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Spotlight Innovators

Of course, this also can inhibit a merchant from providing the magical, branded experience they want each customer to
receive. However, at Inovio, the merchant is set up to control every aspect of the payment experience without losing the
tone and presence of their brand story, all while never touching a credit card. According to Cunningham, “This reduces
the PCI burden to the absolute minimum.”
The next step is to manage all personally identifiable information in a similar way as credit card data. Everything is
handled on a need-to-know basis with the payment support team in order to limit risk exposure. “We’ve always operated
in these spaces, so we are uniquely in tune with the concerns of discretion around identity,” continued Cunningham.
“There’s a lot of secret sauce in there, but really the message to the merchant is that we take care of the problem, and we
actually know what the challenges are at the front end.” In a nutshell, customer information for these merchants gets
handled as an “entire identity,” so that any possibility of an incident is reduced to the absolute minimum.
All in the data

Cunningham’s advice for Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs) and Sales Partners is to become familiar with the
merchants that need extra data security and learn what companies like Inovio can do to help them. In his opinion, many
ISOs and Sales Partners don’t realize what a good payment gateway can do for these merchants to make them a viable
account. Risk tolerance, according to Cunningham, is where the rubber meets the road. “More risk tolerance equals
more approvals, and with the right tools, a merchant account can be approved and stay active regardless of the level of
heightened security they require,” he said. “Our set of tools turns us all back into regular business people – assessing the
value of a business vs. obsessing about risk.”

Cunningham feels the right underwriter will have the right attitude. For instance, Inovio has the statistics to prove that
by applying a fairly routine set of security parameters, most merchants can be set on the right track.
Cunningham also stressed the importance of using the right risk tools. Inovio has demonstrated there is less risk by
measuring a control group of merchants with none of the risk tools against another group with the tools to prove the
overall chargeback ratio is significantly lower when the tools are applied.

More savings down the road
Cunningham said the key to understanding how to achieve approvals and sustained accounts is for the business vertical
to achieve longevity without moving further into a risk category. If the vertical and the individual merchant accounts
served by an ISO are stable, this will help inbound merchants save and/or make more money down the road. The ISO’s
merchants further benefit from not having to shop for another merchant account later on after sustaining a bad payment
history, which means they can simply continue to focus on making more money.

This makes companies like Inovio a more attractive option for merchants who need to get their security and account risk
factors set up right the first time -- and for ISOs who want to ensure account (and residual) longevity. “Data breaches and
expensive processing due to earlier missteps can put a merchant out of business,” Cunningham concludes. “Put simply, a
tarnished reputation can a make a brand no longer viable.”

To learn more about reseller opportunities with Inovio, visit www.inoviopay.com.