Page 44 - Pay Magazine s2014

The Women of fis
Driving cHangE for tHE futurE
Q: What are merchants most concerned about when it comes to payments?
Dawn Murray: Retailers can’t afford to prioritize anything above security even though many haven’t come to that realization yet. The smaller mer- chants are most concerned with cost, but as you move upward in retailer size, other items take precedence, including security and the ability to support omnichannel commerce.
Q: Everyone talks about offers being key to m-payments success, but how do you avoid consumer overload?
Susan E. Hawkins: Many industries have been incorporating rewards and offers for a very long time now. What’s changing is that we’re using analytics and intelligent personaliza- tion to get much better about what we offer, when we offer it, how we offer it and how we keep the con- sumer intelligently engaged in the
overall experience. It’s less about the reward or offer itself and more about the overall engagement of the user.
Q: What should today’s would-be payments disruptors learn from the evolution of the prepaid industry?
Shelly Schneekloth: That it’s not easy to be in this space. To compete, you can’t have a “me-too” attitude. You really need to be able to offer a product that consumers can truly see value-add to help drive the overall payments experience.
Q: What technology are you most excited about?
Susan E. Lorenz: Technology is a means to an end, not a solution in itself. The goal should be to simplify people’s ability to access their available funds and engage them with solutions that make their lives easier. The innovators that win are those that focus on one thing—the customer.
companies & people
Women Driving Payments Change
FIS is a big, Fortune 500 company. More than 42,000 employees work to bring bank-
ing and payments technology to more than 14,000 financial institu- tions and 289,000 merchant locations in 130-plus countries. Across that expanse, tight-knit teams—some with fearless female leaders—are united with a common mission to help clients succeed.
“The market is undergoing a time of unprecedented change, and
our clients are struggling to under- stand how these changes apply to them and what they should be participating in or paying attention to,” says Serena Smith, who over- sees client services. “They’re look- ing to FIS to help them through this period while not missing opportunities to grow.”
Smith, who’s been at FIS for more than a decade and whose team
has an award-winning track record for client satisfaction, says keeping clients happy is about results as well as the small things. “Reaching out with a handwritten note, re- membering a birthday ... it’s about ensuring that our clients know that no matter how big or small they are, they’re all important,” she continues.
Relationships with clients, team members and colleagues across business units are critical to the company’s success, the women believe. That environment breeds achievement because employees are enthusiastic and invested in the outcome. “Plain and simple: It’s the
people that get me excited about my work,” says Shelly Schneekloth, who leads the prepaid business at FIS and serves on the NBPCA board. “I work with a tremendous team, many of whom have been here for more than 15 years and helped build the prepaid industry from the ground up. We couldn’t do what we do without them.”
Balancing Act
When you’re working in the trenches
of payments, you have to be adapt- able and smart.
“Payments is one of those indus- tries where you’re challenged on a daily basis with new technology, new regulations and new forms of risk,” explains Dawn Murray, who manages merchant services in North America. “The most gifted people thrive in this obstacle- ridden industry and emerge as mature leaders in thought and
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