From gig work and millennial preference to virtual cards and prepaid-as-a-service, here are five trends prepaid card providers can capitalize on in 2021 and beyond
Who Needs Softjourn?
Our expert developers solve specific needs for custom prepaid solutions such as payroll cards, branded reward & incentive cards, back office accounting and intuitive transaction processing. Embedded in these cards, our proprietary software ensures accounting transactions are speedy and accurate.
We Integrate treasury management that empowers complete processing for merchants, vendors, ISO and fintech businesses. From tokenized data security protocols and virtual cards to transaction simulators, we have all your prepaid needs covered.
- Prepaid Service providers that want to get new functionality and new services out to market faster by working with an established industry technology provider
- Organizations that want to get it right the first time as they begin to manage prepaid expenses with an automated system
- Organizations looking to upgrade an existing prepaid solution to give both card issuers and users the best experience available, using up-to-date technologies
- Companies ranging from startups to large enterprises with a great new idea for the next big thing in prepaid technology, who want a partner that’s been there in the trenches to help get it off the ground
Why should you work with Softjourn?
We know prepaid
Having completed over 500 successful projects in this area since 2007, we have the knowledge and experience that is needed in both the business and technology sides of prepaid software development. Why invest in assembling the know-how and resources to try to get it right the first time when we’ve already got what it takes and can hit the ground running with prepaid expertise that is second-to-none
IP protection
Your ideas and any source code we write for your project belong to you, and we will put it in writing. We want you to be comfortable, so we follow best practices such as frequent peer reviews, limiting code access among our developers, internal education on social engineering, and take appropriate steps to ensure that your IP is secured
Post delivery support
We are only finished when you and your users are satisfied. Call on us whenever you need help, whether it is for training or additional development work. We excel at providing a great experience and maintaining close relationships with every customer to ensure that they return to us as their business grows and evolves
Maintainability
Whether you continue to work with us or not, the code we write will be well-structured and easy to maintain, because we know that like your business, your software is a living system. Software is always a work in progress. We’ll make the smart investments needed so that your next project goes as smoothly as this one
Security
With Softjourn, security is not an afterthought, but designed into every project and feature as we consider their security implications (such as scanning uploaded receipts for malware). We’ll work hard to keep your prepaid cards and the underlying server data safe from third-party fraud, illegal content, and malware, so that you stay out of the headlines
Innovation
Softjourn has almost a decade of experience when it comes to investigating new technology and ideas, and trying to understand how to make them a reality. We have many proven POCs that show our expertise in our chosen domains, whether it’s understanding financial processes, developing applications for specific concerns, or marrying new technology to current trends. We are also very excited about artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other new technologies that are poised to alter our world in the coming decades.
With Softjourn, you’ll get access to the latest technology.
Contactless payments
Between their ease of use, support for microtransactions, and accessibility to the disabled or infirm as well as those without standard devices or regional communication infrastructure, contactless payments are sure to be the future. Try them out now in your prepaid solution
Blockchain
Softjourn has experience developing prepaid card software that leverages blockchain, the cryptographic technology that is taking the world by storm. Through a shared, distributed ledger, blockchain enables low-cost prepaid transactions including direct currency conversion and can increase security by several mechanisms including prevention of data tampering
Biometrics
Bodily features are particularly difficult for thieves to obtain. Whether fingerprints, voice recognition, or retina scans, our advanced biometric interfaces will keep your accounts safe, with minimal inconvenience to users
Softjourn recently completed a fingerprint authentication project for a prepaid card innovator and leader in expense and spend management. Our experience with this client has demonstrated how fingerprint verification can dramatically improve the look and feel and effectiveness of a mobile application.
The payment card industry is shifting dramatically towards the utilization of biometrics. Stolen cards, identity theft and other malicious activities are a massive drain on resources, not to mention the effect on cardholders. Common authentication methods are too easily compromised. Passwords are easy to guess or crack with free software. Email addresses and social security numbers are readily available for sale on the internet. It's a system that's simply too easy to manipulate and very difficult to defend.
Geolocation
Is the productivity of your employees hurt by fraud checks on their essential purchases in far-flung locations? Use the location of a user’s mobile device to validate that they are responsible for foreign transactions, without inconveniencing every traveling employee. You can also limit spending based on geographic area
Nearly three-fourths of online consumers become increasingly frustrated with websites and their content when they feel that content does not reflect their interests, according to a national poll conducted by Janrain & Harris Interactive in 2013.
By focusing in on where your potential customers will be and showing them what’s not only locally available to them but is also related to a current or past interest, you have a stronger chance of increasing and maintaining sales, not to mention increasing and retaining brand loyalty.
In-app OCR scanning
Automatically extract key information from uploaded receipts to save clerical work, ensure that transactions are processed in a timely manner, and allow for analytics that can validate and categorize submitted transactions. The corporate customer’s employee scans and uploads a picture of their receipt, taken with their smartphone. Softjourn’s proof of concept (POC) sends it to MSCS’s Computer Vision API to perform optical character recognition (OCR). This pulls out editable lines of text from the receipt image, which are returned to the POC along with indications of Microsoft’s level of confidence in this result. Text with a low confidence level must be read by a human; other text contains errors that Softjourn can correct automatically. Next, templates encoding standard receipt formats are selected and applied to extract the various important pieces of information from the receipt, including transaction total, amount of tax, card charged, and address of the establishment. This allows for initial validation of transaction totals. Receipts from designated vendors may already have an approval code—for others there may be more work to do for validation. To this end, MSCS also returns a “raciness” indicator (checking for a situation in which the expense ought to be rejected for lack of appropriateness).
AI
The advent of mobile banking has inspired many changes within the banking industry. Millennials rely heavily on mobile banking, and some of the larger banks have invented ways to both engage and help this demographic with their finances. As the population has become accustomed to voice recognition assistants and predictive messaging, financial institutions have leveraged this technology to attract customers who enjoy this convenience. AI-powered mobile banking apps offer a personalized experience for the user and can go as far as helping customers plan and budget their money. The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fintech trend on its own and takes many forms, but one of the most exciting and tangible AI trends is automating customer service through chatbots—embedded within apps or through social media, like Facebook. AI-powered chatbots can deliver benefits beyond the obvious human labor cost saving, providing true virtual assistance—including transactional capabilities, advice based on individual behavior patterns and even opening accounts. Financial businesses providing these smart chatbots will capture the added benefit of rich data to target offers and anticipate their customers’ needs—creating a continual feedback loop and building.
Why should your organization have a top-notch prepaid card system?
Get a handle on employee spending
Tracking expenses in today’s world is trickier than ever, with transactions occurring with the simple swipe of a card or the push of a button. How can a company ensure their employees have the funds needed to perform essential work and still have visibility on spending? Not only that, but ensure that only the right person has access to critical business assets?
Prepaid cards have been popular in the customer sector since the 1990s; these cards paired with a mobile app for visibility and management provide a powerful option for companies looking to better track employee spending. Prepaid cards allow employers to authorize essential funds for employees to complete on-demand payments that are part of necessary business activities; for example, buying gas or purchasing necessary repair parts. Prepaid cards are not linked to bank accounts, and set specific limits on the spender.1
A mobile app allows employers to see expenses as they happen. They can allocate funds to employees depending on merchant categories, designate where and how funds may be distributed, and track expenses in real time to prevent end of billing cycle surprises.2 An app also allows employees to track and manage their own allocated funds by being able to check their balance and request needed funds on their own instead of waiting on hold for a call center. Reloadable prepaid cards also have strong "Know Your Customer" requirements; in the U.S., this means the card issuer is required to perform the same level of due diligence as if they were opening a bank account.
More convenient and appealing procedure for expending funds
Your users would benefit from a more convenient and appealing procedure for expending funds. We can set them up with prepaid cards, and perhaps even with chatbots! Your investment in prepaid card technology is wasted if the folks on the ground aren’t delighted to use it.
- Impress your users by applying innovative prepaid technologies. You don’t have to be out there alone — we’ll back you up every step of the way, with contactless cards or any other technology you’ve got your eye on.
- Get your prepaid applications out on iOS and Android with minimal maintenance expenses. Softjourn uses Xamarin, Phone Gap, and other cross-platform development systems to make them accessible to the widest possible audience.
- Offer your users the convenience of advanced interfaces to prepaid transactions, including IVR (Interactive Voice Response).
- If even Softjourn can’t design a single app to please all your users, a layered API can give you the flexibility you need. That way, any card-issuing organization or third-party developer can produce any number of apps with just the right magic.
- Serve potentially unbanked employees who would have difficulty cashing a check.
Some of Softjourn's Financial Clients
PEX: Xamarin expense management app
With Xamarin, Softjourn combined the two original apps into a single application
Read More 
Decision Rule Management
In response to the need for an easily implemented decision rule management solution, the Softjourn team developed a standalone tool using the Roslyn API library.
Read More 
Transaction Simulator
Softjourn has built several transaction simulators that generate a high volume of card transactions quickly and accurately.
Read More Engagement Models
What We Offer
Whether upgrading an existing code or creating a new one, the most important expertise we offer is a proven approach to mitigating risk and containing costs.
Often clients don’t know what product they need, but do know the results they want. Our job is to help define the product and develop optimal solutions to get those results.
To compete, our clients continually need to provide new and better services. We have our own R&D Centers – started in 2008 – which uniquely positions us to do just that.
Our developers and illustrators are experts at UI and UX design. They will work with you to understand your needs in going from idea to prototype to deployment faster and at less cost.
Software development has grown exponentially in recent decades. Softjourn is the solution to help you define and develop forward-thinking technology that gets real-world results.
Our core belief is that analyzing and testing is critical because the essential role of software is so important. In the process, our Quality Assurance team helps you create superior products.
Since day one, we’ve been providing application support and maintenance services to each customer on every project. It’s why we’re a proven, trusted partner and reliable asset.
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