Paragon – it’s all about finding alternatives to simply adding more people!

This is the first article we are submitting to NonStop Insider. For those who may not be familiar with Paragon, we are in the testing space where our focus is on payments solutions and ATM networks. The Paragon Edge website (www.paragonedge.com ) provides additional detail on our people and our products. For instance, we have served more than 600 clients in 90 countries with many of our customers being the leaders in their part of the payments’ ecosystem. Checking our web site will also give you a good picture of how experienced Paragon is when it comes to automated testing of payment interfaces and the virtualization of ATM.

Given the importance of NonStop in the world of payments, it is only natural for us to make this submission to NonStop Insider. It is important for any current or potential NonStop users to know that Paragon has the products to automate the testing cycles across the whole lifecycle of credit and debit card payments – from concept through pilots and rollout to full production deployment automated testing ensures nothing is left unchecked. As we continue to see payment networks scale up in reach, along with number of different devices and endpoints, the complexity that develops quickly passes the point where manual testing can be done economically or effectively.

When it comes to ATMs, there is a lot of discussion currently under way about whether the channel is in decline, holding steady or in fact, growing. In his latest post to the Edge Blog, ATMIA Report on the Future of ATMs – Evolve or Die, payments consultant and Paragon marketing strategist Michael Carter reports on a recent survey coming from ATM Industry Association. “The ATMIA report covers everything from the role of software in keeping ATMs current to how the integration of new technologies, such as cardless ATM access, NFC and biometrics, can create value-added convenience for consumers,” posts Carter. “ATMs remain vulnerable to new innovations that could change the role they play or eliminate them almost entirely,” Carter then adds, closing with the observation that, “ATMs are no more immune to innovations designed to increase convenience for consumers than any other existing technology in society. It is hard to bet against the ATM.”

Among the many benefits that come with ATMs is that they can be easily configured to be “fit for purpose.” Using cellular or VSAT technology, ATMs can be deployed in areas with little or no traditional networking infrastructure.  Alternatively, when high-bandwidth network capacity is available, video chat can be enabled. ATMs of all shapes and sizes continue to provide mission critical banking services (and more) in both developed and developing economies. In fact, it is this very ability to morph and scale to meet consumer expectations, as well as support such a wide variety of deployment options that have allowed the ATM to play such a crucial role in the lives of so many people across the globe for the past 50 years.

Keeping up with these changes across the industry is what Paragon is all about. We recognize that most financial institutions and payment processors can no longer allocate enough resources to manually test and verify the amount of change taking place within the typical release cycle and the drive toward Agile development techniques makes this even harder. We believe that any 21st century payments testing strategy must rely on continuous integration and automation. Payment applications will continue to experience significant change. The industry will continue to get more complex, not less. To remain competitive and relevant, payment processors and ATM fleet owners need to evolve and upgrade their test environment to be as efficient, flexible and economical as possible. For more than 20 years the Paragon team has been helping our clients to improve the quality and speed of their payment testing while also reducing costs.

Given that as many payments solutions run on NonStop today and that considerable payments traffic from the point of sale, ATMs, mobile phones and e-commerce websites run through solutions on NonStop systems – some of the biggest transaction volumes being handled today involve NonStop systems – it is only natural for Paragon to not only have expertise in payments solutions and ATMs, but also in NonStop. As blogger Richard Buckle noted in his post of August 18, 2017, to the NonStop community blog, New home, new office; time to take stock … “Today it is all about continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous testing in order for your enterprise to deliver quality code faster.” However, “every enterprise wants to grow their business in a manner that simply doesn’t break the bank.”

And this is where Paragon provides the value to those financial institutions running payment networks using solutions on NonStop. These financial institutions may want to scale up the physical size of their networks or perhaps just add more functionality to their ATMs, but either way, it’s all about efficiency at scale.  This is where Paragon’s value comes to the fore – you just cannot hire enough people anymore! If you would like to know more about the product offerings from Paragon please feel free to call us or drop us an email.

Written by the Paragon Team and we can be reached at:

World Headquarters:
326 Raleigh Street
Holly Springs, NC 27540

Phone: +1-919-567-9890
Email: info@paragonedge.com