Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ JANUARY 2017
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Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ JANUARY 2017 Always Be ... Building a Better Platform? How mobile technology and Sixa lands $3.5M for Find the top providers in our platforms are transforming the developer-focused cloud inaugural Tracker Scorecard – construction industry. – p. 6 computer – p. 12 (News and p. 16 (Scorecard) (Feature Story) Trends) Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ © 2017 PYMNTS.com all rights reserved Table of Contents PAGE What’s Inside We take a closer look at the quickly evolving platform space and how platform 03 providers are keeping their data and customers well secured. PAGE Feature Story Buildertrend Solutions Director Scott Siegert discusses how the company has had to shift constantly to keep up with new technology and changing client 06 demands in order to stay ahead. PAGE News and Trends 10 Read the latest news and headlines from around the space. PAGE Methodology | Top Ten Rankings Best of the bunch 14 Who’s on top and how they got there. PAGE Scorecard The results are in 16 See who the top providers are. PAGE About 24 Information on PYMNTS.com and WePay. Acknowledgment Sponsorship for the Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ was provided by WePay. WePay has no editorial influence over the Tracker’s content. In addition, the methodology for Tracker supplier rankings was developed exclusively by the PYMNTS.com research and analytics team. The methodology, scoring and rankings are done exclusively by this team and without input or influence from the sponsoring organization. Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ © 2017 PYMNTS.com all rights reserved January 2017 | 2 What’s Inside Software platforms are changing the way all kinds Countless entrepreneurs and everyday people use of companies and organizations, from construction these platforms for a wide variety of applications. contractors to charities, do business. A significant We’ve all heard stories from our own friends, families contributor to that change is the integration of or neighbors who have taken to these payment- payments as a seamless service. enabled platforms in order to start a business, pursue a passion or raise donations for a worthy These platforms work to make the process of cause. getting sellers paid and delivering products to buyers simpler and faster than ever before. One Crowdfunding sites, one type of platform, have such example is crowdfunding platforms. Services become an important tool for businesses and like Kickstarter help entrepreneurs that need creative endeavors to seek funding. In fact, funding connect with likely customers who can buy according to industry statistics, $34 billion was the product in advance, essentially investing in the raised via crowdfunding platforms in 2015, and entrepreneurs’ company. Websites like GoFundMe there’s speculation that the figure for 2016 could be allow individuals to easily fundraise for others in as high as $60 billion. need or specific charities. Five Fast Facts Platform Security 01 02 03 04 05 Cybersecurity Security product $11 of every 3.2 million card Chip-enabled spending to market in the $100 spent details stolen in cards cut fraud exceed $1 United States online subject security breach by 60 percent trillion from 2017 expected to to fraud in India to 2021 reach 16 billion by 2019 Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ © 2017 PYMNTS.com all rights reserved January 2017 | 3 What’s Inside But these platforms go beyond crowdfunding and fundraising. In other cases, platforms provide value to businesses that are not looking for an infusion of cash, but a way to be more productive or scale their business. Over the past decade, businesses of all sizes and industries have started using software to grow faster and run better. A plumber, for Executive Insight example, may use mHelpDesk to manage clients What is the most important challenge and track jobs, and a general contractor may use the space will face in 2017? Buildertrend to manage a number of construction projects (see feature story on p. 6). Successful handling of risk and compliance is going to be the most important challenge There are providers that help companies be for payments-enabled platforms in 2017. more productive by streamlining their marketing, There are increasingly more new fraud vectors accounting, email or web services. And when that threaten platforms, this year growing payments help power these platforms, they significantly on the mobile payments front enable new payment offers such as embedding as well. These threats must be thwarted in payments inside of invoicing services, email offers order to avoid significant financial losses or anywhere else that may prove beneficial to the and to protect the platform’s reputation and merchants and end users. end users. We are also facing an uncertain These platforms make it easier and less expensive regulatory environment internationally. Staying than ever before to start, grow and manage a abreast of new developments will be critical for business. Etsy, for example, boasts 1.6 million platform businesses. On top of that, platforms sellers, many of whom launched their businesses on that intend to push the envelope will need to the platform. Full- and part-time freelance workers balance risk and compliance concerns with the have grown from 6 percent of the workforce in desire to take their payments offering to the 1989 to 34 percent today. Fueled by platforms next level by offering the smoothest, most like Etsy, Uber and others, these workers are frictionless user experience possible. expected to make up 43 percent of the workforce by 2020. Platforms are creating new types of job Rich Aberman, cofounder and chief strategy opportunities and fueling a dramatic shift in the officer at WePay way work happens around the world. As a result, small and micro merchants are often looking for a turnkey solution to run their business, so managing a separate payment provider means heavy overhead. Etsy, for example, initially relied on PayPal to provide payment services to its sellers but eventually launched its own solution, Direct Checkout. Other platforms, like FreshBooks and Shopify, have done the same. Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ © 2017 PYMNTS.com all rights reserved January 2017 | 4 What’s Inside But enabling all these functions is a serious challenge Each edition of the Tracker will also contain a feature for platform providers that requires new technology. story with insights from thought leaders at who Accepting payments is tricky enough, but accepting have successfully integrated payments into their them from multiple inputs and then paying out to a software platforms. The inaugural Tracker features single entity, whether it be a charity, an auction seller an interview with Scott Siegert, director of client or an accounting software platform with multiple services at Buildertrend solutions, a B2B platform SMB customers, makes the process even more serving the construction industry. PYMNTS caught complex. Payments providers must be able to move up with Siegert to discuss how his team works to money quickly and safely while making sure their provide businesses with the tools and solutions they platform mitigates fraud for all parties and provides need to collaborate effectively with other companies a delightful user experience. in their industry. Add the rise of various digital and mobile devices, You’ll also find a directory with profiles of some of and it becomes clear why platforms are attracting the leading providers in the space. Our inaugural serious dollars and having a notable effect on the edition looks at 15 players. We will be adding to and economy at large. updating this Scorecard each month. Each directory entry includes a description of the company and So it is no surprise that big-name companies are a score based on the features most relevant getting into the space and have shown they are for platforms to be able to successfully enable willing to put their money where their mouth is when payments. it comes to payment-enabled platforms. Earlier this summer, Salesforce paid nearly $3 billion to acquire Finally, the Tracker also includes major news from commerce software platform provider Demandware. the space, documenting the latest events and trends Salesforce will now compete with similar platforms in the industry. As can be seen in the News and from major companies like IBM Corp., Oracle Corp., Trends section of this inaugural tracker, software and and SAP. service providers of all kinds are looking to improve their offerings to compete in this evolving and Enter the Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ rapidly expanding market. PYMNTS.com, together with WePay, has designed the Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ to give readers a monthly look at software providers powering embedded payments inside of different types of platforms. We’ll monitor the latest trends in the industry, the activity of the biggest companies in the space and innovation coming down the road. Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ © 2017 PYMNTS.com all rights reserved January 2017 | 5 Always Be ... Building A Better Platform? Feature Story Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™ © 2017 PYMNTS.com all rights reserved January 2017 | 6 FEATURE STORY “Steve Jobs created these fantastic mobile devices, and it really provided an opening to make our software and make the concept of a web-based project management solution more accessible to contractors” Scott Siegert, Buildertrend hile we may struggle to remember a day keep up with new technology and changing client before everyone carried a smartphone, demands in order to stay ahead. it wasn’t that long ago that mobile Wtechnology was still the stuff of science fiction (and The company has relied on users’ feedback to beyond that, even the Star Trek “communicators” update their platform over the years. For example, were more one-time burners than actual computers during the 2008 recession, when many builders went in your pocket). As technology has evolved back to their roots as carpenters or other individual rapidly to become an integral part of modern life, craftsmen, Buildertrend expanded the scope of businesses have had to keep up.