Deciding whether to use a payment orchestration platform or build and manage your payment processing infrastructure internally involves weighing several factors. Here are some considerations to help you make an informed decision:
### Benefits of Using a Payment Orchestration Platform:
1. **Time and Resource Efficiency**:
- It significantly reduces the time needed to set up and manage payment integrations.
- Frees up internal resources, allowing your team to focus on core business functions rather than payment processing details.
2. **Complexity and Scalability**:
- Many platforms support multiple payment methods and currencies, which is crucial if you operate internationally.
- Easily scale and add new payment methods without substantial development work.
3. **Improved Performance**:
- Advanced routing capabilities to optimize transaction reliability and costs.
- Offers redundancy by redirecting payments through different gateways if one fails.
4. **Security and Compliance**:
- Platforms typically adhere to the latest compliance and security standards, mitigating risks associated with handling sensitive payment data.
5. **Analytics and Reporting**:
- Access to integrated dashboards and analytics to track transaction performance and identify payment trends.
6. **Cost Management**:
- Potentially lower transaction costs through optimized routing.
- Transparent pricing models compared to the potentially unpredictable costs of in-house setups.
### Considerations for Building It Yourself:
1. **Initial Cost**:
- Higher upfront investment in developing your system.
- Continued costs associated with maintaining and upgrading the system over time.
2. **Customization and Control**:
- Full control over the user experience and process customization.
- Potentially better integration with your specific business processes, though this requires significant investment.
3. **Security and Compliance**:
- Greater responsibility for maintaining compliance with payment standards like PCI-DSS.
4. **Development and Maintenance Effort**:
- Requires ongoing development resources to support, secure, and extend the payment solution.
- Risk of increased downtime or operational issues if problems arise or if development teams are stretched thin.
5. **Innovation**:
- If payments are central to your business, developing a proprietary solution might give you an edge in innovating new payment experiences.
### Final Decision:
Ultimately, the decision depends on your company’s specific situation:
- **If** your business needs a quick, reliable, and global payment solution with limited internal resources, a payment orchestration platform is a sensible choice.
- **If** you have unique payment needs, substantial resources, and prefer having full control over your infrastructure, building a custom solution could be more suitable.
Assess your operational needs, budget, resources, and long-term strategic goals carefully before making a choice.
