s an ISO, you know that there's no replacement for talented, dedicated employees, whether they work for you or your processor. When there's an emergency, merchants want to know that a smart, sympathetic human being is on the other end of the phone.

Technology can't replace good people, but it can make good people great by streamlining their workload.

The first step in making technology work for you is to know every moving part of your business and your industry. Immerse yourself in every process from beginning to end, and learn who does what with which equipment and when. Find out who is affected at each step in the process and where any inefficiency exists.Look for areas where the employee, merchant, ISO or agent performs a repetitive function. Whenever someone repeats a time-consuming process over and over, this is a prime candidate for automation. Technology can streamline the process, cut down on human error and make your job and your employees' jobs much easier.

Let's consider the familiar example of the merchant application process. For most ISOs, the process begins with sales reps visiting merchants. When reps convince merchants of the benefits of processing with your company, they generally fill out, sign and then fax paper applications to the ISO's main office or directly to the processor.

Data entry people take the faxed applications and enter all of the information into the database for future records. While one of these employees enters the data, he or she might have trouble reading the smudgy fax and then might inadvertently transpose some of the letters of a merchant's last name.

Now you have an incorrect record and no one knows it. After the employee has entered the data, a supervisor glances over the record and notices that the rep left an important line on the form blank.

The supervisor calls the merchant, reading his record from the database, and greets him by the wrong name because of the data entry error. The first day with a new merchant, and you're already off to a very bad start.

The merchant obtains a new version of the application from the sales rep and fills it out completely. The rep faxes it back to the main office, and the whole process begins again.

Does this scenario remind you of the children's game "Telephone"? The more hands information must pass through to get from the merchant to you, the ISO, the more likely it is to be incorrect by the time it's finally added to your database.

Now, step back and look at the whole process, from beginning to end. Obviously, it's not the most effective way to sign a new merchant, but it gets the job done, albeit with a lot of room for potential errors along the way.

Think big picture. Don't worry about specific technology, yet. Focus on the end result that you want to achieve. What steps can you eliminate? Which sections of the process can you streamline?

Be creative. Ask, "What if we had something that could ... ?" Envision the perfect system, regardless of your current capabilities or budget.

Let's return to our merchant application example.

What if the process began with reps bringing laptops to the merchant locations at the time of signing? Reps go online with their wireless laptop connections, pull up a Web version of the form, and have merchants enter their information into the blanks, double-checking for accuracy. (One thing you can be sure of: Merchants will not spell their own names incorrectly. There's one problem solved already.)

The merchants fill out the forms completely, with the reps there to make sure they record all of the relevant information, and then click "submit." The system performs the verification process for you.

If merchants leave any required section of the form blank, the system will remind them that they need to fill it in before they can submit the application.

If the merchant or rep has made an error, they will have a few minutes to go over every piece of information to ensure accuracy before the application goes through.

The Web form is then transmitted directly to the ISO or processor's permanent database. The information should be correct because you've cut out the middle steps; data are sent directly from the merchant to the database.

There aren't blurry faxes to deal with, and the potential for human error decreases exponentially when fewer human hands are involved in the process.

The cost may seem prohibitive at first, but if you focus on the big picture and the end result, creating a Web-based merchant application form or providing reps with laptops could end up saving you much more than the initial cost.

Factor in your time, the time of your reps, your overhead costs and the invaluable benefits of keeping accurate records, and it might not seem like such an expensive proposition.

This is just an example, but it's one that you can use as you look through other areas of your business, from the initial process of selling to merchants to the way you pay your reps residuals.

Use the same strategy; educate yourself about every step of the process, how many pairs of hands every piece of information passes through, and then determine what end result could make the process more efficient.

Then, consult your in-house technical experts or bring in a technical expert and determine what technology can take you from point A (a messy, inefficient process) to point B (a smooth, streamlined process that's accurate and automated).

Once you've figured out which technology will get you where you need to be, get those talented, dedicated employees and reps of yours up to speed on the new system and watch your productivity soar.

Anthony Alexander is the Creative Director at Cynergy Data, a merchant acquirer that provides a wide array of electronic payment processing services while continually striving to develop new solutions that meet the needs of its agents and merchants. In addition to offering credit, debit, EBT and gift card processing, along with check conversion and guarantee programs, the company offers its ISOs the ability to borrow money against its residuals, to have Web sites designed and developed, to provide merchants with free terminals, and to benefit from state-of-the-art marketing, technology and business support.

Founded in 1995 by Marcelo Paladini and John Martillo, Cynergy Data strives to be a new kind of acquirer with a unique mission: to constantly explore, understand and develop the products our ISOs and merchants need to be successful, and to back it up with honest, reliable and supportive service.

For more information on Cynergy Data contact Nancy Drexler, Marketing Director at nancyd@cynergydata.com .