Wind River Financial Wins New Business and Delivers Seamless Onboarding

Introduction

Wind River Financial is an ISO (independent sales organization) and payment processing company based in Madison, Wisconsin. The company offers merchant services and merchant accounts via their partnership with the acquiring bank Wells Fargo. They also provide payment technology for a large base of ISV (independent software vendor) integrate into their own solutions. The company prides itself on treating customers like family. Many of their merchants lack knowledge of the payments process, so Wind River has a staff of payments veterans who know all about the payment ecosystem and have been involved with it for the last 30 years.

The Challenge

In 2016, Wind River began looking for a new payment gateway partner. Previously, they would choose a specialized gateway to solve a specific use case, or to go after a new merchant category or vertical. However, with the market changing, they wanted to provide their customers with a more robust offering to service multiple MCCs (merchant category codes). They also found that many gateways were failing to address specific pain points reported by customers along with staying current with payment trends.

Their ISV customers are experts in their own software and industries, but they needed a payments processor with the knowledge and technology to get the merchants boarded and processing payments quickly and securely. Wind River also wanted a single gateway integration that would make it simple for merchants to accept multiple payment methods. Moreover, it had to offer next-level features like a virtual terminal, simple hosted payment pages and advanced integration to ecommerce websites.

Staying ahead of the curve requires providing more than just merchant accounts and payment processing. Wind River needed a solution that would allow them to offer new sources of value for merchants to help retain customers while increasing revenue. They also wanted a partner that could provide a unified commerce enablement platform that offered them and their customers’ complete flexibility, with a wide range of devices, processor connections and shopping carts to choose from.

How NMI Helped

Wind River chose NMI as the gateway partner to meet their need for a complete payments solution that was flexible and feature-rich. They wanted a partner who would listen to their strategy and work together mutually on a shared strategy. Wind River now offers NMI as a hub that their ISV customers can connect with and customize accordingly. In addition to the gateway, Wind River also offers NMI’s ChipDNA Cloud and Collect.js solutions to their merchants.

The Future

In a year where so many businesses have struggled, Wind River Financial and NMI have continued to help their merchants survive and thrive. Both companies will continue to work together providing great customer experiences.

Wind River plans to continue focusing on the ISV market and distinguishing themselves from the pack with their superior customer service. They want to help their customers fully understand payments and their needs, find the right technology for them, and share in the revenue generated.

NMI’s partnership will continue to grow with Wind River as they look to implement a host of other services, including integrations with Google Pay and Apple Pay, expanded surcharge capabilities, and Pay by Text and interactive voice recording.

“A lot of things that NMI is currently working on are really hitting all the pain points we’re hearing from the market, which we really like seeing. As a partner it’s been great since we’ve been working very closely with the NMI gateway and putting through a lot more transactions than we have 2 years ago, and that growth obviously benefits both parties.” — Steve Staden, COO and CPO Wind RIver Financial