In the dynamic world of financial technology, selecting the right partner to build successful payments solutions is a critical decision that can significantly impact business success, according to Rose Zwirn, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Sightline Payments.
Zwirn said Sightline understands that the perfect partner goes beyond offering a robust product. Companies must also align with your strategic goals, understand your industry, and provide unwavering support. Sightline has navigated these crucial choices and ensured selecting the ideal partners for their payment solutions.
“The most important thing when working with a partner is honesty,” said Zwirn. “If you can’t be honest with each other during the good and the bad, there’s no relationship. You have to be able to complement each other when you’re doing a great job and more importantly let them know quickly if something is not going right, and demand they do the same. There should be no secrets, you’re working towards the same end goal. It’s important to discuss that and be as up front as possible on both ends. If that’s not there, it’s difficult to have a true partnership.”
Zwirn noted that there are three top factors to consider when selecting a partner for building a payments solution.
Innovation and quality are No. 1. It’s important to find partners that are leading in their industry and the segment of the industry. Scalability and flexibility are essential when choosing a payments partner and businesses need to evaluate these qualities effectively, Zwirn said.
No. 2 is flexibility. Things are evolving all the time so partners need to be flexible as you pivot your requirements because that always happens, she explained.
“Nothing is A to B. There’s A to Q to R and so on,” Zwirn said. “The partner needs to be able to grow with you and still be nimble enough to pivot quickly if needed.”
“When we were looking to launch remote verification for enrollment, we knew we wanted a partner that was going to be able to be flexible and grow as we scale. We asked things like what’s their vision and what their future goals are. We ask what their roadmap looks like to ensure they’re on the same path as we are and that we are fitting into each others’ goal. All of that takes ongoing communication and collaboration and all of that turns into a strong partnership.”
No. 3 is service. Partners need to be able to listen, Zwirn said. If they hear you, understand what your true needs are and ask the right questions they will provide the best service. It’s critical for a partner to be your advocate in their organization, just like you are their advocate within yours. ”
“These factors are essential to support current needs and future growth and expansion efforts,” Zwirn said.
Security and compliance play a role in the decision-making process, but what should businesses look for in a partner to meet these standards?
“It’s super vital,” Zwirn said. “The ever-changing regulatory climate requires us and our partner to have strong security, risk and compliance policies and processes. When choosing issuing bank partners we looked for ones that keep those items in the forefront and worked with us to ensure that all our policies and procedures are current and relevant. In turn, we have a robust due diligence process as we go through exploration of our partners. We look for partners that have just as strong risk and compliance policies and processes as we do. We look for partners that keep security top of mind. . The service provider must pass this review before we can do any business with them, and then even after that initial onboarding, we do periodic checks and make sure the policies are up to date and that they continue to maintain the policies they established. It’s not a one-shot deal. We ensure they’re providing the right compliance we’re looking for.”
Zwirn said they’re on the cutting edge of payments and processing and work closely with their partners to make sure they have the latest tools enabled, whether they are customer facing or back end such as risk and fraud considerations.
“Risk and fraud are important to us,” she said. “Collaboration is essential. That integrity is critical, especially as you’re trying to work through some hard issues. Often there’s multiple teams involved on a project from different parts of the organizations. There should be a lot of brainstorming and idea sharing. Working together makes the solution much more successful and the relationship stronger.”
As for how you balance the need for cost-effectiveness with the demand for innovation and quality in your partnerships, Zwirn said cost factor is just one factor but innovation and quality outweigh that.
“Sometimes you get what you pay for,” she said. “The least expensive may not be the worst, but the most expensive may not be the best either. You need to look at the holistic view of that opportunity and not just the cost.”
Zwirn offers some advice to gaming operators that are just beginning their search for the right payments partner. They need to be flexible and innovative and go through the trenches with you and come out successful.
“You have to look at that and envision if you can be partners with this company for the next 10 years,” she said. “As you go through that evaluation, some of that will become evident. If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. Sometimes it’s a gut feeling. It’s critical that the partner meets your requirements, and they must have strong compliance, security and regulatory processes in place. As I said before, being forthright and honest. All of this will aid in building a strong foundation.
