Creating a game-changing payments ecosystem with open APIs

Ugh, *another* online account to keep track of? Why do I need to create an account just to order a pizza?

Think about how many times you or your customers have had this thought. You’re buying a new sweater from your favorite clothing store online. Subscribing to a magazine. And yes, ordering a pizza.

What do all of these organizations invariably want before you complete the transaction?

They want you to provide your name, your email, and sometimes your phone number. Oh, and while you’re at it, please create a password.

It’ll need to be at least 8 characters and include a number, uppercase letter, and/or special character. That’s just for the sweater, though.

To order the pizza, you need a 10-character password that meets all three of those conditions. Oh, and could you also choose two security questions in case you forget your password?

If you’ve given up on an online transaction because it was too time-consuming, you’re not alone. A whopping 97% of consumers have backed out of a purchase because the service wasn’t convenient enough, according to the National Retail Federation.

Now, think of the relief you feel when you can use existing email or social media account information and skip this process entirely.

Customers are more likely to do business with organizations that utilize familiar interfaces, and it also strengthens their current relationship with their existing organization behind their email or social accounts.

The power of APIs

This type of cross-organization integration is due to the evolution of open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). They’re a gamechanger for everyday online interactions, and that includes the payment space.

In our previous blog, we talked about how adaptability and seamless integration are crucial to keeping up with customer demands, including real-time payments. This is true for both larger organizations looking to monetize existing capabilities on a cloud platform as well as other organizations that want to take advantage of those capabilities.

Open APIs allow organizations to continue to innovate and evolve rapidly even with their existing infrastructure.

While the early days of APIs were closed, internally focused, and often proprietary, open APIs are all about seamless integration. That means the difficult, time-consuming customization efforts previously required to link applications is a thing of the past.

Open APIs benefit both organizations who utilize them and organizations who provide them.

Providing you peace of mind

One factor that remains a top priority is maintaining security and control over data. Leveraging a platform like Finastra’s Fusion Payments To Go enables organizations to take advantage of built-in Microsoft Azure security while giving organizations total visibility and control of their data.

This is true for organizations looking to expand their revenue streams by offering their applications as well as the organizations that want to implement that same app.

For example, say an enterprise-level organization had a very successful client onboarding solution that can automate the process and slash the time it takes to onboard new clients in half.

That organization could greatly expand their revenue stream by offering the open API solution to smaller organizations on the Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud app marketplace. Then a smaller organization, let’s say a regional bank, could connect that API to their existing payment infrastructure and quickly implement the new onboarding platform.

In this scenario, both organizations would maintain control of their proprietary technology and data, and both organizations would benefit from the app being offered on the marketplace.

Platforms like Fusion Payments To Go are all about creating a flourishing ecosystem around real-time payments and providing scalable payment processing solutions to help grow your business.

In partnership with Microsoft, Finastra invites you to download our latest ebook and dive deeper into APIs and seven use cases of how businesses can transform their payment services with robust cloud capabilities to meet the various challenges of the digital age.

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