NEW YORK, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon has won a 2007 Telephony Innovation Award for creating and launching a new small-business payment- processing service that combines broadband technology with effective teamwork. The award was presented today by Telephony magazine, a Penton Media publication.
"Verizon Online is making it easier for retailers and other small and medium-sized businesses to move to broadband access for payment processing -- improving productivity and helping to save money in the process," said Carol Wilson, the magazine's editor-in-chief.
Verizon Online teamed with Chase Paymentech to create Verizon Merchant Services Payments Powered by Chase Paymentech (VMS), which combines broadband service with credit-card processing services to give small businesses productivity gains and the kind of discounts on card-payment-processing solutions that were once available only to larger businesses.
By using broadband technology as a replacement for the dial-up modems that more than 90 percent of small businesses currently use to process credit card transactions, Verizon Online enables its small-business customers to process these transactions in a fraction of the time it takes when using a dial-up modem.
In addition, Verizon Online offers wireless capabilities that will allow customers to process payments wirelessly within their business, or when working off-site.
"Verizon is highly focused on developing value-added services for our small and medium-sized business customers," said Tom Roche, vice president for business data products at Verizon. "And we're proud to develop and market solutions that help them better compete in the marketplace.
"Today's businesses need to quickly process credit and debit card transactions. By using Verizon's buying power, we can offer our small- and medium-sized business customers this service at a great discount when coupled with Verizon High Speed Internet for Business," he said.
The Telephony Innovation Awards, given for the first time at Telephony LIVE: The 2007 Telecom Summit in Dallas, recognize service providers that have developed unique or first-to-market offerings that utilize technology or address customers' needs in a new way.
"Many service providers are chasing the SMB customer, especially retail operations that are ever-more dependent on connectivity to do routine business," Wilson said. "Verizon Merchant Services Payments Powered by Chase Paymentech not only streamlines that whole process for small businesses, but provides them with wireless solutions for remote operations and with discounts on payment processing."
The Telephony Innovation Awards are focused on five key categories -- design, delivery, pricing, bundling, and packaging or customer service -- and address various market segments, including consumers, corporate enterprises and small-to-medium businesses.
Telephony Publisher Mark Hickey said, "We established these awards to recognize innovation in the industry at a time when all service providers are trying to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market. The award winners are companies who chose not to just follow the technology curve but to bring their customers services that meet their needs in distinctive ways."
Telephony received more than 80 nominations for its Innovation Awards. The process was handled by the mBLAST customer relationship management system. Judging was done by members of the Telephony editorial staff and guest judges Teresa Mastrangelo of Broadbandtrends.com and Cindy Whelan of Current Analysis. Award recipients were recognized at a special presentation during Telephony's two-day conference, Telephony LIVE, in Dallas.
Verizon Communications Inc. , headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 62 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon has a diverse workforce of more than 238,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $88 billion. For more information, visit http://www.verizon.com/.
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