Articles

Utilities Grow Weary of Siloed Payments Solutions
by Mark Brousseau - October 2010

For utilities, centralized processing is one of the key advantages of an enterprise payments approach. Centralized payments processing is especially appealing to utilities that are expanding their geographic footprint. With an enterprise approach, utilities gain better visibility into their payments, regardless of their footprint. …More

Intern Upturn: US Dataworks Grows its Internship Program
by Leilani Doyle and Mark Brousseau - October 2010

At a time when aspiring young professionals are having a hard time breaking into the corporate world, US Dataworks is arming high school and college students with invaluable programming and financial services knowledge, as well as industry contacts, through a hands-on internship program in its product development group. Recent “graduates” of the program have gone on to attend the University of Texas at Austin and Louisiana State University. …More

The Business Case for the Adoption of Integrated Payments Hubs by Government Entities
by Leilani Doyle and Mark Brousseau - September 2010

If you think your operations budgets are tight, try managing payments processing for a government entity. Stung by declining tax revenues, most state, county, and municipal governments have squeezed their operations budgets dry, forcing government operations managers to meet new fiscal challenges. Like their counterparts in the private sector, governments are struggling with how best to adapt their operations to declining check volumes and emerging payments channels. …More

The Evolution of Payments
by Mario Villarreal and Mark Brousseau - August/September 2010

English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) once said, "It is not the strongest of species that survive, nor the fastest, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most adaptable to change." While Darwin may have uttered those words more than a century ago, retail and wholesale lockbox processors should keep his message in mind as they try to adapt to changes in the payments space. …More

The Integrated Payments Hub: Value Proposition
by Leilani Doyle and Mark Brousseau - July 2010

Despite all the hype about declining check volumes, fee income associated with payments processing still accounts for a large percentage of non-interest income for financial institutions. But a lack of investment in payments operations over the past few years puts this revenue at risk from non-bank competitors and new bank-agnostic payments mechanisms. …More

Is Consolidation the Answer?
by Leilani Doyle - March/April 2010

The government entity is standardizing its payment systems on a platform that will process all of its paper and electronic checks from originations to returns, eliminating multiple standalone payment systems. This will enable the entity to consolidate all check and electronic check payments…More

AP Trends Driving Need for Enterprise Payments Hubs
by Mario Villarreal

Organizations that are still on the fence about the need for an enterprise payments hub may feel like they've received a proverbial shove after reading the results of a new study on accounts payable (AP) trends conducted by International Accounts Payable Professionals (IAPP), based in Orlando, FL. …More

Improving Working Capital Management with Enterprise Payment Hubs
by Leilani Doyle - November/December 2009

The old expression “cash is king” has never been more true than in today’s changing economic environment. And for more organizations, an Enterprise Payments Hub is a critical element of the company’s cash management strategy. Traditionally, corporations have managed payments channels individually. …More

Mastering the Multi-Channel Payments Environment

Upon initial review, sourcing applications from multiple software vendors for individual payments mechanisms and clearing channels doesn't seem so bad. Applications can be quickly added to an organization's payments processing mix to respond rapidly to changing business needs…More

Enterprise Payment Platforms: A Solution for Today's Economy
by Mark Brousseau- January/February 2009

The payments operations at most organizations typically consist of platform and application silos, creating significant processing challenges. Platform silos inhibit an organization’s ability to integrate customer, bank and payment data across multiple payment channels. Application silos increase transaction cost and operational risk due to redundant processing…More