Uptime, connectivity, and composability: The foundation for global growth

Uptime isn't just a technical metric; it's a fundamental promise to merchants and consumers that transcends borders.

International expansion brings new expectations for reliability that can make or break your market entry. In mature markets like Europe, merchants often expect the "five nines" (99.999%) reliability standard, which means mere minutes of downtime per year. In emerging markets where infrastructure challenges are common, the ability to maintain consistent service despite external disruptions can be a key differentiator.

Uptime failures can impact cross-border expansion in a few critical ways:

1. Merchant attrition: International merchants who experience reliability issues are quick to switch providers, especially in competitive markets with multiple options.
2. Regulatory scrutiny: In many regions, outages trigger mandatory reporting to financial authorities, creating compliance issues and potential penalties.
3. Reputation damage: System failures don't just mean lost transactions. They can permanently damage relationships with merchants who depend on payment reliability to operate their businesses.
    

If you’re expanding globally, prioritize redundancy, resilience, and rapid recovery in your infrastructure investments. This level of reliability requires sophisticated architecture with failover systems, geographic distribution, and real-time monitoring capabilities so merchants can confidently build their businesses on your payment infrastructure.

The classic "build versus buy" dilemma takes on a new dimension when crossing borders, as legacy systems create bottlenecks for global growth.³

Neither fully custom in-house solutions nor closed end-to-end platforms provide the flexibility needed for truly global operations. Instead, a composable architecture allows you to build a tech stack that adapts as you grow.

Composability—the ability to assemble modular components into tailored payment solutions with APIs, SDKs, and partners—can allow you to adapt to regional requirements without rebuilding your entire infrastructure for each market.

The advantages of composability can be seen in several ways during rapid expansion:

1. Regional adaptation: Tailor your offerings to local preferences, like incorporating QR codes in Asia, instant payments in Europe, or recurring billing in Latin America.
2. Incremental innovation: Rather than major platform overhauls, you can deploy new, standalone capabilities with ease for market-specific innovations that won’t disrupt existing operations.
3. Risk management: Different regions have unique risk challenges that require specific controls. Composable infrastructure allows for targeted adaptations to meet regional requirements without rebuilding the entire platform.
4. Regulatory compliance: As regulations evolve—and they do so constantly in the payments industry—composable systems allow you to update specific components to maintain compliance without extensive redevelopment.
    

Modular infrastructure can accelerate your market entry by helping you adapt to local conditions while maintaining consistent quality standards. Rather than being constrained by monolithic systems, you can focus on more strategic priorities, such as cementing your competitive advantage by meeting merchants’ needs and solving their problems.

Expanding to new markets requires reliable connected payment experiences that unifies your tech and helps you scale faster.

You’ll encounter distinct connectivity challenges that go beyond simple technical integration. Differing consumer preferences, technical standards, and financial infrastructure can be hard to navigate. And building for each market can get expensive and slow you down.

The most effective approach to global connectivity centers on a platform that gives you breadth and depth across factors like:

1. Payment preferences: From account-to-account (A2A) transfers in Europe to digital wallets in Asia, each region has distinct payment preferences that must be met.
2. Acquirer relationships: Local acquiring relationships often determine your market access. A single connector can dramatically simplify your expansion, providing instant access to an ecosystem of 280+ acquirers and processors and 100+ integrated technology partners across 160+ countries and territories and 50+ currencies.⁴
3. Technical standards: Each market has unique message formats, security protocols, and integration methods. Navigating these differences requires both technical capability and local expertise.
4. Compliance: KYC, AML, and data protection requirements vary significantly across jurisdictions. In addition to adhering to global standards like PCI DSS, your payment infrastructure must comply with each market’s evolving requirements, such as Strong Customer Authentication⁵ in Europe.
5. Fraud intelligence networks: Effective fraud prevention depends on connecting to relevant data sources in each region. Your infrastructure must be always-on and ready to fight bad actors using a combination of real-time AI intelligence and human expertise.
    

Global connectivity enables you to navigate the complexities of international markets without building every connection from scratch. This can give you a competitive advantage by reducing your time to market, helping boost revenue growth, and providing more resources to deliver the payment solutions that keep customers happy.

While uptime, composability, and connectivity each provide value, their true power emerges when they work together as a foundation for growth.

The freedom to concentrate on your differentiators and strategic objectives, rather than grappling with the constraints of outdated systems or platform limitations, could be the pivotal factor that separates survival from robust growth.

When evaluating your readiness, here are some questions to consider:

1. Can your infrastructure consistently deliver the 99.999% uptime that international merchants expect?
2. Does your technology have the flexibility and agility to meet regional requirements without rebuilding entire systems?
3. Have you established the connectivity necessary to reach local acquirers, payment methods, and compliance requirements in each market?
4. Does your platform approach integrate all these capabilities together to create a competitive advantage?
    

Your answers will help determine whether your business is ready for international success or vulnerable to more agile competitors.

Closed systems are often roadblocks to growth. Open platforms, on the other hand, have a distinct advantage: they connect your business to an entire ecosystem of innovation.

With an open payments platform, you get the flexibility, security, and customization of in-house solutions without the extensive costs of building your own or getting locked into a closed system.

Modular solutions also help you design tailored approaches for different markets, balancing the downside risks of new business with the potential revenue upside. This means that new markets become more accessible, with lower upfront costs and less time spent building customized infrastructure for each market.

Payments infrastructure that can adapt quickly to your evolving needs will help position your business to thrive, no matter where in the world it goes next.

Book your complimentary consultation today with our experts, and we’ll also send you a guide on the core elements today’s PayFacs need to succeed.