How MSPs Benefit From Implementing Semi-Integrated Clover POS Systems

As payment environments become more and more complex, many merchants have begun searching for a more convenient and flexible solution to streamline their payment process, enhance security, and maintain PCI compliance. There is no better time for MSPs to begin using a semi-integrated Clover POS to provide merchants with a user-friendly, comprehensive, and customizable solution that meets all of their payment processing needs.

A semi-integrated approach to payments varies from a fully integrated one in a few different ways to provide unique benefits to merchants.

What’s The Difference?

The payment process within a fully integrated environment looks like this:

1. The electronic cash register (ECR) generates the amount due.

2. The amount gets sent to the POS terminal, and the customer is prompted to use their card.

3. The customer swipes, inserts, or taps their card, and data begins traveling through each element.

The elements the data must travel through in a fully integrated payment environment are the POS terminal, the ECR, the merchant’s back-office infrastructure, and back to the transaction processor for authorization, where the processor then sends the response to ECR. After the data travels through these elements, the transaction is complete.

A semi-integrated payment environment has the same elements as a fully integrated environment, but the transaction process requires fewer steps and data transference. The only communication between components occurs between the payment terminal, and the ECR system communicates only non-sensitive commands. When a customer swipes, taps, or inserts their card, the data travels straight from the smart POS terminal to the transaction processor where the payment is authorized. The processor’s response goes back to the smart terminal, forwarding the confirmation to the ECR for a completed transaction.

The enhanced security of a semi-integrated payment environment can put merchants' minds at ease and provide them with many benefits. The sensitive card data travels through fewer elements in the semi-integrated environment, never reaching the ECR or the merchant’s back-office infrastructure. The PCI scope on these systems becomes reduced, so cybercriminals can not have access to sensitive card information.

The benefits of a semi-integrated payment processing solution do not end with merchants. There are many ways MSPs can also reap many rewards with a semi-integrated Clover POS.

How Can MSPs Benefit?

1. Enhanced Security

By purchasing a semi-integrated Clover POS, merchants can restrict cardholder data solely to the terminal. Not only is the data’s path seamless, but semi-integrated solutions also provide point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization. When MSPs offer a semi-integrated Clover POS, they can provide security and protection to merchants and dramatically decrease their vulnerability to cybercriminals, which is something every merchant wants.

2. Reduced PCI Audit Scope

A semi-integrated payment processing system keeps ECR out of back-office systems and transaction flows, reducing the PCI scope immensely. With a semi-integrated Clover POS, MSPs can offer merchants a way to maintain PCI compliance and save valuable time and money. MSPs can leverage pre-certified solutions to save merchants time and remove applications from PCI PA-DSS scope by eliminating PCI data from their domain. This can help merchants cut costs and improve their chances of a successful PCI audit. To busy merchants, saving time and resources when they can is essential, and when an MSP offers a semi-integrated system, they can simplify the PCI compliance process so merchants can focus on running their business.

3. Minimal Maintenance

Since a semi-integrated Clover POS is easy to set up and use, MSPs will not have to do much when setting up and maintaining the semi-integrated systems. The system is exceptionally user-friendly, and MSPs can get merchants up and running with the system quickly. MSPs can save valuable time and resources when it comes to support as merchants rarely have issues setting up or navigating these systems. This also means that fewer merchants will request refunds or reimbursements and an expanded audience as it’s a system any merchant can easily migrate to and use.

4. Complete Control

Today’s merchants seek out a system that they can easily have complete control over to enable them to be more agile and more efficiently respond to customer demands. A semi-integrated system allows merchants to separate their systems from the payment process, allowing them to be more adaptable to changes to their electronic cash register without compromising PCI compliance or security. To update the electronic cash register or add new capabilities, you do not need to update the electronic cash register. For MSPs, this means less involvement after the initial sale, as merchants can typically manage almost every part of a semi-integrated system once the set-up is complete.

5. Customizable User Experience

MSPs can open themselves to a broader audience using semi-integrated Clover POS systems. Merchants can tailor their system to best suit the needs of their customer base because it supports any payment or transaction type, including a sale, refund, or adjustment. Semi-integrated systems also enable merchants to customize the user interface with personalized forms, terms, and conditions displays, signature capture, etc. Clover’s app market provides industry-specific applications and advanced features like specialized discounts and reservations. The customization possibilities that a semi-integrated Clover POS system offers enable MSPs to market to an extensive range of business types and industries to expand their audience and drive more sales.

The Bottom Line

For merchants, leveraging a semi-integrated Clover POS system seems to be a no-brainer, but MSPs can benefit greatly as well. Since MSPs make money from every client transaction, they must consider that what works well for their clients will also work well for MSPs. If transactions are a pie that everyone involved in the payment process gets a piece of, a semi-integrated Clover POS system can make that pie bigger, causing an MSP’s piece to get bigger.

As a certified Clover Partner, Chetu can help develop and deploy Clover apps to assist MSPs in achieving their goals and growing their business. The team at Chetu can also create custom add-ons to increase the performance of business KPIs. Any MSP looking to propel their business should contact Chetu to see how you can get one step closer to your goals by leveraging a semi-integrated Clover POS system.