Chase Paymentech® – First Data® Break-up
- An Opinion In the Spirit of Kurt Vonnegut -
Card-Not-Present Merchants Beware!
Listen:
Chase Paymentech and First Data have come unstuck in time. I have been reading a great deal lately about the earlier than expected disintegration of the Chase Paymentech® – First Data® Alliance. Most of the reporting concerns details surrounding the divorce of assets – including customers. If I were a card-not-present customer of this processing behemoth, I would start getting concerned. This concern, incidentally, would have begun in 2005 when the Alliance was formed. This concern would have been centered around technology platforms.
There are fundamentally three technology platform familes available to merchants now processing through the Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance:
1) The Paymentech® set,
2) the First Data Set, and
3) The Chase® “in-house” platform.
Of all these platforms, there is a real gem, at least for card-not-present merchants. This is the Paymentech “Salem” platform – named after its facility in Salem, NH. Interestingly enough, the platform on which an Alliance merchant now resides has just as much to do with selling as it does with the merchants’ needs and requirements. You see, not every new card-not-present merchant sold by the Alliance was placed on the Salem platform. Somewhere, a terrible mistake had been made.
You see, the Salem platform was the brainchild of one Thomas J. “Tim” Litle, who possessed an unusual combination of technical prescience and direct marketing knowledge. Mr. Litle was also a good salesman; he sold a product that delivered outstanding value to customers. His company prospered. Virtually all of his customers were simply giddy over the platform and customer service. It was the best. Mr. Litle sold his company in 1995 to a Texas outfit called First USA Paymentech®. Since then, the Salem platform has been involved in a myriad of corporate transactions involving First USA®, Banc One®, J.P. Morgan Chase®, First Data®, KKR® and others. Through all of its corporate incarnations, the Salem platform has continued to be the best platform for card-not-present merchants.
During the Alliance, a merchant probably would not have heard about this gem of a platform from a First Data salesperson or First Data ISO. The same can be said for native Chase salespeople or ISO’s. Since the inception of this Alliance, these people have routinely placed card-not-present merchants on First Data and Chase platforms – this behavior ostensibly driven by thoughts of financial gain and cultural xenophobia. As it turns out, this behavior killed one of the greatest opportunities in card-not-present processing history. So it goes.
Listen:
Merchants don’t often leave the Salem platform. When they do, it’s usually because they jump to Tim Litle’s new platform, Litle & Co.® (http://www.litle.com/), or some other direct marketing specialist. So imagine for a moment, that back in 2005 a Chase Paymentech – First Data plan was hatched to move each and every card-not-present merchant within the Alliance to the Salem platform. Imagine owning an entire client category happy with their service. Imagine unwavering loyalty to a vendor. Imagine oodles of what investment bankers like to call “stickiness” and “defensibility.” This plan, incidentally, was not lost on some of the core group of managers operating the Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance (mostly Litle hires). How the plan died would rival any novel by Kilgore Trout, and is known only by true insiders.
In Vonnegut’s novel, Timequake, a cosmic hiccup causes the universe to relive approximately ten years of its existence. For good or ill, all of the players in the universe were forced to relive what had happened to them for ten years of their lives a second time through – unable to change a thing. After the quake, “free will kicked-in again.” The upcoming Chase Paymentech – First Data break-up reminds me of this time quake. Perhaps merchants will have to relive the past three years of their lives. Perhaps nothing will change.
Possibly, however, merchants will write a novel of their own.
If you are a Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance card-not-present merchant and currently reside on the Salem platform, relax a bit. You’re probably OK. In repeating the next three years, you’ll know that you are on the best platform the Alliance had to offer. In your new novel, however, you would be wise to include free will. Look around; see what else is out there. This is especially true if the asset-split gets messy and people start to suggest that you switch to one of the other platforms.
If you are a Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance card-not-present merchant residing on any of the other platforms, get free will and get it fast. Find a way to end up on the Salem platform, Mr. Litle’s new platform, or on some other processor’s platform optimized for card-not-present merchants. Try native, real-time online reporting. Experience cost-plus pricing, especially now that Congress is beginning to take a harder look at reducing interchange fees. Investigate advanced chargeback handling and some of the other benefits these platforms provide.
Make yourselves young again.
Card-Not-Present Merchants Beware!
Listen:
Chase Paymentech and First Data have come unstuck in time. I have been reading a great deal lately about the earlier than expected disintegration of the Chase Paymentech® – First Data® Alliance. Most of the reporting concerns details surrounding the divorce of assets – including customers. If I were a card-not-present customer of this processing behemoth, I would start getting concerned. This concern, incidentally, would have begun in 2005 when the Alliance was formed. This concern would have been centered around technology platforms.
There are fundamentally three technology platform familes available to merchants now processing through the Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance:
1) The Paymentech® set,
2) the First Data Set, and
3) The Chase® “in-house” platform.
Of all these platforms, there is a real gem, at least for card-not-present merchants. This is the Paymentech “Salem” platform – named after its facility in Salem, NH. Interestingly enough, the platform on which an Alliance merchant now resides has just as much to do with selling as it does with the merchants’ needs and requirements. You see, not every new card-not-present merchant sold by the Alliance was placed on the Salem platform. Somewhere, a terrible mistake had been made.
You see, the Salem platform was the brainchild of one Thomas J. “Tim” Litle, who possessed an unusual combination of technical prescience and direct marketing knowledge. Mr. Litle was also a good salesman; he sold a product that delivered outstanding value to customers. His company prospered. Virtually all of his customers were simply giddy over the platform and customer service. It was the best. Mr. Litle sold his company in 1995 to a Texas outfit called First USA Paymentech®. Since then, the Salem platform has been involved in a myriad of corporate transactions involving First USA®, Banc One®, J.P. Morgan Chase®, First Data®, KKR® and others. Through all of its corporate incarnations, the Salem platform has continued to be the best platform for card-not-present merchants.
During the Alliance, a merchant probably would not have heard about this gem of a platform from a First Data salesperson or First Data ISO. The same can be said for native Chase salespeople or ISO’s. Since the inception of this Alliance, these people have routinely placed card-not-present merchants on First Data and Chase platforms – this behavior ostensibly driven by thoughts of financial gain and cultural xenophobia. As it turns out, this behavior killed one of the greatest opportunities in card-not-present processing history. So it goes.
Listen:
Merchants don’t often leave the Salem platform. When they do, it’s usually because they jump to Tim Litle’s new platform, Litle & Co.® (http://www.litle.com/), or some other direct marketing specialist. So imagine for a moment, that back in 2005 a Chase Paymentech – First Data plan was hatched to move each and every card-not-present merchant within the Alliance to the Salem platform. Imagine owning an entire client category happy with their service. Imagine unwavering loyalty to a vendor. Imagine oodles of what investment bankers like to call “stickiness” and “defensibility.” This plan, incidentally, was not lost on some of the core group of managers operating the Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance (mostly Litle hires). How the plan died would rival any novel by Kilgore Trout, and is known only by true insiders.
In Vonnegut’s novel, Timequake, a cosmic hiccup causes the universe to relive approximately ten years of its existence. For good or ill, all of the players in the universe were forced to relive what had happened to them for ten years of their lives a second time through – unable to change a thing. After the quake, “free will kicked-in again.” The upcoming Chase Paymentech – First Data break-up reminds me of this time quake. Perhaps merchants will have to relive the past three years of their lives. Perhaps nothing will change.
Possibly, however, merchants will write a novel of their own.
If you are a Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance card-not-present merchant and currently reside on the Salem platform, relax a bit. You’re probably OK. In repeating the next three years, you’ll know that you are on the best platform the Alliance had to offer. In your new novel, however, you would be wise to include free will. Look around; see what else is out there. This is especially true if the asset-split gets messy and people start to suggest that you switch to one of the other platforms.
If you are a Chase Paymentech – First Data Alliance card-not-present merchant residing on any of the other platforms, get free will and get it fast. Find a way to end up on the Salem platform, Mr. Litle’s new platform, or on some other processor’s platform optimized for card-not-present merchants. Try native, real-time online reporting. Experience cost-plus pricing, especially now that Congress is beginning to take a harder look at reducing interchange fees. Investigate advanced chargeback handling and some of the other benefits these platforms provide.
Make yourselves young again.
3 comments:
I am SO Glad Chase is NOT with First Data!! First Data has stole money from me and hurt my Small business! They should be deemed as con-artist. I am signing up now with CHASE Paymentech with thank God does not use First Data anymore!
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