For face-to-face payments, PPaaS is designed to be integrated seamlessly with any endpoint configuration. These can vary from a stand-alone payment device configuration to a retail configuration with a Point of Sale (POS), and to the acceptance of transactions on smartphones. PPaaS is specifically designed to integrate with different brands of equipment.
Endpoint Software
At PPaaS, two main types of endpoint software are considered:
Payment-centric application: It is the endpoint application that processes payments and related services and often handles most of the payment security operations, the user interfaces with the consumer, and possibly with the merchant too. This application runs on the payment device.
POS Software: This is the endpoint software that handles the sale, Electronic Cash Register (ECR), and related operations that provide the merchant with the user interface. This software, running on the POS may be specific to certain businesses (for example, specific software for a restaurant managing ordering at tables). Depending on the configurations, this software may not require the PPaaS endpoint integration.
Endpoint Configurations
It is common for a POS to trigger a payment transaction, with the transaction amount as a parameter, to a payment device. Depending on the runtime environment of the payment-centric application and the POS software, the payment device and POS configurations can be categorized as:
Stand-alone: The payment device operates in a stand-alone mode without any connection with the POS.
All-in-one: The payment device integrates not only the payment-centric application but also the POS Software and therefore, the POS and the payment device reside in the payment device. This configuration is typically possible for the new generation of payment devices such as Android-based payment devices with a large display screen and other powerful capabilities that traditional devices cannot offer.
Semi-integrated: The POS software, which can reside solely in the POS or partially in the cloud, will trigger the payment to the payment device. In this configuration, the payment device handles the connection with the payment host.
Fully integrated with PIN pad: The POS system runs the payment-centric application and connects only to a PIN pad. In this configuration, the POS handles the connection with the payment host.
Fully-integrated: The POS software and the payment application run in a general-purpose device such as a standard tablet or a smartphone.
PPaaS Deliverables for Endpoint Integration
To integrate with the various endpoint configurations, PPaaS provides software applications as well as Software Development Kits (SDK):
A generic payment-centric application can be installed on a payment device.
The Endpoint SDK, which allows:
An existing payment-centric application and the POS software to use PPaaS features. From a payment device and a POS, you can directly implement the call to PPaaS Cloud APIs. To simplify this integration task, PPaaS provides various target libraries exposing ready-to-use APIs.
The POS Software to interface with a PPaaS-compatible payment-centric application located in a payment device. It is called the POS to Payment Device Integration.
Please contact your PPaaS point of contact to get the deliverables you would need or write us at PPaaS Support.
Point of Sale Integration
PPaaS is designed to be integrated with various Point of Sale (POS) configurations. A POS can use PPaaS for many functions including:
Integrating a payment functionality (see the Retail APIs section).
Displaying a transaction list or to retrieve transaction information such as a transaction receipt to be printed by the ECR.
For this PPaaS integration, the software running on the POS can be integrated with PPaaS by:
Directly calling the PPaaS Cloud APIs to access to different PPaaS features.
Using libraries from the Endpoint SDK that ease such integration.