Global payment service provider

Opus Consulting Solutions is a payment technology provider with operations in North America and India. Founded in 1997 as Opus Software Services, the company prides itself on being an innovation engine for Fortune 500 clients around the world. Opus launched ElectraCard in 2006, India's first prepaid payment card, which MasterCard acquired in 2014, and moved its headquarters from India to Chicago that same year. The new name and brand identity reflected its broader outlook and expanding array of customized solutions. Opus Chief Executive Officer Anand Ramakrishnan, who served for two decades as an executive at Capgemini, has focused on strengthening Opus Consulting's leadership in retail payments worldwide. "Talent acquisition and strategic alliances with industry leaders are going to play a major role in our growth aspirations," he said.

Centers of excellence and innovation lab

Six Payments Centers of Excellence and an Emerging Payments Innovation Center were devised to leverage the company's engineering expertise and infrastructure to provide continuous support and expertise to clients and partners.

• The Security & Risk Center of Excellence provides solutions in Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) compliance, certification and migration; two-factor and biometric authentication; point-to-point encryption; and Payment Application and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliance.
• The Acquiring Center of Excellence works with traditional payment channels and focuses on ATM and POS switching, merchant accounting, risk and fraud management, interchange and payment gateways.
• The Issuing Center of Excellence works with legacy card issuing and authorization systems to support EMV across the United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. Areas of expertise include interchange; prepaid, credit and debit products; risk and fraud management; and billing and analytics.
• The Mobile Payments Center of Excellence provides mobile payment solutions to financial institutions, payment service providers and mobile network operators. Projects include mobile wallets, near field communication (NFC) technology, mobile network operator and trusted service manager interfaces, and mobile handset applications.
• The Payment Devices Center of Excellence provides libraries and toolkits to help customers jump start payment device integration projects. Areas of specialization include NFC and contactless interfaces, physical POS, e-commerce, biometric and ATM applications, outside payment terminals and innovative card-reader interfaces.
• The Remittance Center of Excellence works with remittance businesses on initiatives that may include application development and maintenance, integration, program management, and billing and compliance solutions related to this industry segment.
• The Emerging Payments Innovation Center facilitates development of innovative products and services to help clients solidify leadership in their business spheres. Key areas of focus include mobile payments; contactless, NFC and EMV solutions; cloud payments; and social media integration.

Five core competencies

"We identified five core competencies among clients with a global presence in the payments ecosystem," said Ashish Raina, Global Head of Marketing and Alliances at Opus. "We built our service lines around these five competencies." The competencies include:

• Platform transformation: Efficient transaction switches and migration methods are crucial to maintaining and updating payments infrastructures.
• Digital technologies: Expertise in digital remittance, prepaid cards, fund transfers, mobile network operator integrations and mobility toolkits can help companies manage complex global enterprises.
• Analytics: Adept use of payment analytics and big data visualization can help companies plan ahead and craft and execute strategy.
• Testing: Testing and certification of ATMs and devices, device integration software, mobile payment devices, model and risk-based testing, and low cost centers of excellence are critical to success.
• Compliance: Payment compliance and best practices create a secure framework for all types of payments integrations, including middleware, anti-money laundering and know your customer efforts and cross-border payments.

Believing its payments expertise, assets and global reach make it an excellent fit for companies seeking to expand their omnichannel capabilities globally, Opus is focused on developing long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with payments industry stakeholders.

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