TSYS mines Columbus-area business market for card-processing customers [Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.]

April 29--In a move to defend its home turf from other credit-card processors, Columbus-based TSYS launched a program about a year ago to land as many local businesses as customers as possible.

Since then, the fledgling effort called "TSYS Choice Business" has grown to encompass more than 300 area companies. They include Country's Barbecue, Ranger Joe's, Meritage, Jay Automotive, Ezell's Catfish Cabin and the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.

And it recently landed a really big catch in Columbus-based supplemental health and life insurer Aflac, with TSYS Merchant Solutions set to begin processing payments for that global firm on Tuesday.

"Part of the messaging is this is our home turf and we want to offer this service here and extend that to the local merchant base," said Jeff Hampton, TSYS director of sales and marketing. "If we're going to be strong somewhere, we definitely want it to be our home market."

The local Choice Business initiative took off in a big way after TSYS completed its $320 million purchase of Omaha, Neb.-based First National Merchant Solutions. It bought 51 percent of that operation in 2010, then the balance in January 2011, rebranding it TSYS Merchant Solutions.

It already is a national effort, with Choice Business selling services in all 50 states with more than 250 sales agents, said Hampton. In a nutshell, it sets up companies and businesses large and small -- from retailers and restaurants to mail-order firms and auto dealers -- with card-swiping machines that are used to conduct transactions. The electronic payments are processed through TSYS' existing systems.

"It's cold call sales and referrals," said Melissa Wright, who along with Tami Tetro, spearheads the sales effort in and around Columbus. "Our current customers will refer other businesses. TSYS employees are probably our No. 1 referrals. They send us their friends, their families that own businesses or accept credit cards."

There are three primary selling points locally: Pricing, TSYS being headquartered here, and the processor's record of avoiding security breaches that have stained other players in the industry.

One of the most recent incidents was Atlanta-based Global Payments having information from nearly 1.5 million credit and debit card accounts stolen by hackers. Visa quickly yanked that company off its list of approved processors.

Another processor, Heartland Payment Systems, suffered an even more serious incident in 2010 when data from 130 million consumer accounts were stolen. Retailers TJ Maxx and Marshall's and online operations by Sony also have had millions of accounts pilfered in recent years.

Despite credit-card processing being an ultra-competitive sector, Hampton said TSYS and its sales staff never use the failings of other processors as a sales tool.

But it certainly enters the equation, said Jim Morpeth, a partner in Country's Barbecue, which has three restaurants in Columbus, all of which have been using Choice Business for about a year.

"They've been helpful with us monitoring our systems to make sure that they're secure and everything, because that falls on the merchant," he said. "We have to have our system audited once a quarter or something like that to make sure it's secure."

But it's also about doing business with a local company, Morpeth said. Prior to TSYS, Country's had used a Columbus Bank and Trust processor, an operation that was sold by Synovus a few years ago.

"TSYS came to us and their prices were a lot better than what we were currently paying," the restaurateur said. "And it is very good local service and support for us. We do like TSYS. Obviously, we do a lot of business with them."

For Aflac, it was a matter of replacing the former Synovus and CB&T processor that, after it was sold, "their service kind of went downhill a little bit, but their prices didn't," said Gary Warlop, vice president and assistant treasurer at Aflac and one of those who negotiated the contract with TSYS.

A "request for proposal" was put out, he said, with a national search taking place, and JPMorgan Chase, a bank that Aflac uses a lot, asked to submit bids as well.

"TSYS actually gave us a very competitive bid," Warlop said. "So we decided to stay local. We know the reputation of TSYS for servicing their customers. And because they're just right down the street, we said, 'Let's go ahead and give them our business.'"

The insurer uses the Columbus processor to allow individual policyholders to pay their premiums using a credit card via customer service, which includes the company's website. Corporate travel also requires credit cards, as does flexible spending account transactions in Aflac's health-care program.

"Security issues are important," Warlop said. "But we realized how big TSYS is and the security that they had in place with all of their other multiple users. So we felt confident there. We know the people. People from our IT shop probably used to work at TSYS, and their shop used to work at Aflac. So we know one another and know how to communicate."

Looking ahead, Hampton believes Choice Business is just tapping a small portion of the local market. He points to the chamber of commerce and its more than 1,000 members as potential prospects. Research on the market now is under way, he said.

"There's plenty of runway left and new businesses opening every day," Hampton said. "So we think it's going to be a long and positive relationship here in Columbus."

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