Big tech for SMBs

More than 50,000 U.S. merchants, from Fortune 500 companies to small and midsize businesses (SMBs), process payments through CardConnect, a family-run payment processing and technology services provider since 2006. According to the company, it now has over 100 employees who support its growing network.

"My oldest brother, Brian, started the company and my brother Jeff is the current CEO," said Patrick Shanahan, Chief Operating Officer at CardConnect. Through a series of acquisitions, the company has sustained growth and advanced its technology initiatives.

With the 2012 acquisition of New Jersey-based Princeton Payment Solutions, now a division of CardConnect, large enterprise clients entered the fold. "They are a security ERP company that specializes in Oracle and SAP," Shanahan said. "They handle the transactions for customers like Adobe, New York Times, Barnes & Noble, and other Fortune 500 companies."

That same year CardConnect moved its headquarters from Cleveland to Philadelphia.

"Since we made the move, we've had tremendous growth," said Angelo Grecco, CardConnect Senior Vice President of ISO Sales. "And we've been able to refine and continually improve upon our support structure and the technology offerings that we have, where it's led us today to be in a great position to partner with agents that want to build a long-term portfolio."

Advanced security

Following the PPS acquisition, CardConnect expanded the proprietary platform it acquired to accommodate SMBs running virtual and physical POS systems. Shanahan said the security developed by PPS became the patented technology in use today. This includes two patents for tokenization that are integrated with its CardSecure enterprise-level encryption service and PanPad encrypted PIN entry device.

"Because we have what we consider the Rolls Royce of gateways and it was focused mainly on the security and tokenization for Fortune 500 companies, we worked really hard to bring that down to where it can work just as easily for the pizza shop, the coffee shop or small restaurant that comes through," Grecco said. "Our sales partners have the ability to go in and lead with security, which is something that is extremely important."

Point-to-point encryption and Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS)- certified vault storage are also core components within the platform that are available to omnichannel merchants of all sizes, whether processing transactions from the web, call center, in-store terminal or mobile device, the company pointed out.

Client support

For ISOs and merchants alike, the company offers business-management tools. CardConnect's Co-Pilot ISO management tool is considered the backbone of the company. "It brings together the residual payment section for our agents, the customer service angle with the ticketing system and the transactional information for their merchants, so they can answer questions when needed," Grecco said, noting that an online application with digital signature simplifies boarding. A recent update to its Merchant Center portal incorporated dynamic batching, real-time funding reporting and PCI-compliance status capabilities. "It's an online reporting system for our merchants to reconcile their transactions, to run transactions through a virtual terminal and to manage their business with us," Shanahan said.

Merchants can auto-enroll in value-added products via the Merchant Center marketplace. Value-added offerings include SmartPay for businesses with recurring payments, the CardConnect Virtual Terminal and a fully integrated CardConnect Mobile suite. Its enterprise-grade mobile offering includes digital signature capture, receipt customization, inventory management, in-depth reporting, barcode scanner and 24/7 support. CardConnect offers ongoing training sessions through CardConnect University. "It's been a great vehicle for us to have weekly webinars, which anyone can access live," Grecco said. "We also have a library that allows access to previous recordings and information. Our focus and goal is to continue to deliver products that allow our sales partners to remain competitive and build strong portfolios."

According to CardConnect, its ISO and agent partners are able to "integrate with any ERP, business management application or online shopping cart that requires a secure, efficient payment gateway."

Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.