CASE STUDY

Overview:

Centric Group (Centric), with more than 2,300 employees and annual sales exceeding $750 million, is a large decentralized corporation with several portfolio companies that provide consumer products to a variety of industries.  Centric was in need of a universal payment solution that could accommodate the company’s various channels as well as integrate into its existing Oracle E-Business Suite.  Additionally, Centric required the highest possible security and compliance as well as low risk and minimal interruption.  CardConnect made this solution a reality and was able to do so without modifying Centric’s existing Oracle E-Business Suite application.

Situation: 

Centric Group is made up of a diversified portfolio of companies: a national supplier of food, personal care products, electronics and clothing; a manufacturer of luggage, backpacks, travel gear and accessories; and a distributor of hotel guest room coffee and operating supplies.  With each main company operating somewhat autonomously, Centric has the flexibility to respond to the distinct demands and trends of multiple industries. At the same time, this created a situation where each company had deployed its own payment acceptance platform.

Centric’s decentralized nature had caused a number of operational inefficiencies involved with accepting and reconciling payments. The company accepts payments through a variety of channels, including card-present environments, by phone through a call center and via the web.  When these payments were accepted, each portfolio company had to reconcile the payments locally before consolidating the information into Centric’s corporate financial center. When the corporate headquarters received the information, its financial office had no choice but to replicate each order in E-Business Suite and manually input all payment activity into Centric’s ERP.  Another component that Centric needed in a payment acceptance platform was heightened security.  Centric is a service provider to the U.S. Department of Justice, adding an additional level of compliance and security standards that are not required of non-government providers.

To address the operational inefficiencies presented by its disjointed payment processing platform the following needed to be solved:

• Simplify its payment acceptance platform
• Integrate payment acceptance directly into its existing Oracle E-Business Suite
• Secure its payment processing to meet government compliance and security standards
• Remove Centric’s Oracle E-Business Suite from PCI Compliance Scope
• Standardize its payment processing platform across all portfolio companies

“Centric Group is an organization that has always made data security and compliance a high priority. With its

CardSecure desktop tokenizer and impressive Oracle integration capabilities, CardConnect was the perfect fit

for enhancing the security of our payment processing. On top of that, CardConnect’s Interchange Optimization

made sure we eliminated unnecessary payment processing costs. As a company that is approaching $1 billion

in yearly revenue, that quantifiable cost-reduction was significant, to say the least.”

– Lee R., CIO, Centric Group

The Solution:

CardSecure (Desktop Tokenizer) – CardSecure is the one-stop data security solution from CardConnect.  Centric wanted tokenization to occur outside of its Oracle EBS application.  The desktop tokenizer allowed Centric to tokenize card numbers, then encrypt and store the sensitive data in the CardConnect PCI compliant data center.  CardSecure intercepts incoming card data before it hits Oracle E-Business, transfers the data to the secure vault, encrypts it and assigns each card number a unique token. For Centric, this meant that the token, not the sensitive card data, is stored on its system.  This allows the actual card data to remain securely outside of Centric’s ERP application.

CardConnect for Oracle – The CardConnect Gateway is an Oracle Validated Integration solution that accelerates cash receipts and provides a direct connection between Oracle EBS and the banking system.  With the CardConnect Gateway, Centric’s Oracle E-Business system was able to:

• Efficiently process orders from authorization to settlement
• Send payment data to domestic and international clearinghouses
• Clear receipts from Accounts Receivable

CardConnect Interchange Optimization – The CardConnect gateway  ensures the lowest possible interchange costs. This was accomplished by adding Level II and Level III data for each transaction, along with creating operational procedures (e.g. auth/capture time window monitoring) to qualify the company – in this case, Centric – for the lowest interchange rates.  Before engaging CardConnect, Centric had not been taking advantage of these additional practices. Now that these transactions are optimized, Centric is experiencing a quantifiable cost-reduction.

Through this three-step  solution, Centric was able to:

• Integrate this payment solution into its ERP quickly and easily
• Process Level II and Level III data to qualify for low Interchange rates
• Remove its Oracle E-Business system from PCI Compliance Scope
• Consolidate omni-channel payment acceptance into Oracle E-Business
• Reconcile cash deposits and fees directly within Oracle E-Business
• Avoid modifications to its Oracle E-Business system

Juno Payments powered by CardConnect  is an Oracle Validated solution that reduces the cost and risk of credit card processing within Oracle EBS.  It increases operational efficiency and expedites your Order-to-Cash cycle.

Order Management (OE)    Replaces card numbers with tokens; facilitates card authorization

Receivables (AR)                   Performs standard funds capture calls

Payments (IBY)                      Defined as standard EC Application Gateway

Cash Management (CE)       Reconciles and clears open receipts In Receivables (AR)

General Ledger (GL)              Transfer Accounting recognizes Cash and Fees

Want to Learn More?

1-888-514-8118

[email protected]

www.junopayments.com

CASE STUDY

Overview:

A State Turnpike and Bridge Authority has saved over $150,000 in payment processing fees with customer built payment solution. No tax dollars were spent for this investment as all expenses are utilized with the funds received through toll revenue and investment income.

In 2008, a State Turnpike and Bridge Authority implemented E-ZPass, an electronic toll collection system, throughout the state. Rather than collecting cash, E-ZPass gives drivers the opportunity to pay by a credit card linked to a transponder in the car. Though it improved traffic and pleased residents, the transition created new and numerous challenges internally when they decided to move payment transactional activity in house.

E-ZPass is a prepaid account and recurring charges are made to a linked credit card as needed.  The State and Bridge Authority wanted to make sure the stored information is kept as secure as possible and the agency is PCI Compliant. Being a government agency with smaller transaction volumes than larger neighboring states, there was pressure to find a competitive rate without sacrificing customer service and support.

Scope:

• Secure its cardholder data in a PCI Compliant environment
• Integrate into its existing ERP, specific to tolling systems
• Process card transactions efficiently at a competitive rate
• Develop secure online payment acceptance for the State Turnpike and Bridge Authority’s website
• Provide exceptional support to the Turnpike and Bridge Authority.

Custom Built Solution:

Integration occurred in the midst of the Turnpike and Bridge Authority’s busiest time—right before 4th of July weekend. Integration went effortlessly. Almost 90,000 encrypted accounts seamlessly transitioned into tokens, the most secure approach to storing sensitive data.

Since the integration, there are now 130,000 E-ZPass accounts stored using patented technology. This technology immediately encrypts and tokenizes each customer’s sensitive card information when entered on the States website. The sensitive data is secured inside an impenetrable Vault. This process protects the State from data breaches and takes their ERP out of PCI compliance scope.

The improvements are felt financially, too as the State expects to save $150,000 in processing costs annually now.

Want to Learn More?

1-888-514-8118

[email protected]

www.junopayments.com