How Testing Automation Drives Innovation and Change for the Payments Industry

Life in today’s business world is challenging. Companies large and small have access to mountains of data that they use to make decisions, both good and bad, about where to invest, what opportunities to chase, who to partner with, and who to hire or fire… all in the great corporate circle of life.  

Of course, not all businesses or industries move in the same orbit. When one sector is growing, another is shrinking. When one segment is hot and trending up, another is sure to be cooling off and trending down.  

So it is this year that a number of banks, retailers, and financial services companies are reorganizing so that they are better positioned to invest in new technologies, chase new opportunities, and face new challenges.  

In the USA, payment industry leaders such as Mastercard, Citi, NCR, Truist, PayPal, and eBay have all announced restructuring efforts intended to streamline and refocus their operations toward the future. 

Even with its continued strong financial results, Mastercard said that its realignment - centered around the areas of Core Payments, Commercial & New Payment Flows, and Services - is necessary to address changing market conditions, focus on growth areas, and deliver value to its shareholders. 

The Complexities of the Payments Industry

In reality, every payment industry participant must pay close attention to the many factors that impact their specific business operations. Companies invest in people, products, and programs that don’t always work out as planned for a number of reasons, such as:  

• Evolving Consumer Behavior: Increasingly educated and sophisticated internet shoppers can drive wild swings in product acceptance and demand. Organizations must be prepared to respond just as quickly. 
  
  
• Competition: Technology has lowered the barrier to competition in many segments, making it easy for disrupters to provide hyper-focused products and services that attract high-value consumers to their brands. 
  
  
• Changing Technology: The cloud, AI, 6G, and quantum computing are already changing the way the world works and how companies operate. Savvy IT managers must invest and divest wisely in order for their organizations to survive. 
  
  
• Legal and Regulatory Conditions: Government policies and regulations impact how businesses operate. Adapting to new regulations can require changes to operations and personnel. 
  
  
• Mergers and Acquisitions: Mega-mergers like Capital One/Discover, Fiserv/First Data, and Global Payment/TSYS changed the dynamics of the payment industry overnight. Every organization should remain in a constant state of readiness to acquire or be acquired.

So it is both understandable and necessary for organizations to evolve themselves as they navigate through the often choppy waters that are the dynamic, disruptive, and sometimes dangerous globally connected business environment that we all operate in today.  

Ensuring Efficient Operations During Times of Change

It is incumbent on every organization to keep a close eye on day-to-day operations during their restructuring exercise to make sure that they do not disadvantage their customers, their employees, or their shareholders. 

For example, the payment industry requires that every participant who sends or receives payment transactions must stay current with the operating rules and message specifications for the card brands and payment networks it is connected to. Failure to comply in this regard may result in several negative consequences, such as:  

• Unhappy consumers who cannot pay for goods or services 
  
  
• More cardholder disputes and chargebacks 
  
  
• An increase in fraudulent transactions 
  
  
• Higher interchange fees 
  
  
• Fines and assessments 

No industry participant wants to inconvenience its customers, see a jump in chargebacks, experience a spike in fraud, or get fined by one of the card brands because they took their eye off the ball during their reorganization. 

Test Automation is a Critical Piece of the Puzzle

One way for organizations to protect themselves from these negative consequences is aggressively pursuing automated testing to streamline testing operations and maximize organizational efficiency.

Testing automation will deliver a number of important benefits, such as: 

Increased Speed 

Automation greatly increases the speed at which tests can be run, boosting resource productivity, improving project delivery cycles - including speeding the development of new products and services to meet changing market conditions - and increasing corporate agility.  

Improved Accuracy and Reliability 

Automation significantly reduces the chances of human error during testing. Automation ensures that each test is performed consistently and accurately. Minimizing defects and re-work means fewer resources can do more work in less time. 

Enhanced Collaboration 

24/7 accessibility along with testing automation helps improve cooperation and communication between groups, teams, and business units. resources are available. Centralized data means test scripts, cards, media, results, and reports are readily available, making it easy to direct testing workloads to wherever resources are located. 

Integration 

Many organizations need help to get maximum productivity from resources who have similar roles but operate in different parts of the business. Automation helps facilitate the use of APIs to integrate payment testing operations with other enterprise groups and systems, such as DevOps teams and CI/CD pipelines. 

Flexibility and Scalability 

Improved testing speed, accuracy, and availability help provide both the flexibility and scalability organizations need to quickly respond and adapt to changing corporate priorities, new business opportunities, disruptive technologies, legal and regulatory challenges, as well as evolving consumer behavior. 

Automated Testing Facilitates Innovation and Change 

It is important to recognize the inevitability of change in the fast-paced and globally interconnected business environment that exists today. That means that corporate restructuring and reorganization are simply a reflection of a diverse and dynamic marketplace that must be monitored and managed closely. No organization can survive long without evolving to meet the needs of its customers and constituents. 

This is especially true for the payment industry, where consumers, technology, competition, and regulations continue to drive change at a dizzying pace. Unfortunately, not all corporate shake-ups go smoothly and things fall through the cracks. It is therefore critically important that every organization involved in processing consumer payment transactions takes the necessary precautions to ensure seamless operations during any corporate “transformation”. 

One way to prepare for inevitable change is by using modern testing solutions and simulators to automate and streamline testing operations.

Paragon solutions like Web FASTest and VirtualATM empower organizations to quickly and easily respond to change by managing and distributing work to wherever resources are located, facilitating improved collaboration and integration of payment testing processes across the enterprise, as well as improving the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of payment testing operations 

If you would like to learn more about how testing automation can help your organization prepare for whatever the future holds, please reach out to schedule a conversation with us.