Being large usually isn’t synonymous with being agile. Of course, there are exceptions: NFL offensive linemen, Bengal Tigers, and Naval submarines, to name a few. But none of those enormous bodies have to deal with the complexities of the payments landscape on a per-second basis.

In the proliferating world of financial technology, enterprise businesses face a dizzying array of challenges to keep pace with innovation. With challenges ranging from complex payment ecosystems to immense regulatory compliance standards and legacy systems that stifle innovation, it’s no wonder agility seems like a pipe dream. But, due to the scale and complexity of enterprise operations, solving dilemmas, pivoting if needed, and quickly implementing solutions becomes increasingly critical. 

As companies strive to meet the needs of inflation-wary customers, they require a unified financial technology platform that can help them confidently tackle an increasingly competitive landscape.

Keep it in-house 

Enterprise businesses often rely on a complex network of third-party systems in payment processing, risk management, acquiring, and issuing to manage their financial operations efficiently. 

When systems operate in isolation, valuable data opportunities slip through the cracks, leading to suboptimal performance. Enhancing the customer experience and making well-informed business decisions becomes difficult without real-time visibility into customer data.

As one of the world’s leading fintech platforms, Adyen is committed to equipping enterprises with end-to-end payment capabilities, data solutions, and other digital innovations in a single solution. Adyen helps enterprise businesses overcome integration, fraud prevention, compliance, and expansion hurdles.

Taking a stance against the conventional fintech industry norms of consolidation and mergers, Adyen opts for a different path, developing solutions in-house from the ground up. Unlike fragmented payments ecosystems that rely on a patchwork of providers, Adyen’s platform is built for all enterprise businesses, including SaaS platforms, digital subscription companies, and retail and hospitality chains. 

“We built a whole new technology platform ourselves. That gives us the ability to innovate and scale much more efficiently than the competition,” says Adyen’s North America President, Davi Strazza.

Within its organization, Adyen adeptly manages all aspects of payments, including acquiring, banking, and issuing, bolstered by its robust financial infrastructure and comprehensive banking licenses. The banking licenses provide faster settlement times, more automation, and excellent stability.

By integrating with Adyen, hospitality chains like QC Terme gain instant access to a global financial infrastructure connecting them to various payment services. This integration simplifies operations, providing a unified solution no matter where they operate.

“The integration was flawless. We had all the tools that we needed, and we had all the information and all the support. And so far, I think it’s one of the most successful, painless, and effective experiences in the integration that I have so far in my working career.”
– Gabriele Cafaro, CTO, QC Terme NY 

Fraud prevention 

Payment fraud is an ever-present threat in the digital payments landscape. One of every five online transactions fails due to technical glitches or fraudulent activities. Fraudsters are agile, using various techniques, such as chargebacks, account takeovers, and card-not-present (CNP) fraud, to exploit vulnerabilities in payment systems. Enterprise businesses have to respond in kind. Adyen uses machine learning to offer customer-friendly authentication, thus safeguarding digital businesses from fraudulent activities while improving approval rates.

A Forrester Total Economic Impact survey highlights Adyen’s technology. Adyen has delivered significant value, generating around $11.6 million in benefits and a noteworthy 186% return on investment (ROI). Notably, a portion of this ROI (approximately 17%) is attributed to the automated risk engine’s effectiveness in detecting fraud.

Innovation that’s shaping the industry 

To remain competitive, enterprise businesses must stay ahead of emerging industry trends. Whether it’s Mobile POS technology, Network Tokenization, or preferred local payment methods, ensuring consumers’ payments go through effortlessly and securely is any company’s priority.

With the innovations in financial technology, losing a retail sale because of the inability to process a payment is unacceptable. Adyen is at the forefront of in-person payment acceptance, having launched Tap to Pay on iPhone, which enables businesses to accept in-person contactless payments with only an iPhone, as well as Tap to Pay on Android, thereby removing checkout friction for businesses. Retailers using handheld devices in store to check inventory can now easily accept payments on the same machine, eliminating the need to visit the register and speeding up checkouts. The efficiency enhances customer satisfaction and boosts the store’s transaction capacity within the same time frame.

“The new generation of shoppers doesn’t have much patience for issues like delayed returns or long queues at the store. They also prefer using payment methods like Venmo and Cash App,” Strazza says. “If they visit a store and can’t make payments the way they want, it presents a missed opportunity for the business.”

As mobile payments and digital wallets gain popularity, network tokenization becomes crucial. It allows mobile devices to securely store payment information without revealing card numbers. As more and more card schemes embrace the technology, Adyen is prepared, currently hosting two billion active network tokens. Leveraging Machine Learning, Adyen can assist enterprise businesses in transitioning to this secure method, ensuring top-tier online transaction security.

Integrating multiple local payment methods into an enterprise’s payment infrastructure is complex. Each process may have different APIs, requirements, and protocols that must be managed. Adyen offers businesses like the global CRM platform Tessitura the capability to provide their platform users’ customers with their preferred payment methods at checkout to minimize friction and enhance the shopping experience. With Adyen, Tessitura accesses up to 200 payment methods through a single API integration, enabling them to provide localized payment options to their users’ customers globally. 

“The Adyen API is amazing. It’s just incredibly extensive and well-documented.”
– Chuck Reif, Chief Engineer and Co-Founder of Tessitura

Data, data, data

Payments data is an often overlooked but precious source of insights into an enterprise business’s customers and operations. Not having a unified view of customers across channels makes optimizing the customer experience and making informed business decisions challenging. This fragmentation can lead to operational inefficiencies and data blind spots.

Enterprise businesses that level up from omnichannel to Unified Commerce streamline operations and offer a unified customer experience by connecting all channels in the front and back end. With a total view of data across channels, enterprise businesses can understand customers better and improve their operational performance.

Until now, blending online and brick-and-mortar environment sales has been a tough ask for businesses. With more than 80% of transactions occurring in physical stores but missing customer identification, many retailers lack valuable insights into customer preferences, which means they’re missing the data they need to optimize their loyalty programs and checkout experiences.

Adyen’s Data Connect for Marketing unlocks the power of payment data for businesses. The solution helps enterprise businesses boost marketing impact by using data effectively. With the wealth of data available through Adyen’s single platform, companies can make more informed decisions, refine their marketing strategies, and drive growth and customer engagement.

Discover how Adyen’s financial technology platform can help enterprise businesses achieve agility at scale.