STS and one of its key partners in transportation, PDMS - a market leading software solutions and services company, are excited to announce the launch of their joint payments acceptance solution with its first customer, Shetland Islands Council – who operate ferries connecting 9 remote islands in the Shetland islands.
One of the biggest headaches for ferry operators is the lack of reliable, fixed communication and network connections. However, they still require robust, fast and secure transaction processing capabilities.
STS’ G8 payments application integrated with PDMS’ ferry reservation and ticketing system, has been installed locally on Rugged Android PDAs acting as the point of sale. This will allow for card payments to be processed even if online connection to the acquirer is not possible. G8 provides off-line PIN verification, deferred authorisation, forced acceptance and transaction batch processing. The inclusion of card data encryption also strengthens security, removing the risk of card details being stolen.
Merchants on board ferries will benefit from a mobile payments solution that supports Chip and PIN, contactless and NFC payment, using the Ingenico iSMP card reader. Meanwhile, passengers will enjoy a reliable service when purchasing tickets on board the vessel as well as the potential for food, drinks and gifts during their journey. The joint solution delivers greater payment choice, an improved user experience and faster transaction times.
Neal Kelly, Director at PDMS, says, “Secure and reliable offline payments, when you can’t rely on network connectivity, are a key priority for our transport customers. Partnering with STS has allowed us to deliver a complete payments acceptance solution for Shetland Island Council and our other ferry customers. Processing these payments in the middle of a sea/ocean crossing is incredibly complex, but integrating our own software with G8, means merchants and passengers can enjoy seamless shopping and dining experiences.”
Bing Dai, Chief Commercial Officer at STS, says, “This new solution draws on STS’ extensive experience and expertise gained through developing and supporting robust and secure card holder present payment solutions in the transport industry over the past two decades. Shetland’s successful deployment is a significant milestone in our renewed strategic partnership with PDMS and we look forward to a wider rollout across the British Isles in 2021.”
About STS
STS is a leading payments acceptance application developer with unrivalled EMV expertise. Although the company is based in the UK, we have supplied over 150,000 merchant implementations located around the world across multiple industry sectors. We offer merchants independence from payment schemes, acquirers, gateways, PSPs and device manufacturers, thereby generating financial savings and maximising their payments flexibility and future choices.
We are a product-led company that invests heavily in developing high-quality payments acceptance applications and features in order to remain at the forefront of payments innovation. This started with EMV Chip and PIN payments in which we became a global market leader and now includes contactless, in-store mobile payments, payment cloud implementations and the management of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Our applications are designed to allow partners to establish competitive advantage. We have earned a reputation for trust, honesty and integrity by continually delivering high quality software and excellent support throughout our 23-year heritage.
About PDMS
PDMS provides a wide range of software solutions and services. We provide a complete end to end service from consultancy, analysis and design through to development, ongoing support and managed hosting services.
We have specialist domain expertise in the transport sector with a focus on smart and mobile ticketing solutions. We provide reservation and ticketing solutions to a number of both local and international ferry operators.
At PDMS we use our knowledge, skills, and capabilities to harness technology and ensure that it delivers measurable and sustained benefits for our clients and, in turn, their customers and employees. Long term relationships are important to us. We listen to our customers’ needs, problems and expectations and show them what is possible and how best to achieve it.