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Miles added that one-to-many integrations enable soft- improvement, which helps companies manage expecta-
ware companies to support many payment gateways and tions and drive visibility to a customer, even with multiple
processors without having to be in a continuous develop- parties engaged in each step, he said.
ment cycle, and without having to build their own recur-
ring billing engine or code to every gateway for tokeniza- Third-party synchronization
tion. "Orchestration also allows the software company to When asked how he would advise industry stakeholders
separate certain payment business logic from a gateway," to manage multiple partners and touchpoints to create a
he said. "For example, if you use recurring payments in seamless, frictionless journey, Khan suggested synchro-
one gateway but want to switch to another, you can trans- nizing communications across organizations and depart-
port payments logic in that first gateway to the next gate- ments to make everyone, including third-party partners,
way without having to do completely new integrations." feel like they're part of the team.
Merchant services orchestration
"Creating real-time synchronization between all of the
Allen Kopelman, CEO and co-founder of Nationwide Pay- organizations that touch the customer with a common
ment Systems, mentioned that software and partners have platform to see, communicate and collaborate in real-time
become critical to merchant services. "Much has changed drives significant revenue growth and cost savings, in-
since we started our ISO in 2001," he said. "We used to cluding a 25 percent reduction in operating expenses, 20
overnight merchant apps with yellow, white, pink and percent drop in attrition and 10 percent increase in rev-
blue copies to processors, with voided checks, merchant enue," he said.
statements and polaroid pictures." Kopelman recalled that
multilayered paper applications were replaced by multi- Additionally, turning third-party partners into members
layered security and tech, and today's merchant signups of an internal team provides a huge advantage when ser-
are mostly digital. Merchants email applications directly vicing a customer in the moment, Khan added, noting it's
to underwriting, and sales techniques have also changed; all part of providing customers with a unified, horizontal
savvy ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) make view across a vertically organized enterprise and giving
the sale about technology first and price second, he added. the teams inside those verticals and third-party partners
that same visibility to know what's happening at every
He advised ISOs and MLSs to choose partners wisely and step. Best of all, he added, enterprises do not have to reor-
hold up their end of the bargain by being reliable, trust- ganize to deliver a great experience.
worthy partners. He also advised them to be creative and
keep looking for new ways to delight employees, custom- Marketing orchestration
ers and partners. Filippa Noghani, assistant vice president, marketing for
Customer journey orchestration SoftServe and board member and marketing chair, for
NYC Fintech Women, said orchestration is a valuable tool
Alfred (Chip) Khan IV, founder and CEO at OvationCXM, for driving awareness and amplifying brand messaging
stated his company is focused on the customer journey, across all channels. "Brand awareness is foundational, but
end to end, and uses customer journey mapping to man- marketing goes from good to great when you can follow
age customer expectations across multiple channels and the multitouch engagement points," she said. "It's incre-
touchpoints. mental, where each element in a campaign contributes to
building a successful worldview that allows a prospect to
"Customer journey mapping looks at a journey from the see themselves as your client and it's powerful when you
customer's perspective and works backward," he said. "It witness the connections."
is an exercise in which an organization and third-party
partners come together to document every touchpoint, Recalling a chance encounter during a sporting event in
channel, platform, and team that engages with a customer New York City, Noghani said someone had recognized her
at every point in a journey to capture pain points and gain from LinkedIn. "Just earlier that day, she had recommend-
points that occur." ed us to her boss," she said. "Fast-forward to the present,
where we are in conversations with them about providing
More often than not, Khan stated, enterprises are orga- technology solutions. I'd call that having the bases loaded
nized around functional teams and external provider eco- and hitting a home run."
systems that help launch products and services into the
market quickly; however, there is not a unified thread be- Generational orchestration
tween these parties or a consistent way of delivering CX Noghani underscored the need for unified messaging
and the customers feel that. among all partners. Few things derail a marketing cam-
paign faster than contrary partner messaging, she added,
Khan believes the goal of customer journey mapping is to stating that messaging maps can help multiple partners
learn how it feels for a customer to engage with an orga- know the core value proposition and the "why," while
nization and use that knowledge to prevent friction points helping them use language that ensures cohesiveness and
and frustrations. The process highlights areas in need of
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