VeriFone is an established name in the electronic-payment world, so it''s no
surprise that its vPOS software (VeriFone''s secure Internet payment software) is hugely popular with Internet merchants that want
to handle credit-card transactions on their site. Verifone''s recent arrangement
with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) now gives merchants the option to run vPOS
locally or remotely.
(This past March, Hewlett-Packard, the owner of Verifone, announced a new Internet business
unit and a broad "e-services" strategy of bringing to corporate and ISP customers
products and services for doing business-to-business services and transactions
on the Web. The unit offers HP products in e-services, Internet security,
e-commerce, VeriFone electronic payments systems, and industry-specific solutions.)
VeriFone is an aggressive proponent of both the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and the Secure Electronic
Transaction (SET) standard. SSL is currently the more popular of the two, offering the encryption of standard
transactions through a Web browser. However, SET is viewed by many as the standard of the future; it''s being
pushed by the credit-card companies (specifically, MasterCard and Visa), despite the objections of
performance specialists who say that SET transactions tend to drag down servers.
Hewlett-Packard Co. heavily stresses the fact that VeriFone technology is widely used
already, and that it''s a natural progression to implement VeriFone technology on an Internet site. Experience may
or may not count for a lot in this field, but in Verifone''s case, the experience translates into easy interoperability with financial
institutions that already support VeriFone technology.
In the case of vPOS, a company now has the option of running the software locally or working with an ISP
hosting service to manage the transactions. Both scenarios have their pluses and minuses.
As a result of that committment, a Web site will have the ability to automate all credit-card processing. In addition
to real-time credit-card authorizations the
vPOS software automates transactions such as credits, reversals, voids, captures and authorizations.
Transactions can also be automated and sent as a batch to your financial institution.
When installed locally, the vPOS software churns out a number of transaction and activity reports. You can
compare transactions to fulfillment and inventory management, as well as reconcile daily transactions for close of
business.
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
