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Ingenico, one of the world’s largest makers of point-of-sale transaction devices, said early Tuesday it has worked with Visa Inc. to integrate its Axium terminal software with a payment platform operated by Cybersource, Visa’s commerce and fraud-management unit.
The move promises to offer, from a single platform, a service that can authorize in-person transactions from anywhere in the world, Visa and Ingenico say. Axium, which Ingenico launched in 2018, is a line of POS devices that run on the Android operating system, technology that could simplify global deployment. The parties say the new integration will also incorporate tap-to-pay technology from Ingenico. This allows merchants to accept payments merely with a tap of the payment card.
Independent software vendors, or ISVs, will find the collaboration will make it easier to weave in POS services that go beyond payment, Ingenico and Visa promise, in part because a number of acquirers are already integrated in the platform.
The new global integration will start out in the Asia-Pacific region but will then be introduced across other geographies, Ingenico and Visa say. North America, however, is likely targeted for deployment soon, observers say. “Combining the global reach of Visa and Ingenico and using the Ingenico Android technology stack will accelerate innovation and reduce complexity,” promises Nigel Lee, chief customer officer at Ingenico, in a statement.
The significance of the collaboration lies, at least in part, in the ease it promises to offer for software development and device integration across the world. “It takes a large load off the development/integrator,” notes Cliff Gray, a senior associate at TSG, a payments consultancy and research firm, in an email message. “[Point of sale] device certification is a huge headache for them.”
Observers also see the new program gaining impetus from the expertise of the two parties. Ingenico and Visa/Cybersource “are already very strong at enterprise-scale integrations,” says Gray, “so it’s a great marriage in that respect.”
The Ingenico-Cybersource integration comes as cross-border commerce gains momentum and various alternative payments, including real-time transfers, gain prominence. The added complexity means “it’s hard for merchants to effectively deliver the right payment alternative to the customer when and where they need it,” notes Thad Peterson, a strategic advisor at Datos Insights, in an email message.
By moving authorization from acquirers to Cybersource, the new collaboration could enable merchants and acquirers to expand rapidly into new markets, Peterson says. It also could be a tonic for Ingenico’s device sales, if the parties play the new collaboration carefully.
“In an increasingly commoditized hardware market, it provides Ingenico with a differentiable offering with real value to their clients,” he notes. “It’s an open issue, however if the differentiation is sufficient to drive a merchant’s decision to change POS hardware providers.”
