Electronic Commerce Processing

Here is a brief discussion between two friends about the electronic commerce processing and these sessions will be continued in future blogs.

Alex: I am curious to know about the credit card transaction. I just go to a shop, swipe my card and everything happens in less than a minute. Wow….amazing right?

Rico: Yes you are right; it is one of the most intelligent creations of mankind and offcourse complex architecture.

Alex: Which was the first credit card?

Rico: Diner’s card, during early 1950’s.

Alex: OMG….i didn’t know about that…

Rico: since its introduction into the world market, electronic commerce has undergone numerous enhancements and the evolution was phenomenal.

Alex: Electronic commerce? Are you talking about Credit card?

Rico: oh well…Electronic commerce cards are Debit, credit, prepaid….etc

Alex: Who are the main stakeholders of a transaction?

Rico: Basically five major stakeholders are involved. They are Associations (Visa or MasterCard), Issuer, Acquirer, Merchant and Cardholder.

Alex: Who is cardholder?

Rico: Well, it is the customer who holds a valid credit card issued by some banks.

Alex: What is the role of an Issuer and an Acquirer?

Rico: Issuer is the bank which issues the credit card, where us the Acquirer is the bank which holds the POS machine or the bank of the merchant.

Alex: What is POS machine?

Rico: It is Point of Sale, the machine used to swipe the card. It is issued by the bank which the merchant hires. There are third party processors which provides POS machine as part of their services.

Alex: Can the issuer and acquirer be the same banks?

Rico: Off course, both can be same or not. Some countries have restrictions like in Canada.

Alex: Associations?

Rico: Yes, They are non-profit organizations which provide medium/channels between banks for speedy transactions. The revenue they yield is utilized for the technology enhancements and the employee benefits.

Alex: How will be the Visa and MasterCard benefited?

Rico: Visa and MasterCard charges every transaction which happens through their network, a small service charge.

Alex: How exactly is the transaction happens?

Rico: The time when the Cardholder swipes the card in a POS machine, it undergoes a cycle of processes starting from authorization until billing.

Alex: Who are processers?

Rico: Ah!!! They are third party vendors or processors, who help the banks in transactions. They do authorization, billing, report generation with the help of Visa and MasterCard channels.

Alex: How does the Merchant receives money?

Rico: There are applications which pull the merchant files and the files are fed into batch jobs (which run during the night). After successful batch run the merchants will receives the money. Also, some service charges are deducted from the merchants for using POS machine.

Alex: you mean to say that merchants will not receive money when a customer swipes the card???

Rico: No, merchant will receive only after the successful batch run.

Alex: Rico, lets continue the topic some other time…I need to push off now……

Boas Festas – my Christmas celebration 2010

2010 was a year of overwhelming surprises and marked an era of self realization, knowledge, acceptance, adaptability and significantly in embarking new scales of adventures.

I got a unique opportunity to celebrate Natal (Christmas) with Dani’s family. It was the union of Felippe, Toffoli, Debuire (French), Petareli and Vadakkedath (Indian) families under an umbrella on a well decorated table. Bringing all these families together signaled a salient upcoming change, prosperity and was an opportunity to cement the declining family relations

hips. To me, it was the perfect opportunity to introduce myself into the big family. The gathering constituted 45 people with mixed age groups, living in neighboring cities and of multiple professions. The magnitude of this year’s Christmas commemoration was significantly high because of international participation, as we have a French family, Debuire and an Indian. The celebration was held at the newly constructed house of Dani’s tia (aunt), Teia. She is a retired physical instructor from military and an artist.

Julien from Debuire family is married to Helen from Toffoli family is cousin of Dani. Recently they are gifted with a new born cute baby boy, Cauan. They were accompanied by their visiting French parents who are on a short visit to see the new born baby. Not to ignore, myself, an Indian native who was recently tweaked into the Felippe family through Dani.

The celebrations started with an introduction, were everyone gets a chance to introduce themselves, like belonging to which family, profession, plans for the coming years …..etc. I gave a very pleasant introduction and thanked the families for the hospitality and support in the last couple of months. I appreciate the idea of this theme, but there was lot of annoying interruptions, unwanted comments and teasers from some of the participants. The Dani’s uncles gave an awesome introduction and thanked the other families for inviting them.

Food, an integral part of all the celebrations in Brazil, was diversified this time, with the presence of an Indian dish and variety of typical Brazilian dishes. Honestly, I ate a lot and decided not to eat for another couple of days. Followed by this heavy food were the delicious deserts. Another interesting event of the celebration is the exchanging of gifts. I enjoyed this part incredibly because I received numerous gifts. To list a few, my dream shoes from Dani, a suave shirt from mae, a football shorts from Mariana and goes on. Sadly, I was not able to gift Dani on our first Christmas together.

The fiesta continued until early morning 3:00 am…

On the flip side, I missed my family back in India and I sent good vibrations, blessings and wishes from here. Julio's absence had a huge influence in the family and everyone got the opportunity to speak with him on phone. Again, I Thank all the families for the immense support, motivation and unity for realizing many dreams. I wish all the families, individuals across the globe are blessed this year and the following years….

Call for the event!!!

Om Sai Ram

Life and time has quite moved on and we keep moving on with the stream, sometimes up and down off the stream...and we pause for a short break to keep moving on .....and here, I am going to get started again. I am getting married to my long time love, Dani, who is around me for past 5 years and I am really excited and happy to invite my friends and relatives for this union. I am officially inviting my friends, relatives, well wishers to join this communion of different culture and values. It will be a flamboyant turnout to see my friends, relatives around and receive the liberal showering of blessings.

We both have been running for years to unite and spread the message of love (amor) to nooks and corners of the world. We cruised across ups and downs; raged a ceaseless battle against critics by closely listening to our inner self. We Thank our families and friends who supported and motivated us through all these years.

Thanks to my parents, siblings and friends. Thanks to Dani's parents, siblings, relatives and friends. We Thank our soul divine source, Sri Sathya Sai Baba for uniting us and giving us a rare blessing while we were in Puttaparthi.

Thanks and best wishes to Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust, for considering and accepting our proposal to organize our marriage in the beautiful Sai Gramam village in Pandavanmala, Trivandrum. (www.saigrama.org). Best wishes to all the activities and endeavors in the coming years.

Friends, relatives, well-wishers and families, please join in this divine communion and bless all the families.