ProPay, an industry leader in Merchant Services, End-to-End Payment Security, credit card processing, and electronic payment services, is pleased to announce the debut of its new social mobile payment (m-payment) platform, provisionally named Zumogo in its initial release during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
It is a mobile payment application that facilitates payments and bi-directional communication between merchants and their consumers, allowing customers and businesses to connect in a powerful new way. With Zumogo (pronounced "Zoo-MOE-Go"), businesses can efficiently market to new and existing customers and improve operating efficiencies, while customers can communicate with and make payments to businesses -- all through their Smartphone. Both groups can benefit from the efficiency and security of the application. Importantly, no sensitive payment data is stored on the customer's Smartphone or in the merchants' systems, as Zumogo is designed to deliver state-of-the-art security.
"The mobile payment movement is definitely in full gear and ProPay is excited to be at the forefront," said Chris Mark, Executive Vice President of Emerging Markets at ProPay. "Not only does Zumogo allow consumers to connect with and pay merchants in an entirely new way, it does so in a manner that protects the sensitive payment data. Zumogo combines data security with the flexibility of mobile payment options, and the connectedness of social media, giving merchants and consumers the best aspects of each."
The application provides significant benefits to both consumers and businesses. Consumers no longer need to carry all of their payment cards with them to make a payment. They can locate nearby Zumogo merchants, and even announce themselves to the merchant and ask questions via Zumogo's chat function. Businesses can more efficiently service their customers while developing a deeper relationship with them. In addition, Zumogo can enable businesses to expedite the payment and checkout processes, allowing them to more efficiently serve their customers.
Sundance attendee Angela Edwards was excited about Zumogo at Sundance: "I love ProPay's Zumogo! I used it to find a great promotion, to let our server know we had arrived, to order our meals, and to pay the bill securely -- all through my iPhone! Even our server was excited about it."
Regardless of the environment or use case, no sensitive data is exchanged between the merchant and the consumer. The absence of sensitive payment data provides customers peace of mind and may even allow businesses to realize cost savings associated with industry and regulatory compliance programs. Whether Zumogo is integrated into an eCommerce, call center or any other payment environment, it mitigates the risks traditionally associated with the storing, processing, or transmitting sensitive payment data -- no data is stored either on the mobile device or in the merchant environment. Zumogo leverages ProPay's PCI DSS-compliant ProtectPay system, which combines end to end encryption and tokenization to secure payment data.
According to Gary Goodrich, ProPay's Chief Executive Officer, "Our new social m-payment platform demonstrates our commitment to leading the industry in both innovation and in the protection of consumer data. The addition of this mobile payment application to our existing product suite is a natural evolution of our secure payment services, and we're excited to introduce it to our merchants."
ProPay introduced Zumogo at select merchants during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. The participating merchants include a variety of highly regarded restaurants and pubs. Zumogo is currently available on the Android Market and the iPhone App Store. It will come to the Windows Phone 7 platform by the end of the first quarter 2011.