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www.ecommerce-guide.com/resources/product_reviews/article.php/167701
By Kevin Reichard July 23, 1999 With shopping-cart capabilities, industrial-strength encryption and real-time transaction authorization, Evolv Adaptive Technology''s Skipjack Merchant Services offers a useful and affordable way to add credit-card transactions to your Web site. Skipjack''s full range of features include shopping-cart capabilities, e-mail responses and receipts for both customers and merchants and terminal services. Skipjack Merchant Services encompasses several different entities: SkipjackIC, Skipjack Merchant Reporting, Skipjack VPOS Terminal and more. The security side of the offerings, SkipjackIC, (Internet Commerce), is unique in the online-transaction world, since it is more advanced than RSA encryption technology. Functionally, SkipjackIC encrypts customers'' transactions on the Skipjack server, submits them to credit-card vendors for authorization and then stores the transaction record back on the Skipjack server. While most transaction servers use a public-key encryption record like RSA or PGP, SkipjackIC carries its own key, which means that each transaction has a unique key. In addition, SkipjackIC has a minimum key space of 225 to the 2000th power (as opposed to RSA or PGP''s key space of 2 to the 2048th power). With the threat of hackers intercepting credit-card transactions via the Internet and snooping for individual transactions in a set of packets, customers should be comforted by this high level of security. However, the Skipjack technology is not widely supported in the credit-card industry, and committing to Skipjack means that merchants may be buying into a relatively closed technology. For payment solutions, Skipjack supports MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, and JCB credit cards as well as debit cards and checks. The pricing structure -- $29.95 for the first 500 transactions per month with a $79.95 set-up and integration fee -- is slightly less than the prices offered by companies such as CyberCash and the Skipjack Web site advertises lower rates for larger customers. A merchant account is necessary to handle credit-card transactions, as well as a Web host with a secure server. Setting up a Skipjack account can be done via 800 number or by filling out an online form. Adding shopping-cart capabilities to your Web page is simply a matter of grabbing files from the Skipjack site and inserting some code to your Web pages. The code is a link to the Skipjack secure servers, which contain variables detailing the purchased items, whether the items are taxable and the merchant ID number assigned by Skipjack. The files provided by Skipjack fall into two categories: e-mail messages and HTML files sent in the midst of a transaction. The e-mail messages provide feedback to an online order, detailing whether a transaction was successful or if it failed (and why it failed -- if a credit card was not authorized or if there was a system error). The HTML files report when a system error occurs, when there is a validation problem with the data supplied by a customer, when the customer supplies incorrect credit-card information and when a transaction was successful. These HTML files contain special Skipjack tags that allow information to be automatically inserted into the HTML file by the Skipjack services. However, these files can be customized (as long as the tags are left alone), with company information and logos inserted. However, SkipJack does not offer wallet capabilities in which users can store credit-card information on their local system and have that information sent automatically to compatible systems. Even if merchants are already using another shopping-cart service, they can still integrate it with the Skipjack IC service. This requires a more elaborate configuration process involving more variables (including address and credit-card information). E-tailers also have the option to log onto the Skipjack Web site and use their Web browser as a virtual terminal, and log credit-card transactions from the local terminal. Skipjack''s reporting tools are excellent, providing a wide variety of information in an easy-to-read format via Web browser. Information reported by Skipjack includes transaction totals, the status of the account, total sales and credits to date, pending sales and credits, the current and ending balance, alerts (which flag credit information that is possibly fraudulent), transactions sorted by customers and more. In addition, there''s also an exceptional level of detail available for individual transactions, including date and amount of the transaction, customer information (address, phone number, e-mail address), pending status, IP address from where the customer placed the order, credit-card information (the type of the card and the last five digits), specifics of the item(s) purchased, how much tax was charged and what shipping method was charged. Larger Web sites will appreciate the open framework offered by Skipjack, with a published API that allows advanced vendors and consultants to more closely align their Web sites with Skipjack services. Anyone looking to add credit-card transactions to their Web site should consider Skipjack when evaluating services. With shopping-cart capabilities and a very affordable price tag, Skipjack is in the upper tier of secure transaction providers. Pros: Excellent reporting tools; industrial-strength encryption; shopping-cart capabilities; open API for larger sites. Cons: No support for wallet capabilities. Reviewed by: Kevin Reichard |
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