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The mPOS Architecture

This chapter describes the overall mPOS architecture to help you understand how the payment acceptance app that you create fits into the bigger picture. In particular, it examines the other Wirecard and non-Wirecard components that are involved in the overall process of processing a consumer sales transaction so that you can see how a payment comes full circle. It also examines the use of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to augment the Switch back-end provided by Wirecard.

Partners, Merchants and Consumers

As illustrated below, the Wirecard ePOS SDK enables our partners to create payment acceptance app functionality for merchants.

The resulting app can be a standalone app or part of a larger app. When the payment acceptance app is completed and put into production at the merchant's place of business, the merchant's staff use the payment acceptance app on their iOS and Android mobile devices to accept cash, credit and Alipay payments from consumers. A terminal must be set up on mobile devices that will accept credit.

The cash acceptance feature of the SDK is referred to as Cash Management. Cash Management must be set up in the back-end before enabling it with the SDK. Talk to your Wirecard representative for complete information about Cash Management, and see SDK Architecture for overview information and Cash Manager Overview for detailed information.

Extensive Hardware Support

In addition to a terminal, the following hardware can also be paired to the mobile device that has the payment acceptance app installed and running:

  • a printer for printing receipts
  • a pistol scanner for scanning QR codes and barcodes
  • a cash register or cash drawer to enable the handling of cash payments

The SDK has extensive support for all of these devices. See the Getting Started chapter for a list of currently supported hardware devices. The Integrating the SDK section of this website has complete information.

Tip

Four components of the SDK architecture handle the four different types of hardware, as described in the next chapter.

Note

To enable Cash Management, you require cash drawer hardware. See the Cash Manager Overview chapter for more information about Cash Management.

Switch, Gateway and the Acquiring Platform

The payment acceptance app is a front-end application. The corresponding back-end is Switch. Each merchant must first be set up on Switch before they can use Wirecard ePOS SDK. There is a Switch GUI application that allows merchants to set up and change their back-end data. This is useful, for example, to set up product catalogues and products that display in front-end apps created with the SDK. Talk to your Wirecard representative for more information about Switch.

Switch itself is actually an intermediary proxy that connects to other Wirecard systems, starting with the Wirecard Gateway. The Gateway, in turn, does the initial processing and then routes transactions to the Acquiring Platform, as illustrated below:

Note

The mPOS division at Wirecard is responsible for the Wirecard ePOS SDK and the Switch back-end. The Payment & Risk division oversees the Wirecard Gateway and the Acquiring Platform.

Using an ERP

A key implementation decision that each merchant must make before implementing mPOS is whether or not to use an ERP tool to augment the Switch back-end. For example, ERP tools, like SAP Business ByDesign, can be particularly useful because while Switch allows you to define your products and product catalogues, ByDesign lets you manage stock levels of each of your products. Indeed, if a merchant already uses an ERP they will probably want to continue using it. Another reason to choose ByDesign, for example, is to leverage the initial investment in this software made by a merchant, because it is much easier to integrate into a system than to replace it with a new one.

For example, a merchant user at a shop that is using your payment acceptance app might run out of a certain item in their store. With an ERP connected, you can set up the app to check product stock levels at other stores.

Tip

Getting Product Stocks information is covered later in this documentation, along with getting Product Prices (ERP). Both are part of the Inventory Manager component. The Customer Manager component also provides ERP-related functionality as described in Customer Manager (ERP).

If a merchant chooses to augment their back-end with an ERP, the architecture looks like this:

Card Schemes and the Issuer

The Acquiring Platform handles the communication with the various Card Schemes. The Card Schemes process transactions through the Issuing Bank of the Issuer. Ultimately, the Issuer completes the circle by charging the consumer for the payment and, in turn, the consumer pays the Issuer.

Moreover, payment acceptance is about helping merchants generate more sales from their consumers by giving them more options for accepting payments. As the diagram above illustrates, Wirecard provides everything you need to do just this.