COMPANY SPOTLIGHT TNS Payments Market 

InternetRetailing


John Tait, global managing director of TNS Payments Market, speaks to InternetRetailing.

What does your company do and what is your USP?
TNS is a global leader in providing managed full-stack, modern and secure payment and network solutions that enable a retailer to accept any payment, connect retail store and payment devices and orchestrate the delivery of payments to financial institutions. Specifically, TNS provides: 

  • In-store, unattended and online payment solutions that retailers can use to accept any payment securely and seamlessly.
  • Connectivity solutions that enable the connection of payment terminals, IoT devices, retail stores, head offices & cloud environments via our range of managed network connectivity services. 
  • Payment Orchestration services that help a retailer control and manage their most important strategic asset – payments.

Our USP is that we are a customer-led and customer-centric business first and foremost. This means that the solutions we bring to market address the very real challenges and complexities that retailers face with their payment infrastructure. This complexity often leaves retailers to navigate a patchwork of vendors, each offering different tools and solutions. At TNS, we help to reduce this complexity and provide a more seamless payment and network experience by integrating all services into one solution. 

TNS’ solution stack is also built to comply and be certified to the highest levels of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). An important element of our solution stack is meeting PCI DSS certification to help give our customers additional peace of mind, when acquiring services that enable them to accept, connect and orchestrate their payments.

How do you deliver on this USP?
TNS develops products with our customers’ customers in mind. We deliver on this by bringing to market future-proofed connectivity and payment solutions to keep up with the consumer-led world that retailers are operating in. An example of this is our Complete Commerce solution, launched last year. With Complete Commerce we are helping to:

  • Simplify retailer payment ecosystems with solutions from across our vast product portfolio, making us a one-stop shop partner for retailers’ payment needs.
  • Provide retailers with the opportunity to connect any device, in any location, to any network.
  • Address local nuances with a global team with extensive experience and knowledge of the payment needs for retailers operating in their countries.
  • Keep payment networks running smoothly by delivering, maintaining and supporting all network components and environments with carrier redundancy built in while offering   24/7/365 technical support

How would you describe your vision?
Our vision is to deliver a seamless payment experience for customers by being the leading single agnostic partner enabling enterprises to securely accept any transaction, connect any device or location and orchestrate any transaction. 

Which retailers do you work with?
TNS works to provide payment services to retailers across the spectrum, from store-front retailers that rely on in-store POS through to, unattended and online pre-book parking solutions and fuel and convenience retailers that also need dependable outdoor payment terminals and solutions. The scale and breath of our solutions means that there is no mold that a retailer needs to fit in order to work with us. An example of a retailer that we have worked with is:

  • Fuel retailer – Operating more than 200 service stations, around 160 truck stops and supporting 130 owner-operated service stations with digital services. The retailer engaged with TNS to deploy and manage a resilient, robust and reliable network that could support a next-generation customer experience, to replace their ageing network infrastructure that had reached a point that network limitations had become a roadblock to modernizing payment options. Now, dozens of on-site devices can plug into a single switch, providing more precise and uniform configuration across the various sites, as well as security settings that can be downloaded onto a new site with a single push of a button, with total set up time being reduced from six hours to 30 minutes.

Our wide range of payment solutions and terminals means we also work with those who are providing POS terminals to retailers:

  • Argentea – With greater demand for payment on delivery options in Italy since the pandemic, Argentea required reliable connectivity for its POS terminals in all delivery areas. TNS supplied multi-carrier SIM cards that ensured strongest signal connectivity with direct connectivity to payment processers through TNS’ Level 1 PCI DSS certified network.

What challenges are you helping multichannel retailers address?

Retailers are facing ever-changing demands from consumers, combined with cybersecurity threats and updated regulatory requirements, among other things. There are four strategic imperatives which TNS is supporting our retailer customers with:

  • Manage escalating risk and regulatory compliance – The challenge of securing customer data and remaining compliant, becomes more complicated as the number of markets a retailer operates in increases. TNS has been Level 1 PCI DSS certified for 18+ years, since PCI DSS was introduced. Both our payments processing and network infrastructure are PCI DSS certified. By providing our retailer customers with compliant solutions, they can reduce the burden of their own compliance requirements and show their customers that they are following the highest industry standards.
  • Address demand for alternative payment methods (APMs) – The increasingly digital world that we live in has fueled consumer demand for APMs such as digital wallets, QR codes, buy now pay later, etc. TNS continues to address this challenge by adding additional functionality and new payment methods to suit the needs of the modern consumer, currently accepting a wider variety of payment options including traditional cards and new contactless payments, fleet cards Google Pay, Apple Pay, QR code, GrabPay, Boost, WeChat Pay, Alipay and Touch ‘n go.
  • Stay connected – Reliable connectivity is always important for retailers, however during high-demands times, this importance intensifies. High demand on wired and wireless networks can lead to slowdowns or outages, especially if the system is not prepared for the surge. Solutions such as TNSLink provide high availability with built-in redundancy, helping to maintain strong store connectivity that creates a seamless shopping experience. Proactive 24/7 monitoring means that the TNS team identifies and addresses issues to minimize potential impacts, alleviating stress and allowing retailers to focus on delivering a positive customer experience. 
  • Ease multilocation management – Managing multiple sites, each with unique network and capacity requirements, is both challenging and time consuming. The scalability and adaptability of TNSLink allows retailers to expand to new locations or upgrade services easily. TNS’ Managed SD-WAN capabilities also allow retailers to prioritize critical applications, like payment processing and mobile POS, without straining vital network resources. 

How are you using emerging technology to support retail growth?
At TNS, we use our data analytics to support our customers with insights into their payment infrastructure, providing them with real-time data across our end-to-end capabilities. We also leverage this data to provide increased security across our payment solutions and provide managed network solutions and cloud-native payment orchestration capabilities, as seen with Complete Commerce. 

What targets are you aiming to achieve in the next five years?
Our main target for the next five years is to simplify the currently complex payment ecosystem. We plan on doing this by continued investment in expertise and capabilities within our team and our solutions for retailers. Fuel and convenience is a vertical that we see considerable investment in and applied industry knowledge will help us to develop solutions as the consumer’s needs change. We aim to continue to position ourselves as the single, partner, terminal, acquirer and telco-agnostic payments partner of choice for the retail industry and beyond. 

One sentence elevator pitch to be used as a direct quote on how your company/system benefits retailers.
TNS brings connectivity and payments together in one easy to access solution that delivers an efficient infrastructure for today while future proofing for tomorrow.

John Tait, global managing director of TNS Payments Market

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