Move over SaaS, G4 is here
Go4Payments founders Brian Cafferty and Tom Fitzpatrick take pride in offering G4, a software solution designed to help ISOs make money in the payments industry. In discussing G4, Fitzpatrick stated, "To defend against margin compression, our differentiator is we are adding value for ISOs so they can push value to the sales agent, and can retain sales agents as well as merchants at larger margins for themselves – because then ISOs are not just credit card processors; they are helping run businesses."
Automate and control
According to Go4Paments, G4 fully automates business operations on a platform ISOs can control. Instead of depending on third parties to solve merchant problems, ISOs can immediately discover and solve bottlenecks on their own.
"With G4, the ISO happens to be the point of communication for the merchant," Cafferty said. "They can see their batch information; they can see their statement; and they come to the portal that is not a First Data portal, but the ISO's own portal; and the ISO has an opportunity to send out notifications such as when deposits are posted and other communications."
Since opening its doors in 2013, Go4Payments has been dedicated to helping ISOs minimize the operational aspects of everyday business so they can have more time to do what they should be doing: making more sales and bringing in new customers. To this end, the company has aided large and small ISOs in performing customer relationship management, application workflow management, residual reporting and agent portal personalization – all within one platform.
Own to cut costs
Customers purchase G4's source code upfront and can have it customized to their individual needs. Fitzpatrick stated that owning the source code provides a huge cost savings to ISOs, which helps them in growing their businesses. "Today, everyone has switched to SaaS [software-as-a-service] and when you are paying SaaS, you are paying $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $50,000 a month for a product you don't even own," he said. "If you are in a SaaS model when you pick up a group of agents, your monthly costs go up."
In contrast, under the G4 model ISOs can recruit freely without incurring such cost increases, Fitzpatrick added. "There is no additional cost that you are going to incur to recruit them," he said. "You can add as many agents as you want, knowing that the handling of residuals is automated, which really makes it cost effective to start adding more and more agents."
Agents get paid quickly with G4, too, Fitzpatrick pointed out. "Our software allows the ISO to pay the agents faster than anyone they are used to," he said. "It's a week earlier. They are not used to that, and most agents live or die by their paycheck."
Consolidate easily
Noting the ongoing consolidation occurring in the payments industry, Fitzpatrick said G4 can help with that, as well. "Somebody that owns G4 can manage a big consolidation," he said. "So if you are a big or medium ISO out there that does a lot of acquiring, imagine if you were trying to acquire two to three ISOs on two or three different systems and trying to convince them to go to this system when they are already on SaaS.
"But when you own, it helps you roll everything up because you already own the code, and you can convert someone over to this new system with no new added cost. It is a huge differentiator for any ISO or processor who is in the business of trying to consolidate right now. Our product is good for them."
Reflecting upon the company's goals, Cafferty said, "We want to be the supplier of those tools to allow you to be able to do that consolidation in a cost-effective manner. That is a scary proposition to the SaaS folks. We are going to change the model. Anyone who is growing, this is the way to go." 
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