Aria Offers Universal Payment Token

Aria Systems, Inc., a leading provider of cloud billing and subscription management solutions, today announced the Aria Universal Payment Token, an option for merchants facing new requirements in the next version of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS), PCI DSS 2.0.

Offered as part of the Aria Billing and Subscription Management Platform, the Aria Universal Payment Token gives online merchants the flexibility to change payment processors without causing customer churn. The Aria platform’s cloud-based delivery model also provides an outsourced alternative for merchants looking to avoid the cost and risk associated with achieving internal PCI DSS compliance.

Payment Processor Lock-in and Customer Churn
Typical SaaS-based billing and payment solutions rely on a technique known as “tokenization” to enable secure, recurring payment card transactions over the internet. Tokenization works by replacing entered cardholder data with a surrogate “token”, a unique ID that can be stored and then reused with a given payment processor, which in turn enables merchants to avoid having to store cardholder data.

This approach lacks open standards for tokenization across different payment processors, leaving merchants “locked in” to a given payment processor. If a processor raises its fees, or another offers superior service, merchants are unable to switch without forcing their customers to re-enter their payment card information, a process that creates significant potential for customer churn.

Outsourcing Compliance to Avoid High Fees, Customer Churn and PCI Challenges
The Aria Universal Payment Token approach securely encrypts cardholder data without relying on a payment processor-specific token. Merchants can easily move between payment processors for better services or lower fees without having to recapture all of their clients’ payment card information. In doing so, merchants save money and get better service, while avoiding unnecessary customer churn.

In addition to the challenges with vendor processor lock-in, merchants are struggling with the costs and complexity associated with PCI compliance. Leading analyst firms have estimated million-dollar costs for many merchants to achieve PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, due to the technology, process controls, security infrastructure and mandatory periodic audits required. Aria Systems offers a much faster, less expensive alternative by using Aria’s cloud-based delivery model as a means to outsource the risk and complexity of compliance, with complete support for a wide range of monetization models that blend one-time, recurring subscription fees, usage-based charges as well as virtual goods and currencies.

“A vendor-neutral, universal approach is the best way for payment card tokenization to be flexible and cost-effective. Aria Systems would like to see the payment card industry create open standards in the future to prevent vendor lock-in and lower costs for customers,” said Ed Sullivan, Founder and Chairman at Aria Systems. “Fortunately, with the addition of the Aria Universal Payment Token to our Aria Billing and Subscription Management Platform, merchants now have a secure, low-cost way to outsource PCI DSS compliance and avoid processor lock-in, excessive processing fees and customer churn.”