An IXOPAY Success Story: Austrian Post

In early 2018 Austrian Post held a public tender, in order to find a Payment Orchestration Platform that would be able to facilitate payments across their multiple properties. Due to the company's status and the size of the contract, it was an incredibly competitive and complicated tender that was hard-fought and eventually won by the independent payment orchestration platform IXOPAY.

The Challenge

Austrian Post, although solely responsible for the postal service in Austria, is not simply a postal service. They have multiple business channels and each of these channels has different requirements. Their existing payment service lacked centralization and brand unity, with each entity having its own payment setup. The complex arrangement made it difficult to see an accurate picture of all transactions and required costly and time-consuming integrations if a new payment service provider was required. What they needed was someone who would be able to individually address each business’ needs whilst still being able to have a complete overview of the big picture.

Enter IXOPAY

In order to implement an intuitive payment solution IXOPAY first needed to understand Austrian Post, its business entities, and how they worked. IXOPAY looked at each individual online channel and addressed its unique set of needs.

The business areas of the online landscape of Austrian Post:

• Tagespost - an online postal service, that enables users to upload letters digitally directly from their devices and have them processed by Austrian Post (printing, packing, dispatch, delivery.)

• Post Online Shop - an online shop selling mainly philatelic products but also office supplies.

• Post App - a mobile application that offers a variety of services from mail forwarding to the creation and dispatch of personalized postcards.

• shöpping.at - an online marketplace where branded goods from various Austrian retailers are sold centrally.

Starting with the Tagespost and the Post Online Shop, Austrian Post is gradually integrating IXOPAY into all its business areas. The conversion of the online services has been completed, the next big step, the mapping of the online marketplace shöpping.at via the IXOPAY platform, is being analyzed.

In doing this, IXOPAY was able to really understand how each site/business functioned. With this knowledge, it was possible to create – using the Smart Routing Engine – specific transaction flows which automatically send payments to the relevant payment services providers (PSP). For example, if a client purchases a stamp from the online shop post.at, the transaction would follow the route set in place for that business entity. In creating these rules, Austrian Post is in complete control of their transactional flow.

Connected

When dealing with a variety of businesses, it is key to have flexibility. Austrian Post needed multiple payment service providers (PSPs), to service its various business entities and in order to benefit from the most competitive rates. IXOPAY has a wide selection of adapters for every business case, with more being added each month. This offers Austrian Post safety, as if a payment service provider isn’t performing as desired, or if they decide they would like to try an alternative payment method (APM) they can easily switch or add providers thanks to IXOPAY’s extensive list of adapters.

One Brand Experience

Although Austrian Post offers different services, it is still one company; one brand. That is why when users want to purchase a stamp or send a parcel they have – across all of their properties – the same user login. IXOPAY created Customer Payment Profiles based on these user logins. Meaning that when a returning customer, who is logged on with an Austrian Post account comes to pay, their payment information is taken from the IXOPAY vault, regardless if they have purchased from this particular branch of Austrian Post or not. These automatic functions make for a smoother payment experience for end customers and a consistent brand experience.

Offline to Online

Austrian Post also operates in brick & mortar shops. In order to create a complete overview of transactions, IXOPAY created an integration that pushes offline payments directly to the payment platform, giving accounting a complete history of all transactions. These push transactions save Austrian Post time and resources, as with all the information centralized they are able to pull off accurate reports using the IXOPAY Post Processing Engine.

Overview

The IXOPAY Dynamic Dashboard allows users to zoom in on transactions that are relevant for them, or zoom out and see a birds eye view. What this enables Austrian Post to do – with its multiple business entities – is give platform users access to specific dashboards which contain the information for the business that they are working for: so if someone works in accounts for Tagespost.at they will only see the transactions for Tagespost.at. Streamlining this information is essential in order to avoid confusion, and it allows Austrian Post to centralize all of its payments but also keep its individual businesses separate.

"Thanks to the ingenuity and flexibility of the IXOPAY platform we have improved their payments and reporting systems exponentially and due to Austrian Post's unique set of needs, we have created new features and integrations that not only streamline their system but augment the user experience for all of our clients."

Gox Mailer, Chief Strategy Officer at IXOPAY

Reporting

In order to facilitate accounting, IXOPAY created a SAP line integration, which means that all transactional data is easily transferred into the Austrian Post internal accounting systems. This integration allows Austrian Post to manage their monitoring and reporting in an effective and complete manner without wasting time and money on data transference.

Dieter Helmke, Competence Center Payments at Austrian Post:

“We were looking for a platform that would put us in the driver’s seat and give us the flexibility we needed over our multiple sales channels. IXOPAY delivered this; their intuitive approach to payments enabled us to manage transaction flows, add alternative payment methods and strengthen the customer experience. When we ask for something new or out of the ordinary, the IXOPAY team always finds a satisfying solution. We are delighted to have IXOPAY as our payments partner who supports us as we continue to grow.” Said Dieter Helmke, Competence Center Payments at Austrian Post.

Gox Mailer, Chief Strategy Officer at IXOPAY:

“We are incredibly pleased to be working with Austrian Post. The experience has been truly collaborative. Thanks to the ingenuity and flexibility of the IXOPAY platform we have improved their payments and reporting systems exponentially and due to Austrian Post’s unique set of needs, we have created new features and integrations that not only streamline their system but augment the user experience for all of our clients. This mutually beneficial relationship is what makes working with them so special.” Added Gox Mailer, Chief Strategy Officer at IXOPAY.

Conclusion

IXOPAY works with Austrian Post to ensure that their payment system stays flexible and intuitive. By centralizing all payments, Austrian Post has a clear overview of all their transactional data, which they can quickly and easily separate into individual business entities or transfer into their accounting systems. The platform's elasticity means that Austrian Post is able to add new payment service providers quickly and efficiently, giving them freedom from provider lock-in and the ability to add alternative payment methods, on the fly, so they can reach new clients. When it comes to payments, the IXOPAY platform does the heavy lifting so that Austrian Post can focus on their core business and continue to develop and grow in new and exciting ways.

About Austrian Post:

Austrian Post is the leading logistics and postal service provider in the country. Its core business encompasses the transport and delivery of letters, direct mail items, print media, packets, and parcels as well as various logistics services and innovative online services. Customers are offered high-quality products and services in the fields of banking and telecommunications by the branch network. Austrian Post is internationally active in nine other European countries.

To learn more about the Austrian Post, visit: https://www.post.at

About IXOPAY

IXOPAY is a payments orchestration platform enabling independent, flexible and global payment processing. As a highly scalable and PCI-DSS certified “fintech enabler”, IXOPAY fulfills the needs of large merchants as well as those of “white label” clients: payment service providers (PSPs), acquirers and independent sales organizations (ISOs). The modern, easily extendable architecture offers smart transaction routing & cascading, state-of-the-art risk & fraud management, fully automated reconciliation and settlements processing, comprehensive reporting as well as plugin-based integration of acquirers, payment service providers and alternative payment methods (APMs).

IXOPAY is part of the IXOLIT Group, founded in Vienna, Austria in 2001. With local entities in Austria and the USA, IXOLIT supports national and international customers across various industry verticals. The owner-led and -financed company has grown from 2 to more than 65 employees and is focused on building innovative solutions for eCommerce.

Please find more information about IXOPAY here: https://www.ixopay.com