Transact. publication for clients & partners. powering your e-payment program Volume 1 Number 4

Transcription

1 news publication for clients & partners a Transact powering your e-payment program Volume 1 Number 4 02 Colorado Division of Child Support Services Sees Steady Growth for their VPS Epayment Program 04 PowerPack 3.0 Ships to Clients The latest promo pack for all the ways you want to pay 05 Security Corner PCI-DSS - What is it, Why is it, and Why Should You Care? As a PCI Compliant Service Provider, VPS Has You Covered 07 Partner Profile Data Design, Inc. Newest Government Epayment Partner Covers Kentucky

2 Colorado Division of Child Support Services Sees Steady Growth for their VPS E-payment Program A VPS client since April of this year, the Colorado Division of Child Support Services ( began their search for an epayment partner in the summer of At the time, the VPS ChildSupportBillpay program had three clients. (Today there are 10 around the country.) At the time, says Colorado Child Support FSR Manager, Lexie C. Barath, many of the state Child Support agencies were in the same early stages of assessment for credit/debit card acceptance. Nonetheless, Colorado was able to call on people they knew at the State of Washington CS agency (a VPS early-adopter) and at the State of Indiana to discuss their programs. Indiana would become a model for the kind of performance Colorado wanted to see out of its e-payment program, says Barath. Since April, the number of payments has increased by 75% through September, and total dollars collected on behalf of Colorado has grown by 55%. We had set an ambitious goal for ourselves, based on program performance in Indiana, says Barath. At first glance, we thought we were falling short of expectations. But on second look, we realized that Indiana has twice the child support clients we have. Plus they had an epayment program in-place, and then switched to VPS, whereas we were just starting our program. Promoting End-of-March/early April, Colorado went live with its credit/debit card acceptance program with onsite promotions in 54 collections counties. (There are 64 counties in Colorado, but the smallest counties by population are served by neighboring counties.) The most effective promotional item so far has proven to be the business card handout, says Barath. A couple of counties have requested second printings of these cards. The cards are supported by posters, counter cards, and counter mats in the various county Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Units. In the first week of October, VPS and Colorado rolled out an innovative promotional program: Breast Cancer Awareness October. 2 VPS Newsletter Volume 1 Number x333 [email protected]

3 Employer Payment Portal Federal and state regulations require that when an Order/Notice to Withhold Income For Child Support is received, an employer must start withholding child support and send child support to, most usually, a spouse or former spouse in accordance with a strictly defined timeline. During the Breast Cancer Awareness October promotion, VPS donated $.50 per transaction made during the month to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation ( VPS developed an employer portal on the Colorado website that simplifies the transfer of support payments deducted directly from an employee s paycheck and sent to the beneficiary. The employer can manage all obligor employees from a single screen, adding or deleting names, and making all payments in a single transaction. Debit/Credit Convenience fees are identical for debit and credit card payment of child support, both onsite in collections offices and online, a fee structure adopted so as not to favor one means of payment over the other, says Barath. We re running about 50-50, debit to credit, which is within keeping of what we know from other VPS clients like Indiana. And whether payments come via the AutoPay option or sequentially repeated is not something Colorado tracks, though Barath figures that 20 30% of payments are recurring. Employer payment portal developed for childsupport.state.co.us. Using this newly developed program feature, employers can manage all obligor employees from a single screen, with the ability to add, edit and delete names and accounts. The employer selects which employees to make payments on behalf of. Once choices are set, all accounts are paid in a single action. For Barath, the most important figure is usage. A (weighted) comparison with the model, larger Indiana program with its sizable head start puts Colorado just about where it wants to be, with usage trending upward. VPS Newsletter Volume 1 Number x333 [email protected] 3

4 PowerPack 3.0 PowerPack 3.0 Ships to Clients The latest package of on-site/online, digital and print promotional tools in a variety for formats PowerPack 3.0 is aimed at increasing awareness of your VPS epayment program, and boosting usage. From posters and counter cards to flyers and blast template files, PowerPack 3.0 gives clients a full complement of promo items all packed (digitally speaking) on flash drive. The 3.0 mailer also contains samples of popular print promo items. Everything in 3.0 is themed around a tag line for all the ways you want to pay and keyed to mobility, customers increasing preference for on-the-go payment options. The message is: convenience in tax, bill, and fee payments. Convenience and ease-of-use. And speed. Call it, The War Against Stamps and Envelopes. Or not. In any case, increasing customer usage of the epayment option anywhere, anytime, from any device is what it s all about. Enjoy. PowerPack 3.0, no-cost to government promotional vehicles and campaigns coming to clients soon... in the mail! 4 VPS Newsletter Volume 1 Number x333 [email protected]

5 Security Corner PCI-DSS: What is it, Why is it, and Why Should You Care? By Joe Thomas, Director of Network Security, VPS Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS, for not-so-short) is a set of requirements technological safeguards to prevent credit card data theft that merchants accepting credit cards must implement. Who Says? The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), an independent body formed by the major payment card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB) on December 15, These companies aligned their individual policies and nearly two years later released version 1.0 of PCI DSS. (The current version is 3.0. The new, revised version 3.1 includes some minor updates that do not have much of an impact on an organization s compliance.) Why Should You Care? All merchants who accept credit cards are responsible for complying with PCI-DSS. Merchants who contract with banks and credit card processors to use their services must certify that their businesses are PCI-DSS complaint. Merchants pay fines for PCI-DSS non-compliance. And they are contractually required to reimburse banks and credit card processors for any losses if their customers credit card data is stolen. VPS Has You Covered As a PCI Compliant Service Provider, VPS takes on the PCI compliance work for their clients. For those who accept in-office payments or want to pass credit card data to VPS for processing, the VPS team will advise and help with security best practices and PCI compliance. VPS Newsletter Volume 1 Number x333 [email protected] 5

6 How Do Merchants Become Compliant Merchants must first determine their required level of compliance, which is based on the amount or volume of transactions they process each year. To do this, they must select the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (or SAQ) that best fits how they accept payments point-of-sale, telephone, Internet and complete the form. The SAQ is a self-evaluation tool that determines the physical, technical, and administrative security controls the merchant must have in place to be considered compliant. Lastly, the merchant must partner with an Approved Scanning Vendor and scan their systems for vulnerabilities at least four times per year. The Easiest Way for Merchants to Become Compliant Minimizing the amount of credit card data that they transmit and store is the easiest way for merchants to be PCI complaint. Partners like VPS can help reduce the scope of PCI assessments by hosting the payment Web site and storing the payment data for merchants. This allows merchants to use shorter, simpler SAQs when assessing their organizations for compliance. 6 VPS Newsletter Volume 1 Number x333 [email protected]

7 Partner Profile Data Design, Inc. Newest Government Epayment Partner Covers Kentucky Data Design Inc. (Richmond, KY), Value Payment Systems newest epayments partner in the government space, has offered comprehensive software services to public agencies in Kentucky (plus system hardware, networking, and database development) since Property tax collections in Kentucky is handled by the various county Sherriff s offices, both on-site and (now) online. We have a presence in 90 of the 120 Sheriff s offices in the state, says Data Design s president, Richard Bendure. Just about half of those have installed our collections software, TaxMaster and TaxMaster.net. Every spring, we send out our Budget Planning Guide to each office. It s a check list of what services they might be interested in, says Bendure. We re in touch with our clients pretty much on a daily basis, so it s easy for us to track their responses. If we don t hear back, we give them a call. Before contracting with VPS in August of this year, Data Design worked with another epayment vendor. That program offering established a precedent for debit and credit card acceptance for tax payments. There was a fairly strong interest level from the individual offices for epayments services, and as expressed by the Sheriff s Association as well. Switching to VPS whom Data Design felt could provide a more stable service and improved support proved an easy transition. We have 8 to 10 clients ready to add epayments to their TaxMaster software on Nov. 1, says Bendure. Clancy, The Data Design Team Mascot. Clancy has been with the company since he was a puppy, starting as an unpaid intern, and rapidly moved up in the organization to occupy his present position. Data Design s Payment Portal The VPS program is completely integrated with TaxMaster. On-site, the taxpayer swipes a card and payment appears in TaxMaster. Credit and debit card payments are processed, and all data is web-ready for viewing on the county web sites. VPS Newsletter Volume 1 Number x333 [email protected] 7