hat is the message from IRN Payment Systems, a financial-services company dedicated to creating new and innovative payment products through complete credit and debit card acceptance services and a variety of terminals, printers, peripherals and software supported by all major networks.

IRN Payment Systems was started by two telecommunications executives in 1988. They were looking at different fields to get into, focusing on recurring revenues. Taking a chance with a small investment, they opened a small office in Hicksville, N.Y. Today, IRN operates out of an 11,000-square-foot corporate office in Westbury.

"We had no experience to speak of in payment processing," says Amedeo "Dino" Sgueglia, co-founder and President/CEO of IRN. "As sales execs for a telecommunications company, we just started out with entrepreneurial aspirations.

"We wanted to build a business based on customer support. Our initial approach: to build a thriving company that would grow and flourish to what it has become today."

It would seem Sgueglia has accomplished just that. Nearly 20,000 merchants are supported by IRN solutions - solutions that are a result of strategic relationships and attention to the needs of the marketplace.

"We are very intimate with our customers and our salespeople as well as our value-added partners," says Sgueglia. "In these times, we enjoy unusual relationships. We try to build partnerships with the approach that bigger isn't always better.

"We maintain these unique relationships with all we do business with. We've kept an open ear to what the marketplace is looking for. We have our hand on the pulse."

Sgueglia speaks with pride about that connection: "We're an organization (where) you can get the president or the vice president on the phone at any time. If there's a problem, we'll fix it. We sell intimacy. That speaks miles.

"We run an organization where we are readily accessible and readily provide a high level of support and service. We can provide any product you want. You get a group of quality people that are more than willing to work with you and accommodate you."

IRN has amassed a group of industry professionals from different backgrounds who have average seven to eight years of experience in the payment-processing industry.

That experience has translated into the establishment of solid relationships with a lot of vendors and service providers. IRN relies on those relationships to support its business model, which focuses on transforming applications via hardware and software so customers can efficiently and effectively change the way they do payment processing.

While IRN is more involved with midsize to large merchants, its customers are across the board. All enjoy competitive pricing, quick turnaround and ongoing support.

Independent agents also enjoy special services from IRN. "There are a lot of things we do differently," says Sgueglia. "We offer a total product package. We offer a menu of different services. Agents can buy one or a complete package. We give them the autonomy to decide what will be their best deal."

Sgueglia continues, "For instance, we give our sales force the ability to process online applications. They can go out and actually set up accounts onsite. We can even manufacture gift cards in-house for their merchants. It's all here, everything from gift card to loyalty cards to leasing to credit card processing to EBT."

Another appealing aspect of IRN is that it boasts a sophisticated e-mail and Web-based system that system provides for live MID numbers and real-time access to account status. IRN hosts its own servers.

But by far the most appealing aspect of IRN is its residual program. "PartnerAmerica" is the ISO program that IRN sees as the cornerstone of its success.

"ISOs win the rights to their revenue stream through hard work, and they never lose those rights," says Sgueglia. "Our program provides for payment of those revenues for the life of that account. We designed our PartnerAmerica Program as the culmination of our experiences.

"With our forward-thinking PartnerAmerica Program, IRN has given the ISO the most competitive-based pricing and products our industry has to offer."

PartnerAmerica has two residual plans to choose from, based on the type of merchant, not quantity. If larger merchants are your target, IRN will work with you to provide pricing on a per-merchant basis.

"One of the unique things about our program is options," says Sgueglia. "One option includes a customer-service fee. That's highly different from anyone else in the industry. We charge a set fee, based on monthly dollar volume processed. Smaller merchant accounts may choose not to go with the set fee. It depends on how the agents sell. We treat the agent like an agent bank and not an independent contractor."

That treatment includes training manuals, welcome package, marketing materials, even Web site access to the PartnerAmerica ISO Guide.

IRN's Web site is a myriad of support services for the sales professional. ISOs can demo software for different terminals and download data on equipment, leasing and related processing products and services. For new ISOs, IRN offers a choice of teleconferencing training or an invitation to train in person at its offices in New York. IRN picks up the hotel tab. The ISO just has to pay the airfare.

Hand-in-hand with its high regard for sales agents is IRN's high regard for its business partners.

IRN's sponsor bank is Key Bank of Ohio. Its processing partner is Global Payments, which also provides after-hours customer support via its help desk. Check services are provided through its partnership with CrossCheck.

IRN also has alliances with leading manufacturers such as Hypercom, Nurit, VeriFone, Thales and Mist while maintaining a healthy in-house inventory. Another notable alliance is its partnership with American Express' External Sales Agent (ESA) program.

IRN relies on Vital and Tasq for refurbishing and exchange services but keeps its risk management as well as R&D, underwriting and leasing in-house.

All of these alliances are part and parcel to IRN's infrastructure and intense commitment to keeping its sales force and merchants in place. Sgueglia views the current climate as volatile.

"This industry, unfortunately, changes the way the wind blows," says Sgueglia. "It's always been very volatile as it pertains to change. You really have to have an idea where it's going. Scales of economy are always changing, and that's significant.

"It's hard to maintain stability when you're trying to do so much. You have to be able to provide cutting-edge technology in product and services. This industry demands it." Sgueglia sees IRN's relationships as paramount to providing that edge. "This industry is predicated on trust," he says. "The relationships we've made over time speak more than wonders about how we conduct our business and our integrity. It's amazing how intimate this industry is. There's no other term but incestuous. It's the smallest, biggest industry in the world."

Sgueglia recognizes that mergers and acquisitions have certainly contributed to the intimacy.

"I think the current M&A trend is a good thing," he says. "It certainly creates a measuring stick for those of us who have survived. With the market being as terrible as it is and all the dot-coms falling through the roof, I get calls daily from investors looking to buy our company. I think there's more money now than there was five years ago." Will IRN go the acquisition route?

"We maintain the philosophy that we want to grow to a giant," says Sgueglia. "Everybody has an exit strategy, and you can't run a business without thinking of one down the road. Who knows what will happen? Right now, we are here to build our program, build a more formidable and larger portfolio. We're not changing our goals."

Where does Sgueglia see the industry as a whole headed?

"I see a lot of non-financial companies getting involved in our industry. I see significant interest with a lot of VC groups becoming big players. Yes, there have always been a certain number of these companies around, and now I see this business as being more and more sought after.

"We are in a better position today than we ever were. It predicates itself on recurring revenues, and that's the significant appeal of what these companies are looking for." Sgueglia also believes technology will play as big a part, though there's one area he doesn't believe will take off: "Smart cards won't make it. Providing a value to the customer and not the merchants - I don't see it here in U.S. I don't think the United States will embrace smart cards. There are inherent risks to both the consumer and merchant. I don't see the real appeal of smart cards."

What Sgueglia does see is more technology in such areas as check presentment, providing a debit-like check transaction.

"We're getting involved with that type of technology," says Sgueglia. "Technology plays a huge part. You must have that tech edge whether it be systems relaying data or products providing value to merchants.

"You also have to maintain the scales of economy, maintain the growth of your company with product, yet still be competitive and deliver customer service. It's not an easy fight. Intrinsically, there is large value in what you're doing, but you need well-rounded products to provide a level of service that the industry demands."

For IRN, that level of service depends on its continued alignment with strategic partners that will enable IRN to stay in the forefront of new products and services.

"We will continue to look for alliances, ones that have the ability to bring us a value-added product or service that we can co-brand and that will fit with our current offerings," says Sgueglia. "We will continue looking to invest in the future."