Posted on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 @ 01:12 PM
Leveraging the iPad’s sleek functionality, the cloud, and the Paymentsite Gateway, Teamwork Retail is quickly changing the way retailers manage their stores.
Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) December 29, 2011
Today, instead of standing in a checkout line, a customer in a Teamwork Retail store may have their purchases rung up on an iPad right out on the floor... The phrase “Let me check our stock and I’ll be back in a few minutes,” has been eliminated from the vocabulary of sales clerks who are lucky enough to use Teamwork Retail’s iPad POS software.
Not only is the store’s inventory a couple of taps away but Teamwork on the iPad you can also add a new customer, give a discount, and take and process payments and email a receipt.
With a couple of taps, Teamwork brings up any inventory in the store and also shows items available in all other stores in the chain. Teamwork Retail not only manages inventory, purchasing, receiving, analytics and management reporting as well. All of this from the cloud and yes, it’s also an iPad POS terminal for accepting credit cards. Merchants now have the ability to create new invoices, scan products, enter customer information and perform inventory lookups at the front counter or away from it. And since Paymentsite is packaged into the software, a merchant can process payments anywhere, accept signatures on-screen, and email or wirelessly print receipts.
Maas Global and Teamwork Retail are pleased to announce the development of a strategic partnership where each company is focused on their core strengths to provide the most feature rich store management and payment acceptance system in the specialty retail market segment.
Market research shows that over half of the specialty retailers in the US are looking to deploy handheld POS devices to replace many of their standard POS systems, so Teamwork Retail is poised for fast growth. With this kind of growth potential, Teamwork Retail needed a payments partner that was both innovative and dependable. They turned to Maas Global Solutions.
“Maas Global’s Paymentsite Gateway offers our customers a robust and dependable connection to their payment processor,” said Teamwork Retail President Michael Mauerer. “Another key concern for today’s retailers is security and compliance with all the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. The Paymentsite Gateway handles that beautifully.”
In fact, Maas Global’s Paymentsite is the payment engine behind many software applications. The Paymentsite Application Programming Interface or “API” has proven to be very easy for development shops to work with.
“Maas Global is focused on making it easy for software developers to integrate payments into their applications,” said Troy Maas, CEO of Maas Global Solutions. Troy went on to state, “Our strategy for having dedicated resources to help software developers integrate to the Paymentsite Platform has proven to be a great success.” Maas Global understands that IT organizations require advanced technology, reliability and availability, capacity and scalability, performance, security, flexibility and affordability.
As for retailers, Teamwork Retail believes that a “new technology inflection point” has arrived and this has been caused by the “maturity of cloud computing, mobile technologies and open access to transactions payment networks”. It’s no secret that business software is rapidly shifting from premise-based software licenses to cloud-based software services. Both the Teamwork Retail software and the Paymentsite Payment Gateway are cloud-based systems whose many advantages include the elimination of on-site IT infrastructure and their related costs.
About Maas Global Solutions
Maas Global Solutions Corporation (http://www.maasglobalsolutions.com) is a transaction technology company that owns and operates a state-of-the-art, fully redundant, load balanced data center that is Payment Card Industry (PCI) Level I, SAS 70 and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) certified. MGS uses the latest security methods to keep sensitive customer information safe and secure. Contact Maas Global Solutions at sales(at)maasglobalsolutions(dot)com or call (866.293.4055).
About Teamwork Retail
Teamwork Retail is a cutting edge cloud-based specialty retail application developed by seasoned retail engineers responsible for POS systems running in over 100,000 stores on all continents. Under intensive development since 2006, Teamwork has been stably used in chains up to 200 stores in 3 countries for several years. It is a hosted, subscription-based solution where data streams between HQ and all stores continuously, and it fully supports tablet-based mobile POS units in and around the store. Contact Teamwork Retail at info(at)teamworkretail(dot)com or call Nate Jessup at 727-210-1700 Ext. 203 for more information.
###
Posted on Fri, Dec 16, 2011 @ 03:21 PM
4 things to watch for when considering switching your merchant account
It seems like everywhere you look lately, someone else is offering to save you money on your payment processing. Just do a search for "merchant accounts" on google and you will see lots of ads pop up for "free merchant accounts" or "rates as low as 0.39%". These all SOUND really good, but are they really? Here are a few things to watch out for.
1. Is free really free?
There is no such thing as a "free" merchant account. The card associations and processors charge fees to process payments, and nobody can escape that. They might be able to offer you "free" processing to get you in the door, but be careful to read the fine print. They are either going to hit you later with higher fees, or they are going to go out of business and leave you hanging. If someone is offering you payment processing for free, find out how they are going to make money on the deal.
2. Watch for "teaser rates" and hidden fees
This goes right along with #1, but whenever you're considering a new payment processing contract, make sure you read the fine print. Different card types and transactions typically will get charged at varying rates and what the salesperson is quoting you is the best possible scenario. Ask what the rate is when transactions downgrade and you might get a completely different response. An example of hidden fees to watch for are "over limit" charges: if you process over your monthly volume limit, you might get hit with an unexpected fee. Also consider what the startup charges are: do you have to buy new hardware to get started? Are there setup fees? Application fees? What does the service include? Make sure you get the facts.
When in doubt, remember the old adage: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
3. One simple flat rate is not always better
A flat 2.75% rate on all your swiped card transactions might sound like a good deal, but is it really? An "interchange plus" rate might actually be better. Interchange fees are expressed as a percentage with a flat transaction fee, like this: 1.54% plus $0.10. A good interchange plus rate would be 16 basis points plus 10 cents per transaction, which means add 0.16 to the interchange rate or 1.70% plus $0.10/transaction.
Consider your sales volume and transaction amounts and do a little math: is the flat rate or interchange plus deal better?
For example: if you process 100 transactions of $100 each or $10,000: at a flat 2.75% it would be $275, but you would only pay $180 at 1.7% (if interchange was 1.54% + 16 basis points) + $0.10/transaction. The "interchange plus" rate here is clearly the better deal.
4. Money isn't everything
Let's face it, what drives the success and profitability of your business probably isn't what you pay for payment processing. What does it cost your business if your customer is ready to buy but your payment processor is down and you can't process the payment? Or when your employee can't figure out how to set up a scheduled payment or process a return because the software is too complicated? Also, consider what the costs are if you have a security leak of your customers' sensitive payment data and your company name ends up on all the news headlines. It actually might be worth it to pay a little more to make sure you have reliable, available payment processing, usable payment solutions, secure transactions and good customer service.
Here are a few VERY important things to look for:
- High reliability and availability. The number should be higher than 99% or you run the risk of your payment processing not being available when you need it.
- System redundancy and a failover backup data center. What happens if there is an earthquake, hurricane or tornado wherever their data center is located? You need to know your processor will still be able to process your transactions.
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance. This is critical! One data breach can destroy a company. Make sure you're working with a reputable processor who meets or exceeds the standards.
Considering a switch?
We are offering wholesale interchange-plus merchant pricing that will save you money. Our gateway is reliable, available, redundant and PCI DSS compliant.
Want to learn more?
Posted on Mon, Dec 05, 2011 @ 04:05 PM
We've been working hard on our Paymentsite Mobile Virtual Terminal--the iPhone app that allows merchants to process credit card, debit card and check transactions directly from their iPhone or iPod Touch.
We are proud to announce the newest version is now available for free download in the iTunes App store.
What is the Paymentsite Mobile Virtual Terminal?
Paymentsite Mobile is a secure payment processing app that installs on an iPhone and securely processes card and check payments instantly from anywhere. Employees log in, process payments and the funds are automatically deposited into the business account. There is no limit on the number of employees that can use Paymentsite Mobile at once, so no matter how many service people you have in the field, Paymentsite Mobile can
Version 1.1 includes:
- The ability to process in test mode without having a merchant account configured. Try it out before you switch your processing to Paymentsite.
- Refined screens and controls that allows for better transaction flow, making it easier to use.
- Easier to view historical transactions. Payment transaction reports are now improved to provide merchants ready access to their most recent transactions.
- We fixed a few minor critters that needed to be exterminated ... yeah, okay, there were a few bugs in the previous version, but hey, now they are fixed!
The Paymentsite Virtual Mobile Payment Terminal is perfect for:
- Home repair businesses
- Taxi cabs
- Delivery services
- Travelling salespersons
- Trade shows
- Any merchant that needs to process payments on the go ...
Posted on Thu, Oct 06, 2011 @ 05:16 PM
MGS developed Paymentsite using the technical knowledge and combined experience of the same team of industry veterans who build two of the worlds most popular payment gateways. Maas Global Solutions owns and operates the Paymentsite Global Payment Gateway in a state-of-the-art, fully redundant, load balanced data center using the latest secure sockets layer (SSL) security methods to keep sensitive customer information safe. Transactions are tokenized for security purposes and this can help alleviate the burden of PCI compliance for merchants. Maximum uptime and data preservation are also key components of the Paymentsite Gateway, which has an uptime of over 99.99%.
“The evolving needs of the marketplace coupled with the latest data security and compliance requirements are key components built into all of our products,” stated Troy Maas, CEO of Maas Global Solutions. The Paymentsite Gateway provides extensive connectivity, flexibility and capabilities that merchants require.
Paymentsite offers several ways to process transactions, including a Virtual Terminal, API integration, iPhone App and a hosted environment that relocates critical transaction data to a centrally-managed host within Maas Global’s secure data center, mitigating risk for the merchant. Additionally, Paymentsite offers Link2, a Customer Payment Portal that allows a merchant’s customers to push payments to them without providing any sensitive private payment details. Paymentsite provides extensive connectivity to leading banks and processors including TSYS, Worldpay, First Data, Vantiv, Chase Paymentech, Global Payments for credit cards and Jack Henry’s Profit Stars for check processing.
Troy went on to say that "MGS has made a significant investment to build a robust gateway product that helps businesses better manage the risks and costs associated with data security and PCI compliance.” Paymentsite is available to merchants and is also offered in a White Label for ISO’s who choose to leverage the technology to extend their own brand.
About Maas Global Solutions
Maas Global Solutions Corporation (http://www.maasglobalsolutions.com) is a transaction technology company that owns and operates a state-of-the-art, fully redundant, load balanced data center that is Payment Card Industry (PCI) Level I, SAS 70 and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) certified. MGS uses the latest security methods to keep sensitive customer information safe and secure. Contact Maas Global Solutions at sales(at)maasglobalsolutions(dot)com or call (866.293.4055).
###
Posted on Fri, Sep 02, 2011 @ 02:39 PM
Remember the times you wanted to raise your hand in class but you didn’t want to be the only one with that question? We’ve all been there. People especially have that feeling when it comes to payment processing. With emerging new merchants and businesses, it’s important to know the payment gateway basics so you can start off on the right foot. The Maas Global Solutions tech support team is comprised of payment experts and seasoned customer support personnel. Hasib, who has been with us for over 3 years, shared the 7 most commonly asked questions regarding our payment gateway:
1. What is PaymentSite and what I can use it for?
The PaymentSite is a secure online payment solution that offers business owners a robust payment management center for processing a wide variety of payment types. You can use PaymentSite to accept checks, process ACH payments, credit cards, and debit cards in person, through the mail, over the phone, or through a customized online customer payment portal.
2. Is PaymentSite secure?
Nothing is completely secure, but PaymentSite has uptime of over 99%, a backup data center, and the highest level of PCI (payment card industry) data security compliance available today.
3. As a merchant do I need to comply with PCI regulations? Am I responsible to safeguard my customers' payment information?
Security is critical when you are talking about sensitive payment data, and yes, Visa and Mastercard require all merchants to be PCI compliant. Because PCI compliance can be time consuming and expensive if you store sensitive customer data on your own systems, Paymentsite relieves you of that burden by allowing you to store your customers' payment and other sensitive data on our Level 1 PCI-compliant systems. If you use this method of storing sensitive information on our PCI-compliant systems, all you have to do for PCI compliance is fill out a simple form.
4. Do you offer API services? Can I have my own payment system and e-commerce site?
Yes, the PaymentSite Universal API allows developers to securely connect to any of the payment processors that are currently integrated with the PaymentSite Gateway through one common interface. Also, PaymentSite Hosted Payments is an HTML-based processing solution that allows merchants to collect payments from a web page without concerns about Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards for collecting and storing sensitive customer information.
5. Does PaymentSite offer card on file, recurring payments, and online reporting tools?
Yes, with our card on file (COF) and recurring payment solutions, we save your customer and their payment information on our secure systems, saving you time when processing repeat customer transactions. PaymentSite offers a number of online reporting tools including a quick view of your day's transactions, a detailed view of your current or previous batches, recurring payments and COF reports.
6. Can we use our company’s branding on PaymentSite? Is it customizable?
Yes, with PaymentSite you can make simple customizations such as adding logo, header, and footer to your sales receipts. PaymentSite Hosted Payments also provides a way that you can have your own customized payment collection pages hosted on our secure servers.
Another option is available if you choose to have your own payment gateway. With white labeling you can rebrand your own payment gateway. Software development is complicated and integration with payment processors is even more so. Add to that the hassles of getting your software Payment Card Industry certified and then the troubles of hosting and managing the data and software to ensure continuously reliable service--that’s when white labeling, a proven solution, really becomes an enormous value.
7. Can I use my current processor? Which processors does PaymentSite support?
In most cases, yes, you can use your current processor. With PaymentSite, merchants can choose their preferred payment interface, then process on the platform that works best for them. PaymentSite has certified connections to the following processors:
Do you have any more questions for our tech team? Comment below or email us directly at info@maasglobalsolutions.com to get advice from the experts.
Posted on Thu, Sep 01, 2011 @ 12:45 PM
Maas Global Solutions, the leading visionary for transaction processing platforms, today announced Paymentsite Hosted Payments, an online payment processing solution that allows merchants to collect payments from a web page without concerns about Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards for collecting and storing sensitive customer information. Data security concerns have created an entire industry surrounding PCI compliance but with Hosted Payments, sensitive payment data that used to trigger expensive payments infrastructure improvements is “hosted” on MGS’s PCI Level 1 compliant servers. This can eliminate the need for any infrastructure upgrades at the merchant level, saving online retailers 10’s, if not 100’s of thousands of dollars.
Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) September 01, 2011
Maas Global Solutions, the leading visionary for transaction processing platforms, today announced Paymentsite Hosted Payments, an online payment processing solution that allows merchants to collect payments from a web page without concerns about Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards for collecting and storing sensitive customer information. Data security concerns have created an entire industry surrounding PCI compliance but with Hosted Payments, sensitive payment data that used to trigger expensive payments infrastructure improvements is “hosted” on MGS’s PCI Level 1 compliant servers. This can eliminate the need for any infrastructure upgrades at the merchant level, saving online retailers 10’s, if not 100’s of thousands of dollars.
“We are absolutely committed to providing the highest level of data security to our customers and Hosted Payments represents a tremendous way for most merchants to mitigate the high cost of PCI compliance,” said Joseph Muha, Chief Technology Officer for Maas Global Solutions.
Hosted Payments uses proprietary payments technologies and leverages the Paymentsite Gateway infrastructure. The solution is easily added to any web site with a simple HTML form. Data transmission happens using secure sockets layer (SSL) protocols to ensure confidential communications and the Gateway submits a response to the merchant’s web site to avoid data tempering attacks. A proprietary methodology using MD5 Hash technology is employed to further protect the merchant from transaction tampering. Payment details can also be stored on the PCI-compliant Paymentsite Payment Gateway so consumers don’t have to re-enter them each time they shop with a particular merchant.
Gartner Group has estimated that merchants with as few as 20,000 annual ecommerce transactions spend an average of $44,000 assessing their needs and another $81,000 for compliance. Larger merchants can spend much, much more but when a merchant uses the Paymentsite Hosted Payments service, these costs can be almost entirely eliminated.
About Maas Global Solutions
Maas Global Solutions Corporation (http://www.maasglobalsolutions.com) is a transaction technology company that owns and operates a state-of-the-art, fully redundant, load balanced data center that is Payment Card Industry (PCI) Level I, SAS 70 and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) certified. MGS uses the latest security methods to keep sensitive customer information safe and secure. For more information, please contact Maas Global Solutions at sales(at)maasglobalsolutions(dot)com or call (805) 624-5435.
###
Posted on Fri, Aug 05, 2011 @ 04:12 PM
The days of needing a paper check in hand to receive your funds have been over since 2004 when the Check Clearing for 21st Century Act in the United States took effect. Although it has been 7 years since the Check 21 Act passed, there are still plenty of perplexed merchants and businesses out there who aren’t quite sure what Check 21 is and how it benefits them.
Just a quick rundown: Check 21 refers to electronically processing paper checks by submitting a scanned image of the check. The physical check does not need to be presented at all. The legislation enables businesses and financial institutions to immediately process checks by providing images rather than physical pieces of paper. The law also allows the creation of substitute checks that can be processed immediately.
The actual process is as follows if done through a payment
gateway such as Paymentsite:
- A business receives a check via mail, at their store or payment center
- The original check is "scanned" through an Imager and transmitted to the check processor via a payment gateway such as Paymentsite.
- An original check image and the attached transaction data is converted and sent to the Federal Reserve network for clearing and settlement.
- The consumer’s account is debited and the cleared funds are deposited into the business’s account.
- Images of the checks are conveniently accessible to the business owner (and/or their accountants) in their transaction reports.
- Voila! Checks processed sans the paper mess.
Check 21 requires just a few things to get this running in their office or store: Internet access, a check scanner/imager, a payment gateway that supports Check 21, and a check processing company agreement.
Why is Check 21 such an advantageous tool for your business?
6 Key Benefits your business gets from implementing Check 21 services:
- It’s faster - Next day funding, in most cases.
- It saves time - Forget heading the bank and waiting in those long after-work hour lines.
- Convenient online records of each transaction – you can access scanned images of all checks processed.
- Fewer NSFs (Non-Sufficient Funds) since the checks are presented overnight, as opposed to a few days.
- Accounts on file - With the consumers’ permission, the payment gateway can allow merchants to store the checking account information for subsequent transactions without the need to write another check. (While Paymentsite offers this feature, not all payment gateways have this capability; check with your gateway provider to make sure.)
- Reduces human error - Automated method to capture dollar amounts on the check saves data entry time and decreases chances for input error.
With the confusion over Check 21 evolving to enlightenment, the days of paper checks ought to be numbered.
Posted on Fri, Jul 29, 2011 @ 02:43 PM
The creators of Paymentsite at Maas Global Solutions today announced their new Hosted Payments service. The service is run on the Paymentsite Global Payment Gateway and offered as a Paymentsite service.
Here's an excerpt from the Maas Global press release:
Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance can be complicated, stressful and expensive for merchants. Today, Maas Global Solutions announced a new Hosted Payments processing solution that allows merchants to collect payments from a web page without the usual stresses of PCI security standards for collecting and storing sensitive customer information. Because the payments are processed on pages hosted by the MGS Level 1 PCI-certified secure payment gateway, merchant PCI requirements are now greatly simplified.
“This solution will help thousands of merchants avoid the expense and headaches of PCI compliance,” said Troy Maas, CEO for Maas Global Solutions.
Troy Maas went on to say, “and unlike most other solutions, integration is very simple and merchants can be up and running in a PCI compliant fashion in a matter of hours, not days, weeks or months.”
Posted on Mon, Jul 25, 2011 @ 02:31 PM
Did you know you can use your iPhone for processing credit card and check transactions?
Did you know you can pay rent or tuition from any smartphone?
Did you know that virtual terminals may just be better than traditional POS terminals?
Did you know Paymentsite is integrated to many different processors? One of the more recent additions is First Data.
Did you know Paymentsite for Schools offers a solution for educational facilities to manage and process payments?
Did you know about this partnership between Maas Global Solutions and PRIDE Payments?
Did you know it might NOT be hip to be Square when you're choosing a payment solution?
Did you know it's easy to create your own custom reports in Paymentsite?
Posted on Mon, May 16, 2011 @ 03:37 PM
Paymentsite was on display at the ETA Annual Meeting and Expo in San Diego on May 10 - 12, 2011 in the Maas Global Solutions booth and we've posted pictures of the event on our facebook page. We had many products on display, including our new Paymentsite Mobile app for the iPhone, which enables small business owners to take payments directly from their iPhone. It was great talking with the payment professionals at the show. We're looking forward to next year!