Concord's success with the EFSnet Web service has propelled it to create similar products in other areas of electronic payment processing. Confident in the possibilities of the Web services model, developers are taking steps forward, extending their philosophy to other services in the Concord line, delivering valuable components with low-cost results.

For example, 75 percent of cashless payment transactions are made through checks, so the company is accepting STAR CHEK, a check verification service developed by Star Systems, a Concord subsidiary. This makes STAR CHEK the first check verification utility based on the Web services platform. Concord is also developing applications that will provide functionality such as real-time check processing (for both paper and electronic checks) and consumer historical purchasing information.

Concord is staying with the core competency that drives EFSnet: keeping easy merchant-side interoperability a top priority, with .NET being a critical component. "We're trying to take every method of electronic payment to the next level, making each more efficient and more time-sensitive," says product development director Don Schroeder. "But our largest concern is still the people at the other end who will interface with us. We built the EFSnet Web service on SOAP, but we'll be developing a lot of apps with the .NET Framework. The approach may be a bit more evolved, but we're sticking with the winning formula."