Indigo Payments Business Case

Executive Summary  Indigo Payments was founded in 2007 by two executives by RBS Worldpay one of the largest credit card providers in the world at that time. Indigo is an Iso of Wells Fargo and provides credit card services for small to medium size businesses. The main processor in which Indigo process thru is First Data which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Indigo’s primary business function is to sale merchant credit card services, provide excellent customer service and to ensure that sales orders are processed through to completion.

Executive Summary  Indigo offers a guarantee to never raise their client’s rates. They require no start-up fees. They also will not charge an etf (early termination fee) if their clients decide to leave. In a very mature industry this is one of the greatest selling points and driving factors for the business. Provide a true and honest business in an industry known to over charge and take advantage of its clients. Indigo is different in almost every facet in regards to treating merchants fairly and cost conscious.

Mission Statement  Modern technology coupled with old- fashioned values. A place where relationships are sacred and business barriers are removed. Where each transaction is a handshake and every solution delivers real results. From terminals to mobile devices and robust POS systems, Indigo simplifies payments, automates your operation and transforms your bottom line.

Target Market  SBS (Small Business Segment) Merchants that process > 1,000,000 in credit cards annually.  Medium size merchants that process 10,000,000 in credit card sales annually.  Retail, Restaurant, Moto(Mail, Order, Telephone Order), Lodging and E-commerce Merchants.  Referral Partnerships and Account Managers

Market Analysis

Indigo’s Transaction Volume

Transaction Breakout

Competitors

 ISO’s (Independent Sales Office) are direct competitors.  MSP’s (Merchant Service Providers) direct competitors that offer more service to their merchants.  Payment Gateways are indirect competitors who generally can offer better rates if you go with one of their partners or registered resellers.  Acquirers and Processors direct competitors in that they can provide their own merchant services at reduced rates as they are the processor.  Software providers are indirect as they generally sign up with specific processors for their software to work. If you can not process thru that processor you can not sign the merchant.

Indigo’s Approach  Indigo’s approach to grow the business has been driven by providing cheap pricing based on cost plus interchange and not handcuffing clients with high early terminal fees. Indigo has continued to grow their merchant solutions portfolio thru referral partnerships and thru account managers who serve as first line customer service representatives for the merchant base. Indigo wants to expand their presence within the referral sales space.

Indigo’s Challenge  Indigo’s close ratio over the past 5 years is 21%. Management wants t0 average a 33% close ratio and to grow the referral business by 30% year over year.  Currently the systems in place do not allow for efficient referral tracking or recording of referrals.  Indigo lacks the programmers needed to create and manage a complete in house solution at this time.

Referrals

Referral Process Today Referral comes in via Referral is keyed into access prospect log If statement analysis is requested it is analyzed The analysis is sent to Account manager when complete d The statement analysis/re ferral is place on excel spreadshe et The account manager can either sale or move on from deal If deal is closed you have to check access for new deal Mark excel spreadshe et that deal is closed won

Referral Process Upgrade  Two Options are available to refine the process and pay immediate dividends  Netsuite CRM tool  Salesforce.com CRM tool

Netsuite  Netsuite offers a low end solution for hosting a cloud based CRM tool for reporting and referral management. Netsuite will charge $22.00 per month per internal user license. There is also an annual hosting fee of $ for the current volume that is expected to be using the system. For complete customization there is an additional $2500. fee attached to the costs. The external user licenses are all inclusive at the current rates for referral partners.

SalesForce.com  Salesforce.com offers a robust cloud based system that will allow for multiple phases of the sales force to be setup within the system. There standard costs is $25.00 per user license internal and external users included. There hosting fee is $12, a year which includes all customizations and portals. There are several classes/courses available throughout the year for training and programming solutions.

Referral System Costs

Referral Estimates  For 2014 we will take the 33% expected close ratio which is 121 accounts and subtract 88 which leaves 33 additional accounts. We take the assumed average number of transactions based upon the total number of merchants (4,000) and divide them into 21,372,000 which leaves Multiplying the 33 accounts by 5343 you get 176,319 transactions. We will use $ as the average ticket so that we can take the $0.35 cent as our expected income.  The expected income generated off the 33 additional accounts would be $

Referral Estimates *Based on 30% growth year over year.

Referral Estimated Income

Additional Costs  At this time Indigo does not employ a full time computer programmer or application support technologist. To assist in this project we would need to add an technologist as a temp or outsource the project to an IT group that specializes in designing and implementing the new CRM tool. In utilizing a consultant firm to assist in implementation the time period that has been slated has been quoted at 6 weeks at $18, In utilizing a temp hire at the price of $72.00 per billing hour to agency over 6 weeks would be $17, As we do not know unknown variables and if a single one person entity can handle the project over a 6 week time period the estimated cost has been spread over 3 months/12 weeks. The estimated costs would be $35,000.00

Costs against Expected Income

Where Do we want to go?  As Indigo continues to spread it’s wing and grow it is important that the systems and tools are in place for the present and for the future. As Salesforce.com is an optimal system as it stands it will allow for better referral tracking and entering of leads. It will allow for ample reporting and for expansion of additional items. Currently the systems in place require multiple manual processes utilized the Microsoft product suite. While Microsoft access is a great tool to have and use it does not provide the solutions and automation that will allow for the continued growth that Salesforce.com will allow.

Conclusion  Whether now or later Indigo will need to invest in upgrading it’s systems so that it can continue to manage their merchant portfolio regardless if they want to fully implement a referral tracking system. The tracking system is a major point of selling as it allows for a robust selling pipeline something that currently does not exist. To allow for a quicker growth I believe that it is imperative that Indigo looks into upgrading their systems immediately.