Security around card payments, the extent of the overall service and overall cost were all key factors. Access PaySuite were clearly at a forefront of card security and were also able to offer us extremely favourable card transaction rates, which given the volume of card payments we accept, would lead to a significant cost saving.
London Borough of Camden’s existing solution didn’t meet all the requirements of PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), which would have involved a significant, costly and time consuming upgrade of the current provider’s software.
This led the council to conduct a formal tender exercise, resulting in the contract for their payment solutions being awarded to Access PaySuite.
Through the Tender exercise, the Council conducted a detailed evaluation of the market and found that Access PaySuite was best placed to meet their needs. Most notably, these included their proven track record around card security measures and their position as the leading provider of bringing new payment channels to market.
Sue Keep, Head of Income Management and Cash Security at London Borough of Camden, was heavily involved in the selection and implementation of the new system and outlined some of the major drivers behind the project, commenting...
“Security around card payments, the extent of the overall service and overall cost were all key factors. Access PaySuite were clearly at a forefront of card security and were also able to offer us extremely favourable card transaction rates, which given the volume of card payments we accept, would lead to a significant cost saving.”
Access PaySuite were able to provide a proven and fully-managed, cloud-based solution, which would markedly reduce the requirement for on-site hardware and infrastructure, and the associated systems management overhead, whilst ensuring that no card details were stored on the council’s infrastructure.
The benefits are clear to see
“Access PaySuite have brought us a significant saving on card transaction rates, as a result of which we plan to use their card service to process card payments right across the council, as we still have areas using an alternative and more expensive service,” continues Sue.
When looking at the wider capabilities of the Access PaySuite offering, Sue adds, “The solution has allowed us to extend payments into other areas that we did not formerly support. For example, the Payment Portal allows us to easily integrate specialist front-end systems that then seamlessly access the card pages in order to take payments, as is now in use for parking permits and for landlords registering Houses in Multiple Occupation”
Concluding, Sue adds, “Access PaySuite has delivered a wide range of benefits both to the staff who use the software and to the citizens we serve. Call centre staff, now that they no longer hear or enter card details, are able to carry out the job from home and have also found that Paye.net delivers other benefits, such as rapid retrieval of information while the customer is on the phone and the option to email payment receipts. We have also received positive feedback from citizens, who with security in mind, are reassured by the fact that they can make a payment through a call centre agent, whilst entering their own card details”
The system also updates in real-time, meaning the payment is reflected against the account immediately. Currently this extends to payments of parking fines where it is important that a customer is not pursued for a payment that they have just made and heat metering, where again a customer’s account must be updated immediately after the payment is made.