o matter whether you are a seasoned veteran or a novice ISO, you will find the information in Bill Pittman's new book, "Developer's Guide To Integrating Electronic Payments," invaluable to all aspects of the business.

Pittman has achieved that rare combination of being not only informational but also useful. The charts, lists and graphs are everyday tools designed to help you transform e-payments solutions into a distinct competitive advantage.

Successful management of payments is a critical component of everyday business operations, and the implications of failing to integrate those payments correctly can have considerable impact on your bottom line. Pittman shares his 10 years of payment-processing experience developing both physical and virtual world technologies and teaches how to turn payments into a distinct benefit by integrating them correctly the first time.

With the dawn of the new millennium, a multitude of new innovative payment options has inundated the electronic-payments marketplace with a wide array of unique solutions - such as credit cards, debit cards and check services - that are tailored to vertical industries like retail, restaurant, hotel, rental, mail telephone order and now e-commerce. The constant changes taking place are so sweeping, industry experts believe the convergence between the physical and virtual worlds are going to revolutionize the way we conduct business.

Even with all these changes, one fact remains the same: If the integration is not completed correctly, payments will still be processed - but the merchant will pay higher rates than necessary.

"Before developers can integrate electronic payments into their applications they need to understand the payment industry and how it relates to the business process of the application they are writing," Pittman writes.

Pittman thoroughly shows how to seamlessly integrate electronic payment systems (EPS). Regardless of the application, the integration must be accomplished in a manner that meets the financial industry requirements, the business process requirements, and the needs and usability requirements of the end-user of the application. The goal is for EPS to be invisible to the end-user of the application while providing the merchant with the lowest possible processing rates.

Beginning with the current state of transaction processing, Pittman gives us a brief history of payment-processing terminology and discount rates in the industry and an in-depth look at the transaction-processing process. He then looks at the use of PC's, through the next generation Web services and thin client solutions, finishing with an overview of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) protocols and card-presentment environments.

Pittman thoroughly examines the anatomy of credit card transactions, from the authorization process through signature capture and settlement procedures, as he defines supply interchange rules providing guidelines and criteria for qualifying transactions for the different rates, which were designed by Visa and MasterCard.

He discusses the advantages of terminal-based systems vs. host-based systems, qualified transaction conditions, partially qualified transactions and non-qualified transaction conditions. He then clarifies the often perplexing and confusing retail check conversion or ACH transactions.

Pittman saves the best for last, presenting lists, charts, graphs and diagrams providing much needed data on Payment Transaction Flow, signature capture, credit, voids, repeat sales, ForceCapture, PayData, ACH transactions, XML PayRequest/Response documents and card/check transaction flows. Included are appendices detailing valid cards and card types, mag stripe data, card number details, partial listing of U.S. processors and a sample rate chart.

The final section of the book provides in-depth information on the mechanics of exactly how XML pay requests are passed to server processor components, providing an effortless way to implement XMLPayments using the RichSolutions Gateway. The RichSolutions SDK (software developers kit) can be downloaded at its Web site, www.richsolutions.com/downloads.asp.