Sprechen Sie Deutsch ?

That's pretty much the limit to my German, but if you are a fluent German speaker and are a payment professional, check out the latest job offers from SagePay based in their Frankfurt office

Sage Pay’s vision is to be the market leading payment services provider across the EU for SME’s by 2015. Sage Pay solutions are focused on payment processing, PCI-DSS and fraud screening service solutions. Whilst many of the central functions will be based in London, it is important for us to have a localised Sales presence across the EU which can reflect the local market needs, and build long-term relationships with our local customer base.


Job Purpose
The purpose of the role is to sign up ‘New Business’ with SME and Mid-Market online merchants. This role will be accountable for developing a strong prospect pipeline, influencing relationships with key prospects, getting contracts signed and achieving revenue and KPI targets. The role will need to work closely with marketing to ensure that they have complimentary market positing & materials to support them in hunting for new business. Generating leads and building relationships and trust with prospects is at the heart of this role. In addition being an ambassador for the company is paramount.


Key Responsibilities
• Deliver specific revenue target and KPI’s, providing written business cases which reflect how targets will be achieved through existing relationships and pipelines
• Own direct sales communication with prospects, through inbound and outbound telesales, e-mail and field based sales enquires
• Demonstrate the product range to prospects, constantly refining sales techniques and presentation skills, particularly in response to changes in product, technologies, or legislation.
• Produce appropriate level of presentation material to meet requirements of the client and ensure all written material and correspondence is professional, factual and grammatically correct.
• Follow up demonstrations, presentations and provide all necessary information and assistance to prospects, leading to a successful conclusion – obtaining an order/contract.
• Record all meetings and appointments accurately on Sage CRM.
• Seek proactive involvement with marketing, assisting with exhibitions, road-shows or any marketing event designed to promote the product range.
• Respond to inbound ‘Request for Information’, RFP’s, RFI’s and other formal bids for Mid-Market business
• Collaboratively work with marketing to generate sales leads and follow through to close
• Manage and build sales pipeline and report on progress made on a weekly basis

• Provide input on sales material and documentation, keeping abreast of developing materials from the UK and Irish parts of the business for both core gateway and card holder present offerings
• Respond to sales enquiries handed over from the customer services team
• Maintain up to date knowledge of the Sage Pay product range and be able to carry out a sales presentation and product demonstration
• Act as an ambassador for Sage Pay, building excellent relationships both internally and externally, putting the customer at the heart of our business
Skills & Experience
• Good understanding of payment services and the German Ecommerce market
• Excellent commercial acumen
• Understanding of the key commercial drivers for Sage Pay
• Ability to share expertise with others, provide guidance and support to others
• Effective planning and organisational skills, with the ability to manage own time to meet agreed targets and deadlines
• Outstanding influencing and persuasion skills
• Ability to work without constant supervision
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills both written and oral
• The ability to problem solve and make some business decisions
• Adaptable/ flexible approach
• Resilient in the face of commercial challenges
• Demonstrable success managing sales processes and closing new business
• Knowledge of the customer needs
• Strong working and operational knowledge of Sage Pay product range
• Ability to empathise with peers, our customers and our people

Competencies
• Delivering Results: Set by self and others in order to achieve business objectives and overall strategy, whilst maintaining customer services and quality standards.
• Commercial Awareness / Strategic Approach: Understands and uses knowledge of the Industry and appreciates how external trends and situations can impact on the Sage Business. Creates and seizes opportunities to increase current business and/or expand into new markets, products or services. Keeps abreast of current product developments and trends relative to marketing opportunities and competition.
• Customer focus: Driving force behind seeking input from internal and/or external customers to better understand needs. Places high value on customers by exceeding expectations. Uses interpersonal skills to identify and meet customer's needs at every opportunity whilst maintaining positive customer relationships.
• Communication: Communicates (written and spoken) effectively to people at all levels (when required) to ensure shared understanding.
• Resilience: Shows confidence by remaining calm in difficult situations (such as time pressures or job ambiguity); handles stress in a manner that is acceptable to others and to the business.
• Influencing / Relationship Management: Builds agreement and support to decisions / actions by actively involving others in discussions and debates.

Characteristics
• High energy levels
• Positive attitude
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and influencing skills
• Enthusiasm and passion for our people and our customers
• High levels of integrity and honesty
• Self-motivated and energetic
• Self-starter
• Calm under pressure
• Comfortable with change
• Resourceful
• Willingness to take ownership, solve problems, initiate activity and push to get things done
• A strong team player
• Ability to learn new processes and systems quickly

To view and apply for this role go to http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com/hot/jobs/sales-executive-–-sage-pay-germany--3029.htm

Optimal Payments recruiting Software Developer - Cambridge based

Optimal Payments specializes in high security payment gateway and money transfer services through its NETBANX and NETELLER platforms, giving merchants and consumers the freedom to safely manage and move their money online. We are a market leading international payments provider that offers innovative payments solutions that help reduce fraud, increase conversions and revenues.

Role Summary:

We are currently recruiting for an experienced Perl Developer to help build and integrate focused, finance-based products into e-commerce and banking payment systems. This role reports to the Lead Developer and will interact closely with several internal departments and end users in the UK as well as in North America, and will liaise with merchants and integrated third parties and banks.

Primary duties and key performance targets will include:

- Development of new products and applications
- Support and maintenance of existing applications
- Resolution of queries and tickets from internal and external users

Technical Requirements:

- Experience as a software developer
- Perl 5, DBI, POD, Linux, a version control system
- MVC frameworks, ORM, SOAP/XML-RPC, JSON, IPC
- Excellent (X)HTML, Document Object Model, Web Standards
- In Depth knowledge of Cascading style sheets
- Excellent JavaScript, AJAX and JQuery
- Multi Browser development
- Awareness of web accessibility
- Awareness of workflows and user experience patterns
- Ability to clearly estimate effort
- Clearly translate customer requirements into deliverables
- Creation of custom graphics from scratch

Preferable skills:
- JSON and XML familiarity
- Data presentation skills (Graphs, Tables, Charts)
- Application interface design skills
- Any financial systems experience
- Knowledge of PCI practices an advantage.
- Knowledge of card or payment processing an advantage
- Knowledge of APACS70 or ISO8583 an advantage

Personal Attributes:

- A versatile problem solver who can work efficiently under pressure.
- Demonstrated team spirit and ability to work in a small group.
- Willing to work extended or occasionally unsociable hours.
- Able to pick up new disciplines quickly and support other technology specialists.
- Strong attention to detail and good communications skills.
- Organised.
- Must be approachable and open to alternative points of view.
- Must be unafraid to stand their own ground and escalate problems and obstructions to management.

Working Conditions (hours/locations):

The working hours will be 09.00 – 17.30 Monday to Friday. This full-time position will be based out of Optimal Payments’ Cambridge office. The expected start date is as soon as possible.
To apply click on the link: http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com/hot/jobs/software-developer-3016.htm

Verifone pals it up with Paypal

VeriFone and PayPal have joined forces in an effort to  converge ecommerce and retail payments at the point of sale, paving the way for alternative payment acceptance at large and mid-size merchants across the USA.

In the USA alone, 70% of the top 200 largest retailers already use VeriFone solutions. The new venture will connect VeriFone's massive retail POS footprint with millions of loyal PayPal customers, giving PayPal unprecedented access to over a million high-volume checkout lanes.
PayPal will be using VeriFone to enable 10 of the 12 Tier 1 merchants including brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Foot Locker, Jos. A. Bank and Toys "R" Us amongst others.

Consumers  will have multiple ways to access their PayPal accounts at checkout, including using a PayPal-issued card and PIN, or by logging into their PayPal account at checkout. This will create an entirely new shopping experience, providing a further payment option. And for retailers, it will allow them to finally leverage the online retail experience with its offline brick and mortar counterpart, spurring consumer demand for this payment experience.

How long before this will spread to other parts of the world?

To view jobs in the card and payment industry, go to http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com

Twitter me not??

 If you are  amongst the many who have not yet converted to the likes of Twitter and Facebook because you think it’s for teenagers to organise parties or for Generation X’ers to extol the content of their breakfast or their nightmare commutes into work, then you’re right (partly!..)

And yet, social media is about so much more than that. Essentially, for a brand, it’s about engaging with your customer and for a consumer it’s about interacting with a brand in a way that multi-million media budgets spent on TV advertising just don’t allow.

Some brands have got their media strategies buttoned down just right and if, as a consumer you don’t want to have anything more than just a presence on the likes of Twitter and just follow a few key brands and people, then it can prove invaluable as it did at the weekend for those HSBC customers (and followers of the HSBC Press Office) affected by the IT hardware failure suffered on Sunday. The glitch left some of their customers unable to make card payments or withdraw cash from ATMs.

A tweet sent out by the HSBC UK press account stated that services were affected on Sunday afternoon with the fault fixed by around 19.30.

The bank apologised to angry customers, many of whom had taken to Twitter themselves to berate it and threaten to move accounts:

HSBC Press Office

hsbc_uk_press 20 May 12

Our ATMs should be back up now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please call customer services if you need further help 08457 404404 #HSBC

HSBC UK Press Office

@hsbc_uk_press 20 May 12

Sorry again for the problems this evening. An IT hardware failure affected some ATM and card transactions. All services available now #HSBC

The bank developed a dedicated social media monitoring team in light of a major IT outage November.

You might expect a brand like HSBC to have an established social media presence, so you would therefore be surprised to find out that on Twitter, Lloyds for example has an account that is for online banking queries only.

Eurasia Insights, in conjunction with Payments Cards and Mobile are running a Social Media In Payments briefing with companies such as Gemalto and Realex speaking about their social media strategies at the event. It is due to take place at The Andaz in London on June 26^th. For more details, go to

http://www.regonline.co.uk/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1054388

For a brand, social media is a fundamental string to the PR bow and updating your Twitter account should be the new health and safety, politically correct cigarette break, as routine as flossing your teeth.

And for a consumer, well, what have you had for breakfast?

For jobs in the card and payment industry, go to http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com

Hanging on the telephone ? UK cardholders caught up in phone and courier bank card scam

I have a long held practice of not taking unsolicited calls from any organisation whether I am an existing customer or not. My methods range from sticking the phone in front of the radio and leaving it there, trying to order a takeaway meal from the caller, giving the phone to my children and telling them Santa is on the phone or making a high-pitched noise. (Believe me, it works, British Gas have totally given up now!) Sometimes, I even pretend to be the cleaner or the nanny. As entertaining as this may be for me and my children, it looks like I am reaping the added benefit of  stopping myself from becoming a victim of fraud.

The Payments Council have warned of an old-style scam that sees victims conned into handing over their bank cards and PIN details to couriers.

They have advised that the practice netted fraudsters £750,000 in the first four months of 2012, the same amount as for the whole of last year.

The scam involves a fraudster calling a cardholder, claiming to be from their bank and telling them that their debit or credit card needs replacing and collecting following a fraud on their account.

The criminal then asks the person to read out or key in his or her pin number, before sending a courier to collect the card. The victim is told the card is going to the bank to be changed, but it is actually delivered to the fraudster to use along with the pin obtained during the scam.

To make sure they maximise the amount they can steal from the victim's account, the fraudsters advise the victim to disconnect their telephone line. This prevents the card-issuing bank from being able to contact the cardholder to check transactions are genuine.

The fraudster suggests the victim hangs up in order to call the bank back and ensure the call is genuine. However, the fraudster stays on the line, keeping it open. They then play a recording of a dial tone so that when the victim picks up their handset again they think they are really calling their bank.

To make sure they maximise the amount they can steal from the victim's account, the fraudsters advise the victim to disconnect their telephone line. This prevents the card-issuing bank from being able to contact the cardholder to check transactions are genuine.

DCI Paul Barnard, head of the bank-sponsored Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit – the specialist police unit that tackles UK card and cheque fraud – said: "Many of us feel confident we can spot fraudsters, but this type of crime can be sophisticated and could happen to anyone.

"If you become a victim of this type of crime, you should contact your bank in the first instance. If you have friends or relatives who you feel may be vulnerable to this, please help them to be more aware of the potential risks and what to look out for. Remember, if you are the innocent victim of card fraud you will not suffer any financial loss."

Meanwhile, a survey of 4000 people from the Council's Pay Your Way education campaign shows that while three quarters feel confident they would be able to spot a fraudulent telephone banking call, that certainty crumbles when the scam is explained.

Over half are surprised by how sophisticated it is, one third are worried they are more vulnerable than they thought and 80% feel that anyone could be a potential victim to the fraud.

It’s time to think of some more ways to keep us entertained with our outbound call centre friends – got any more ideas ?   

To view the latest jobs in the Card and Payment industry, go to http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com

American Express launches mobile app to offer relevant merchant discounts

Last week American Express launched a 'mobile offer engine'. It is a mobile app that recommends and ranks relevant merchant offers in real time for US cardmembers based on their spending history and location.

It is an industry first and the service is currently being piloted in New York and Los Angeles with an overlay of offers available nationwide at merchants such as Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin' Donuts ( I’m more of a Krispy Kreme girl myself, chocolate and cream in case you’re interested)

President of the US consumer services group at American Express,  Josh Silverman said: "In an increasingly crowded marketplace, where consumers are bombarded with daily deals, we saw an opportunity to help our cardmembers save time as well as money by curating meaningful offers for them."
The mobile offering is being piloted via the new "My Offers" feature on the American Express iPhone App.

My Offers is the next iteration of American Express'  Smart Offer technology, which powers the company's card sync programs with Facebook, Twitter and foursquare and leverages the company's closed loop network to connect Cardmembers and merchants.

Will Visa and MasterCard be hot on the heels ?

Have you been testing out the new app at Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins?? All in the name of market research of course...

To view jobs in the card and payment industry, go to http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com

Wake me up before you Mo Co! - Mobile payments exceed cheques

If, like me, you are a long way off from thinking that Mobile Commerce is a mainstream payment method, then thonk again, because a  recent study undertaken by ACI Worldwide and Aite Group – where smartphone usage in 14 countries was put under a microscope – shows that mainstream Mobile payments are already here (more prevalent in some markets than others of course!!).

The study identified a group of consumers where mobile payments behaviour is the norm and this group was classified as “Smartphonatics”.

According to this research, 80 percent of Smartphonatics have used their smartphones for mobile banking, just one-third of non-Smartphonatics report doing so. 70 percent of Smartphonatics have used their smartphones for mobile payments; under 25 percent of non-Smartphonatics have. Smartphonatics are generally younger consumers also: 36 percent of Generation Yers (between the ages of 20 and 31) are Smartphonatics as are nearly one-third of Generation  Xers (ages 32-46). The number drops significantly among both Baby Boomers (ages 47-65) at 18 percent and Seniors (66+) at six percent

Ron Shevlin, Senior Analyst, Aite Group states: “Smartphonatics enthusiastically use their smartphones when they shop for products and services as well as when they interact with their banks. It is quite clear they are an emerging consumer force. Smartphonatics are driving the adoption of mobile banking and payments and will be an agent for change. Financial and retail institutions will need to adapt or risk being left behind."

The ACI/Aite research indicates that around 1 in 4 consumers globally count as Smartphonatics, with higher numbers found in India and China than in the United States and Europe. This follows through as markets such as India and China have mobile payments competing head to head in the growth of other payment methods such as cards, which are still relatively new for the majority of the population.

In Asia, however, mobile payments have been mainstream for the best part of a decade. Japan sets the benchmark for mobile payments with 47 million Japanese adopting tap-and-go phones. In 2013, China alone, will have 169 million users of tap-and-go payments. Between 500 million and 1 billion people will access financial services by mobile by 2015, depending on various estimates. The mobile financial services market will be dominated by Asia, driven by mobile operator-led initiatives in developing markets to bank the unbanked. Remittance and transfers by mobile is growing three times faster than mobile banking. Mobile remittances are a form of mobile payments, essentially mobile-led P2P.

MasterCard’s study of Mobile Payment readiness which we commented on last week, revealed that whilst the USA is ‘mobile ready’, 9 of the 10 countries most prepared for the technology are in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

So, if Mobile Payments are indeed exceeding cheques, what in fact constitutes a Mobile Payment? The seven primary models for mobile-enabled payments:

1.       SMS based transactional payments

2.       In-App Payments

3.       Direct Mobile Billing

4.       Mobile commerce and/or web payments

5.       Peer-to-Peer payments

6.       Virtual currency payments

7.       Contactless payments

It would appear that around half of the developed world has made a mobile payment of some sort in the last 12 months according to this criteria – at a minimum an in-App purchase made from a mobile or iPad would qualify (that means my children at 10 and 8 can be included in the figures….)

So the question today is not, Have you ever made a Mobile Payment? but, how on earth have you managed to avoid making one?

To view jobs in the card and payment industry, go to http://www.cardandpaymentjobs.com