Case Study

Technology
Visual FoxPro
ORACLE
Active Server Pages (ASP)

The client
As a pioneer in the outsourced customer service industry, AFFINA has, over the past 30+ years, continuously enhanced its service offerings to evolve from call center to contact center services. MS Datastep has partnered with AFFINA for over 7 years on numerous projects, providing flexible databases to handle client and customer needs as they change and grow.

The idea
A major Telecommunications company wanted to provide customers with a credit card payment option when purchasing equipment. This new feature was difficult to add to their legacy systems, so a standalone application was required that was flexible enough to accept orders in a variety of formats, and manage them in a single database system.

The step up
The Credit Card Verification system receives orders from electronic files and entries into a user screen, and can read custom file formats, as well as EDI. Multiple departments are handled, allowing for separate product lists, merchant accounts, warehouses, and reporting. Additions and changes to product lists are done real-time, and city, state, county and local taxes are calculated by the CCV system. Orders undergo thorough fraud prevention routines as well as address verification from the bank before charges are authorized. Refunds for returns are processed the same day the database receives them, and reporting for all transactions are used for reconciliation with the bank.