Features, Video

How businesses are automating, embedding and launching payments in their software

Modulr By Modulr on 22 February 2021   •   5 mins read
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How businesses are now using automation, embedded payments and ‘out of the box’ payments

If you want to learn about the latest and greatest innovations in payments for your business or you’re just curious to learn more about the evolution of digital payments, then you’ve come to the right place. In this blog (and video), we take a look at the three key steps on the road to modern day digital payments: automation, embedded payments, and ‘out of the box’ payments.
 

How payments automation is liberating business

If you want to take your payments processes out of the dark ages then, at a minimum, you need to be embracing automation.

Automation is transforming industries everywhere, and now it’s being applied to payments and enabling businesses to make the core function of what they do – money in and out – efficient and time saving.

Traditional payment systems are riddled with hidden inefficiencies and many businesses, even the largest, rely on manual intervention in payment processes.  It’s not unusual to have whole teams dedicated to inputting payment data from spreadsheets, spending hours on reconciliation and waiting days for incoming and outgoing payments to clear.  These hidden payment inefficiencies waste time that could be better spent focused on business growth and enhancing the customer experience.

In fact, archaic payments processes are costing businesses a huge £1.5m, with costs spiralling due to manual processes and outdated systems.
 
Embracing automation is the first step to fixing this broken system.
 
New digital payments platforms like Modulr allow businesses to automate their entire payment flow and set up rules to trigger payment splits, balance sweeps and notifications when you or your customers receive funds.  These intelligent payment flows work like magic behind the scenes and that’s now letting businesses maximise efficiency across all aspects of payments, including how they receive and accept payments and how they send payments.
 
This removes hidden payment inefficiencies and gives valuable time back to employees and businesses are liberated to reallocate that saved time on what matters most; delivering a great customer experience and growing their business.

 
Payments embedded: Why every business is now a fintech

The next step in the evolution of digital payments is embedded payments and by that we mean putting a payments engine at the heart of your proposition. By integrating advanced payments technology directly into your business platforms, workflows and customer experiences can all be connected, controlled and monitored by APIs.  For example, you might want to issue customers with eMoney accounts and provide access to the latest UK and EU payment schemes, like Faster Payments or SEPA Instant.

There are use cases in almost every sector.
 
Travel agents and tour operators are using virtual cards to offer more ways for their merchants to pay and improve merchant acceptance.
 
Property management companies are using Payment Initiation, powered by Open Banking, to enable instant rent collections and a seamless experience.
 
Lending businesses are harnessing Faster Payments to enable 24/7 loan disbursements to borrowers within seconds.
 
These are just a few of thousands of examples where embedded payments have become differentiators for businesses.
 
And, it’s become easier now more than ever to embed payments into businesses, due to the shift towards plug and play payment platforms. Third-party digital payment platforms can do the technological heavy lifting on your company's behalf which allows you to quickly reap the benefits of their payments system, without building your own infrastructure from scratch.
 

And that leads us to the third and ultimate stage of the payments evolution arc.
 

'Out of the box’ payments aka What you need to know to build the next big neobank

Challenger banks are springing up everywhere – the likes of Monzo, Starling and Revolut.

That’s because we’re shifting to the Instant Economy and consumers increasingly want everything – from movies to financial services – in real-time. Challenger banks are successful because they’ve responded to this demand and provided customers with fast payments, innovative features and seamless UI - things that aren’t offered by traditional banks.
 
But launching your own challenger bank isn’t easy to do from scratch, especially when many others are racing to build the bank of the Instant Economy. You have to invest a lot of money to build the technology in house, and spend months or years jumping through compliance and regulation hoops to begin operating on the financial infrastructure.
 
Fortunately, an easier way has been developed.
 
By using a digital payments provider like Modulr, you can outsource all the hard parts of building a bank and launch your own payment services quickly – in weeks rather than months.
 
We provide the infrastructure or ‘plumbing’ behind the scenes, which you can quickly and easily build your app and services on top of. We already power the infrastructure that allows Revolut to supply its UK current and business accounts to customers.
 
Savvy FinTechs are realising that these ‘out of box’ solutions are the best way to beat the competition to market and that payments can now be a competitive advantage.
 

So, we’ve talked about how the most forward-thinking businesses are following the digital payments evolution and taking the three steps to payments supremacy:

• Automating payments
• Embedding payments
• Launch payment services ‘out of the box’

If you want to find out more about how to make payments your competitive advantage then download this major research study. This eBook combines the research survey findings, along with the commentary and recommendations of business leaders, to give you the insight you need to secure the future success of your organisation.