Albany Software,the pioneering developer of electronic payment solutions, has signed The Business Software Centre to its growing network of referrer partners to meet demand from SMEs to rent Direct Debit (DD) collection functionality as a hosted service. The Business Software Centre will be offering Albany’s eCOLLECT solution – a fully auditable and secure Direct Debit collection facility.

Identifying that conventional software sales practices often preclude small businesses, The Business Software Centre (TBSC) developed a unique technology and e-commerce service to enable the distribution of software on a subscription basis. Recognising the need for its existing customer base to have access to Direct Debit technology, TBSC partnered with Albany Software due to its experience in the payments market and its ability to deliver a range of solutions suitable for organisations in any industry and of any size

Phil Hames, Founder and Managing Director of The Business Software Centre, comments, “In today’s fast-paced, electronic business world there is an increasing need to offer Direct Debit as a payment option – enabling customers to schedule regular payments without human interaction. As such, we have seen a growing demand from our clients to provide technology that can facilitate this method of payment and be offered alongside Credit Card payments.”

Hames continues, “As a SaaS organisation working with SME organisations we wanted to be able to provide this to our customers on a hosted monthly subscription basis – removing the need to install the technology on their infrastructure and allowing them to use the Direct Debit technology with no initial capital outlay. We selected Albany’s eCOLLECT solution due to its intuitive DD functionality and the ability to seamlessly integrate with third party applications.”

Hames adds, “We have now converted Albany’s eCOLLECT solution into a service using TBSC’s proprietary technology – TBSC Rental Bridge™ – and will be taking it to market through our commercial service brand – Rentsoft™. We have already received significant interest from our customers wishing to utilise Albany’s DD technology.”

Adrian Stafford-Jones, Managing Director of Albany Software, comments, “The Business Software Centre understands the need to offer its customers the technology to enable a variety of payments methods. Direct Debits are becoming progressively more popular due to its ease of use for both the payer and payee, with payments scheduled and processed automatically. In addition, embracing a guaranteed payment method removes a significant administrative burden and minimises credit control activity for the payee.”

Stafford-Jones adds, “We are delighted to welcome The Business Software Centre as an Albany Software referrer – the partnership with TBSC will be extremely valuable as they will be offering organisations the opportunity to purchase our eCOLLECT Direct Debit technology on Software-as-a-Service basis.”

Hames concludes, “In effect, Albany Software’s solution adds significant value to our offering. We are able to meet the demands of today’s business for our customers, enabling them to move from restrictive credit card-only payments to paperless Direct Debits.”