Who's on First?

No, this is not actually a 3-Stooges bit. Its a short bit to reinforce the ongoing maintenance of clarification that the ever complicated card payment industry commands. There are few commerce instances where the network of relationships are so entirely dependent on one another. Its an industry in which it is almost impossible for a business to be an island. In one way or another, you are connected, monitored, certified, validated, regulated, watched and forced to cooperate with multiple other entities. As a result, "who's on first" can simply be a more complicated story than usual. Even simple things like the words we choose to identify our role in the payment chain get diluted and localized into shape shifted forms of their original design. I'll give you an example; What is your definition of a "Gateway?" I'll bet its not the same as the guy across the street. Its a popular term that means a different thing to many. Carpe Charge is a Payment Application Software. Carpe Charge provides a "virtual terminal" (here is another often distorted term) - this means that the "terminal" (the place where you click the buttons, like entering the amount of a payment) are presented on a computer screen. It is "virtual" because it is not a physical key pad box tied to the end of a phone line or data cable. However, we often hear the word "virtual" as a descriptor meaning "cloud" or "from the web." This is not the case, as Carpe Charge is a software, which means it resides on the users own server. If you follow much of us, you might know that we tell this story often. Not so much because we are bored and have nothing else to tell...but that the results of our interaction within the marketplace warrant a constant re-telling. Card Payments is a complicated web of interfaces. Knowing who does what and how they can be used as a viable tool is half the battle sometimes. As a software based virtual terminal, Carpe Charge is a great solution for the small-ish business that operates off a Windows based PC. Its an easy to use, easy to own solution that is easy for ISO's and Agents to grab and use. We integrate to several top processors and are always working on new integrations to more, with the theme of being "processor neutral." Plus, we don't touch the residual stream - something that sets us apart from almost every product on the market.