VisionPLUS
VisionPLUS is a financial software application from First Data Corporation. Originally developed by the Paysys Research and Development Group, this application is mainly used for credit card transaction processing by multinational banks and transaction processing companies. Various banks and financial institutions use this software application to store and process credit card, debit card, prepaid, closed end loan accounts and process financial transactions (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Europay, private label transactions) against those accounts. The rough estimate of number of cards processed on different versions of this application software around the world is 350 million.
Modules
VisionPLUS is credit/debit/prepaid account life cycle processing system. VisionPLUS consists of various modules that work together to manage life cycle of accounts. The main functional modules of VisionPLUS include:
* Credit Decision Management (CDM) - Credit application processing and account opening * Credit Management System (CMS) - Account credit processing module, which also handles debit and prepaid card accounts. * Collections Tracking Analysis (CTA) - Delinquent accounts collections and tracking module * Account Services Management (ASM) - Customer services module * Financial Authorisation System (FAS) - Financial transactions authorizations module * Letters tracking System (LTS) - Letter generation module * Security Sub System (SSC) - Common Routines System (formerly Security Sub-System) * World Wide Security System (WSS) - User Access Management * Interchange Tracking System (ITS) - Dispute tracking module * Transaction Management System (TRAMS) - Front-end processor for batched transactions * Merchant BankCard System (MBS) - Merchant acquiring system * VisionPLUS Messaging eXchange (VMx) - XML messaging gateway to VisionPLUS * Hierarchy Company System (HCS) – Supports commercial card products with deep hierarchies * Loyalty Management System (LMS) - Managing of loyalty programs based on transactional activity and account events * EMV Scripting System (ESS) - Rules engine based EMV script management * Key Management System (KMS) - Cryptography key management for magnetic and EMV chip cards * Offer Managenement System (OMS) - Marketing Campaign management for account holders
VisionPLUS offers financial institutions the flexibility to configure their own product features and functionality. Out of the above modules CMS is the core module and plays an important part, as all account related activities are posted in the CMS module.
The VisionPLUS Software was introduced by Paysys International Inc. in 1996. In 2001, First Data Coroporation acquired Paysys and since then VisionPLUS has been marketed by FirstData worldwide.
Versions
- 1981 PaySys International, founded as Credit Card Software, Inc., (CCS)
- 1983 CardPac was released by CCS. Its main market was the bankcard industry (Visa and MasterCard transaction processing only).
- 1982 CCS shipped its first product, CardPac, in 1982. Its main market was the bankcard industry (Visa and MasterCard transaction processing only).
- 1988 Vision21 was released for the private label card market by CCS International
- 1991 VisionPLUS for both private label and bankcard market by CCS International
- 1995 CCS changed its name to PaySys International, Inc.
- 1998 VisionPLUS 2.5 was released by PaySys
- 2000 VisionPLUS 8.0 was released by FDI
- 2006 VisionPLUS 8.01 was released by First Data
- 2007 VisionPLUS 8.15 was released by First Data
- 2008 VisionPLUS 8.17 was released by First Data
- VisionPLUS 8.23 was released by First data
- 2011 First Data lays off the majority of its U.S.-based VisionPLUS developers. Development and maintenance is sent offshore to Singapore and India.
- 2013 VisionPLUS 8.44 was released by First data
Due to software feature upgrades and compliance mandates from payments schemes like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and JCB, First Data releases twice a year. There are also incremental functional releases and brand new products (modules) released from time to time. These are considered releases of VisionPLUS version 8.0 and referred to as VisionPLUS 8.nn where nn stands for a number between 01 to 99.
Key terms used in VISIONPLUS are
Billing cycle - Day of the month that CMS performs cycle processing for the account.