Real time transactions, typically authorizations, put the most stress on any communications infrastructure. In the credit and debit world, these transactions remain the mission-critical event for the merchant.

While the internet continues to revolutionize on-demand transaction delivery, be sure to understand all of the various communication options available, and which makes most sense for your environment:

Internet
Frame Relay
Wireless

Learn how to manage authorization data– satisfy industry, issuer and acquirer requirements, and enhance merchant fraud protection, by implementing the latest industry features. Understand merchant-specific requirements on authorization, and how those requirements impact after-the-fact capture and settlement.

Batch processing, such as financial settlement (clearing), may put less strain on a communications infrastructure, but even as pure data, represents monetary liability – don’t let unreliable delivery impact your cash flow.

Understand the various communication options available, and which makes most sense for your environment.

Learn how to manage settlement data – satisfy industry and acquirer requirements, minimize impact to daily operations, all while taking advantage of data content, enhancing the merchant’s reporting capablilities.

Understand acquirer standards that impact funding turn-around; including how to select acquirers, based on the merchant’s funding preferences.

In an industry subject to huge communication demands, TCP/IP and the internet represents a paradigm shift; a generation-skipping advance in cost effective client-to-host access. Dial communications have reached practical obsolescence, guzzling operational funds in a customer-support nightmare, as the speed-hungry modem market clashes with incompatible, 20-year-old industry networks.

Make strategic choices in third-party POS products, embracing the speed and compatibility of TCP/IP and the internet.

For larger merchant configurations, take advantage of plummeting frame relay costs for the ultimate in no-wait transaction switching.

In either scenario, learn how to architect intranets that meld seamlessly with foreign host links, again leveraging the standard that is TCP/IP

Protect your data - on-the-wire, and internally - with the right network security tools and infrastructure.