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From Sisyphus to excellence all over the place," he replied. "We've
tried to capture it, but it is so frag-
in certifications mented, and has to be, with different
scripts and processes for every cer-
tification we seek or grant. And it's
By Naganand Jagadeesh unpredictable. What are you going
to do when a test fails, or you're not
ThoughtFocus ready for your short window in the
testing queue? You're going to staff
f Sisyphus were around today, I'd know exactly where to find him. up on consultants to get it done fast. I
He'd be toiling away in payments EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) estimate we'll do about 125 to 150 cer-
certifications. Instead of rolling his boulder up the mountain, watching tifications this year, but I have no idea
I it roll back down, and repeating the deed forever; he would be seeking how much they will cost us."
certifications and re-certifications for his company's solutions, again and again,
ad infinitum. Nor is relief on the horizon. EMV
implementations are lagging, cre-
The business of certifications is an unquestionably necessary and inevitable ating chaos. The digital revolution
burden on any enterprise in the digital payments ecosystem. Device makers, is ripe with opportunity. With new
software providers, merchants, service providers, gateways and processors are ways to pay, legacy providers and
obliged to sink massive loads of IT talent, time and effort into certifications nimble startups are rapidly innovat-
before they can go to market. Acknowledging that certifications are essential ing. Consumers love the convenience
for ensuring a product's security, interoperability and functionality, how do we of mobile wallets and other pay-
get to a happy medium between necessity and cost? ment innovations. Each one entails
more certifications; each certification
I asked the operations head of a company with daily transaction volume in sought entails a growing number of
the millions to estimate his annual certification expense. "I have no idea – it is granular use cases, each of which
must pass. It's pass/fail – no grading
on the curve.

Who is minding the
certification process?

A large to mid-sized merchant servic-
es company might have a churn rate
of 10 to 20 certifications every month.
Startups can chew up their talent and
blow through their investors' money
just to make it through certification.

For a business process dedicated to
upholding standards, the certifica-
tion process is remarkably devoid of
its own standards. Big players (à la
card schemes) put out massive docu-
ments that their certification seekers
have to read to see if they are affect-
ed and need to recertify. Every big
player can, and usually does, create
its own unique process and testing
script. "Send me your transactions in
this format, and in this sequence, and
then send me the responses you get,
and I'll let you know if you pass." If
you don't, it's on you to figure out if
the problem is on their end, your end
or elsewhere. In the meantime, you've
lost your place in the queue – come
back in three months and try again.

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