Executive Summary
the story of success
Electronic Payment Systems, LLC and all of the wholly owned subsidiary companies (herein and after known as EPS) are the quintessential American success story. Two men had an idea and the courage to follow their dreams. As the company grew, so did the dreams. Yes there was hard work and yes there were a few setbacks, but they persevered and built their company and changed the industry along the way.
The evolution of the company has followed a relatively traditional path that had ownership involved in virtually every step along the way. In the beginning many of the steps were micromanaged directly by the owners. As the company grew and the projects became more numerous it was necessary to delegate and divest from the detail in order to manage the path of EPS. This was not an easy transition as the owners are "hands-on" type administrators; however, difficult tasks have never dissuaded EPS from the job at hand.
The roots of EPS began in the infancy of the industry as they know it today. A little over 20 years ago the only way to become a Merchant (business that accepts credit cards as a form of payment) was to be set-up with a traditional Bank. John Dorsey recognized the opportunity in overcoming the Bank obstacles, and in association with others secured agreements and found a way to market and sell "Merchant Services" to a much broader and more diverse client base.
In the beginning, nothing flowed through EPS without the knowledge and blessing of either John Dorsey or Tom McCann. As time went on the industry progressed to more diverse product needs, the Internet became integral in day-to-day life, and the tasks that required supervision expanded rapidly. Ownership began to delegate portions of the operational details and started to establish departments and an organizational structure. Operations today are managed departmentally.
EPS services are marketed primarily through ISO's and MLS, although the argument could be made that the EPS Customer is actually the merchant. EPS views both as customers and provides marketing and service options that avail a diverse and comprehensive suite of products to the merchant that the MLS can sell, and therefore share in the revenue. An oversimplified analogy would be that EPS is the service provider, ISO's and MLS are the retailers, and merchants are the end-users.
Simply put this is a business of margins. In the pricing models they are dealing with the cost of a transaction, which in itself has multiple parts and numbers in the many millions of varying sales to come in the future. For card processing there are two elements that interplay in the pricing that a typical merchant would see. One being the percentage of a transaction taken as a fee for processing cards as a form of payment commonly referred to as a "Discount Rate." The second is a "Per Transaction" fee. For this initial discussion they will deal primarily with these two factors.
As mentioned earlier every ISO/MSP must have a Sponsor Bank, and EPS is no exception. Currently the primary sponsorship for EPS is at Merrick Bank. Not wanting to keep all our eggs in one basket, EPS is actively seeking another Bank relationship to compliment our position and keep the avenues open in the case of unforeseen events. Let us say that the Merrick and EPS relationship is strong and good, although recent economic events have proven that a "Plan B" is only prudent. Before they discuss another relationship a bit of history about how the Merrick relationship came to be would be appropriate.
EPS is currently exploring opportunities in three categories; Transaction Authorization Services, Financial Services, and Globalization. Each area of interest has its own challenges and rewards. This is not to say that these three areas of interest are the only ones under review, but more accurately the ones that have made it to the planning stages.