A Guide to Simplified Payments for System Integrators & Their Clients

How System Integrators Can Start the Payment Conversation

B2B businesses need to offer their customers up-to-date payment experiences. And this is an opportunity for system integrators to provide extra value for their clients by offering guidance and solutions for payment experiences that enhance cash flow.

Directing their customers to consider payments at the right time allows system integrators to set their clients up for both short- and long-term success and can help to save their clients time and money on future projects. But where can system integrators get the insights they need to guide their clients? Right here!

This guide simplifies payments for system integrators so they can guide their clients toward solutions and processes that will lead to short- and long-term success.

How to Improve Client Partnerships (& Outcomes) with Payments Guidance

Payments can be a strategic lever for operational efficiency, customer experience and revenue growth if set up correctly. But payments can also be rife with complexities, from adhering to federal and global regulations to maintaining accounts payable workflows — the list goes on.

System integrators can facilitate valuable partnerships with their clients by helping them better understand payments, avoid potential minefields and get ahead of critical payments trends. By collaborating with clients and responding to their unique payment pain points, system integrators can help them choose the right payment solution. It’s important to understand the client’s specific growth projections and strategies, so asking the right questions is crucial.

When to Introduce Payments in Client Discussions

Your clients know they need payments, but they might not bring it up. Most clients don’t fully understand the multitude of ways payments impact their business, or they may not be aware that there are options better than their current state.

Understanding their goals is a great place to start the conversation, just as you would to offer them the right ERP. For example, have they considered how payments may support their domestic growth or expansion into other countries?

The sooner you have this conversation, the sooner you can craft a plan that includes payments from the start. This will help you avoid having to take the infrastructure you’ve constructed apart because of not accommodating potential future growth and needs.

Asking something as basic as, “What does your business look like today vs. five, 10 or 15 years from now?” is a good starting point. This will help you:

• Assess your client’s current situation
• Understand the features you may need for scalability
• Determine where payments fit into helping to generate future success

Delaying the payments conversation could prevent you from creating the best, most comprehensive solution to help your clients.

How System Integrators Can Talk to Clients About Payments

While system integrators’ knowledge of payments may vary, here are some questions you could ask almost any client to help get them thinking about payments as the powerful, business-driving tools they can be:

• What markets/regions do you operate in? What are your expansion plans?
• What are your current pain points with payment processing?
• What payment methods do your customers prefer?
• Are you looking to reduce costs, enhance customer experience, or both?
• What are your payment flows right now? What do you want them to be in the future?
• How does the rest of your business leverage technology?

Having a partner who can untangle the complexities of tech integrations is among the most significant benefits of working with system integrators, and scaling a business is one area where many businesses will run into integration issues. Instead of stitching together solutions, you can guide them to a payments solution that will facilitate growth and support their business goals more quickly than if they’d pursued other options.

How BlueSnap Simplifies Payments for System Integrators

At BlueSnap, our goal is to deliver best-in-class payment solutions using the software that system integrators already use, including Oracle NetSuite, BigCommerce, Sage Intacct, WooCommerce, QuickBooks, Magento (Adobe Commerce), Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and many more. BlueSnap already has native integrations to these popular business platforms, meaning less your clients can get up and running accepting payments with BlueSnap fast.

With our dedicated channel partnership, sales team, implementation support and ongoing assistance, BlueSnap becomes an extension of your team. We aim to give your clients the best experience by streamlining the payment solutions to integrations, and to help system integrators by providing resources to help you serve your clients with payment advice.

Interested in simplifying payments as a BlueSnap Channel Partner? Reach out to BlueSnap today to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I integrate with BlueSnap?

We have flexible integration options that work for web and mobile. If you are building your own custom payment pages or apps, you can use our APIs, hosted payment fields and/or hosted payment pages.  And with integrations to the software platforms and shopping carts you already use, you can start processing payments immediately. Learn more here.

What are cross-border payments?

Cross-border payments, or cross-border transactions, occur when the acquiring bank and the issuing bank are in different regions. When banks process cross-border payments, they perceive them to be riskier than domestic transactions, leading to higher fees and a greater likelihood of being declined.

How are B2B cross-border payments different from B2C?

As international commerce grows, B2B cross-border payments are increasingly important as B2C payments, but functionally they often lag behind B2C payments in terms of customer experience, transaction speed, amount of manual effort required and more. B2B companies can close that gap, and see a 25% uptick in conversion rates, by choosing a payment processor optimized for cross-border transactions.

How do digital payments work?

Whether for B2B card processing or B2C card transactions, digital payments work the same:

• The gateway captures the transaction request and either encrypts or tokenizes the information, then routes it to an acquiring bank.
• The acquiring bank (which provides your merchant account) takes ownership of the transaction request. Its job is to get authorization for the transaction.
• The issuing bank assesses the request: Does the customer have sufficient credit or funds? The issuing bank generates a response — yes or no — and sends it back to the acquiring bank via the card network.
• The acquiring bank sends the response back to the payment gateway.
• The payment gateway’s final job is to present the answer either back to the merchant or to the shopper directly (if you’re using a hosted payment page). 

Congratulations, your order is approved!

How can integrations improve AR?

Integrations streamline your AR process by connecting systems like accounting, CRM and invoicing tools — reducing manual work and helping you get paid faster.

What are alternative payment methods?

Alternative payment methods are payment methods that are used as an alternative to mainstream credit and debit cards. Some examples include direct debit, online banking methods such as SOFORT and GiroPay, and eWallets such as Apple Pay.

What are the different types of cross-border payments?

Cross-border payments can take any of the same forms as domestic payments, from eWallets and card payments to bank transfers. It’s important to be able to accept all types of payments, including payment types native to particular countries you sell in. That way, customers from around the world find it easy to pay. Shoppers in different countries also have different purchasing habits, such as on mobile vs. laptop. The more you tailor the experience to your customers’ locations and preferences, the more you will sell.

What is BlueSnap?

BlueSnap helps businesses accept global payments a better way. Our All-in-One Payment Orchestration Platform is designed to increase sales and reduce costs for all businesses accepting payments.

BlueSnap supports payments across all geographies through multiple sales channels such as online and mobile sales, marketplaces, subscriptions, invoice payments and manual orders through a virtual terminal.

And for businesses looking for embedded payments, we offer white-labeled payments for platforms with automated underwriting and onboarding that supports marketplaces and split payments.

With one integration and contract, businesses can sell in over 200 geographies with access to local acquiring in 45+ countries, 110+ currencies and 100+ global payment types, including popular eWallets, automated accounts receivable, world-class fraud protection and chargeback management, built-in solutions for regulation and tax compliance, and unified global reporting to help businesses grow.

What is a full payment platform?

A full payment platform is an end-to-end solution that lets you accept global payments through one integration, one contract, and one account.