Adyen collaborates with Microsoft to accelerate payments innovation

Adyen has expanded its collaboration with Microsoft with the intention of delivering network token optimisation.

Accelerating token optimisation

The two companies plan to accelerate payments innovation for both with the launch of Adyen Network Token Optimisation.

Adyen is one of the first payment platforms to enable tokenised payments across multiple schemes and to offer automated optimisation of the use of tokens to increase authorisation rates.

By adopting Network Token Optimisation, merchants such as Microsoft are able to realise significantly more revenue due to increased authorisation rates, the company states.

Previous working relationship

Adyen and Microsoft have been working together since July 2015, starting with European acquiring.

Today, Adyen processes payments for Microsoft globally, across all Microsoft products and services.

Microsoft utilises multiple Adyen products in addition to Network Token Optimisation, including Revenue Accelerate and Real-time Account Updater to ensure an improved consumer shopping experience by always charging the most up to date card.

Adyen also supports various local payment methods in a number of countries for Microsoft, including US-based debit networks, a more recent Adyen development.

Always thinking of the customer

Microsoft vice president of commerce engineering operations Matt Rossmeissl says, "Customer experience is at the centre of everything we do, and when it comes to the payments process it's about making it faster, simple and secure.

"Product innovation is at the core of what we do at Microsoft and Adyen's Network Token Optimisation is a factor in driving better authorisation rates and customer satisfaction.

Adyen COO Kamran Zaki says, "We always build products with a focus on our merchants and their end customers, and Microsoft pushes us to help create better global solutions. We have benefited from Microsoft's consistent desire to provide better experiences for their customers.

"At the forefront of innovation, the Microsoft team is always willing to act as an early adopter for many of our new products and features. We work together every day to create positive shopping experiences for Microsoft customers, and are excited to see what we will create next.

Understanding tokenisation

Tokenisation is the process of replacing sensitive data with non-sensitive data.

In payments, it is used to safeguard a card's primary account number (PAN) by replacing it with a unique string of numbers, attributed to that card only.

There are also 'Network Tokens' which are also non-sensitive references to a PAN but they are created by the major card networks like Mastercard, Visa and American Express.

In both instances, the unique number created becomes known as the 'payment token'.

Payment tokens are automatically issued in real-time and used online in predefined payment environments, for example with a specific merchant.

With tokenised payments, the PAN is not transmitted during the transaction, making the payment more secure.

Since the PAN is never compromised, there is little possibility that the token can be used for fraudulent activity, even if a data breach occurs and payment tokens are accessed.

Tokens are securely stored, and can be used to enable one-click payments for future transactions.

As such, they're a proven solution for businesses like Microsoft that want to deliver better shopper experiences, particularly at the checkout stage.