While many businesses may point to cybersecurity solutions, big data and analytics, or AI, one in seven digital experts say SaaS is the most important technology to achieve business goals.

SaaS, which stands for Software as a Service, is defined as a ‘software distribution model in which a cloud provider hosts applications and makes them available to end users over the internet’.

From a business perspective, SaaS solutions offer corporates numerous benefits. Businesses have a reduced upfront capital investment, increased budget certainty with predictable pay-per-use fees, built-in upgrades providing access to the latest technology, improved employee productivity, and enhanced cashflow management.

SaaS drives business success
As one of South Africa’s leading payment solutions providers, Pay@ is part of this growth momentum. Based on the understanding that SaaS solutions are shifting from an operational consideration to an operational necessity, Pay@ has developed two primary SaaS products for businesses in the payment space:

Pay@’s Yap system is a standalone merchant onboarding and collections platform that enables request to pay and bank beneficiary payments, it allows merchants to manage customer onboarding, collections, and invoicing. In addition to the powerful operational and payment capabilities, the integrated payee communication enhances the customer experience and facilitates payment collection via SMS, e-mail, push notifications and WhatsApp. 

Financial institutions, such as banks, seeking an in-house payment solution or retailers that want to expand their financial services offering stand to greatly benefit from our Yap system.

One such retailer is the Shoprite Group. Introduced as MoneyMarket, the GetPaid platform, Pay@’s Yap technology was deployed to provide a new, bespoke, and innovative self-service platform for small businesses. GetPaid platform enables SMEs to generate digital invoices, payment links or a unique scan-to-pay QR code via their phone or computer. The user-friendly dashboard can also process bulk payments and track the business’s cashflow.

In contrast to other fintech solutions, Pay@’s Yap technology with Shoprite’s established online payment technology backbone doesn’t make cash payments obsolete. Apart from various card payment methods, customers can make cash payments at the 29 000 till points in Shoprite, Checkers or Usave stores nationwide.

Pay@’s second SaaS solution is a payment orchestration service which connects entities that want to process transactions between banks, retailers, and other institutions.

By building interlinked payment ecosystems between these entities, multiple stakeholders benefit simultaneously from paying clients all the through to merchants.

Building more effective ecosystems

Currently, this innovative technology runs through Pay@’s core payment system, but the international scaling opportunities are immense. For international markets, collaborations with Pay@ would see the technology licensed to global banks and retailers that already have the necessary payment licenses according to country-specific regulations.

Banks with outdated systems would be able to deploy Pay@’s payment orchestration and reconciliation technology to modernise their payment systems and offer multiple payment options, including cash-based transactions.

Retailers with intercontinental footprints can seamlessly integrate Pay@’s payment orchestration service to grow their digital financial services.

Essentially, Pay@’s core system technology can supercharge collection payment processes for enterprises that have ecosystems where payment processes need to flow more effectively.

Case study

US-based FutureBank was first to market with this innovative application of Pay@’s  service as an embedded finance solution. The partnership with Pay@ enables FutureBank to offer easy bill payment aggregation for other banks, especially community banks, regional banks, and credit unions. This single integration, driven by API protocols, has provided a comprehensive solution to reduce fraud, streamline transactions, and create new revenue opportunities for financial institutions.

Value-based subscription models are here to stay. Leading, innovative businesses such as the Shoprite Group and FutureBank understanding that partnering with Pay@ as SaaS providers goes beyond software integrations into existing business models and operations.