The big trend in payments is to move away from in-house payments processing systems to SaaS-based platforms that are easy to deploy, configure and enable new capabilities. What’s driving this trend, says i2c CMO Marc Winitz, is the need for both the control and flexibility to compete effectively in today’s market. In an interview with MPD CEO Karen Webster, Winitz discussed the two big global payments showstoppers that i2c sees from its perch and the advice offers that are facing them.

KW: You bring a very important global perspective to the conversation about payments and commerce. What are the trends that you have seen in markets outside of the U.S. that you believe the U.S. market should pay attention to?

MW: The movement in many international markets is from in-house processing systems that are inflexible to true SaaS-based processing platforms that are easy to deploy, configure and launch new capabilities. What’s driving the change is really the delivery of control and flexibility needed to compete effectively.

There are two issues we are seeing in different geographic areas to which the U.S. needs to pay attention. The first is that the payment mechanism is simply a function that needs to be embedded into a broader enterprise business process.

For example, one of our customers outside the U.S., in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) sector, supports disaster relief. The need to disperse funds rapidly, via a prepaid card, is really important to get money into the hands of those that need it, in the most efficient way possible. We are seeing this a lot now where the enterprise isn’t particularly concerned with payments, per se, they just need that capability delivered rapidly, securely and aligned to their business process.

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