Mail Order Payment Processing Made Easy for Agriframes
A combination of flexibility, efficiency, teamwork and a universally acclaimed card payment processing system has helped Agriframes, one of the UK’s notable garden structures’ manufacturers, to improve the service support infrastructure for its “direct to consumer” business.Following the acquisition of Agriframes by The Readers Group, a new card payment processing system that would be able to work to exact requirements and efficiently process customers’ orders, was required - BatchPro from Commidea met the brief.
Designed specifically for the mail order, subscription handling and e-commerce markets, BatchPro is one of the most advanced card processing systems of its kind, winning universal acclaim for its reliability, flexibility and ease of use.
Readers, who have been designing and manufacturing lighting, housewares and garden products from their head office on the Isle of Wight since 1947, wanted a flexible card payment processing system that would operate with their Microsoft .Net software application and provide them with total control over their mail order processing.
Commidea demonstrated that its BatchPro system could be tailored to exceed their expectations, significantly reducing the cost of developing a bespoke solution.
Throughout the project Commidea worked with Readers’ IT consultants to integrate BatchPro into the company’s existing system, introducing detailed scheduled tasks that would provide them with up to the minute transaction and order information.
Customer orders are either generated via the company’s catalogue or their website and are received at their head office by the company’s order processing department. Nearly all Agriframes products are manufactured to order, so once an order is received the company processes it and a data file is produced. Order information is then sent to the factory and the goods are made.
The day before the goods are due to be despatched, customers’ card details are exported from the data file to BatchPro which seeks authorisation before importing transaction approval back into the company’s order processing system. For optimum efficiency, Readers has had BatchPro configured to seek authorisation in the early hours of the morning affording them maximum time to contact a customer if the transaction is declined and an alternative method of payment is required.
If the transaction is successful, notification is sent to the factory and the goods are despatched that day. At the end of that same day BatchPro transfers the funds to Readers’ Acquirer for settlement, completing the transaction. This highly effective method of authorisation and fund transfer ensures that no funds are transferred before the goods are despatched and that no goods are despatched without card authorisation.
"The BatchPro system has been flawless in its operation for over 5 months. It has handled thousands of card transactions in that time, and we have received payment for every credit card order despatched,” commented Readers’ MIS Manager, Leon Reader. “The design of the file transfer system means that payment is not taken until the day after the goods are despatched, which meets customer expectation whilst ensuring guaranteed payment. The benefit of having Commidea's engineer discuss our technical requirements directly with our IT consultants is that the system was right first time. We haven't needed to revisit the design since its implementation."
Highly versatile, BatchPro, which is also highly secure, featuring AVS – Address Verification System- and CSC – Card Security Code, was the ideal solution for Agriframes as it can be integrated with most sales order processing systems.
A simple to use Windows application, it allows fast and efficient batch authorisat