Vision Plus

Say what you like about FDI's "Equasion" credit card processing platform, surely it wasn't so bad that after years of development it deserves to be moth balled and replaced with a young upstart? Well apparently so. Having acquired a competitor, and their rival system, FDI are no longer enhancing Equasion, and are moving customers to the platform, Vision Plus.

But is Vision Plus any better than Equasion? It depends who you ask. Lloyds TSB (who have already made the jump) are being surprisingly tight lipped about it, whereas for one of FDI's other clients the thought of moving to Vision Plus was apparently so awful that they took the opportunity to move to Tsys!

That said, we've seen it and we have to admit it seems leaner, slicker, and quicker. And whilst there isn't anywhere near the same level of functionality as Equasion, maybe Equasion needed to slim down a bit. After all, Falcon and TRIAD are still available.

Of course what everyone really wants to know is.. is it all "windows" driven? Is it all "point and click"? Has it, to get technical, got a GUI!?

No.

Although.. one is planned! Until then it's still essentially just a set of "green screens", which makes it feel oddly familiar, as though it's merely a new part of Equasion that you've stumbled across.

That said it's more "action code" driven than "screen driven"; you want to change someone's address? Then from the customer services screen you type in the action code that kicks off the change of address. And what that action code actually is, (COA would seem logical), is completely defined by you as a financial organisation.

And Vision Plus users don't talk about SYS PRINs, they talk about ORGs and LOGOs. Which makes it sound a little like something out of Lord of the Rings.

Other issuers rather like the way they can choose when they want to "cycle" - if you want to kick of "nightly update" at 11am in the morning, that's not a problem on Vision Plus. Useful, if you happen to live in a part of the world where 11am over here, is actually late evening where ever you may be.

At the time of writing FDI have at least two or three clients on the platform, and all the others lined up to go through conversion. If you process with FDI, sooner or later your organisation is going to have to think about making the move. And when that happens, you might need some assistance. Contact us here.