Rapid Connect - Guidebook

Innovation Summit 2012 

You spoke. We listened. 

Rapid Connect: The “NEW” First Data Connection 

Cheryl Ellmore - Director, Integrated Payments 

Trace Ussery - Director, Integrated Payments 

Rhonda Hargens - Product Manager, Global Partner Management

The First Data ® Rapid Connect SM 

Solution 

What is it? 

• Comprehensive development resource portal: Quickly and 

easily integrate a wide variety of payments services 

• Radically simplified integration and certification: Available to 

all 3rd party developers; from POS solution partners to merchants 

• Feature-rich online test environment: Automated diagnostic 

tools speed up code review and significantly decrease 

certification time 

• Dedicated, readily-available support: Easy-to-access tools, 

guidelines, requirements and specialized consultation resources 

• Immediate access to innovative payment technologies: Rapid 

delivery of new First Data products, features, and programs that 

saves time and resources to enable the latest in payment 

innovations 

© Copyright 2012 | First Data Corporation 

| 

2

Why it makes Sense… 

Reduces front-end integration complexity 

• Simplifies complex merchant authorization environment* 

*Release 1.0 (10/12/12) only supports Nashville frontend (host capture) 

and North backend settlement 

• Rapid Connect supports multiple platforms via a single interface 

• Go from managing multiple interfaces to only managing one 

• Code once, access an abundance of features 

Less Care and Feeding 

• Allows significantly quicker integration of future products/services 

• Self-testing: access the automated testing environment and view real-time 

results/analysis at your own pace 

Rapid Connect Stats: 

- average vendor certification time is reduced by over 65% and 

- average gateway certification by over 50% 


| 

3

Rapid Connect – 

Release 1.0 

What’s Available Now? 

Future Releases: All platforms, payment types, industries globally 

Category 

Market Verticals 

Platforms 

Payment Types 

Data Security 

International 

Mobile Payments 

Bill Payment 

Developer Portal 

Product Feature 

Retail, Restaurant/QSR, eComm, MOTO/DM 

Authorizations: Nashville (ISO8583, host capture); Settlement: North (Cardnet) 

Credit (Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover, Full Service – Amex & Discover, JCB Diners) 

Debit (PIN, Pinless) 

Gift (Standard) 

Check (Paper) 

Purchase Cards: Level II 

EMV – U.S. 

Global Merchant Acquiring (GMA); Global ePricing (GEP) 

Contactless, Google Wallet 

Single & Recurring Bill Payment 

Rapid Connect Portal: Universal message format, My Projects, Sandbox with log 

files/debug, Marketplace, Online Help and Dedicated Help Desk 


| 

4

Rapid Connect SM Roadmap 

Release 1.0 

(10/12/12) 

Rapidly connect your physical or virtual merchant environment to First Data 

through a single interface; develop at your own pace with configurable testing 

tools and automated certifications 

Phase 2 

TransArmor 

OfferWise sm 

Nashville 

(Settle to North BE initially) 

ValueLink 

(Prepaid - Closed Loop) 

Buypass 

(Settle to North, Memphis) 

Compass 

(Settle to North) 

Merchant Benefits: 

• Faster access to latest payments technologies 

• Create new loyal customers – Offers, Value 

Added Services, Security 

• Single payment provider with global reach 

• EMV Program 

• Specialized support 

Omaha 

(Settle to Omaha, North) 

TeleCheck 

(Check Processing) 

Solspark 

(Prepaid Open Loop) 

EMEA, LAC, APAC 

(Omnipay, Base24, ) 

IP Connectivity Required: Datawire, VPN, MPLS Circuit. Web Services Supported (SOAP/REST) 


| 

5

Introducing…Rapid Connect 

© Copyright 2012 | First Data Corporation. 

Confidential and Proprietary. 

| 

6

Rapid Connect SM Drives Open Payments… 

Value-Added Services‘ framework drives rapid innovation 

Developer Portal 

VISION 

“Platform as a Service” 

Universal Message Format 

Routing 

Engine 

SDK, Sandbox, eCert 

Authorization & 

Settlement Systems 

Value Added Services 

Trans Armor 

OfferWise 

SKU 

Service 

Receipt 

Service 

Hosted 

Payments 

7 

Global BIN 

Reporting 

Analytics 

Fraud Service 

Future 

Services 

*VAS Layer can sit behind any cloud environment ; processor neutral option. 

**SOA: Service Oriented Architecture 


| 

7

Next Steps 


| 

8

After Innovation Summit Day 2… 

Registration: 

• Visit www.RapidConnect.com and click ―Sign Up‖ 

• Complete requested information, and submit for approval 

• Someone from GPM will approve your request, and you will receive 

e-mail notifications with your user ID and temporary password. 

Summit Day 3: Participate in ―Birds of a Feather‖ (8 AM – Noon) 

• Visit ―Birds of a Feather‖ tomorrow to: 

• Discuss the Vision of Rapid Connect, offer your ideas for future 

enhancements, new technologies or changes you would like to see. 

• Log into Rapid Connect, and have one-on-one discussion with a 

member of GPM, who can guide you through the Project Life Cycle 

• Discuss how Rapid Connect will assist with your EMV certification 

• ―Meet the Team‖: Talk to a GPM representative about leveraging 

Rapid Connect to more effectively manage your business 

relationship with First Data (future enhancements) 


| 

9

Appendix 


| 

10

You Spoke…We Listened 


| 

11

Before the Rapid Connect solution… 

Survey findings from 2011 

• Top requests received from our integration partners 

• Fewer – and simpler - specifications 

• More flexible language formats 

• Developer toolkits 

• Test Sandbox 

• Specialized support 

• Easier integration and maintenance 

“Centralize the payment platforms and their functionality.” 

“Provide more and better automated testing tools.” 

“Improve the efficiency of the certification process.” 


| 

12

With the Speed of the Rapid Connect 

Solution… 

When surveyed about the Rapid Connect prototype, developers told us: 

• 72% had a High or Very High Interest in certifying to First Data 

due to Rapid Connect 

• 67% were interested in adding new functionality to their existing 

First Data integration 

• 100% believed that First Data has a broad portfolio of solutions 

• 83% believed that First Data provides industry-leading expertise 

• 75% believed that First Data delivers market-driven innovations 

Rapid Connect will reduce the certification process! 

- the average vendor certification time is reduced by over 65% and 

- the average gateway certification by over 50% 


| 

13

Rapid Connect SM drives commerce… 

The single point of integration for all payments, industries, platforms, everywhere. 

Available 10/12/12 

Nashville FE 

North BE Only 

ValueLink 

Credit 

Retail 

XML 

Web 

Services 

Debit 

Check (paper) 

EMV – U.S. 

Mobile Payments 

Single/Recurring 

Payments 

Restaurant/QSR 

eCommerce 

MOTO/DM 

GMA/GeP 

Host Capture 

• Smart developer portal that offers quick and easy integration to a wide variety 

of payments and services 

• Single XML spec provides easy access to the latest payment technologies 

• Dedicated support to expedite the development and integration process 

• Faster certification with self-testing and automated diagnostic tools 

• ‗Hands on‘ guidance from a global payments leader with EMV expertise 


| 

14

Summary 

Enable all payment types, all industries, all platforms, anywhere 

• Integrate the latest in payment innovations with fast 

integration through a single interface 

• Instant access to the universal message format that‘s 

tailored to industry-specific requirements. It‘s fast, it‘s 

simple, it‘s intuitive. 

• Direct, dedicated support with easy-to-access tools, 

guidelines, requirements and consultation resources 

• Fast certification with automated diagnostic tools that 

recognize and remedy failure points, speeding up code 

review and significantly decreasing certification time 

• Drive Universal Commerce to any point of acceptance 


| 

15

The SDK – What’s in It? (cont.) 

The Software Development Kit (SDK) is the compilation of all 

development resource materials necessary to build an application, 

utilizing the Rapid Connect interface. 

• The following items are available for download within your 

Software Development Kit: 

• Tailored Universal Message Format (UMF) Specification: the technical 

specification that defines the fields, field attributes, processing rules, and transaction 

types within the UMF and XML Schema. 

• Tailored Test Script: contains a list of all relevant, defined test cases for the 

functionality that was selected during the project creation and submission process. 

Each time a project is created (or modified) within Rapid Connect; a new test script 

will be generated and made available to you. 

• Quick Reference Guides: functional documents that help further explain the best 

practices, payment types, product functionality, card association regulations, and 

merchant environment guidelines associated with developing a payment application. 

• Integration Guides: serve as the network layer integration definitions and 

procedures for the various communication methodologies enabled through Rapid 

Connect. 


| 

16

The SDK – What’s in It? (cont.) 

• XML Schema: a file of all the UMF XML field tag names, field groupings, 

and (in some instances) applicable field values. This file is meant to be 

integrated into the payment application as the source file for the construction 

of UMF XML messages. 

• WSDL File: a description of the web services that can be invoked for 

processing transactions through Rapid Connect. It provides a machinereadable 

description of how the service can be called, what parameters it 

expects, and what data structures it returns. You, the developer, can convert 

this file into an API (formatted in the development protocol utilized by your 

POS application). 

• Code Snippets: illustrates the basic coding technique required to generate 

and parse UMF XML request and response messages from a variety of 

programming languages. For simplicity, only minimal fields are used to 

create a basic UMF transaction request and parse simple transaction 

response. 

These documents make up your SDK, and will be used in conjunction with each other when integrating 

into Rapid Connect. You may save the SDK to your local PC or access it, at anytime by clicking the 

“Download SDK Documents” link on the Project Profile screen. 


| 

17

Code Snippets, Test Cards, and More… 

Code Snippets in the SDK 

• The developer can view the code snippets to help them understand what 

classes need to be used in order to create or parse UMF XML transaction in 

a particular language. 

• Sample of a code snippet: 

Test Cards – how do I get them? 

• When you open a project in Rapid Connect, the First Data Integration team is 

immediately alerted. 

• Each project is scanned for specific attributes (EMV, Face-to-Face, 

etc.) 

• When a Face to Face project is opened, a representative from First 

Data will contact you directly to confirm project requirements, and 

instructions for shipping test plastics. 


| 

18

EMV 

Rapid Connect is the Go-Forward Specification 

• EMV enabling a merchant’s environment is INVASIVE 

• New hardware; Software Upgrade(s) 

• EMV test card simulator & test cards 

• EMV training 

• Store-level training – clerk/cashier, consumers, keep lanes moving 

• Replay every 2 years – mandated re-certifications, hardware swaps, 

$$$ 

• Expensive certifications with the card brands 

• Rapid Connect makes EMV easier, faster & cheaper 

• One specification to manage & maintain for EMV 

• Test Sandbox with intelligence – tells you what to fix (manual EMV 

certs take 800 hours – EMV demands automation) 

• Automated ―Pre-Certification‖ (EMVCo terminology) – coming soon! 


| 

19

Introducing…Rapid Connect 

Create, test, certify and deliver payment-rich 

applications that let customers pay any way 

and anywhere they choose—all through a 

single interface. 

© Copyright 2012 | First Data Corporation. 

Confidential and Proprietary. 

| 

20

Rapid Connect 

Demonstrations of ―My Projects‖, 

―Marketplace‖, and ―Sandbox‖ will 

be available for users to learn more 

about these modules. 


| 

21

Dashboard 

The Rapid Connect Dashboard is 

a consolidated ―snapshot‖ that 

offers an at-a-glance view into all 

of the following: 

most recent activities 

open and closed projects 

pending items 

The Dashboard also lets users 

search for specific items and 

quickly navigate to critical 

modules within the application 


| 

22

My Projects 

―My Projects‖ lets users submit 

development requests online, easily 

make changes to their projects, and 

download test scripts and SDK 

documents on-the-fly. 


| 

23

Sandbox 

―Sandbox‖ helps users self-certify, 

and provides test transaction 

logging and de-bug functionality, 

expediting the testing and 

certification process 


| 

24

Marketplace 

Users are able to search by account 

number or filter in various ways, 

allowing them to quickly locate 

specific test transactions. 


| 

25

FAQs 

Rapid Connect will provide on-line 

resource materials as well as Help 

functions. Users can easily locate 

FAQs online and immediately get 

answers to frequently asked 

questions. 


| 

26

Toolkits and Resource Documents 

In addition to the FAQs – Quick 

Reference Guides and Resource 

Materials will be readily available on 

the site. 


| 

27

Rapid Connect - Guidebook

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?