More and more organisations, both with in-house and outsourced payment services from a variety of sectors, are using specialist systems and profiting from the many advantages they bring.
We’re talking improved control over payments and huge reductions in time spent on manual tasks like processing invoices, sending payment requests and reconciliation.
But what does the integration process look like? Is it really that easy to collaborate with Ordo?
To provide further insight, we caught up with Ordo Director, Mike Banyard and Head of Product, Toby Grainge, to give you a sneak peek into the world of Ordo integration!
What does your role at Ordo entail?
Mike –
As Co-founder, responsible for the delivery of the Ordo proposition (including technology and operations), I engage with current and prospective clients, along with internal stakeholders, to ensure that the needs of clients are reflected in how we deliver the current service, including onboarding of API-using clients, and that our product roadmap is delivering the new functionality that will keep Ordo relevant to our clients.
With over 30 years’ experience in the delivery of payment solutions to businesses and consumers, I bring this expertise to bear on our propositions.
My daily mission is to develop, maintain and innovate on behalf of clients, ensuring Ordo continues to meet their demands for cost-effective payment solutions.
Toby –
As the Head of Product, I oversee the development and management of the Ordo roadmap based on the company strategy and vision. I collaborate with a variety of departments across the business, to ensure that product innovations and the efficiency of existing products meet the needs of our clients and conform to industry standards and best practices.
Much of my day-to-day role focuses on the onboarding and integration of our API customers to the Ordo product that best suits their payments and business needs. Utilising my 10 years of payments and technology experience, I also seek to automate and simplify customer onboarding to improve self-service.
What does the onboarding process look like?
From the very first meeting, our team of experts work closely with clients, getting to grips with their business dynamic, values and existing operations.
It is vital that we understand what systems the client is already using so that we can ensure we provide advice and guidance that is relevant when it comes to choosing the right API product – evaluating their use cases is one way we support the client to determine which product best suits their solution or needs.
Upon making this decision you will access the Developer portal where you can subscribe to the Ordo API product(s) of your choice and then begin to build in our Sandbox.
How many steps are there in Ordo’s integration process?
There are 4 steps for the client when it comes to the integration process.
Step 1: Creating an Ordo ID
Creating an Ordo ID is necessary to use our APIs.
Once created, we automatically link this to your client application and the Ordo ID is then used to identify you on our payments platform and to any customer/payer you request money from.
Step 2: Testing
Our Sandbox provides you with the perfect testing environment, allowing you to build your integrated payment solution without needing a bank account or to exchange ‘real’ money.
Step 3: End-user experience & white labelling
A key part of any System Integration Testing is understanding how your end users will interact with your build.
Therefore, we provide a Model Bank which emulates a real bank and is used to simulate the Payer experience for the Ordo Payment Initiation Service, which uses Open Banking to initiate payments.
You can keep your brand at front-of-mind and enhance your customer experience by white-labelling the Ordo Payer journey, using your company branding and colours.
Step 4: Production
Once the System Integration Testing is complete and a ‘go-live date’ is established, the above steps can be repeated for Production.
What API products are available to clients?
Our products have been specifically developed to cater for clients across industries, from finance and car dealerships to utilities and education. Depending on the wants and needs of the client, they can choose one of the three API products detailed below:
BillerDelivery
Ideal for billers who want to manage the presentment of the payment request to their customer themselves (AKA ‘white labelling’). Ordo returns a unique URL link to the biller for each payment request. This link can be presented to the customer in several ways, such as:
- embedded by the biller into their own email/SMS or other messaging – either as a link or converted into a gif
- converted into a QR code, enabling their customer to scan the code and view/pay the smart request from their mobile device
- converted into an e-commerce ‘PayNow’ button
To facilitate the latter in particular, the API allows the biller to include their own redirect URL, so that once their customer has completed payment, they can be redirected to the biller’s website
Financial Institution
These APIs are designed for Financial Institution clients. As well as the APIs being able to create payment requests, the APIs can also add as many of your customer accounts to your ‘send’ capability as you like. This enables your customers to have funds paid directly into their account with you. The account name of each account is presented to the Payer, so they know exactly where the funds are going. This API product is particularly great for savings accounts, pre-paid cards and wallets.
SendViaOrdo
Useful for billers that don’t have the ability to automatically present payment requests to their customers themselves. With SendViaOrdo, the biller submits payment requests and can then leave it to Ordo to send them out to each payer. Each request is sent from [BillerName]viaOrdo@ordopay.com or via Ordo’s SMS service.
“They have a good support system in place, where they were able to provide quick responses to any queries raised to allow successful integration.
There was a requirement to find a partner for open banking payments and then integrate in a way that the end user doesn’t feel there is a link to third party product. We explored use cases together with Ordo and found solutions/answers to all of them because Ordo’s process and product is capable. The development work to integrate was smooth, there were few small issues, but they were handled and resolved efficiently. The integration was completed but the relationship doesn’t end here because there was support available for launching the product to our customers too!
The main positive point for our delivery teams is the automation of customer onboarding because it saves time and effort.”
— Capita
The average length of time integration with us takes from start to finish is just 10 working days.
Saving you time and money all whilst providing the ultimate customer experience.
If you would like to find out more about integrating with Ordo, contact us here or reach out to Isabel Robson on 07795075134