Benefits of Shared Services

By Mark Brousseau

Implementing a shared services approach to payments processing and clearing can help organizations build value across the enterprise, Mario Villarreal (mvillarreal@usdataworks.com), president and COO of US Dataworks said during a presentation at the 2008 TAWPI Forums & Expo in Orlando last week. With a shared services approach, organizations can process more payment types, identify new payment channels, and continue adding functionality as the industry evolves, Villarreal told attendees.

“Operations typically consist of both platform and application silos,” Villarreal said. Platform silos inhibit ability to integrate customer, bank and payment data across multiple payment methods, he noted, while application silos increase costs and operations risk due to redundant processing. In either case, the cost is high to adapt and integrate legacy systems.

“There are various reasons for these silos, but at the end of the day, they inhibit an organization’s ability to integrate valuable payments data,” Villarreal explained.

Villarreal thinks the endgame solution is for organizations to implement a shared services payment strategy; this strategy would converge around all of the types of payments that an organization might have, whether they are checks, ACH, mobile or wire. Through this framework, all payments would converge into a single payments processing platform, and tools could be used to make decisions as to the best way to clear these transactions.

Villarreal said a shared services approach offers key advantages, including reduced risk, improved compliance, better technology standardization, a single source for real-time reporting and analytics, streamlined operations costs, and future road-mapping. “There are significant benefits here from the data that is inherent in all payments,” Villarreal noted.

Has your organization implemented an enterprise payments strategy?

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