09.2019 Cover Story
Integration Creates Win-win. Yuan Hsin e-ticket captures the Last Mile of Multivariate Payment
Far Eastern Magazine / Editorial Room
At the end of July, the Financial Supervisory Commission announced a draft amendment to the Regulations on the Management of Electronic Payments Institutions, which integrates electronic tickets and electronic payment, and offers a number of new businesses, such as the custody of coupon value and assistance in issuing, selling, verification, inter-agency transfer and related information services, etc. Breaking the existing restrictions on the use of electronic tickets and technology brings new opportunities for Yuan Hsin, but it also makes the original market more competitive. President Cai Shuhua of Yuan Hsin Digital Payment and Vice President Liang Jiarong of Information Service Department were invited to talk about how to reverse the consumer financial ecosystem and capture a multi-payment market by using technological services in this issue.
Information Security is the Priority. Micropayment Safety Control Standard needs to be established.
Yuan Hsin Digital Payment officially issued Happy Cash in October 2014, which combined the function of Happy Go Card “Happy Cash, Happy Go, Happy to Collect Points” and launched a wave of innovation of electronic tickets in Taiwan with the announcement of the payment tool which is the closest to the customers. With the change of market and consumers, Yuan Hsin has been adjusting its steps. In November 2018, Yuan Hsin got the approval of electronic payment business with technology integration and innovative thinking, hoping to take the key strategic position in the payment ecosystem. As President Cai Shuhua said, "it may just be a small card in front of the customers, but in terms of the details, there are a lot of stories regardless of technology, marketing, business model, or even supply chain" In particular, technology is the core competence that President Cai Shuhua is proud of, "Compared with FinTech, which starts from banks and financial commodities, Yuan Hsin is TechFin, which provides different payment services from a technical point of view. Among them, information security is the team's top priority. "Because banks are highly supervised by the Financial Supervisory Commission, they trade in a relatively safe and clean environment, but for the ticket industry, they trade in a complex and insecure environment, so a rigorous structure is needed to ensure the rights and interests of the consumers." Unlike other businesses, Yuan Hsin started with a retail business. “In the past, the only thing to identify is whether the balance of the traffic ticket was enough which was simpler in terms of security control. But Yuan Hsin initially set the single transaction amount at a maximum of 10,000 yuan, it can not only ensure that the user's assets would be protected, but also be able to distinguish the authenticity of the cards through technology. At present, Yuan Hsin's registered Happy Cash card is the only ticket in Taiwan that provides zero risk service for loss reporting. " Vice President Liang Jiarong of Information Service Departmentthen explained, "Most of the transaction control logic in the industry operates in the processor of the front-end devices, while Yuan Hsin directly implants the operation program in the card. Besides content encryption, binding of the device, communication transmission and other links must be controlled and managed, and the chip and program follow the international standard for smart cards. All the security regulations are certified by credit card organizations. They are not easy to forge and have a superior security level. "
Integration is the top. Connecting Life Circle with Technology
In addition to the best information security technology, Yuan Hsin’s integration technology is amazing. For Vice President Liang, "TechFin's goal is not to launch services, but to solve the problems of users, including consumers, businesses and supply chain partners. In particular, the ticket business often faces various manufacturers and equipment. There are many supply chains in the ecosystem of the Group alone, POS, Reader, Dongle... The reason why Yuan Hsin can achieve customized services in high variability, fast execution and low cost at the same time depends on integration. This is also the advantage of TechFin company, which is different from general FinTech. And it can also import Happy Cash into transportation, supermarket, gas station and other micropayment channels in just two years.
In order to capture the mobile payment market, President Cai put forward three major integration orientations: "First, the chain of services, including Happy Go, Payment, Transfer, Gift Vouchers and Platform. The best way is that as long as there is an APP entrance, the payment can be completed. These multiple services are already available within the group. If we can integrate them with more innovative technologies, we will be able to quickly achieve the vision of mobile payment. " In addition to the integration of the group's original services, President Cai believes that the next step is to expand outward and search for strategic partners in the life circle so as to create new economic opportunities. "The vigorous development of the “points” economy is a unique phenomenon in Taiwan. The concept of "cash-like flow" which is exchanged from "point" to "payment" will attract more competitors with the expansion. Therefore, the popularity of the accumulating points is more important, and strategic alliances must be made everywhere in consumers’ lives. Happy Go has cooperated with other point-based platforms to become an indispensable payment tool consumers’ lives. But what customers need is not only payment, but also the concept of life circle according to the services such as the accounting records, transfer history and red packets and it must be the focus of integration in the future. In addition, in terms of the coupons preferred by the enterprises, President Cai said, "With the rising awareness of environmental protection and convenience needs, electronic gift coupons have become more and more popular, but enterprises and customers don’t want electronic gift coupons only, through the integration of mobile equipment, payment and sales platform after the combination of the electronic tickets and electronic payment, a series of services will be built from the issue of gift coupons, sales, verification, guarantee mechanism and information system planning and construction which not only can reduce the cost of enterprise management, but also can connect the platform of enterprise welfare committee, connect B2C, B2B and B2B2C services and increase the diversified application and flexibility of gift coupons. However, Vice-President Liang also reminded us that the threshold of integration lies in compatibility that is a must in order to meet the requirements of different objects , we should also be able to put forward rigorous specifications for others to abide by, especially when the integration of transfer transactions involves technology, product planning, maintenance of information security and assets and regulatory considerations which is of higher complexity and also takes a long time to quench out the feasibility. " The last step of integration is the combination of life circle and community, President Cai pointed out, "For Far Eastern Group, it is easier to see the whole picture of customers’ lives to connect eTag owners, HAPPYGO cardholders, retail/business customers, Far EasTone Telecommunication users... and other different clients of the affiliated enterprises with payment through the analysis of customer transaction data, and help to clarify the groups of initial purchase and repurchase, grasp consumer habits, and then actively provide more valuable service chain. "
The main purpose of outlining customers’ lives is to create "recycled economy", that is, to enhance the cohesion with customers. "In terms of the channels, repurchase is an endless economic model; for payment industry, it is expected to attract consumers to reuse the same payment tool. However, President Cai believes that the way of marketing subsidy in the market is not fundamental. "Recycled economy" must start with services, such as recycled economy based on the concepts of "membership system", "rental service" and "collective learning" to establish a long-term relationship with customers. However, the membership is not enough. We must further let the different but complementary groups take the initiative to step out of the comfort zone, digging out more related potential customers and connecting them and constructing the value chain community. "
As to how to apply recycled economy business model to electronic payment, President Cai suggests that payment occurs after the purchase of goods or services, so the "Contents" that triggers the purchase are the most important. "As long as consumers can continue to rely on our services, they can create cohesion and consumption power". With the development of information transmission and various monitoring technologies, the relationship between enterprises and customers is becoming more and more direct, and it is easier to get feedback. Vice President Liang analyzed, "Electronic payment can collect users, business, platform and APP activity response, transaction, operation and service interaction information at user endpoints, and integrate system, transaction, behavior, analysis, background database and external reference materials, etc., to construct a larger data mart, which will help Big Data's analysis and application, further predicting users’ behavior or improving users’ experience to keep services alive."
Technological services run through the road of multi-payment
In today's era when any industry can be transformed into a service industry, technological services are no exception. In 2017,the ticket industry practitioners were allowed to run the business of terminal equipment weaver business, Yuan Hsin detected the business opportunity, and then jointly launched the solution of the last mile of multivariate payment with Payment Gateway through the integration capability and information security technology, which not only provides multivariate payment and weaver equipment. And the accounts and liquidation can also be completed by end-to-end concatenation scheme to improve operational service efficiency. In other words, in the future, there will be no more machines on the checkout desk. The machines provided by Yuan Hsin will be able to settle accounts for the all payment tools such as credit cards, Smart Pay, tickets and financial cards. President Cai disclosed that "this scheme will be officially launched in the well-known chain channel from October. In the future, both banks and payment operators in the channel will complete the transaction through the multivariate end-to-end equipment and integration scheme. "
This also means that Yuan Hsin has successfully broken the traditional bank receipt practice, relying not only on technical strength, but also on service capabilities, especially customer service experience accumulated in the ticket business is one of their major advantages. It is worth mentioning that this project also provides back-end customer service dispatch services, and will even be in the future extends to the service of EDC paper roll intelligent logistics, President Cai explained, " Yuan Hsin can estimate the daily usage of invoice rolls in each store according to the data. The system automatically calculates the safe stock and orders, and actively delivers the goods to the channel warehouse, and then dispatches them to the stores. Of course, this is a phased planning, the ultimate goal is still to be paperless, all information be stored in the cloud, customers decide the way of storing the invoices, Yuan Hsin can also reduce maintenance costs and improve service efficiency. "
The one-stop solution from channels, customer to service is the result of Yuan Hsin 's digital, innovative, action and information security capabilities, and also opens up new business opportunities for the company. With the merging of electronic tickets, electronic payment sources and the opening of cross-institutional platform, the boundaries between banks and the electronic payment practitioners will become more and more blurred in the future. Under the impact of the wave of mobile payment, physical cards will coexist with virtual payment. Faced with the ever-changing market and technology, Yuan Hsin must go ahead to respond to the changes quickly. "Digital transformation must be accompanied by structural changes. Only by breaking the framework, can we have more inspiration and innovation." For President Cai, the multi-payment terminal equipment integration project is just the beginning. In the future, Yuan Hsin will continue to gather the power of technical talents, business application talents and execution team to create a new era of payment.