Payment orchestration platforms connect different payment gateways, acquirers, and methods into a single, seamless system to optimize reporting, control, and various other payment functions. They can be powerful tools, offering businesses the ability to centralize and simplify their payment processes across multiple regions and providers. The benefits are clear: streamlined operations, enhanced flexibility, reduced transaction failure rates, and increased transparency through real-time data.

While payment orchestration platforms have undeniable advantages, they are just one piece of a larger puzzle. Relying solely on an orchestration platform without considering the entire operation and processes can lead to oversights in areas like risk, timeline planning, or compliance. Payment orchestration must work in harmony with the overall payment and banking strategy of the operation, serving as a data collection, reporting and execution tool. It is not a one-size-fits-all solution; a successful payment orchestration tool must be flexible enough to integrate into a broader, comprehensive payment and banking strategy and be capable to deliver valuable results.

Today, many businesses still view payment and banking as purely part of the finance function and rarely develop a dedicated strategy for these areas. This can be a very expensive mistake. A strong payment and banking strategy is essential, and when combined with the right payment orchestration platform, it can significantly enhance the overall business operations.

Fees

Keeping costs under control is an obvious benefit when strategizing payments and banking. However, there are often “hidden costs” that only reveal themselves when businesses start to use the different products from payment or banking vendors. Also, making decisions based solely on fees can be a significant mistake. Although fees are important, without considering settlement times, conversion rates, technical connectivity, and other key aspects, businesses may end up paying more in the long run. Instead, the focus should be on long-term reliability, compliance, and integration capabilities, and avoiding lock-ins with limited vendors.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
A good platform can help reduce transaction costs by automatically routing payments through the most cost-effective providers, gathering data on the effectiveness of the channels, and providing an overview of the fees for easier understanding and comparison.

Risk Management

A solid payment and banking strategy integrates risk management across all payment and banking operations, addressing both operational and financial risks. For example, a thorough due diligence on payment providers and channels can minimize risks such as fraud, provider failure, or regulatory non-compliance. Assessing risks in every step of the cash flow helps secure smoother operations and better overall stability.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
Robust payment orchestration platforms can support risk management by providing real-time monitoring and fraud detection.

Compliance

A good strategy embeds compliance and fraud management into the payment and banking strategy, ensuring that businesses adhere to local and international regulations such as AML, KYC, and GDPR. This prevents legal risks and protects banking relationships, keeping the business safe from regulatory pitfalls.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
By automating processes such as KYC and AML checks, businesses can reduce manual errors and oversights.

Technology Integration and Efficiency

By aligning payment and banking strategy with a company’s technology infrastructure and development roadmaps, a good strategy ensures smooth connectivity between vendor platforms, internal platforms, CRM systems, accounting software, and other systems. This reduces manual work, errors, and inefficiencies, leading to more streamlined and efficient operations.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
Payment orchestration platforms are a valuable technological tool which main benefit is that they seamlessly integrating with a company’s existing technology stack and providing pre-integrated options for various payment and banking providers, reducing integration time and costs.

Treasury

A good payment and banking strategy also needs to harmonize with various treasury functions, too. Treasury decisions over investments, FX risks, and hedging strategies are all related to payment and banking flows and planning for the relevant environment, such as providers, risks, timelines, and processes can significantly improve effectiveness, 

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
A payment orchestration platform can optimize liquidity management by automating payment flows and improving cash visibility across multiple accounts.

Terms

Payment and banking providers are businesses that also aim to maximize their profit. If a business can demonstrate a lower-risk operation or has an established relationship with the vendor, there is often room to negotiate more favourable terms. This can lead to healthier cash flow and better liquidity management, benefiting the business in the long term.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
By providing relevant historical processing and banking data, companies can gain better leverage in negotiating terms in their payments and banking relationships.

Timelines

Streamlining payment and banking flows must take liquidity and timelines into account. By optimising transfer times, minimising settlement delays, managing idle funds, or having access to liquidity on time, businesses can have safer and more productive operational flows. Understanding the bottlenecks and delays can significantly improve operational efficiency and reduce risks, ensuring a healthier cash flow overall.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
A good payment orchestration platform can help manage cash flows by optimizing payment routes and reducing settlement delays.

Data Security and Fraud Prevention

Security and fraud prevention are critical to any business, and payment and banking operations are at the forefront of these risks. Ensuring that the relevant strategies are in place will protect the business and its customers from potential threats.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
Payment orchestration platforms offer fraud detection and security tools and often come with pre-integrations for potential upgrades in these areas.

Scalability and Adaptability

A good payment and banking strategy helps businesses scale by ensuring their payment and banking platforms, strategy and vendors can grow along with the company. It should consider the addition of new payment methods, regional expansions, and regulatory changes. This ensures the business can adapt to changing market conditions and continue to operate smoothly as it grows.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
Payment orchestration platforms can assist businesses in scaling by easily adding new payment methods and expanding into new regions.

Customer Experience

An effective payment and banking strategy enhances customer experience by ensuring that preferred payment methods are offered, and that these methods are reliable, fast, and secure and easy to use. Increased customer satisfaction leads to retention which contributing to the business's overall success.

How can a Payment Orchestration Platform benefit your business:
Payment orchestration platforms can improve customer satisfaction by simplifying the payment process, reducing transaction times, and minimizing errors, which leads to a more seamless checkout experience.

While payment orchestration platforms are valuable, they are not standalone solutions and shall not be used as such. For businesses to truly benefit, a well-rounded payment and banking strategy also must be in place. 

————————————————————-
Guest Author :

Viktoria Soltesz - Author of "Moving Money - How Banks Think" and Founder of the Soltesz Institute

More about the Soltesz Institute

The Soltesz Institute offers specialised accredited education in digital payments, risk,  banking, compliance, and technology and data security, designed to empower professionals with deep real-life-based industry knowledge.