of SoftPOS. Learn how customer feedback is driving the development of new features such as DCC, loyalty programs, and installment payments, setting the stage for SoftPOS to revolutionize the payments landscape for SMBs and retailers worldwide.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to this special Pulse of Payment series titled Swipe Right on SoftPause Unlocking Payment Freedom, a special six-part series brought to you in collaboration with Ingenico, the global leader in payments. Softpause is a revolutionary technology that lets merchants accept payments on any smartphone or device, unlocking a world of possibilities. Smartphone or device unlocking a world of possibilities. Join us as we dive deep into SoftPause with Ingenico, thought leaders, satisfied customers and innovative partners. Discover how this flexible solution can streamline your checkout, expand your reach and deliver a seamless payment experience for your customers, all while moving your commerce forward. Buckle up and get ready to swipe right on SoftPause and unlock payment freedom.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Hi everyone. Today, Mike Barnes, sales Director, head of Banks and Acquirers from Ingenico, joins me for our third episode in our Postal Payments series focused on SoftPause. In the first episode, we got a great high-level overview from Jason Stanchfield, and in the second episode, I spoke with Anthony Walsh about the types and sizes of businesses that can benefit from SoftPause. So I suggest you go back and listen to those episodes as well. So, mike, thank you for being here and welcome to the show.

Speaker 3: 1:19

Hey, pleasure, nice to meet you again, greg.

Speaker 2: 1:21

Yes, you too. So let's go ahead and dive right in. If you don't mind. Tell our audience a little bit about yourself and your professional journey as well. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 3: 1:29

So I grew up in a little town called Chippenham in Wiltshire which is for your audience who are listening here. It's about 70 miles west of London. I attended an all-boys school, as it was there in the 70s, and they had a fantastic sports facilities and a reputation for producing great athletes. So that was my goal to want to be an athlete but unfortunately it didn't actually work out. I now live in a place called Rawalton Bassett, which is about 20 miles from where I grew up.

Speaker 3: 1:55

My first exposure really is selling, specifically within the finance sector, was working for an insurance company and selling life insurance, and then about 1998, 1999, I started working for a software company and that was my first step into payments. From around 2003 through to 2012, I worked for a fraud and payments company called Retail Decisions. Some of your listeners may be aware of ACI. Aci acquired Retail Decisions back in 2014. From there, I worked for a company called Secure Trading as heading up their sales, moved on to a software company and it was around this time I started working with a company called SlimPay and that was headed up by Brad Hyatt, who is our CEO of FOSS and SoftBoz by Ingenico, and you know we started working together on a number of different projects.

Speaker 3: 2:51

Brad then became managing director for BlueSnap and it was just after that probably towards about the end of 2019, I got a call and Brad said you know, would you be interested in looking at a really exciting, innovative payment solution called SoftPos? Now I'd never heard of SoftPos, but it was new, it was exciting and it was innovative. So I thought, yeah, let's take a look at it. And that was four years ago. So over the last 25 to 27 years I've been involved in payments, greg.

Speaker 2: 3:23

Yeah Well, thanks for sharing that. I appreciate that background story. So just for our audience, just can you give us a quick reminder of what SoftPause is?

Speaker 3: 3:34

Of course. So SoftPause stands for software point of sale. It's also known as tap to pay. In different regions around the world. It's a solution that turns any NFC-enabled mobile device into a payments terminal without a need for really an extended reader. It allows merchants to take contactless payments via Android and iOS smartphones and, of course, tablets.

Speaker 2: 3:58

Okay, thanks for sharing that definition. I think that'll level set on everyone what the topic is. But today we're going to peel the onion back a little bit and we're going to focus on integration and implementation of soft pause. So we're going to talk about things like customization, security and compliance. We'll talk about some case studies and future trends. So with that, let's go ahead and jump right in. So, mike, what do partners need to understand about soft pause integration?

Speaker 3: 4:24

Well, the way we work with partners, greg, is once a partner agrees that they want to move forward with a soft pause project, we provide them with what we call our intake form. Now, this provides FOSS technical teams so our business project managers and our technical project managers with a complete overview of what that partner's requirements are, right down to the look and feel of the soft-poss application. The intake document also forms part of the project plan and what we're going to deliver over that engagement with that customer.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Okay, so what are some of the prerequisites of a successful integration?

Speaker 3: 5:04

That's a really, really good question. We often get asked by our partners how long will it take to complete an integration? How quickly can we get them live? Well, we work with many partners around the world completing the integration whether it's a host-to-host integration and running the level three test, which is part of that integration, and we've completed this with some partners in four weeks. On the other side of the coin, we have worked with partners that have taken them nine months Now.

Speaker 3: 5:34

Often this is down to what I believe is to one contributing factor and that's communication. Within the project plan that we produce and we have for our customers, there are product descriptions, there are start and end dates, who has ownership of certain tasks, how long is the duration of that particular task and at any point, if a task is not completed by that owner, this can then push out the actual project timeline. So we stay right from the beginning with a project that, if we're going to hit your deadlines, as you've requested, we need to keep that communication channel open. I believe that's part of what it takes for a successful integration.

Speaker 2: 6:22

Okay, and how do your partners ensure the integration is seamless across NFC-type devices?

Speaker 3: 6:28

During the scoping of the phases of the project, we provide all our partners with a soft-pos user guide. Now this user guide outlines, for example, the version of software required For, take example, android. It's running Android 14. For iOS, it's now version 17. Now this helps to enable a seamless deployment across that wide range of devices currently on the market, but also for new devices that will enter the market over the coming months.

Speaker 2: 6:58

Well, let's turn to some of the technical aspects and challenges. So what are some of the challenges partners face when integrating SoftPause?

Speaker 3: 7:07

Over the last four and a half years. I guess the main challenge that I've experienced and I know my colleagues have as well is with technical resource availability to kick a project off. Often there are competing projects running simultaneously that businesses are actually working on. Now those Soft pauses are really important for them. This can impact the plan go live dates that they have. So multiple projects running. You know which one do we put as a priority and I guess if they choose another project then the timelines that they initially had in their head can actually slip. So I believe this is some of the biggest challenges that businesses face today, but I guess that's probably no surprise to the audience, greg, that are listening today.

Speaker 2: 7:51

Yeah, yeah, I would agree. I think the other thing that I think about when it comes to this integration of SoftPause is you're dealing with and you kind of mentioned it the operating systems and the different device manufacturers. Do the partners have challenges with compatibility issues with those?

Speaker 3: 8:11

Yes, and I've heard from various partners who've come to us after talking to others that is the case. The way we built our soft pulse solution at FOSS Biogenico, we've looked at how do we make all devices complete agnostic. So that was an approach we took four and a half years ago. Let's look at making our solution device agnostic so it can run on any Android device or any iOS device with the correct software, but also with NFC capability. Softpos is designed to work on the phrase cost devices, so it's a commercially off-the-shelf device. These are typical devices that are in common use with general public Devices, whether they're smartphones or whether they're tablets. These are devices that we're all familiar with and I wouldn't be surprised if, in the future, this extends to devices that maybe are not just cost device. But who knows? We're in a super fast involving sector, but that's what we try to to help our partners with Greg.

Speaker 2: 9:15

OK, that makes a lot of sense. So I know one of the value props of SoftPos is really the fact that it's customizable. So can you speak to how customizable the SoftPos solution is?

Speaker 3: 9:27

Yes definitely. So at FossBrand Genica we offer three different solutions. We have an SDK, we have a white label and then we have a dynamically branded solution.

Speaker 3: 9:37

So for example, if you're a bank that has a mobile application, or if you're a tech company that builds mobile applications, then the SDK will allow you to build a company that builds mobile applications, then the SDK will allow you to build a tap-to-page solution using the SDK, meaning the complete design, the look, the feel, including the user experience, can be developed using the SDK, so it's completely customizable. And also there's no visibility of phospho-anginica. A merchant will only see the bank's details within that application. If you're an acquirer or fintech, then a white label solution can be customized to a degree. It's often the right solutions for an acquirer or fintech. The fonts can be changed, the logo you have your own logo there. The colors can actually be explained, so again, it looks exactly like that particular fintech or that acquirer. Look like.

Speaker 3: 10:33

The white lid was perfect because it also gets our partners to market quite quickly. It requires less work and and no certification, and then we have our dynamically branded solution. I mean this effectively is the FOSS by Ingenico solution, and it could be for a bank maybe who wants to give that to a large partner. So what happens when that solution is downloaded from the Play Store or the App Store and the merchant adds his or her credentials. It will then display that merchant's logo. If they're large enough, like an ISO and ISV, it will share or show their logo, just the way I guess an Ingenico terminal would display an acquirer's logo such as WorldPay, elevon or Fiserv. There's no customization to the dynamic solution, but this is because it's a low entry softball solution that only takes really a few days to have that merchant up and running. And those are the three solutions that we offer that are, as I mentioned, customizable Greg.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Well, let's dive a little deeper into the white label, one that's intriguing to me. So what are some of the benefits of using the white label solution?

Speaker 3: 11:43

I think the key benefit of the solution is the simplicity to use. Simplicity to get it actually mobilized. Also, how it reduces time to market. It requires no certification. We have a straightforward integration process that will take you or that we take our partners right through from requesting their design assets to allow us to build it the way and look and feel that they actually have. We took a decision about 18 months ago to build what we call our orchestration platform, where today we have over 30 acquirers plugged into it. So if a partner chooses to take a white label solution, effectively they can be up and running within a few weeks. And these are just some of the benefits a white label solution has to offer.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Okay, well, you mentioned Acquire, so let's talk specifically about Acquire. So how does SoftPos benefit Acquire from a cost efficiency and a scaling perspective.

Speaker 3: 12:45

Acquirer's softball solution, for example. With that solution, they can have their name on it, their logo on it, their look and feel. They can also offer a dynamically branded solution. But as an acquirer, scaling becomes simple, it becomes fast and without any development work, even if the partner requires it to be hosted in the Play Store or in the App Store. All the heavy lifting has been taken away. Now, if you compare this to traditional terminals, you not only have to consider stock, but you've got to look at shipment of the terminals, configuration and setup, which we know can be costly and it can be time consuming. With soft pods, you reduce the time to market, which means you reduce the scaling and it becomes very efficient. You do not need to hold stock and in that way, you're reducing your overall cost of ownership. Acquirers are starting to see this. They're also starting to see, with soft pods, how they can acquire more customers.

Speaker 2: 13:57

Okay, and what role do the acquirers play in the deployment and the onboarding process?

Speaker 3: 14:05

So an acquirer can choose whatever way he or she wants to distribute the solution to their partners and depending on what agreement they have in place, they may choose, for example, with a soft pos. They want to use mobile device management tools For onboarding those merchants. We provide our partners with a provisioning API and this will allow the merchant's details to be logged within the FOSS backend. Details such as the merchant name, merchant stores and the user details, terminal IDs, merchant IDs, even the email address. Through using the user details, terminal IDs, merchant IDs, even the email address. Through using the provision API, we can take that and store that information within our backend. So it again reduces the time to market, but it helps our acquirers deploy the solution that much quicker and more effectively.

Speaker 2: 14:55

One thing you said I want to double click on is the software is in, for example, the app store. So how does that work, like if you're the acquirer, versus a merchant, like who downloads it? The end device, I guess, has to download it. But maybe explain how that kind of works.

Speaker 3: 15:14

Sure, the acquirer can choose to say to their merchants and again, depending on the side of merchants, they can send them, for example, an email with a link to the app store to say download this app, we'll provide you with the credentials and away you go. Or the acquirer can choose, using, as I mentioned, mobile device management, to send the app directly to a merchant to download on their device. So they can either point them via email as an example or they can use MDMs again to get that application onto the merchant's device.

Speaker 2: 15:48

Okay, okay, that makes sense. I was just a little confused on how that works, but that makes sense, you know, and when you think about it.

Speaker 2: 15:56

We come from this traditional payments world where you know forever it was all about the terminals, right, when you know, sitting on the desk, and that certainly wasn't where you went to an app store and downloaded anything. And then even you know software payments. You're not necessarily downloading an app. Sometimes I guess you are. So I just wanted to make sure it was clear to the audience sort of the fact that this does sit in an app store and that you know you can go download it or there are other ways, like you mentioned. So I just wanted to make sure that was clear. So what kind of training and resources are available?

Speaker 3: 16:30

What our partners love about the Foss by Ingenico softball solution is the simplicity, because a merchant will know and understand their own smartphones or their own tablets. All they need to do really is open the app. It will then run a security check to identify that yep, I recognize this person. Then the soft pause is really ready to use. They can open, open the payment screen, type in the amount of the value for the goods that they've been purchased. Then the consumer will tap his or her contactless card or their mobile device or, if they've got a wearable, even their wearable onto the actual device itself and the transaction is complete. The merchant then can provide a receipt for a consumer and whether this is via SMS, via QR code, eml or even a paper receipt If they choose an SMS or an email, for example the soft-poss solution will not store that consumer's mobile number or their email address. It's purely a one-off transaction itself. So it's a very simple way of using a solution and, again, because it's a smartphone, most people are aware of the capabilities of that device.

Speaker 2: 17:40

Yeah, it sounds like you've mentioned that a few times. It's something that people use every day, whether that's an Android device or an Apple device or an iPad or tablet of some sort, so they're familiar with it. It's not like learning a whole new system, so that makes it sound like it's very simple to use. So, in the payments industry and fintech, obviously, safety and security is very, very important, so let's talk about that for a little bit. So how does SoftPos ensure security?

Speaker 3: 18:14

Well, before any provider Greg can take a SoftPos solution to market, it has to be certified and it has to be PCI certified and back in the early days it was something called CPOC Contactless Payments on a Cost Device. Now the new iteration of softball standard is MPOC, so it's Mobile Payments on a Cost Device, and these are standards specifically set by PCI. This means your solution has gone through a scheme's recognized labs and it's passed stringent security and safety procedures to ensure really every contactless transaction made by a consumer on a merchant softboss device as a highest form of protection when performing that transaction. So softboss uses effectively the same infrastructure as a contactless EMV payment. Every provider that wants to offer a soft POS solution must adhere to the PCI standard.

Speaker 2: 19:09

And that's very important. Okay, so beyond that, what additional security features are unique to soft POS?

Speaker 3: 19:16

So soft POS utilizes what we call software-based security measures on devices, whereas traditional terminals rely on hardware security. Softbus also leverages device attestation and it's constantly monitoring the health of the device If it uses secure elements for key storage and, obviously, client certification. So what do I mean by that? It means that every transaction is required a new unique key every time a transaction is forced. If I tap my device, then a new key is exchanged to say hey, do I recognize Greg? Yes, I recognize Greg. Yep, he's logged within our backend. I'll allow that transaction to take place. But also we go a step further. The device is running. We are at a station of monitoring. So what that does basically is constantly checking the health of the device itself. For example, is that device running any sniffing software? Is it gel broke? Is the camera open? Again, this is really important to protect the consumer and that's part of the security that around soft pulse solutions. And why these stringent certifications you have to go through to become a recognized MPOP provider, if you will.

Speaker 2: 20:28

Okay, well, let's take all of this wealth of knowledge about the technical side that we've been talking about and let's kind of form that into some success stories. So can you share some real world examples or case studies where SoftPause has significantly benefited a business?

Speaker 3: 20:46

Yeah right, there are so many, but let me just pick on a few that I've seen and heard about just recently. I've been to a number of events around the world, but a few that have come up. So take, for example, an enterprise customer, and when SoftPause was first developed, we were all focused on is it for an SME customer? Is it for enterprise? Well, it's everything in between, sme right through to enterprise. Enterprise customer will use it as a backup to their terminals. For example, a particular partner their network went down, which meant basically they would not have been able to process payment if it wasn't for SoftBoss. But they're able to have a bunch of devices, fire them up and able to actually process payments until their network issue was resolved.

Speaker 3: 21:31

But it could have been quite detrimental to their business if they didn't have this. If you take banks, banks will provide their SME customers using a solution purely for flexibility, because smaller businesses, mid-range businesses, will have seasonal changes where they need something very quick to take payments. Now do they want to actually take a terminal lease that for three years, when they really only want it for a few months? So that's where again, they got a smartphone. They got softpods on there again that can be fired up for that particular seasonal event that they need to use it for. But there's so many more. I mean in our payments.

Speaker 3: 22:12

Retailers are losing money where customers will walk into their store they'll see a queue and walk out. In our payments combat's this problem and I'm sure many of your listeners have gone into stores, seen a queue and thought do you know what I don't need, what I was going to buy today and they're OK. But also our changing behavior since, since the pandemic Greg, consumers or our behavior has changed tremendously when what we believe it's done is fast track, the acceptance of softballs. Fast-track, the acceptance of softballs, clientele is growing in a staggering way where shoppers now are really demanding a more personal shopping experience and softballs Greg is perfect for that Absolutely perfect. Also, another very quick example I think it was 12 months, 18 months ago, one of the rugby games here in the UK. We had a particular partner fundraising at a rugby event and he said he collected 40% more donations using a soft pulse device. So awesome.

Speaker 2: 23:15

Yeah, that is, and you mentioned something there that I think is interesting. You know the whole. You know COVID and everything that we went through has changed consumer behaviors. There's been a lot of studies and information out there about kind of Gen Z and their expectations around. You know payments being frictionless and you know this definitely can help solve that challenge right and just from the line busting that you mentioned to, you know, just being more of an intimate connection with a consumer at a, you know I'm thinking like a high-end retail. Why the normal shopping experience where you go pick something off the shelf and have to go stand in a line? Why not have the? You know the associate there just pay them right there? You know why have that? You know traditional line kind of thing Is that? You know? I assume that's a use case that you see as well.

Speaker 3: 24:05

Absolutely, greg. Yes, we do indeed, and we're hearing more and more of it, and just a few months ago we were at a major event and the number of enterprise clients who came to us to talk about that use case, I think really was very interesting.

Speaker 2: 24:19

Yeah, well, how do you take these success stories and how does it shape your approach to further developing and improving the product?

Speaker 3: 24:25

success stories and how does it shape your approach to further developing and improving the product? Well, it's really interesting. As I mentioned earlier, our listeners we take their feedback, the partners we work with. Their feedback is really important and over the last four and a half years that has shaped how we've built our solution. Our success is down to the input received from those partners. A simple suggestion could mean a really cool feature or really great benefit to a particular merchant throughout the world. So we continue to listen to our partners and that's how we become successful and I know that's how we will continue our success. So our partners, their opinions, greg, are invaluable to us.

Speaker 2: 25:05

So, Mike, as we get towards the end of the show, let's finish up talking about the future. So how do you see the future of soft pause evolving, say, in the next three to five years?

Speaker 3: 25:15

Wow, I wish I had a magic ball. There are many reports that you know your listeners can actually find and read, but over the past few months there are a number of predictions on softballs, especially on a volume perspective, and the reasoning behind this is fantastic. The growth is great and Genico produced a white paper that I would encourage anyone who's interested in softballs to read. If you'd like a copy, dm me and I'll be delighted to send you a copy. But Fortune Business Insights predicts the global soft-poss market, which is currently valued at 240 million or it was in 2022, to reach 1077 million by 2030. I mean that's a 20.4% compound growth rate. Soft-poss is now seen as a solution that is enhancing the customer experience and, with contacts acceptance increasing globally, softpos, I believe, is the enabler for merchants and financial institutions globally.

Speaker 2: 26:15

Yeah, it's hard to predict. There's so many examples and use cases. I mean, the more and more I've learned about it, the more and more I feel like it's like why would a merchant not use it? Like there's no reason not to, so it just makes so much sense. So I understand that growth. That totally makes sense. Well, what upcoming features or enhancements do you think we'll see with the product?

Speaker 3: 26:38

Our roadmap goes out to 2026, I think it is. But if you look at the enhancements that we have today and what we've got added, they've come by through basically our customers, saying we would like to have this. But our question is okay, well, you'd like to have this great. Who is it actually going to benefit? If it's going to benefit a number of people, then we'll add it to our roadmap.

Speaker 2: 26:59

Let me give you an example.

Speaker 3: 27:01

Over the last few months. We've had partners ask for DCC, we've had partners ask for loyalty, we've had partners ask for installment, for surcharges in different markets, for tips and taxes, and all these features are either in flight today or on the roadmap, and I think the ones I've just mentioned are really rolling out over the next few months or so. So that has come about again through listening to our customers. But we want to know how can we future-proof Greg, our product, and that has come about again through listening to our customers. But we want to know how can we future-proof Greg, our product. And that is the key thing how do we look to the future and make sure we have what our partners need?

Speaker 2: 27:36

Yeah, and when we kind of step back and look at the broader market, you have emerging technologies, things like 5G and Internet of Things. So how do those kind of things impact the development and adoption of soft pause?

Speaker 3: 27:50

Well, if you look in certain markets I mean, the smartphone adoption in some markets is well above 95%. In other regions it's less than that. With 5G being rolled out and IoT across many sectors, this will only increase, first of all, customer awareness and then it will drive further adoption. Just as the pandemic changed people's behaviors four years ago and has now led to a surge in wave, the momentum of card issuing, for example, is moved completely, where the deployment of contactless cards for some of our some of our issuers have changed within three, have changed by three years. So where they had a three-year plan, that has been reduced down to months. Now the innovation will increase adoption of soft pause and we're just witnessing, I believe, the beginning.

Speaker 2: 28:41

Yeah, I'm in. I think this has been a great episode really to kind of peel the onion back a little bit and talk a little bit about more of the details on the technical side and then finishing up here with kind of what the future looks like, which I think the future looks incredibly bright. So just one last question when can people go to learn more about the solution?

Speaker 3: 29:00

Well, they can reach out to any of the guys and ladies at FOSS or the local Ingenica representative. Reach out to any of the guys and ladies at FOSS or the local Ingenica representative Now. We'd be delighted to talk through with you. You know what you're looking for, so that's where they can reach us, greg.

Speaker 2: 29:13

Okay, great. Well, Mike, thank you so much for being on the show today. I know your time is very valuable, so I really appreciate you being here.

Speaker 3: 29:19

It's been my pleasure, Greg. Thank you for your time.

Speaker 2: 29:22

Absolutely, and to all your listeners out there. I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.

Speaker 1: 29:27

Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to explore how SoftPause can unlock payment freedom for your business, please visit businessingenicocom. Slash swipe, dash right, dash on dash SoftPause, soft pause.