HiPay: Modernizing its payment solution services with Google Cloud
About HiPay
Offering more than 50 payment solutions, HiPay is a French payment service provider (PSP) also present in Portugal, Italy, and Belgium. By offering modern solutions based on advanced data processing, the company supports the growth of its merchant customers.
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Contact usBy adopting Google Cloud, HiPay both strengthened the resilience of its IT infrastructure and increased its competitiveness, most notably through managed services that enable the company to focus on its core business, optimize internal processes via AI, reduce its technical debt, and optimize its employer brand with modern tools and approaches to development.
Google Cloud results
- Elastic infrastructure adapted to growth ambitions
- Reduced costs
- Increased productivity and innovation
- Increased security and regulatory compliance
- AI-optimized internal processes
- Reduced technical debt
- Improved developer experience
Just 5% of developers' time dedicated to maintenance, as opposed to 40% before, across all business intelligence and data science projects
A one-stop payment solution for ecommerce and physical stores, HiPay stands out from others in the market through its ability to offer more than 50 different means of payment, from traditional bank cards to alternative and localized solutions. Its strength also lies in the ease of integrating its high-performing and secure solution into merchant IT systems, thus simplifying the implementation of highly competitive payment strategies.
Armed with its expertise and a highly competitive tried-and-true solution, HiPay sought to increase its advantage by capitalizing on Google Cloud's infrastructure and managed services within the scope of a hybrid cloud strategy.
"As a growing payment solutions company, we process an ever-increasing volume of transactions, which means a constant rise in the volume of data to process. To effectively manage this growth, we need a reliable and scalable infrastructure. While infrastructure management is critical, it's not our core business. Therefore, we entrust Google Cloud, a provider with highly secure and redundant global infrastructure, to handle parts of this crucial aspect, allowing us to focus on our core business of creating flawless in-store and online payment experiences."
—Anas El Khaloui, Head of Engineering at HiPayConcentrating efforts on innovation and added value services
"As a growing payment solutions company, we process an ever-increasing volume of transactions, which means a constant rise in the volume of data to process. To effectively manage this growth, we need a reliable and scalable infrastructure," explains Anas El Khaloui, Head of Engineering at HiPay. "While infrastructure management is critical, it's not our core business. Therefore, we entrust Google Cloud, a provider with highly secure and redundant global infrastructure, to handle parts of this crucial aspect, allowing us to focus on our core business of creating flawless in-store and online payment experiences."
Equipped with its own servers in data centers, the company chose to outsource some of its assets to the cloud in order to improve its resilience, working on the principle that time spent managing infrastructure is time lost in terms of customer-serving innovation. "Furthermore, Google Cloud's elasticity, flexibility, and compliance with various regulations empower us to be more responsive, leading to enhanced competitiveness within this already-competitive market."
Capitalizing on the wealth of features provided by Google Cloud's data platform and AI
Subject to anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) due diligence, HiPay has developed its own anti-fraud engine. It's mainly based on rules—customized to the needs of each merchant—that monitor and analyze metrics, generating specific actions when a flow looks suspicious.
"The Google Cloud data platform stands out for its extensive features and its commitment to open-source technologies. By leveraging leading open-source solutions packaged as Google Cloud managed services, we avoid vendor lock-in and foster innovation and collaboration. This approach taps into the dynamism of active developer communities, which is crucial for keeping pace with the ever-evolving technological landscape."
—Anas El Khaloui, Head of Engineering at HiPayMore recently, the company has developed risk-scoring models based on machine learning in order to improve user experience. HiPay avoids strong customer authentication on secure transactions to make the payment process smoother for end customers. The company also relies on AI—particularly generative AI—to optimize certain internal processes, thus relieving employees of time-consuming tasks with low added value.
"Google Cloud, particularly BigQuery and its surrounding analytics services, have become increasingly central to our business as we leverage data and AI for strategic decision-making," explains Anas El Khaloui. "The Google Cloud data platform stands out for its extensive features and its commitment to open-source technologies. By leveraging leading open-source solutions packaged as Google Cloud managed services, we avoid vendor lock-in and foster innovation and collaboration. This approach taps into the dynamism of active developer communities, which is crucial for keeping pace with the ever-evolving technological landscape."
Plus, according to Anas El Khaloui, "BigQuery is the perfect trade-off compared to anything else we tried. It's been the robust cornerstone of a highly scalable and powerful data platform, processing millions of records each day in a very efficient way."
In terms of AI, HiPay now relies on Vertex AI and PaLM 2 for optimizing certain internal processes. It also uses Cloud Vision and Document AI (OCR) to automatically process certain documents and improve internal procedures. As well as being more efficient, this means the company is also reducing the rate of manual errors.
Optimizing developer experience
In practice, HiPay's outsourcing meets its needs regarding resilience, performance, flexibility, and scalability. It also aligns with their IT strategy to improve developer experience and reduce technical debt. HiPay leverages Google Cloud services to create custom solutions, freeing developers to focus on innovation (10% maintenance time vs. 40% before). This serverless approach allows for cost-effective scaling and lets developers explore new technologies. "When it comes to code, less is more. All code comes with a cost of ownership," believes Anas El Khaloui. "When possible, we prefer assembling rather than developing, using Google Cloud's APIs and managed services. Going serverless allows us to really adapt to demand and avoid the cost of oversized underused infrastructure. Another advantage is that our developers can explore new technologies more easily and work in an attractive technical environment that allows them to focus on creating value, rather than implementing low-level technical components or constantly maintaining code."
"By delegating the complexity of managing technical components to Google Cloud and adopting its managed services, we're more responsive and productive, while still possessing the freedom necessary to evolve, especially in terms of elasticity. And, in a job market under pressure, we can't overlook the importance of the user-friendliness of Google Cloud's tools and approaches, making us more attractive as an employer. It's a key asset in welcoming the next generation of developers capable of supporting our growth ambitions."
—Anas El Khaloui, Head of Engineering at HiPayReducing technical debt
By taking advantage of outsourcing in real time, HiPay is also progressively reducing its technical debt. "This means we can focus on our core business, while benefiting from a modern, secure, and always up-to-date technological infrastructure. By delegating the complexity of managing technical components to Google Cloud and adopting its managed services, we're more responsive and productive, while still possessing the freedom necessary to evolve, especially in terms of elasticity. And, in a job market under pressure, we can't overlook the importance of the user-friendliness of Google Cloud's tools and approaches, making us more attractive as an employer. It's a key asset in welcoming the next generation of developers capable of supporting our growth ambitions," concludes the Head of Engineering at HiPay.
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About HiPay
Offering more than 50 payment solutions, HiPay is a French payment service provider (PSP) also present in Portugal, Italy, and Belgium. By offering modern solutions based on advanced data processing, the company supports the growth of its merchant customers.