Creating next-level technology

Infrastructure was the driving force behind the formation of Transaction Services, a service provider in the electronic payments industry also known as TrxServices and TRX to its clients and peers in the industry. Co-founder David Leppek had been running another ISO program leading up to the February 2010 launch of TRX. Through that experience, he had identified a gap within the industry: he needed a robust tracking and reporting platform, but nothing available at the time met his standards.

"I was aware of a few options, but questioned how stable and sustainable they would be," stated Leppek, who now serves as an executive payment consultant for TRX. "I realized it made the most sense to develop a proprietary platform, which is what led to the birth of Transaction Services."

By October 2010, the TRX platform was fully functional and had been granted its first Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard certification. The firm onboarded a cruise line and then spread its wings across the small business tier. Its primary focus was on serving the retail, restaurant and self-service kiosk verticals.

Full-service payments platform

Today, TRX is headquartered in Atlanta, and maintains additional facilities in Denver. The company is self-described as "a leading payment card processing solution for merchants looking to improve their financial performance." According to one formal statement explaining the organization's business philosophy, TRX is "committed to providing an innovative technology platform essential to the customer … and providing customized solutions, along with the highest quality of service, flexibility, and visibility to oversee performance."

The TRX mission is "to provide a single technical infrastructure that securely addresses the full merchant lifecycle while automating the Agent's residual payment and reporting." The company feels it has achieved this ambition by developing payments management software that can receive data from integrated transaction terminals. This accomplishment has also opened doors to integrations with independent software vendors within the small business community, TRX noted.

"From the onset, the TRX infrastructure was designed around security, flexibility and speed," Leppek said when describing the organization's "next level" standards, innovative architecture, point-to-point encryption and tokenization.

According to Leppek, the platform has full omnicommerce and customer resource management (CRM) functions, and also supports nearly 2,000 transaction types, multiple user logins, interchange reports, monthly and quarterly card-brand reports, statements, gateway authentications, and cardholder data security. "Everything is offered standard, and it was this robust functionality that made TRX a frontrunner during the EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) migration," he stated.

Transitioning ahead

Two of four original TRX founders/investors are still involved in day-to-day oversight, including Scott Martin, who assumed the chief executive officer post in February 2018.

According to Martin, the firm is currently expanding its banking relationships and underwriting capacity, which is a recent strategy shift. "We've already added one acquiring bank to the portfolio and will likely add one or two others in first quarter 2019," Martin stated.

Referring to the TRX technology, Martin indicated its new bank partner planned to use the CRM feature to manage part of its portfolio. "The most interesting aspect of the TRX platform is the flexibility of its features," he stated. "It gives our partners a wide array of options."

Martin said the company is also working on incorporating the new Verifone 4G terminal and adding innovative accounting products for the small, multichannel merchant. Martin feels the main focus areas at TRX continue to be meeting omnicommerce demands in the marketplace and enhancing the platform's reporting visibility related to interchange, transactions and risk-related data. "We will continue to invest in adding versatility to the platform as we can," he said.

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