Stratus Technologies : Client Success Stories : PayPoint

.pdf version of this customer profile (170 KB .pdf)

Client:

PayPoint is a leading branded payment collection network used primarily for cash payments of bills and services and prepayments for mobile telephones and energy meters. The company has a growing network of payment terminals located in newsagents, convenience stores, petrol stations, and supermarkets throughout the United Kingdom. PayPoint provides the retail payment solution for the London Congestion Charge and collects cash payments for the five major mobile telephone networks in the UK and the three Irish mobile telephone networks.

Challenge:

"The mobile phone networks are ... the most critical in terms of having... constant access day and night. These customers generate huge transaction volumes, so any delays would create a significant build-up for our operations."

- Peter Binns
Marketing manager
PayPoint

Over 400 customers depend on PayPoint to make reliable payment collections on a daily basis. When mobile phone network operators began offering pre-pay contracts, PayPoint needed to replace 'off-line' payment processing with a real-time billing solution. PayPoint needed to take payment and conduct authorisations around the clock. Continuous availability became a top priority.

Solution:

PayPoint has six Stratus servers grouped into two sets of three, running S1 Postilion transaction processing software on the Microsoft^® Windows^® operating system. It runs all of its real-time payment systems on these servers, which are critical to the successful operation of the business. In each group, one server is used to process payments, one is used for real-time replication of data (located at a different site to provide system redundancy), and the third is used as a test server for new payment applications.

Result:

PayPoint processes approximately 5.5 million transactions per week, with real-time, 'on-line' business accounting for about one third of that total. At peak times on Fridays and Saturdays, the company processes between 15 and 20 top-up payments per second. The servers have never failed since their installation – a period of just over two years at the time of this writing. The exceptional reliability and continuous uptime of its Stratus servers has enabled PayPoint to conduct its day-to-day business with absolute confidence. PayPoint also enjoys significant savings in the management of these systems. Complex upgrades and maintenance procedures are a thing of the past.