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Education

Is the payments experience. NextGen ISOs have embraced white-labeled

payment solutions. Not only does this help increase
industry ready for the branding of the ISO and help to establish a stickier
relationship, but the right white-labeled solutions also
allow ISOs to control the onboarding, offboarding and
NextGen ISOs? administration of accounts.

By controlling the entire lifecycle of the merchant account
through a white-labeled gateway, NextGen ISOs can build
their own brand rather than that of their vendor partners.
Still not convinced? According to NMI's research, NextGen
ISO/tech providers who use white-labeled payment
solutions maintain business 20 percent longer than those
who don't, which can add up to significant recurring
revenue.

3. NextGen ISOs innovate at the
pace the market demands

The fintech industry is innovating at a breakneck pace,
By Nick Starai and it's impossible for a small ISO with no real R&D budget
Network Merchants Inc. to keep up. Still, it's critical that ISOs do, indeed, keep up.
Recognizing the importance of innovation, NextGen ISOs
s an ISO, you understand the competitive pay- have established strategic partnerships with vendors that
ments landscape better than most. Whereas will handle the R&D for them.
years ago it was possible to build a stable
A merchant portfolio that would define your With the right partner, ISOs can take comfort in knowing
entire career, now the market has priced itself down and that key trends (for example, omnichannel, mobility)
competition has increased—from within the industry and are being addressed and that exciting new value-added
from without. As a result, many ISOs have recognized that functionality is being added constantly. For NextGen ISOs
they must adapt to stay relevant or risk a shrinking book focused on software development, the right vendor partner
of business. At NMI, we're working with a number of these will have a variety of APIs available to make it quick and
pioneers and have come to recognize four common charac- easy to tap into powerful new features.
ter traits of a Next Generation (NextGen) ISO.
4. NextGen ISOs are focused on compliance.
1. NextGen ISOs seek to differentiate through
value-added technology services Staying on top of, or ahead of, the latest security
requirements takes considerable time and resources.
While adaptation can come in many forms, savvy ISOs NextGen ISOs partner with vendors who are dedicated to
have adjusted their solution offering and changed their compliance, certifications and mandates so the ISOs can
sales process to focus on delivering additional value to focus on building world-class solutions. NextGen ISOs
merchants. For example, some ISOs have started selling select partners that maintain a large list of certified devices
feature-packed POS hardware and software and offering with a large list of certified processors. Most importantly,
PCI services. Others have added software developers to when the ISO encounters a security-related issue, the vendor
write their own custom applications. In either case, these partner is there to provide its expertise and guidance.
ISOs don't lead with payments like they would have just a
few years ago. Now they include payments as one part of a These are just a few characteristics of NextGen ISOs.
much larger solution. Transitioning from traditional payments to a NextGen
ISO takes time, consideration, resources and—let's face it—
The bottom line is that NextGen ISOs don't look at bravery. However, the entire process can be made much
themselves as payments companies; they consider simpler by partnering with the right forward-thinking
themselves innovators who bring together everything a payment technology vendor.
merchant needs to engage with customers, drive sales and
collect payments securely. The results include larger sales Nick Starai is chief strategy officer and one of the co-founders of NMI who
and stickier relationships.
played an integral role in the formation and launch of the NMI payments
2. NextGen ISOs seek to control platform in 2001. He drives the strategic direction of the company and
the merchant experience supports NMI's enterprise clients and overall partner success. He also
brings 17 years of experience in the payments and technology industry.
ISOs who aren't careful with their vendor selection and Contact him by email at hello@nmi.com, phone at 844-378-2146 and via
partnerships run the risk of giving merchants a disjointed Twitter @NMIpayments.

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