Element: Simple and Secure Payment Processing

The restaurant category of “Fast Casual” has seen a significant boom in the past few years, but one of the main challenges is allowing customers to order more and pay when they want. The key to that is smooth and secure processing of payments to capture customers’ information and to build their trust. For this, restaurants need a payment technology that is easy to integrate, fast, secure and bug free.

Element Payment Services Inc., a Vantiv company, is an industry leading software business that develops PCI DSS compliant technology designed to secure the processing, transmitting, and storing of payment card related data. Working with one of its partners Ziosk, Element supplies technology for some of the largest Fast Casual restaurants in the U.S., including Red Robin and Olive Garden. Element’s technology is used not just in restaurants but for any Point-of-Sale business because it is deployed through partnerships with Point of Interaction (POI) hardware vendors, business management software providers and systems dealers.

Element develops market-leading technology, including point-to-point encryption (P2PE), tokenization on its payment processing application, TriPOS. Element expanded and drew the attention of Vantiv because of its strong presence in the fast growing integrated payments channel and penetration of numerous high-growth verticals. After Element was acquired by Vantiv in 2013, it is now powering a big portion of the integrated payments business at Vantiv.

Product & Service Offerings
Element offers the following cutting edge applications and services for its customers:

TranForm – leverages highly secure technologies designed to remove the value and accessibility of sensitive data to simplify payment processing solutions and eliminate risks with point-to-point encryption, Encompass, Tokenization, and more.

triPOS – is a payments processing application which is offered as an EMV enabled solution to businesses and ISV (independent software vendors).The P2PE enabled triPOS payment processing application provides software developers with a single, simplified integration to Element’s Express Processing Interface. triPOS is compatible with a wide range of hardware devices, connects to all authorization providers, supports a comprehensive suite of transaction protocols (INCLUDING EMV) and removes the business software application from PCI scope.

ExpressPay Gateway – The Element platform provides a set of programming interfaces and services that help you extend your business management solution to include payments by utilizing the ExpressPay payment processing platform. The gateway feature allows customers to leverage all the features of the fully integrated payments module powered by Element, while keeping their current processing solution intact. ExpressPay Gateway includes P2PE and tokenization, which reduces the scope of PCI compliance. The ExpressPay Integration Suite employs advanced security features that enable to remain out of scope of PCI or PA-DSS and maintains compliance, while reducing merchants PCI-DSS security requirements.

Offering Exclusivity
A successful company will always have some differentiating factors that will make it stand out amidst the competition. Element’s key differentiating factors are elucidated below:

Partner-Centric Business Model: Element’s business model is centered on the developer partners, to deliver integrated payments services exclusively through their channels. The seamless integrated service model is designed to help launch a business and take it to a whole new level.

Innovative Platform: Element provides secure, feature rich payment solutions to enhance the POS and payment acceptance systems. Integrating to its payment processing platform helps the POS, ecommerce solution, mobile/tablet based POS solution or business management software to become a one-stop merchant solution. The company’s solutions are designed to meet specific requirements for different industry verticals. Its platform helps to innovate faster and turn ideas into real solutions.

Technology masters with an architecture approach: Element’s experts are highly skilled technologists with a deep understanding of the payments industry. A dedicated analyst will be assigned who will learn about the customer’s business plans and requirements in order to recommend the best integration method to suit their needs. The company’s proven integration methodologies and agile architecture approach enables to focus on the next big thing in payments.

Full life cycle peer-to-peer technical services: The company’s dedicated integration analysts will work with customers throughout the integration. They will help them to get certified and get started with accepting payments. Element makes it easy for partners with a combination of technical resources and personal support.

Territory of Clientele
Element has a range of clients in sectors such as retail, e-commerce, restaurants, lodging, healthcare and auto rental. Ziosk is a major client that provides the first entertainment, ordering and pay-at-the-table tablet touch screen for the restaurant market. It employs Element’s solutions to deliver the highest level of payment security to its restaurant customers.

Proud Moments
Element has won the prestigious Business Solutions Magazine award for 6 years in a row from 2010 to 2015 for the Best Channel Service and Best Channel Products segments.

The Road Ahead
The company’s vision is to be the leader in simplifying payments innovation, to enable commerce and help their customers and partners thrive by following their mission of creating seamless experiences and exceptional payment solutions across the commerce ecosystem.

Knowing the Master
Charles Drucker, Director, President and CEO, Vantiv Inc.
Charles joined the company in 2004 as President and was made CEO in 2009. He has helped transform the business into one of the fastest growing technology companies in the United States. He is responsible for strategy, sales, product development and relationship management as well as recognizing the value of Element and working to acquire the company in 2013. Charles was also instrumental in acquiring Mercury Payment Systems in 2014, which combined with Element makes up the Integrated Payments business unit of the company.

In prior roles at Fifth Third Bank, Charles led Fifth Third’s Investment Advisors division, which included the Fifth Third Private Bank, Fifth Third Securities Retail Brokerage, Fifth Third Asset Management and Fifth Third Institutional Services. Prior to joining Fifth Third, he served as the Executive Vice President and COO of STAR Debit services, a division of First Data Corporation. He also served as a director for MasterCard and as Senior Vice President and General Manager of commercial services at Wells Fargo. Charles is a former member of both the U.S. Board of Directors for MasterCard® International and Fifth Third Bank.