The combined solution ensures contact centre agents do not come into contact with any customer card payment details, by masking them as they are entered and sending them directly through to Commidea's PCI DSS level 1 certified processing infrastructure for processing. During a phone transaction, customers enter payment details on their telephone keypad, which produce non-traceable monotonous beeps, while the call centre agent remains on the line to ensure the payment is processed correctly. Card details are then transmitted directly to Commidea's secure payment gateway for authorisation by the merchant's acquiring bank.

For regular and recurring payments, tokenisation from Commidea is also used to ensure that the merchant has no need to store sensitive card details on its system. The technology reduces the scope and cost for call centres to achieve and maintain PCI DSS compliance, as it removes a portion of the compliance criteria thus simplifying the entire process. The cost savings can be up to several million pounds depending on the size of the contact centre and the volume of transactions.

"Combining Semafone and Commidea's technology is a positive step for the call centre industry," said Ian Rutland, Managing Director at Commidea. "Our combined solution simplifies a merchant's PCI compliance efforts by reducing the areas that contain cardholder data, considerably reducing the associated PCI DSS compliance costs for contact centres and makes payments safer for consumers."

"Semafone is unique in its ability to eliminate payment details audibly and from the view of the contact centre staff," said Graham Thompson, Sales and Marketing Director at Semafone. "Combined with Commidea, we can reduce the burden of PCI compliance for contact centres, saving costs to the organisation and greatly reducing the risk of payment fraud to consumers. It also frees up contact centre staff to focus on delivering top customer service."