Vanguard offers a sophisticated, fast and certified solution for online purchasing with the authorisation taking, on average, less than two seconds; this means that e-commerce sites can handle high volumes of purchases without fear of transaction delays. The system provides a cost effective and straightforward way of ensuring that no sensitive cardholder data enters or passes through merchant systems, therefore simplifying efforts to achieve and maintain mandatory PCI DSS compliance.

Paul Holliday, Head of Marketing and Customer Proposition at Commidea, says, "Commidea's PCI DSS Level 1 certified infrastructure takes care of the whole transaction process, giving cardholders a smooth purchase experience while merchants retain complete control of their customer-facing channels. Vanguard provides merchants with a wide choice of payment options and also includes multi-currency transaction capabilities and PayPal integration, simplifying cross-border transactions and ensuring that merchants receive the best functionality available in the market."

Each time a cardholder makes a payment their data is automatically and securely sent directly to Commidea's PCI DSS Level 1 certified data centre. Vanguard has also integrated 'Verified by VISA and MasterCard SecureCode' into its payment process, which gives the merchant extra reassurance on the security measures employed within the service.

Merchants that use Vanguard are utilising a managed payment service which provides access to both Commidea's helpdesk and WebCom. Securely accessible from any PC, WebCom is a market-leading and browser-based management information system which enables real time reporting of every transaction that Commidea has processed for the merchant. It enables merchants to update records and search transactions whatever the sales channel and can be customised to suit their specific needs.