The challenge

The goal was to create a single interface for all payment services at TELUS. This required a payment processing engine that could connect to the credit card clearing house for TELUS applications for payments, refunds and settlement. It also had to provide corporate reporting facilities to TELUS corporate stores for POS sales, payment Web sites, and subscriber applications. Additionally, the gateway had to provide for payment directly from TELUS subscriber accounts.

Because an existing gateway was already connected to Moneris, a legacy payment clearing house, the new gateway had to accommodate all existing applications without change, even though there would be differences in protocol and message formats with the new payment processor, Global Payments.

This project had to be delivered within six months of project start since the legacy link to Moneris would no longer be supported. This included gathering the new requirements, design, implement, test and certification with Global Payments.

The scope

We had to connect the payment gateway to Global Payments, and to TELUS’ credit card validation processes, client operations credit card payment and self-serve applications, and their channel portal (Partner Web site).

The gateway had to be easily expandable to include the introduction of any future interfaces and access points. It also had to be fully redundant, meaning fault tolerant, with 24x7 availability.

It required the installation of new PIN pads (hardware, associated software and cables) at all TELUS corporate stores, the replacement of existing HP hardware, and the replacement of the existing X.25 connection with a TCP/IP socket for easy maintenance and support.

And there were also other requirements such as automated PAC file uploads and a settlement reporting tool.

The solution

We developed an EJB Session front-end system driven by XML messaging in a distributed environment, a Java-based back-end system that controls the terminals, processes the transactions, and connects to the clearing house, and a database that manages transaction states and provides consolidated reporting.

The system is fully redundant and has the necessary fail-over capabilities to provide the required availability. The operational data is persistent to three different sources: memory, file and database, so as to provide resilience against system failures.

All data is sent over a secure network, and credit card information is encrypted. The EJB Session acts as a façade to normalize all access via XML. It then translates the data to a form that is application independent and sends it to a back-end process that communicates with the credit clearing house.

Transaction processing is linked to physical and virtual terminals assigned to each client application. Each client application is registered with the gateway to prevent fraudulent access. There is a full audit trail of all system events. At the end of the day, the system triggers settlement of all transactions. Each terminal settles independently with the clearing house, and a settlement file is sent to TELUS' finance department for reconciliation.

The architecture is extensible to allow future payment methods to be integrated into the existing framework. The Gateway has since been enhanced to allow payment via client subscriber accounts. Future enhancements include Verified by Visa adaptation and Visa AIS conformance.

The result

The Payment Gateway provides TELUS with centralized management of their payment services, and the ability to properly audit application payment processing and reconciliation. Reference information links original client transactions and billing accounts to the payment in question. And the Gateway is operating at 99.9% availability.

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