In tech, orchestration combines multiple software applications and services to accomplish complex tasks. It’s like a conductor whose job is to ensure every member of the orchestra comes in at the right time (and with the right tempo). Without the conductor, the musicians wouldn’t be as synchronized or harmonious.
In the same way, payment orchestration coordinates and unifies multiple systems to create streamlined, scalable workflows and processes; it merges separate pieces to create something greater than the sum of their parts.
As the payments industry becomes more tech-centric, orchestration between payment rails and services is becoming increasingly important. When done right, orchestration makes payments more cost-efficient, manageable, effective and secure. It’s crucial to creating a frictionless experience for everyone — payment providers, merchants, and their consumers.
Orchestrating an Omnichannel World
The days of “cash or credit” are gone. Consumers want to choose when and how they pay. Today’s merchants need to offer customers a variety of payment options, including traditional cards, digital wallets, short-term financing options, in-app purchases, unattended options and more.
However, offering endless payment choices can complicate things, ultimately leading to problems.
Processing payments is complex. To appeal to a broad demographic, most payment infrastructure providers deliver products that are made to address as many use cases as possible. It’s a good goal but usually comes at the cost of sacrificing the customer experience.
Orchestration should seamlessly manage the various systems merchants use to offer payments. However, it becomes self-defeating if it complicates things for the end user. Today’s consumers prioritize convenience and speed. Friction makes customers lose interest. Young shoppers will even abandon experiences that don’t meet their standards. Proper payments orchestration solves that problem; it makes backend processes efficient and cost-effective while minimizing friction.
A huge number of merchant accounts are enabled through software, so orchestration is becoming standard practice. When done poorly, it’s obvious. But when it’s done right, orchestration becomes invisible, enhancing the entire payments chain for everyone involved.
Proper payments orchestration:
- Streamlines the payment journey
- Improves the customer experience
- Saves merchants time, money and headaches
- Enhances security and compliance
- Gives merchant service providers a competitive edge
Future Proofing Orchestration Through Strategic Partnerships
Great orchestration provides a huge competitive edge. Unfortunately, designing an in-house omnichannel payment solution is challenging, and payment providers can’t afford to get it wrong.
Partnering with experienced, innovative platforms — like NMI — enables front-end providers to reduce complexity by building their payment systems on an already expertly orchestrated foundation. The ideal partner should possess a few non-negotiables, like flexibility, modularity and choice. They should offer the right tools or products at the right time so payment and technology providers can remain agile.
Orchestration is a never-ending process, and agility is key. The payments industry is undergoing an unprecedented evolution, and consumer preferences are changing as quickly as the technologies that enable them. Payments companies need to be innovative to stay competitive, which means systems must be in a state of constant development.
That takes time, money and resources away from payment providers’ primary task — serving merchants. The right partner will handle innovation and development for you so systems stay relevant, no matter where the market goes.
Orchestrating a purpose-built, future-proof offering is a journey, not a destination. So, it’s important to look out for monolithic systems unable to support a company’s future aspirations. In such a fiercely competitive landscape, it can be easy to overfocus on the needs of today. Flexibility can make or break a business — especially in a space like payments where everything could look different a few years down the line.
NMI’s modular end-to-end payments platform can help you build and orchestrate solutions ideally tailored to your merchants’ current and future needs. To learn more, reach out to a member of our team today or read my interview on payments orchestration in The Green Sheet.
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