Lost and confused?: Ways to develop the payment gateway of your offshore merchant account

The basic premise of a merchant account is you have a business that accepts orders using credit card payments. Of course, you always think of expanding, (who doesn't?), so you get into the growing trend of internet business. The more customers you attract, customers, the more credit card payments you will be processing.


In the midst of expansion of your business, you also need to upgrade your payment gateway, to ensure that the funds are securely processed to your offshore merchant account. It is always a good move to get the services of a Secure Payment Gateway company. These companies help other Processors conduct secure business on the internet using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. They provide a system that passes credit card data, authorization requests, and authorization responses over the internet using encryption technology.


Here's what happens, the transaction information is sent by the Payment Gateway secure server via leased line to the credit card network where the validity of the card is checked and the availability of funds on that account is verified. An authorization code is returned via leased line to the Payment Gateway; the authorization is encrypted by the Payment Gateway and transmitted in encrypted form to the web server of the merchant, which triggers fulfillment of the order.



For reputable and established banks, instead of trying to create their own Secure Web System, many Banks and Bank/Processor alliances will use a Secure Payment Gateway Provider to perform this task for them.



But if you have a genuinely competent, efficient and forward-thinking group of developers, you can incorporate the following simple yet economical practices in developing secured softwares for your offshore merchant account.


● initiate a comprehensive meeting between you ( offshore merchant accountholder) and the software vendor (or developer)


●foresee a reasonable budget allocation


●finalize the contract or agreement


●draw a constructive and attainable workflow – from creation to delivery


● develop and distribute the tasks in a close collaboration of both parties.


Some of the critical factors that should be considered in your talk with the software developers are maximum cost savings, time optimization and a pool of talented techno gurus. But mind you, there are always instances that present challenges such as communication gaps, lessened visibility to project status, unforeseen and roadblocks in budget allocation.


You need to keep in mind certain questions to fully come up with a reasonable budget.


●will the accepted rates be per project, per hour, or on a per month basis?


●what will be the risks involved in accomplishing the task?


●are you compromising the quality for an alluring price?


●are there any hidden costs?


The agreement that you have drafted should be solid as possible. Set due dates, with this comes a consultation with the actual group of people who'll be making the software. Ask them of their maximum capability. Avoid making impossible deadlines. Be realistic, match the number of manpower to their capability and the amount of work that they will be accomplishing.


Delegation of the tasks is truly vital. You have to know who matches the specific task in plan. But hindrances and surprise small problems will arise. But this can be solved by a consensus not eating a lot of work time.


Having a secured software for your payment gateway is a sure ingredient in securing your offshore merchant account. If the funds are settled accordingly, and hassle free, then rest assure that your business is in the best shape.