The Secrets to Successful Payment Implementations

The Payments Podcast by Bottomline

Episode Transcript

Owen McDonald (Host): Welcome to the Paymode edition of The Payments Podcast. I'm Bottomline managing editor Owen McDonald. This is a series of Paymode-themed podcasts looking at the hottest trends in business payments with Paul McMeekin, vice president of marketing at Bottomline, along with expert guests. In this episode, Paul welcomes Solitaire Moffett, director of implementation services at Bottomline. They look at best practices in onboarding from planning to execution.

Here's Paul McMeekin and Solitaire Moffett.

Paul McMeekin (Co-host): Hi, and welcome to another episode of The Payments Podcast. My name is Paul McMeekin, and with me today is Solitaire. Solitaire, I would like for you to introduce yourself to the audience.

Solitaire Moffett: Sure. Hello, everyone. So, my name is Solitaire Moffett. I am the director of implementations primarily focused on the Bottomline Direct side, and the new fintech group. So very exciting stuff going on over there.

I have been with Bottomline for three years, and was acquired by a company called Nexus Systems, which I was at for twelve years - so, I have fifteen years doing this. So, I'm very excited to be chatting through implementations.

Paul McMeekin: Lots of rich experience to drop in today. So, the first question: what are the critical steps in a successful onboarding process?

Solitaire Moffett: Yeah. Absolutely. So, I think one of the first steps is really to make sure that the client project team has a full understanding of the product and the technology that they're implementing and that the right people are involved. Right? The individuals who are signing the contracts and making all the agreements aren't necessarily your project team. So, we want to make sure that they're aware of that. And if that requires a few extra demos when they're with us, going through discovery calls, making sure that everybody really understands what they are implementing, and the decision-makers are part of the team. Right? Everybody wants to have their hands in! And we know people get busy too, so some drop off. But decision-makers are definitely key there. 

I think some of the other things too, is, you know, advising us early of blackout dates. Right? Everybody gets to take a vacation. If you're a SOX-requirement company, you've got auditors in house, you know, company events, you have a company picnic. Just let us know. We want to plan accordingly and don't want to make you feel overwhelmed. 
And then be the squeaky wheel. If you have a question, ask it. We do this all the time, but we don't know you necessarily. So, if you're unsure, ask the question because probably somebody else in the meeting has the same question, but nobody wants to speak up. So, the squeaker the wheel, the better. The better the implementation goes, the better we can get in front of anything that may be perceived as a blocker. And let's get through it together. 

I think, you know, also including individuals that are going to be doing this on a day-by-day basis is also key because they really become the champions. Right? They feel like they got brought in early enough that, like, oh, I get this. I was part of the implementation, so then they become your internal champions. Oh, you're going to love this - it's so easy to use. Right? So, they don't know me or my team from Adam, but they do know themselves. So, it definitely helps out. And we see that makes for great, successful onboarding.

Paul McMeekin: Oh, I like that. Thank you for that. So, if I were to summarize, getting people who are using the system - getting them involved early, being the squeaky wheel as you mentioned, and planning accordingly. There's one thing which you hinted around - of a demo or selling the software. How early does your team get involved in the client's buying experience?

Solitaire Moffett: Yeah. So, the implementation managers (specifically), don't. However, recently, we've set up a new team which we're calling our pre-implementation specialists. Right? They live in the implementation house, but they support the sales individuals, and they're brought in to talk through technical requirements.

You know how do you want to present the files to us if you're doing files. Gather an understanding of the APIs if that's what we're using in the system. But this team really tries to do their best to get in front of everything so that your IT or technical teams can be prepared, and also possibly generate initial files, before you get into implementation. That way, you're not walking into it blind.

It really helps you to hit the ground running.

Paul McMeekin: What common onboarding challenges do clients face? You know, you've seen a lot of implementations over the years. Like, what are the most common pitfalls?

Solitaire Moffett: Yeah. So, I think engagement is number one. Right? I mean, I get it - life happens while we're making other plans. You have this great plan that, like, oh, we're going to get through this, and we're going to knock this out. Right? And then something happens. An unexpected audit, or you've got a special internal project that comes up, and you've got to pull resources“ that's probably the most common one! But, again, it goes back to my answer in the first one. Just let us know. You don't have to know at the onset that you're going to run into something, but that helps. I think one of the other things is testing paralysis. We see this a lot. We're asking you to test and test again and test again, and you're like, I'm so tired of testing!

And I think it really comes down to it's okay to have us get on the phone with you and assist with testing or just explain to us like guys, we've got to get this right. We could do a little bit more discovery inside of this, figure out what's causing this. Don't get overwhelmed that it feels like it's too much. It's not going to be this way once you go live. So, we've just got to help you get through that phase.

Paul McMeekin: And what sort of things do we test for?

Solitaire Moffett: What we want to test if you're using files. Right? We don't want to just get one file and say, oh yeah - this is good. I want one file that has a single payment in it, and I want a file that has multiple payments. I want files that has one payment but it's multiple invoices. I want to see all the variations. You're splitting a payment – that happens all the time in the real estate industry, where it's one invoice but it encompasses four different properties. Each has their own operating account. We want to make sure all those little nuances are working correctly.

So, it can feel like a lot, but we want to get it right so when you get out the door, it's awesome!

Paul McMeekin: So, we want to cover every single scenario, basically.

Solitaire Moffett: Exactly. Yep. Absolutely.

Paul McMeekin: Can you share a standout onboarding success story?

Solitaire Moffett: Yes. I can. I actually have probably two. So, one of them was a client of ours, [customer name redacted]. They were fast paced. They came to the table highly engaged. They said, we're giving you all of the resources that you need, including our IT resources, and this is the only thing they're dedicated to. And they were highly responsive. They were completely dedicated, and the client really drove the deadlines. They kept saying we'll be done in eight weeks. And we were like, okay, we are a little bit more conservative on our side, typically, but they kept pulling us back. They're like, no, where are we?

We said you're meeting the eight-week timeline - like, you guys are killing it. So, I think that really helped as well.

And then, Schimberg, which is another one. Even before we got to the implementation call, we had presented them with the technical specs of how they needed to generate the files. We got on that first call, and they were like, hey, we have the files. Can you guys look at these now? And they were really good! Minor tweaks, nothing crazy. This was huge, right? 

It was one of the things that got us thinking about that pre-implementation role, right, that sits in our house but is really to talk through these items. And that kind of drove the bus to have this new role, which we're having great success with as well.

Paul McMeekin: So, you talked to them about being engaged in both those examples. They're coming up prepared and ready to roll. Right?

Solitaire Moffett: Yes, exactly. And that's definitely the key to success.

Paul McMeekin: Okay. And moving on to the next question. We talked a little bit about success stories – so how do you actually measure success of the onboarding efforts?

Solitaire Moffett: Yeah. So, there's a couple different elements here. So, obviously, was the client engaged? The more engaged the client is, we seem to see a better success post deployment.

Did they understand what was implemented? This goes back to one of my first answers where the person signing it, the decision-makers and all, that they're all involved “as the sponsors as well“ making sure that the project team on the client side understands what's being implemented. 

And then the last one is really after deployment. How much handholding, how much retraining, how many issues did they have. And I'm not talking like, oh, we forgot to set up Solitaire so that she can approve payments - that's a little click of the switch. But where payment files are just failing all over the place - that's bad! Right? That's not benefiting us. It's definitely not benefiting the client either.

And ideally, we really want to get the client migrated over to our support group as quickly as possible, but we're not going to do that just to check a box. We've got to make sure they're good. And for a good client going over to support who's been successful, well engaged, everything seems to be running smoothly for them, you're looking at two to four weeks with the implementation manager, and then we're able to get them over.

Paul McMeekin: At what point do we hand over from implementations? Is it like first payment live?

Solitaire Moffett: Oh, it depends. So, first payment, they're still with us in post-deployment. We want to see them make every different type of payment, and we want to see the payments rolling through. Larger batches of files and that sort of thing. And it really is not just a comfort level for us because we could say, oh yeah, things are going great – but we don't even know if they're struggling on their side! So, we're still having those touch bases with them.

Paul McMeekin: Do you have, like, an exit interview or, like…

Solitaire Moffett: We do have a handover. Yeah. We have a handover where we introduce the member services. We introduce the team that's over there. There's a PowerPoint presentation that's done, and where to find all the client documentation.

Paul McMeekin: So, Solitaire, after we've had a widely successful implementation, what happens next? Like, what's next in the customer's journey?

Solitaire Moffett: Once they actually go live, they process their first payment, we don't leave them. Right? You're still stuck with us! And we call that the post-deployment period.

And with the post-deployment period, we're not just looking for you to process a file. We want to see multiple files. We want to see larger files. We want to see different payment types rolling through based on what you have configured in your system. And we want to make sure it's not just us saying that you're comfortable, but that you're comfortable, that you're ready to go as well. So, once we are in a successful spot, where we can roll you over to member services between two to four weeks, we also have a meeting with you and your account manager and members of our member services team to actually do a hand off transition. Right? And the client is included as part of that. We want to make sure that they now know that they're going over here and hear their contacts going forward. We don't want to just leave them high and dry!

Paul McMeekin: If you could give one piece of advice to CFOs, treasurers about the future of payments, what would it be?

Solitaire Moffett: What's interesting is North America, specifically The United States, is one of the last large countries still doing checks today. And it baffles me that we still do this with the amount of risk and fraud and mail delays and everything like that. Right? North America is just slow to adopt electronic payment methods. And I think, you know, people really need to trust that process. I think there's always a scary bad actors out there, that we all hear about, but if you listen to Katie's podcast about risk and fraud, there's so much good information there – I could sit there and listen to Katie for days! 

And the other thing is that there's no one standard payment type. Right? Being able to offer an array to all of your vendors. Some have point of sale systems that can do virtual cards, some can do ACH. Some want that extra piece of ACH - you know, that little bit of white-glove treatment - so they want premium ACH. Being able to offer multiple solutions, in regard to the payment types, I think, opens up how much faster you can move to an electronic payment.

Paul McMeekin: Oh, I love that answer. Okay. Well, so thank you for joining me today.

Solitaire Moffett: Yeah. Thank you for having me, Paul.

Owen McDonald (Host): Overcoming common onboarding issues, dealing with the tediousness of testing, measuring the success of your implementation efforts. It's all part of your implementation handled the right way. Our thanks to Bottomline's Solitaire Moffett and to co-host Paul McMeekin. To our audience, the smartest people in B2B payments, thanks for listening. 

Hit subscribe. Catch us again on your favorite podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and YouTube. Bye for now.
 

The Payments Podcast, from Bottomline.