Polar Moment 2023: A Year in Review

19th January 2024

As we bid farewell to 2023, Polar Moment reflects on a year marked by achievements, hurdles, and unwavering dedication. Join us in revisiting the key projects that have defined our journey throughout the year.

Payments Facilitation and Cash Management Platform

Polar Moment developed a business transformation platform, enabling our client to become a total solution provider by expanding its cash management services to include payment card acceptance. Working alongside compliance advisor FSCom, we helped our client become an Authorized Payment Institution. We then developed a unique AWS cloud-based payments facilitation platform, including a market-leading web portal for our client’s merchant customers. Following the successful rollout of the solution, we were invited to develop their cash management platform to provide a unified cash and card solution. This encompasses the web portal, settlement, invoicing, and transaction monitoring.

Acquiring Services

A leading hotel operator sought Polar Moment’s expertise in securing cost-effective acquiring services. Leveraging our insights into market rates, we successfully assisted them in reducing costs, resulting in one of the most competitive acquiring rates in the sector.

Public Transport Card Success

Polar Moment architected and managed the development of a public transport card payment solution. This card system, akin to London’s Oyster Card, enables users to purchase transport tickets and add funds to their cards through terminals located in convenience stores. The initiative has seen the sale of over six million cards, with more than one billion passenger journeys recorded to date.

Planet – Payment App Development

Polar Moment developed a number of innovative payment apps for the PAX IM30 Android-based payment terminal. These apps allow customers to make purchases using various unattended devices (e.g. vending machines) that use Planet’s payment SDK.

GPT’s PoolPay Innovation

Game Payment Technology (GPT) is the disruptive payments start-up in the amusement industry. Latitude 91, Polar Moment’s parent company, is one of the shareholders. This year, Polar Moment developed PoolPay – a groundbreaking solution enabling players to use a single payment terminal to pay to play any of the pool tables within a pub or similar venue.

2023 has been a year of growth, collaboration, and impactful solutions. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our clients, partners, and the Polar Moment team, whose contributions made these accomplishments possible.

As we look ahead in 2024, exciting developments await. Stay tuned for upcoming projects and initiatives from Polar Moment!

Get In Touch

At Polar Moment, we are committed to delivering payments consultancy and software development services that drive tangible business results. Whether you need strategic advice, technical implementation, or training, our team is here to help. Contact us today to discuss how we can support your business.

The Expert's Playbook for Payments System Implementation: Best Practices and Insights

21st August 2023

Having spent 26 years working with payments projects across the retail sector, I’ve seen first-hand how challenging it can be to implement payments systems. There are many factors that can impact the success of a payments project. In this blog post, I’ll share my expert playbook for implementing a payments system, including best practices and key insights.

John Rozek

Polar Moment director

Understand clearly what you are trying to achieve:

Do not start by designing the solution. Start by establishing what you need to achieve as a business, and what the customer experience should be. Do not restrict this just to payments: this is only part of the story. Consider the whole user journey.

Define your project scope and requirements upfront:

Once you are clear on the desired customer experience, then you can define the project scope and requirements. Do not try and design the solution at this stage. There are many approaches for delivering payment solutions. Working with payments experts will help you understand the options available and the implications of each.

Choose a development partner with practical experience:

Payments is a complex world. Look for a development team with practical experience in working with a broad range of payment solutions. Weigh up the benefits of developing bespoke solutions against adapting existing software solutions. Work with the development team to decide which technologies are most appropriate considering your organisations standards. Also, consider cloud-based options.

Take a phased approach to development:

Payments system implementation is a complicated process that requires careful planning and execution. Taking a phased approach to development will help to minimise risk. Establish how your team will work with your chosen development partner. Decide how you are going to review the outputs throughout the development project. Set your testing strategy and agree your acceptance criteria. Know how you are going to implement the solution. Consider the benefits of piloting before rollout.

Prioritise resilience, transactions speed, ease of use, security and compliance:

Payment systems are the heart of your business. If your system is down you cannot trade, revenues are lost, and customers walk away. The user experience must be intuitive and transaction speeds need to be fast. Payment systems are a high-value target for cyber criminals. A data breach will have a massive financial impact and damage your company’s reputation. Consider how to design your system to minimise the costs of complying with PCI:DSS (payment card industry – data security standard), the standard used within the payment industry to protect cardholder data. Ensure these features are built into your solution’s design from the project outset.

Test rigorously:

Payments systems must be tested thoroughly to ensure that they work as intended and are free from bugs and other issues. Plan for comprehensive testing throughout the development process, including functional testing, performance testing, and security testing. Polar Moment’s customers welcome our advice on test environment set up and management using both virtual and physical servers. We recommend development, test, pre-production and live environments. We are expert in the leading payment test tools, including T3 from Iliad.

Plan for ongoing maintenance and support:

Once your payments system is live, it will need ongoing maintenance and support. Work with your development team to plan for ongoing maintenance and support, including software updates, bug fixes, and customer support.

Conclusion:

Implementing a payments system can be a complex and challenging process. With the right development team, you can ensure success. At Polar Moment, we have a team of developers with practical experience in working with some of the world’s leading payment vendors and processors. With ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 accreditations, we can take full end-to-end responsibility for your payments software delivery. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you implement your payments system.

Polar Moment 2023: A Year in Review

Payments Facilitation and Cash Management Platform

Acquiring Services

Public Transport Card Success

Planet – Payment App Development

GPT’s PoolPay Innovation

Get In Touch

More From Polar Moment

What Does a Payments Consultant Do?

Bespoke Software Development

Payment Processing Software

Payments Consultancy

Cashless Payment Systems

The Expert's Playbook for Payments System Implementation: Best Practices and Insights

John Rozek

Understand clearly what you are trying to achieve:

Define your project scope and requirements upfront:

Choose a development partner with practical experience:

Take a phased approach to development:

Prioritise resilience, transactions speed, ease of use, security and compliance:

Test rigorously:

Plan for ongoing maintenance and support:

Conclusion:

Get In Touch

More From Polar Moment

What Does a Payments Consultant Do?

Bespoke Software Development

Payment Processing Software

Payments Consultancy

Cashless Payment Systems