It’s Q4, and consumer-facing businesses are finalizing strategies that will help them grow in 2020 and beyond. Once their goals are firmly established, they will turn to ISVs and software developers to begin the search for tech solutions that will help them achieve these goals.
Sarah Adams, VP of Global Product at First American Payment Systems, shares insight on what’s trending and which solutions your customers are looking for to make progress on their strategic roadmaps.
2020: The Year of the Cloud
Next year will be the proving ground for predictions that led to dubbing 2020 “The year of the cloud.” LogicMonitor’s Cloud Vision 2020: The Future of the Cloud Study, for example, predicted that 41 percent of enterprise workloads will be in public clouds, 20 percent will operate on private clouds, and 22 percent will leverage hybrid cloud platforms by 2020.
Gartner is predicting “exponential” cloud services growth through 2022, with the value of the cloud market rising from $182.4 billion in 2018 to a projected $249.80 billion in 2020 and $331.2 billion in 2022. Gartner reports the fastest growing segments are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) growing at 27.5 percent and Platform as a Service (PaaS) growing at a rate of 21.8 percent.
Adams comments, “It’s essential for software companies to understand the benefits cloud computing extends to users. It greatly reduces the costs of implementation, reduces IT labor requirements and improves customer experiences.”
She says software developers need to provide their users with the ability to use their solutions and manage them from the cloud. She adds that open APIs will enable developers to integrate software features with payment transactions, such as collecting information about an online customer from a payment screen.
IoT Connects Processes and Payments
Analysts expect that in 2020, more consumers will use IoT payment devices rather than cash or payment cards. Research by Visa and PYMNTS.com reveals that 60 percent of consumers want more efficient and fast payment transactions, and 44 percent want to automatically pay without waiting in line at a checkout counter.
Adams adds, with the right software solutions, tap-and-go payment convenience can extend to other consumer interactions. “If a consumer makes a purchase on a website, IoT makes it easy to return products to the store for a refund without having to present the payment card again,” she explains.
“Historically, retail processes have been disjointed,” she says. “Now, we can connect software and payments through IoT.”
Recurring or Installment Payments Online
Other payment trends that software developers need to be aware of are recurring billing and installment payments. Just as the software industry has transitioned to offering Solutions as a Service, your users are also realizing the benefits of offering products or services via the subscription model.
Managing the “Everything-as-a-Service” trend requires software and payments solutions that enable merchants to allow their customers to set up recurring payments online. It’s also vital that you choose the right payments partner to make managing recurring payments easier, with automation and features such as Account Updater, which makes sure payment data on file is always accurate.
“There is significant opportunity for software developers to manage recurring billing and customer profiles,” Adams says. She also points out that ISVs and software developers will have the challenge of ensuring that customers can use the payment method — including alternative payment methods — that customers prefer.
Android Payment Devices
Adams says ISVs and software developers also have an opportunity to create new, convenient experiences for payment cardholders. “Android provides the unique opportunity to integrate software and payments in one device,” she says. “The software lives on the device, creating a single form factor.”
“Reducing friction is the endgame,” she comments
The First Step to Business Growth
These trends can create opportunities for ISVs and software developers to grow their businesses, but Adams stresses that integrating payments with your solutions is key.
“Integrated payments provides valuable customer data, which is integral to merchants’ success,” she says. “The more they leverage data, the more they depend on it. The same way consumers are lost without their phones, businesses are lost without software.”
“The more functionality and data you can provide, the more your users will depend on you,” Adams says.
As the year draws to a close, and you prepare your own strategy for business growth in 2020, ask which markets will be the most challenged to solve problems or maintain their competitive position — and then, take the opportunity to provide the solutions they need. 
