How Self-Service Capabilities Help Maximize Payment Testing Efficiency

Piggly Wiggly is widely recognized as the first self-service supermarket in the United States. Its founder, Clarence Saunders, felt that having grocery shoppers give their orders to store clerks, as was the standard practice at the time, was both too slow and too expensive. 

Not only did his new self-service concept turn out to be faster and better for his bottom line, but consumers liked the freedom to shop at their own pace and select their own merchandise so much that they actually bought more products.

This self-service implementation worked out well for both the shopper and the shop owner. It would be difficult to find any supermarket today where you could not grab a basket or cart and stroll through the aisles at your leisure to solve the problem of what to have for dinner (self-service checkout is another matter altogether). 

So, how does this translate to the payments industry? One of the best examples of self-service success in this domain is the ATM. 

Despite initial skepticism when the concept was first rolled out more than 50 years ago, the automated teller machine is now the preferred way for most consumers to access their bank accounts and other financial services 24x7x365. More than 80% of cash withdrawal transactions in the United States are done at ATMs, according to data published in the Federal Reserve Payments Study. 

The Pros and Cons of Self-Service - From Consumer Behavior to Payment Industry Testing and Certification Processes

Generally speaking, people like self-service. Research by Tidio, a customer service platform provider, shows that 73% of consumers want the ability to solve issues independently, with 67% of those surveyed indicating that they prefer to resolve problems on their own, rather than speaking to a remote call center agent. 

However, there are definitely some things that people don’t like: 

• Limited availability of self-help resources 

• Difficulty finding specific information to resolve an issue 

• Being presented with inaccurate or out-of-date information 

• Slow response times to questions or requests for assistance 

• Lack of follow-through 

All of these issues only serve to slow down the problem-resolution process and frustrate the person trying to get help. But this is all from a consumer perspective, how does self-service affect your payment testing and certification processes?

In a commercial setting, such as the very dynamic payment industry, delays are not only aggravating but can have material consequences, like slowing down certification projects, missing delivery dates, and delaying revenue-generating initiatives. 

How much better would it be if you didn’t have to rely on outside assistance at all, but had immediate access to the resources necessary to answer questions and solve problems right at your fingertips whenever you needed them? 

Self-Service Capabilities Boost Payment Testing Productivity

So it is with Paragon’s Web FASTest platform, which is specifically designed to streamline the payment testing and certification processes used by virtually all credit and debit card issuers, acquirers, networks, processors, and retailers. 

One of the key self-service advantages that Web FASTest delivers is full access to both the acquiring (sending) and issuing (receiving) sides of the messages that make up a payment transaction for any given specification. That means that correctly formatted and accurate messages can be sent (as if by the acquirer, network, merchant, or gateway) and immediately responded to (as if by the issuer, network, or processor) with a message that also conforms to the selected specification.  

If a message fails for any reason, the system displays a dialogue box to indicate why and where the error or errors occurred. To simplify the problem resolution process, Web FASTest also allows bit-level editing capabilities so that a developer or tester can immediately correct the errors displayed. This level of access also means that the system can easily be used to generate negative tests to ensure that systems respond correctly even when they do receive invalid or missing data in a message. 

In certain situations, the user may need to dig deeper into the message flow to investigate a particular issue. For each transaction, Web FASTest captures a processing trace that shows exactly how the system “processed” the transaction in question, such as key changes or the steps used in the calculation of the EMV cryptogram or the CVV (card verification value). 

The processing trace is especially helpful for debugging chip card transactions because it contains details for each step in the processing of an EMV transaction, including the creation of a data block with the PIN, assembling the correct list of EMV tags and their values, and calculation of the cryptogram. 

Given the complexities associated with transaction security, Web FASTest also provides many additional resources to help developers and testers troubleshoot any issues in this area, including cryptography calculators that help with the calculation of or encryption/decryption of various test data components, such as: 

• PIN Block 

• EMV Cryptogram 

• Encrypt/Decrypt 

• CSC/CVV 

• AEVV 

Take Control of Your Payment Testing Environment

Paragon’s goal is to help our clients minimize the amount of time and effort they need to spend getting an updated version of new specifications ready for testing and then maximizing the amount of self-testing work (i.e., pre-certification) that can be accomplished before having to schedule the actual certification exercise with a card brand, network or processor. 

Not only does Paragon Application Systems provide updated versions of licensed specifications to our clients, but we also support the network test plan for many of the most common specifications. That means testing teams get immediate access to the current set of core messages and transactions, as well as the specific test scripts, test data, and expected results for both Issuer and Acquirer processing. 

It is also worth noting that since the Web FASTest application is server-based, there is no desktop software to maintain or update. As soon as newly updated specifications are deployed on the server, the changes become available to all users. Developers, testers, and QA resources can begin their testing immediately. Web FASTest can also maintain historical records and context for previous versions of specifications so that the information is always available for troubleshooting, regression testing, or audit purposes. 

Paragon solutions like Web FASTest are specifically designed to provide each client with the features, functionality, and flexibility they need to take total control of their testing environment while improving the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of their testing processes.  

An important part of our value proposition is also providing self-servicing capabilities in the form of resources, references, and reports test teams need to keep the operation running smoothly at all times. No more spending hours on the phone or waiting for whoever is on the other end of a test transaction to respond. This time can be better spent on more strategic initiatives or valuable revenue-generating projects. 

By using technology like Web FASTest to test and manage network specifications and pre-certification efforts, payment industry participants can streamline their testing operations, maximize the value of their resources, and realize a number of benefits, including: 

• Increased staff collaboration and efficiency 

• Faster project cycles and delivery timeframes 

• Improved quality and accuracy  

• Expanded test coverage 

• Reduced cost and complexity  

Interested in learning more about how the self-service capabilities of Web Fastest can help your organization maximize the productivity of its payment testing operations? Request a consultation today. Our team of industry experts is here to help!