{"id":26676,"date":"2025-11-25T07:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/?p=26676"},"modified":"2025-11-25T07:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:03:13","slug":"tsg-fiserv-integrated-payments-report-so-ironic-its-alarming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/25\/tsg-fiserv-integrated-payments-report-so-ironic-its-alarming\/","title":{"rendered":"TSG, Fiserv Integrated Payments Report So Ironic It’s Alarming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is NOT an indictment of TSG, who produces solid content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is about the total lack of self-awareness the payments industry has of itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legacy acquirers have no idea how or why Stripe and Adyen kick the crap out of them then a report like this comes out, shows exactly why, and the legacy idiots are somehow still baffled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse, they think they’ve solved the problems.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first rule of any problem solving is to admit you have a problem, as Steve Blank pointed out<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We have never seen a piece of material scream so loudly at the industry’s problems yet fall so flatly on deaf ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the report we’re referencing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/webview.tsgpayments.com\/hubfs\/TSG_Fiserv_Integrated_Payments_Whitepaper.pdf?utm_campaign=NewsFilter&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_ITD6VPjJfIoHkFz1pRqahqKRMoz5fFsSy2DW0zLlfrawNkkuudtVzbZSvVTLMHthUNo6IuYGzahksJW-OKRRTm9iR8g&_hsmi=389859725&utm_content=389859725&utm_source=hs_email\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’ll go through the relevant pages to show you what we’re talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intent of the report is to show how 150 software companies (ISV) think about embedding payments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first page that gets into relevant content is what matters when choosing a payments partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guess what’s number one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hmm, if only someone might have told the legacy processors, like Fiserv in particular<\/a>, why they’re playing 80th fiddle to Stripe…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT’S THE DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE, STUPID. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The other six reasons on this page aren’t event relevant if you APIs are so shit the ISV won’t integrate with you to begin with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to add insult to injury, the SAME pain point shows right back up, masked under a different heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Think about how low this bar is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the legacy acquirers would need to do is hire a team of people and spend 6 months unf*cking their ISV onboarding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, you know, that sounds like R&D, and payments bros can’t invest in that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISVs rate their current payment partners terrible: an NPS of -8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You mean to tell us lying payments bros with nonexistent support and shit for APIs aren’t a software company’s dream?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say it ain’t so!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is hilarious: look at how many times the developer experience – or the PTSD-inducing torture “experience” – is cited as a critical metric for software companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We’d also like to note that ISVs want portability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because they’re tired of getting f*cked over.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s like we told Fiserv in a prior article: build a great developer experience ON TOP OF a vault so the ISV can move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you provide good support, features, and economics, then the ISV won’t ever have to leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TSG summarizes the issues by making the developer experience front and center on the following page discussing trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And to really drive it home, let’s read the final page of the report before the fluffy self-promotion:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now for the irony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the very next page Fiserv stands up and has the balls to tell us that they have “developer-friendly integration tools”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Can you smoke more crack?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are so. far. removed from reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You literally just funded an entire report telling you what your problems are and then you close the report by stating that you have none of these problems?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so why is Stripe growing 30% ORGANICALLY and you’re not?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Maybe their “Developer-friendly integration tools and sandbox environments” are ACTUALLY developer-friendly and not lip service?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The software market is literally telling you that you are shit and yet you parade this out like “nah, not me”.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Watch this Lonely Island Like A Boss music video from the beginning (NSFW, btw) and then pay particular attention to Andy Samberg at 1:30, where he becomes Fiserv incarnate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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