Behind Creating a World-Class SoftPOS Solution
By Barry Levett, Founder and Executive Chairman, SmartPesa
We’ve come a long way in our journey to create world-class payment solutions and increase financial inclusion for the underprivileged. Our latest SoftPOS technology, certified by global brands and organizations like Visa and Mastercard, is the cumulative result of the tireless efforts of our engineers, and collaboration with test labs and great partners.
The beauty of SmartPesa’s SoftPOS for merchants is its low cost and simplicity: just download an app, go through a customer verification process and start accepting contactless payments within the same day.
What merchants do not see are the technical complexities, compliance requirements and functional challenges that our developers had to overcome to make it that way.
Front-end mobile application that is easy to use
Our white-labelled app has a simple user interface that offers multi-mode payment acceptance, easy refunds and automated reconciliations for merchants, while keeping transaction speed fast and experience seamless for customers.
Back-end integration with our server-side payment gateway
We make sure our technology takes care of secure connections every step of the way, from the merchant app and middleware to the payment gateway and merchant management system. It is also critical for our technology to interoperate seamlessly with acquirers’ existing systems and processes.
Protected by multiple levels of security and monitoring
With each payment scheme having their own methods of contactless payment acceptance and processing, ensuring our app and embedded kernels’ compatibility was a given. This was especially complex at a time when standards were not fully in place and constantly evolving. This payment technology was then wrapped with multiple security layers to fulfil the strict requirements of PCI’s CPoC standards.
Certification by card schemes and recognised security labs
Acquirers demand high levels of accreditation such as SmartPesa’s PCI DSS Level 1 certification and its PIN-on-Glass accreditation by Mastercard and Visa. They can be assured that world-class security labs have thoroughly tested and reviewed our solutions.
Ability to handle PIN
While SoftPOS has been taking off, it is the enabling of PIN entry that has made it a true game changer in payment acquiring. Protection of PINs entered on mobile phones was a significant achievement by our engineers.
With successful rollouts across Asia, Africa and the Americas and millions of transactions processed each month, we couldn’t be prouder of our incredible team and thankful for the collaborative partnership with the giants of the industry.
