Specialized Technical Services (STS), a leading e-payment solutions provider from Jordan, gave insights to its capabilities for provisioning and operating comprehensive e-payment platforms by demonstrating its end-to-end Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and Payment Process services at the recently concluded Payments and Settlements Systems Conference in Dubai.
STS, an associate sponsor of the event, highlighted the features and advantages of its payments processing platform, that includes solutions for national payment gateways, direct account debit networks, mobile payment, cardholder authentication (3-D Secure), automated payroll dispatching, consolidated invoice presentment, EFT switching, debit card management, secure web-PIN entry and Point of Sale (POS) networks.
Commenting on the participation, Janti M. Abdallah, Business Development Manager, e-Payment Solutions, STS, said, “Demanding payment processing markets are developing throughout the region, and this calls for smart investments in corresponding IT solutions that enable timely roll out of services that appreciate the local need and focus on adding value to the end customer”.
STS’s industry leading e-payment solution, PayONE™, that enables debit, credit card as well as bank-account holders to make secure, real-time payments for e-commerce and e-government transactions, has gained wide acceptance. In Jordan, STS joined efforts with Visa Jordan Card Services (VJCS) to co-own and operate the National Payment Gateway PAYNET™; which is powered by PayONE™. STS solutions have also been implemented in Qatar in association with Qatar Central Bank (QCB) to create “Q-Pay” - the country’s National Payment Gateway Service.
“The challenge facing organizations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is to properly meet local market demands whilst adapting to the ever changing environments in addition to the rapid advancements in technology that might cause their IT investments to become obsolete before achieving the desired RoI. Our understanding of such challenges comes from our unique experience of being engaged in the operational aspect and day-to-day business of the payment processing services that are powered by the solution we provide as vendors. This has certainly helped us fine-tune our solutions and focus on positioning STS as a partner to our clients rather than merely being a vendor. We believe this partnership model is the best way forward for entities to achieve the steady measure of balance between cost reduction and revenue creation”, adds Abdallah.
“STS are pioneers in provisioning extensible, fully scalable e-payment solutions in the MENA region,” continued Abdallah. “Our solutions enable payment processing of Direct Account Debit or Card based payments, through multichannel environments such as personal computers, bank ATMs, public kiosks, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, Point of Sale (POS) terminals and Mobile phones using SMS and USSD. Our solutions also take anti fraud strictures into consideration, and comply with Verified by Visa (VbV), MasterCard SecureCode standards, as well as anti-phishing techniques. This minimizes the liability on the payment service provider”, continues Abdallah.
Presently, STS is preparing to pilot its m-voucher™ solution with a leading GSM operator in the region. The solution provides pre-paid GSM subscribers with a simple and risk-free mechanism to conduct online payment using the mobile phones in conjunction with PCs, POS terminals or public kiosks. The concept behind m-voucher™ is to enable mobile subscribers to conduct cashless payments using SMS or USSD techniques, without the need of any credit or debit card or even a bank account. This is achieved by debiting the user’s pre-paid balance at the GSM operator. What is unique about m-voucher is that neither enrolment nor PIN entry is required from the user.. This adds extra simplicity and ensures higher service utilization levels.
“The m-voucher™ is a breakthrough in the payments world and reflects STS’s leading innovation and R&D capabilities, which we employ across all our product lines,” concluded Abdallah.
