Mastercard and Microsoft walked a mile in each other\u2019s shoes \u2013 or in an update on the old adage, spent three days hacking together \u2013 and came up with a new service to make shopping online easier and more secure around the world, not only for shoppers, but also retailers and banks.<\/p>\n
The collaborative experience also kicked off a new way of thinking about innovation that promises to lead to even more developments to help e-commerce thrive.<\/p>\n
New York-based Mastercard is a leading technology company in the payments space, processing about $20 billion in transactions a day across more than 210 countries or territories. And Microsoft is one of the top e-commerce merchants in the world, with online sales from the Microsoft Store, Xbox, Azure, Office 365 and more.<\/p>\n
Both companies have felt an urgency in shifting toward online payments \u2013 especially with the increasing popularity of mobile apps and devices \u2013 that has made security more difficult even as consumers expect greater ease of use. So they brought together teams of engineers to tackle the issue at the recent Microsoft global Hackathon at Microsoft\u2019s Redmond, Washington, headquarters.<\/p>\n
![\"man](\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mastercard-and-microsoft-team-up-to-make-online-shopping-easier-and-more-secure.jpg\")
\u201cBoth our infrastructures are used in creating online transactions, so we owe it to our customers to make them safe, secure and simple,\u201d says Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard\u2019s executive vice president of channel propositions and partnerships. \u201cThrough co-innovation our customers benefit, because we\u2019re solving a pain point that otherwise might take years to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collaboration comes amid changing cultures at Microsoft and Mastercard that are being fostered from the top down.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth companies have shifted their mentality that by partnering and bringing in diverse thoughts, we build better products and work better together,\u201d says Will White, Microsoft\u2019s director of payments. \u201cThe benefit is you get true innovation from two companies that have radically different missions, in different industries, with different constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mastercard provides payment services to Microsoft\u2019s online stores, and Microsoft sells technology services back. So the Hackathon teams built on that symbiotic relationship and experimented with ways to securely store payment info, exchange credentials and authenticate identity with biometrics \u2013 using a PC to make a theoretical purchase of a game on the Microsoft Store as a trial.<\/p>\n
Microsoft\u2019s double role as merchant and tech company gave Mastercard engineers a better understanding of the challenges both stakeholders face, says Mohamed Abouelenin, Mastercard\u2019s director of product development and innovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat helped us push the bar in developing new services to help provide the best experience for consumers,\u201d Abouelenin says.<\/p>\n
It was the first time Mastercard had participated in another company\u2019s Hackathon. The experience energized both groups and left them wanting more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a big difference in my team when they got back, in how they approach their jobs and have a more customer-oriented perception of things now,\u201d says Anand Mallepally, Mastercard\u2019s vice president of cyber and intelligence solutions, whose group is based in St. Louis. Physically being together in Redmond was \u201ca gamechanger\u201d for the engineers as far as seeing situations from each other\u2019s perspectives, he says. \u201cI can foresee more and more innovative ideas now.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mastercard-and-microsoft-team-up-to-make-online-shopping-easier-and-more-secure-1.jpg\")
That\u2019s crucial at a time when chips on credit cards are stopping more fraud, leading criminals increasingly to focus on online forums instead, says Mallepally, who\u2019s been working on fraud prevention and digital platforms with Mastercard for more than 12 years.<\/p>\n
His team has to tread carefully, however, acknowledging that security protocols can bring friction to the shopping experience. Shoppers are turned off when they have to remember passwords or go through extra verification steps; retailers sell less when transactions take extra time; and the banks that issue credit cards incur extra expenses when they have to develop and implement new safety measures. So it\u2019s critical to consider enhancements to improve the consumer\u2019s experience, along with additional protections.<\/p>\n
The situation is complicated by a new regulation Europe implemented in September that requires banks to communicate with the customer for two-factor authentication before online purchases \u2013 even for recurring charges such as monthly bills for utilities or streaming services.<\/p>\n
The bank might send a code to a credit card customer\u2019s mobile phone or email address, for example, and the customer has to type that in on the checkout screen before a purchase can proceed. That\u2019s expected to reduce fraud but increase friction. It\u2019s also expected to be adopted by other markets around the world, including the U.S., in coming years.<\/p>\n
![\"index](\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mastercard-and-microsoft-team-up-to-make-online-shopping-easier-and-more-secure-2.jpg\")
But biometric authentication on mobile devices \u2013 such as a fingerprint scanner \u2013 has been approved to allow consumers to skip that step.<\/p>\n
That got Microsoft\u2019s White to thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we level the playing field between the mobile checkout experience and the PC checkout experience?\u201d he wondered. \u201cAnd why can\u2019t we make e-commerce payments as fast and simple as we have in the physical world, where you tap or insert a card and you\u2019re done?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hackathon teams found an answer to both, with an extra measure of innovation thrown in.<\/p>\n
They decided to leverage the infrastructure Microsoft already has with its Windows Hello technology, which allows 900 million Windows 10 users to access their devices with a fingerprint or facial recognition, instead of a password. Through their combined efforts, they came up with a new feature that screens the user\u2019s biometrics again and then, as long as they match the Windows Hello identification, automatically authenticates the buyer and approves purchases. The new service will give banks and merchants the assurance they\u2019re dealing with actual customers, and shoppers won\u2019t have to go through additional steps to prove themselves.<\/p>\n
And the solution can be used across many types of computers, laptops and tablets, without requiring people to own or use a specific device, as the mobile-phone offerings do.<\/p>\n
![\"woman](\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mastercard-and-microsoft-team-up-to-make-online-shopping-easier-and-more-secure-3.jpg\")
\u201cIt\u2019s a solution that neither Mastercard nor Microsoft could have done on our own,\u201d says Matt Rossmeissl, Microsoft\u2019s general manager for commerce engineering operations. \u201cWe each had to bring our own expertise to the table to get this done. They\u2019ve got the relationships with the banks, and we\u2019ve got hundreds of millions of Windows devices out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biometric authentication is built to make online shopping easier for everyone, but it will be especially helpful for those with disabilities, says Priyanka Banerjee, a senior program manager under Rossmeissl. Entering a code for two-factor authentication is a difficult process for anyone who\u2019s blind, for example, or can\u2019t use their fingers to type, especially since those codes are time-limited and expire quickly. But biometric authentication removes that friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cMicrosoft is very focused on inclusiveness and accessibility, and that\u2019s something that hadn\u2019t yet been thought of in this scenario\u201d by financial services companies, Banerjee says. \u201cWhat we have built can be extended to those with disabilities, with no extra setup required, and we can make the experience of everybody better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collaborative process is also helping to bring the concept to market faster. The Hackathon engineers were able to accomplish in a few days together what would have taken a month or more apart, says Mallepally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe created a prototype in only a week\u2019s time, and I think that will change the relationship between us and Mastercard going forward, because we\u2019ll be more willing to try new things and go do growth hacking,\u201d Microsoft\u2019s Rossmeissl says. \u201cWe have at least 10 conversations in parallel going on with Mastercard now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you approach a challenge with an open mind and go into it thinking that what we produce will be better if we work together and leverage our unique independent strengths, we\u2019ll find solutions to problems that could be far better than what we could have done if we\u2019d tried to solve them ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
All photos provided by Mastercard.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mastercard and Microsoft walked a mile in each other\u2019s shoes \u2013 or in an update on the old adage, spent three days hacking together \u2013 and came up with a new service to make shopping online easier and more secure around the world, not only for shoppers, but also retailers and banks. The collaborative experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[172,298],"class_list":["post-102677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-retail","tag-transform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}