FreedomPay Commerce Platform on Microsoft Azure Announces New Strategic Alliances In Expanding Real Time Retail Ecosystem

Industry leaders in point-of-sale technology and business analytics have partnered with FreedomPay to deliver real time retail: an intelligent customer experience at checkout. The FreedomPay Commerce Platform, validated by the PCI Security Council for Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), enabled with EMV and NFC and endorsed by Microsoft Corp. as its commerce partner, helps retailers give their customers more personalized experiences and incentives based on their basket contents, past purchases, preferences and demographics.

Re-envisioning the customer experience

By integrating across the payment ecosystem, FreedomPay is helping merchants deliver more value to customers with dynamic, real time personalization, offers and intelligence in the cloud. Understanding where people are paying, what they are paying with, how frequently they are paying and how much they are paying is the key to unlocking value from payments in today’s world.

Legacy systems have prevented retailers from utilizing payments information that is expanding and multiplying exponentially with the adoption of smart phones and tablets. The real time retail model adapts to the changing behavior and preferences of an increasingly sophisticated consumer. The leading technology brands in retail are now working with FreedomPay to develop new ways to improve the consumer experience and offer greater value to the merchant.

New alliances driving innovation

• Panasonic System Communications Company of North America (PSCNA): Panasonic (TYO: 6752), a world leader in POS and mobile technology with a broad set of capabilities around customer experience, mobility and security, is collaborating with FreedomPay on new strategic initiatives around payment security and mobile POS solutions.
  
  “Retailers will continue to face a number of challenges next year including the fraud liability shift as well as heightened customer in-store experience expectations,” said Kevin Takagi, Vice President, Strategic Development, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. “By collaborating with FreedomPay, we will help retailers tackle these challenges head on by creating retail technology solutions that provide a secure, omni-channel experience for their customers.”
• HP: With connected devices at the point of sale and real time transaction data on Microsoft Azure, HP (NYSE: HPQ) and FreedomPay are enabling merchants to reinvent their checkout experience with value-added services at the point-of-sale. Tablet devices at checkout can deliver real time incentives and drive more customer interaction and engagement by leveraging real time insights from the cloud.
  
  “HP is committed to continually enhancing security and functionality of our retail solutions and we are pleased to be working with Microsoft and FreedomPay to further strengthen our position on these critical imperatives,” said Brad Tracy, Global Retail Segment Manager at HP.
• Verifone: A global payment terminal solutions leader, Verifone’s secure, multi-media devices will be fully integrated with the FreedomPay PCI-Validated P2PE framework with an expected launch in Q2 2015. The partnership between Verifone (NYSE: PAY) and FreedomPay helps both organizations deepen relationship potential with merchants.
  
  “In addition to securely accepting all types of payments—including EMV, contactless/NFC and mobile wallets—Verifone’s payment terminals feature stunning color displays that can enrich the shopping experience with targeted video and promotional presentations at the point of sale,” said Joe Mach, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Vertical Solutions for Verifone. “Verifone’s collaboration with FreedomPay is an example of our commitment to provide merchants with the tools they need to grow their businesses by creating secure, compelling customer experiences at the point-of-sale. Our consumer-facing terminals will enable retailers to enhance their ecosystems, helping them to further increase customer satisfaction and drive new revenues.”
• Revel Systems iPad POS: The world’s leading iPad Point of Sale (POS) provider, Revel Systems POS combines cloud-based technology with the intelligence of the iPad. The Revel POS system offers a feature-rich POS solution for restaurant, retail and grocery establishments with integrated payroll, inventory tracking, and advanced business analytics for both Enterprise and Small Business customers. By partnering with FreedomPay to incorporate P2PE encryption, Revel will provide the most secure iPad POS system on the market.
  
  “We are thrilled to be selected as FreedomPay’s iPad Point of Sale (POS) partner, adding to their ecosystem of retail products and improving security in payments,” said Revel’s CTO Chris Ciabarra. “With the FreedomPay partnership, our iPad POS system is the only one to meet the PCI standard for P2PE encryption. P2PE represents the highest level of security, protecting sensitive information between consumers and merchants, and we’re proud to be able to comply with this stringent level of security. Together with FreedomPay, we hope to redefine the payments market and ensure critical levels of security and data protection.”
• Neal Analytics: Transaction data from the FreedomPay platform combined with real time algorithmic prediction on the cloud from Neal Analytics provides merchants and their customers with targeted recommendations based on purchase activity and shopper profile.
  
  “Real time customer recommendations allow firms to extract the most value from their sales force. By basing these recommendations on Azure Machine Learning, firms can add additional intelligence to and make more accurate product offerings. Selling what is needed exactly when its needed will allow firms to add more value and better target products,” said David Brown, Solution Sales Director, Neal Analytics.

The alliances announced today join with other industry leaders integrated with the FreedomPay Commerce Platform, such as Ingenico Group, MICROS, Agilysys, and Digital Dining, who are driving the future of retail. In addition, FreedomPay offers connectivity to more than 10 major U.S. payment processing platforms including First Data, Chase Paymentech, Vantiv, TSYS, Global, WorldPay and Elavon.

“FreedomPay is joining together leaders across the commerce ecosystem to provide retailers and their customers a secure commerce experience with intelligence in the cloud,” said Tom Durovsik, CEO of FreedomPay. “Together with our partners, FreedomPay is helping merchants deliver true omni-channel customer engagement, seamlessly integrated into the checkout experience.”

About FreedomPay

The FreedomPay Commerce Platform on Microsoft Azure is the engine inside the world’s expanding and interconnected ecosystem of commerce. With broad integrations across point-of-sale devices, payment processors and financial institutions, FreedomPay connects purchase activity with enterprise data in real time to enable more successful customer interactions. Validated by the PCI Security Standards council for Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), the FreedomPay Commerce Platform securely processes transaction data for global leaders in the retail, hospitality, healthcare, education and financial services sectors. With innovative and expansive technologies built for real time commerce, FreedomPay positions any organization for the future of commerce and customer interaction. www.freedompay.com