Vaisala, a global leader in environmental and industrial measurement, selected Payments Advisory Group to resolve a practical issue in their current online customer payment process. Simultaneously, the company was looking to consolidate its current network of card acquiring processing payment service providers across its global markets and legal entities.

About Vaisala

Vaisala is a global leader in weather, environmental and industrial measurement. Building on over 85 years of experience, Vaisala provides observations for a better world. Vaisala is a reliable partner for corporate and government customers around the world, offering a comprehensive range of innovative observation and measurement products and services, including data. Headquartered in Finland, Vaisala employs over 2,000 professionals worldwide and with over 25 offices around the world Vaisala operates on a global level. Vaisala is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange and reported  2022 net sales of € 514.2 M.

Objective

As an immediate priority, Vaisala wanted to focus on resolving a practical issue and optimizing the customer experience in their online store. Through its subject matter expertise and high-quality industry network Payments Advisory Group was able to quickly resolve this issue and greatly improve the online customer checkout experience.

Secondly, Vaisala was looking to improve and unify their credit card payment system across all its operational countries, legal entities, currencies, and sales channels. The current payment provider set up could be described as scattered, with up to 6 different platforms in use across the company. The new infrastructure should improve operational and financial efficiency and control as well as ensure regulatory compliance. At the same time the new provider should be able to facilitate subscription-based payments for Vaisala’s growing data services. Lastly, the new provider should be able to integrate into Vaisala’s existing and developing CRM and ERP environments.

Approach

Payments Advisory Group used its proven and phased approach as well as tested template documents which allow our projects to run more efficiently and at a higher quality level to the benefit of our clients.

Starting with establishing a clear and shared understanding of the current situation, we then moved on to describing Vaisala’s needs and requirements of a future solution in line with its business model and objectives. This was captured in a Target Blueprint (TBP) document, and marked the first deliverable. After successfully validating the feasibility of the designed TBP with selected (existing and new) market vendors through a Request for Information process, it was decided to enter into Phase 2 and run a formal Request for Proposal process.

Payments Advisory Group lead these processes on behalf of Vaisala, engaging with market vendors while maintaining direct lines into Vaisala’s internal stakeholder groups.

Result

• Resolved practical issue improving customer checkout experience
• Provided insight in current situation re incoming customer payments across channels; i.e. through sales agent/mail order telephone order (MoTo) and e-commerce.
• Designed a new and improved incoming payments infrastructure
• Drafted requirements (technical/functional/non-functional/commercial/legal)
• Selected global providers to deliver newly designed target blueprint
• Ran RfI/RfP process to select new single service provider for Vaisala’s global business
• Commercial negotiations
• Preparation of legal contracting

Once implemented Vaisala will have a far simpler and more customer friendly payments infrastructure. The new set up will deliver improved control, more uniform and cost-efficient processes, while meeting regulatory compliance standards such as PCI/DSS, allowing Vaisala to further grow its global business.

Vaisala quote

“We are very happy that we engaged Payments Advisory Group to help us improve our customer payments infrastructure. The consultants from Payments Advisory Group displayed remarkable expertise and were extremely patient during the project. Our collaboration with them was characterized by transparent and open, clear communication. They not only fulfilled the agreed objectives but also exceeded them.

 Given the opportunity, we would be delighted to work with Payments Advisory Group again, and highly recommend them to any company or retailer seeking to streamline their customer payment processes.”

Suzette Patricio-Ahonen, Payment Process owner Vaisala

They reached out to Payments Advisory Group, who were able to provide the necessary expertise and support. Payments Advisory Group conducted a thorough analysis of EVBox’s business and provided recommendations on the best billing model to implement.

With the guidance and support of Payments Advisory Group, EVBox was able to successfully implement their new billing model. The model has been well-received by customers, and has helped EVBox to improve their efficiency and profitability.

Overall, Payments Advisory Group was able to provide valuable support and expertise to EVBox in their pursuit of a new billing model. Their guidance and hands-on approach were instrumental in helping EVBox to successfully implement the new model, resulting in improved efficiency and customer satisfaction

Shurgard is the largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities in Europe with 267 self-storage centers in: The Netherlands, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Denmark.

Shurgard Self Storage SA is a publicly listed company on Euronext Brussels (“Shurgard”, ticker symbol: SHUR) with a 2021 operating revenue of €300M.

Objectives

Key drivers for this project were the optimisation of back office integrations and processes such as payouts, reconciliation and reporting, as well as front end improvements in customer onboarding and overall customer experience. Shurgard was looking to do this across its 7 European operational countries, across multiple currencies and across both the in-store as well as the e-commerce channel.

Approach

Based on Shurgard current situation, its business model and its current and future needs Payments Advisory Group designed a Target Blueprint for Shurgard’s future customer payments landscape, which also included an evaluation of payment products currently offered to Shurgard’s customers. After validating the blueprint with Shurgard and with payment solution providers in the market, a formal RFP process was started to select a single payment service provider, able to deliver the Shurgard target blueprint and act as the single payments partner to Shurgard group.

Payments Advisory Group successfully managed the entire selection process including:

• Requirements gathering
• Creation of RFP documentation
• Selection criteria and weighted scoring model
• Negotiations (commercial and legal terms)
• Contracting

Results

The following results were delivered within agreed timelines:

• Selection and contracting of new, single payment service provider for all 7 Shurgard countries, across currencies and channels
• Optimisation of incoming customer payments for Shurgard group, benefiting backoffice processes as well as customer onboarding and overall customer experience

Introduction
Albert Czech Republic acts as the strong market leader with a retail network of 350+ supermarkets and hypermarkets. They are a part of the Ahold Delhaize Group, a leader in supermarkets and e-commerce, and a company at the forefront of sustainable retailing. The Ahold Delhaize family serves more than 50 million shoppers each week in 11 countries.

Background
Albert Czech Republic was looking to challenge the current cards acquiring infrastructure (including processing and terminals) to improve cost efficiency as well as reliability and business continuity. A cost efficient and reliable cards infrastructure is critical to Albert as payment cards represent a large and increasing share of the total yearly turnover. Moreover, Albert considers a reliable payments infrastructure to be critical in maintaining high customer satisfaction. Through its 350+ retail locations across the Czech Republic, Albert acts as a strong market leader in Czech retail and processes millions card transactions every week. Card volumes are projected to grow double digit every year in Czech Republic.

Albert Czech Republic contracted Payments Advisory Group (PAG) to run this RFP process on their behalf.
PAG acted as project manager, subject matter expert in IT infrastructure, cards acquiring and terminal services and financials. PAG also acted as th single point of contact towards all contenders throughout the entire process.

Evaluation of the case
PAG worked remotely on this assignment, driven by cost-efficiency and Covid-19 travel restrictions. The cooperation was based 100% on success fee, creating a joint effort to improve cost efficiency as well as reliability and business continuity.

After initial evaluation of the relevant current IT infrastructure for cards processing, a requirements document was drafted which also included recommendations from this infrastructure audit.

Contender Selection criteria:

• Cost efficiency measured against competitors and established baseline (current total cost level against anticipated transaction volumes and terminal estate). This was the primary selection criterium if other must-have requirements are met
• Technical requirements for terminals & card acquiring processing; captured in detailed RFP questionnaire indicating must-have requirements to be met in order to be eligible to progress in the selection process
• Maintenance & Service levels

From an initial longlist of over 40 potential contenders a shortlist of 10 contenders was drafted, following agreed selection criteria and PAG-Albert alignment. After a thorough analysis of all the data and through a phased selection 3 contenders were left.

Solution
After final interviews, presentations, and negotiations, a winner was selected and a new contract was awarded to CSOB.

In addition to realizing the project’s main objective, PAG recommended to discuss near future technical solutions with appointed contenders on further potential cost savings and customer satisfaction improvements.

Project summary
• Duration: 6 months
• Total Contract Value: > €25M

Result
• New contract with improved IT infrastructure and service levels
• Cost efficiency realized: ±7% against baseline
• Project run within planned timelines
• Client evaluation (out of 10):
Project: 9
Cooperation: 10+

Quotes
Some quotes from contenders who did not win the contract:
“It was absolutely a pleasure working with Payments Advisory Group and we appreciate your open communication, transparency and professional approach at every phase of the process.”

“We appreciate the support Payments Advisory Group has provided us since the beginning of this RFP and – We are looking forward to any future cooperation!”

“Probably this is the nicest email with bad news I have ever received
Any way, thank you very much – It was really pleasant cooperation with all of you and I hope we keep in touch”

“Thanks for being supportive during this RFP process.”

“I appreciate your professional approach in the course of RFP. Thank you and your team for that!”

Complication
With a diverse landscape of Payment Operations carried out in the countries, with different currencies, levels of maturity, infrastructure and local payment customs, the Group wants to set a strategic roadmap for centralization of payments processing, striking the best balance between local autonomy and central efficiency. This requires an assessment of payments functions across all business sectors (retail, corporate, capital market), payments types (domestic, SEPA, local/foreign currency), customer channels and clearing channels, architecture and application landscape, as well as finding governance and funding models for services operated centrally (mandatory or optional for the country member bank) or decentrally.
Having completed the SEPA migration for the Euro-in countries, with migration for non-Euro countries by early 2016 upcoming, the next step was to reassess the potential for centralization of payments functions to support compliance, and the evolving customer requirements, notably for the corporate segment where the Group has a growth ambition. The main element was felt to be the need for a centralized payment hub. A “home-grown” Generic Payments Function (GPF; conceived as an internal payments hub) exists but was considered functionally incomplete and had been only partially rolled-out to the Group member banks. In some banks, package solutions were being used. Payments Advisory Group was asked to conduct a refresh of the Group’s internal and external strategic requirements, and provide a staged approach strategy plan towards completion and roll-out of GPF, indicating what functions could be supplied by buying or making application platforms.

Proposed Solution
Payments Advisory Group proposed to conduct interviews with stakeholders from Group business and operations functions, and from the member banks (the countries) and work with the Group Holding management to create a feasible directional document, to support the Group strategic programmes for all payments processing, including possible reactions to new trends like mobile channels, regulatory change like PSD2, and topics such as building strategic API-capability.

Execution & Result
After a series of initial interviews, and review of existing architectural material and earlier external assesments, Payments Advisory Group’s consultants created a strategic directional view, supported by advice on structuring of payments governance within the Group and controlling of the roadmap of GPF. It also allowed for active managing of innovative pressure. The direction was adopted and will be implemented by the Group’s own staff. One strategic vendor solution was confirmed to become mandatory for the Group, for other applications the analysis and vendor selection will be done along the staged multi-year approach to GPF. The project was completed in 14 weeks.

Complication
Upon implementation of SEPA Direct Debit Alfam’s numbers of returns on collections increased significantly, to levels 3 or 4 times higher than before SEPA. This put a big stress on the organisation, as paying interest on loans and paying back loans is the core of their business.

Proposed Solution
Payments Advisory Group was called in to assist in understanding the nature of the problems. After an initial client meeting, Payments Advisory Group proposed to hold a workshop to identify the main issues felt by the organisation. On the basis of the results of this workshop Payments, Advisory Group performed detailed analyses on the processes of outgoing payments and incoming returns and proposed changes in the administrative process control.

Execution & Result
In the detailed analysis, a few issues with outgoing payments were identified as well as a more detailed breakdown of the returns, the cause and reasons for returns combined with the characteristics of the outgoing payments. This allowed for a focused break down and addressing the root causes of the problems in the areas where they were originated. The customer-facing department was given tools to handle customer conversations.
Two months after Payments Advisory Group was onsite the number of returns was greatly reduced down to normal levels
As a next step Alfam staff was trained by Payments Advisory Group to perform the analyses themselves.
In the ongoing support, Payments Advisory Group gave Alfam tools to even further reduce the number of refunds, specifically address client problems and look for solutions that would benefit the organisation and the client.

Complication
The challenge for BNP Paribas was to create a feasible medium-term plan; by prioritizing its initiatives for the approach to the Dutch market. Local demands should match the global offering and local offerings might be needed. On some aspects, notably on channels and local infrastructure connections, BNP Paribas did not have on-par offerings with the incumbent banks. Also with the SEPA Migration coming up at the time (early 2013), the window to target corporates was small. Payments Advisory Group was asked to create a high-level overview of market needs, product offering gaps, opportunities and advise on priorities for an effective market approach.

Proposed Solution
Payments Advisory Group proposed to conduct interviews with the client and create a report describing the requested market insights, options and priorities. Specifically, the needs of large corporates would be addressed as well as the infrastructural aspects.

Execution & Result
Payments Advisory Group prepared and set up the interviews based on their market knowledge and contacts. The interviews were carried out in a few days and the end-report was produced rapidly, within 2 weeks. It was well received and used by the client to strengthen the business plan including budget requirements and sales approach.

Quote from our client
Robert Mol, Sales Director:
“During the year, as we were setting up and executing parts of our market strategy, we went back a number of times to this report. It proved to be a highly useful marker and checklist for our programme execution planning. In the next phase, we will be happy to work again closely with the experts of Payments Advisory Group.”

Complication
This strategy needed to be translated into an implementation programme in order to execute and deliver the results promised by the strategy.

Execution & Result
Payments Advisory Group was first called into the Programme to iron out a number of ‘open ends’ within the designed strategy, which included architectural design discussions in the channel layer as well as in the back office application landscape. Simultaneously Payments Advisory Group facilitated in designing the execution programme organization & governance.

Once the Programme started Payments Advisory Group actively participated in managing the Programme with a focus on roadmap development (delivery & business roadmap, architecture roadmap and business case tracking).

The bank recognized the success of the Programme and extended the scope of the Payments Programme to other product lines within the bank, including Financial Markets, Lending and Trade Finance.

Payments Advisory Group continued to be actively involved in the execution and further development of the Programme. Our engagement ranged from strategic advise (e.g. revision of the commercial payments strategy “beyond SEPA”) to design and implementation of primary supporting processes such as Incident Management as part of the ambition to continuously improve the banks’ client experience.