About ROAM

ROAM Data, Inc. is the leading global mCommerce platform provider extending both physical Point of Sale (POS) and virtual eCommerce to the mobile environment. Founded in 2005 by mobile payment pioneer, Will Graylin, ROAM turns merchants’ mobile devices into secure point of sale (POS) terminals and turns the mobile marketing channel into a mobile sales channel by enabling secure commerce in mobile apps and offers with convenient ROAMwallet 1-Tap™ checkout.

ROAM, which won the 2010 Technology Innovation Award sponsored by the Electronic Transaction Association, develops and markets the only mCommerce platform that is device agnostic, payment instrument and provider agnostic, and network agnostic. Its mCommerce platform is the first to enable scalable mobile applications in both physical and virtual eCommerce environments, through patented mCommerce software-as-a-service, payment peripherals, and development tools for cloud-based mobile commerce applications that help merchants win customer spend and loyalty.

From its inception, ROAM has concentrated on building security into the DNA of its mobile acceptance solutions. All of its products and tools adhere to the highest security standards, from encrypting cardholder data at the time of swipe through authorization to encryption of key management processes, including the recently announced Visa guidelines for mobile payment acceptance solution vendors, PCI security standards, and industry best practices. Its products include:

• ROAMpay, which allows merchants and mobile workforces to process payments through their mobile phones; ROAMpay converts cell phones into secure POS terminals, enabling merchants to quickly and securely process electronic transactions on their mobile phone, regardless of location. By using ROAM’s optional magnetic stripe card reader, merchants can also qualify for the best rates available from their merchant service provider. ROAMpay is PCI-DSS and PA-DSS compliant, and works with most major processors and mobile phones in the United States. ROAM is dedicated to constantly improving the user experience by enhancing graphics and adding features like signature capture, and tip and tax calculations for iPhone and Android touch screen users. It also provides the ROAMpay API that allows developers to build their own smartphone or tablet applications using the ROAMswipe card reader, as well as to leverage ROAM’s Level One PCI Certified mCommerce gateway to process transactions with their payment provider of choice.
   
• ROAMwallet API, an innovative 1-Tap™ mobile checkout solution that enables merchants and app developers to easily embed secure payment inside their consumer facing mobile apps and offers, so consumers can quickly purchase. ROAMwallet is both a patent pending mobile checkout API designed especially for embedding secure commerce in mobile apps or ads, and a cloud-based consumer mobile wallet that securely stores payment options, receipts and other data, for consumers to conveniently buy from ROAMwallet-enabled merchants using 1-Tap technology. Other wallets stored on the secure element of an NFC chip must await significant changes to the point-of-sale infrastructure as well as to mobile phones so that both elements support NFC payments. Unlike these offerings, ROAM’s ubiquitous mobile wallet securely stores cardholder data in the cloud, for use today on any phone, tablet, POS system or computer. ROAMwallet’s patent pending architecture also goes beyond other e-wallets to send level three and meta data about the transaction back to the merchant, and the API can be very easily incorporated by any mobile app developer to include convenient 1-Tap checkout in applications or mobile advertisements.
   
• ROAMoffers, a turn-key solution, integrated with ROAMwallet, that enables merchants and advertisers to easily create compelling mobile offers delivered to customers via e-mail or text message campaigns, banner ads, or print ads with 2D barcodes, Facebook or Twitter. ROAM reduces the steps a consumer has to take to purchase from a ROAMwallet-enabled merchant, no longer requiring a “drive to store” or “drive to web” mentality. With ROAMwallet, purchases can happen quickly and securely without consumers feeling like they are leaving the application.

Driving the mCommerce Market

Despite falling costs and huge advances in device and network capabilities, direct selling organizations and merchant service providers still struggle to support the constantly growing and evolving set of mobile phones and services. To overcome these and related challenges, ROAM has built a single development platform to create and update commerce applications that run securely on all major mobile devices, as well as all the essential services to make it easy to provision and support direct sales forces of any size.

ROAM is currently the only mCommerce platform that is device agnostic, payment instrument and provider agnostic, and network agnostic, delivering secure and convenient mobile commerce services for merchants to close sales in both the physical and virtual environments. In short, ROAM makes it easier for merchants and those who serve merchants to deliver convenient and secure commerce anywhere on virtually any mobile device. Serving distribution partners, merchants, and mobile end users, the company’s customers and partners include First Data, Chase Paymentech, Intuit, Global Payments, Sage, Ingenico and hundreds more.

ROAM is committed to building and maintaining strong relationships with its distribution partners (MSPs, SI’s, App Developers, eCommerce hosts, and large-merchant anchor clients), and to providing a superior user experience and customer service for mobile merchants and mobile consumers. Examples of how ROAM serves its customers and partners include:

• For developers, ROAM provides a set of APIs and SDKs complete with documentation and full support that allows them to incorporate secure payment and commerce functionality into mobile applications and websites.  These functions include secure checkout, and card acceptance with ROAMpay API and Swipe SDK. With ROAM, they are able to spur repeat purchases by allowing customers to save credit card information without having to worry about PCI compliance.
   
• For small merchants and mobile merchants, ROAM provides turn-key mobile card acceptance solutions and deal generation engines, such as ROAMpay and ROAMoffers. ROAM enables them to accept credit cards without investing in an expensive dedicated POS terminal, get the best interchange rates using the device they already own, and leverage mobile to market to their customer base.
   
• For large merchants and direct sales organizations, ROAM provides mobile SaaS solutions, scalable across mobile operating systems, enabling them to serve a diverse workforce with a variety of different handsets, as well as the ability to do inventory management and CRM by interfacing with their legacy systems.
   
• For consumers, ROAM provides ROAMwallet, a cloud-based customer-facing mobile wallet application that allows storage of multiple payment vehicles for secure mobile commerce with 1-tap purchasing convenience, as well as the ability to store loyalty cards and coupons, and to interface with hardware peripherals. ROAM enables consumers to get rid of their physical wallets, replacing them with ROAMwallet, a universal, all-encompassing tool for payments, whether face to face transactions, on the web, or on the go.

Bridging Physical POS and eCommerce

ROAM has developed the first mCommerce platform to enable scalable mobile applications in both physical commerce and virtual eCommerce environments, through patented mCommerce software-as-a-service, payment peripherals, and development tools for mobile commerce applications. This means that merchants can use one merchant account with the latest mobile technologies to better sell their products and services, whether for face-to-face sales or for providing remote offers to consumers’ mobile phones.

ROAM’s technology infrastructure is built around the idea that secure commerce should be able to happen anywhere, at any time, without traditional constraints of hardware and location.  To this end, the company has created a secure electronic payment and information delivery platform that can run on virtually any device, from a PC to a phone, from a dedicated POS terminal to a tablet.  ROAM has leveraged this technology to create products in markets that can use its “write once run anywhere” SaaS model with its own IDE, or it can provide SDKs and APIs for people to customize their own apps, and it can also support web applications on mobile browsers.  It really has provided a technology agnostic platform for commerce.

One of the key’s to ROAM’s technology development is the development team’s understanding of how traditional POS and eCommerce evolved, and where mobile rightly fits in the mix. Traditional Sales and POS systems were designed to facilitate transactions at a physical location.  The Point of Sale (POS) hardware (register and swipe) was optimized based on the checkout process of the storefront, and software was custom designed to share the transaction information with a centralized processing center.  In the late 1990s when eCommerce burst on the scene, companies and systems integrators began designing systems that allowed for CNP transactions, with separate checkout and fulfillment systems.  The Desktop or Laptop became the transaction mediums.  

Thus, the eCommerce Profit Center and the physical Retail Profit Center have their own infrastructures, marketing budgets, and goals.  ROAM is the first company to design mobile technology from the ground up that bridges the gap between the two and is meant to act in both physical and eCommerce environments.  

The overriding goal of ROAM’s technology development team is to ensure that consumer experiences of a brand are consistent on their mobile devices whether they are on the bus, at home, or in the store, which is what has led to the ROAM mCommerce platform and its mobile payment gateway coupled with a remote application server. ROAM’s tool set enables developers and integrators to build a secure commerce application across all devices, operating systems, and form factors.  These tools come in two flavors:

• For those that want the greatest reach and fastest time to market for the lowest cost, ROAM provides an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that creates one secure application that runs on hundreds of devices, on multiple Operating Systems at the touch of a button.
   
• For those that have already built, or are planning on building, a native application, ROAM provides a series of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on the most popular operating systems that give its clients access to its secure payment gateway and relevant procedures.

Unmatched Mobile Security

ROAM’s technology actually authenticates the physical device (a phone, or POS terminal) with an account whose credentials are stored in the cloud, locking that device to the user’s information.  ROAM’s application then accepts payment or other secure business information into the device (key entry or card swipe), and immediately encrypts it using 168 bit DES3 encryption technology (for Card Swipe, the track Data is actually encrypted in the swipe device itself, so it is never in in the open on the mobile and is only decrypted by the payment server).  ROAM then sends that information over a data network (wifi or a carrier’s data network) to its own application server. For the ROAMwallet API, the ROAM mobile server identifies the merchant app ID, the merchant, as well as the consumer and device being used and routes payment details to ROAM’s gateway for authorization and sends any other requested transaction details (SKU, # ordered, shipping info, coupon code, loyalty card, etc.) back to the merchant for fulfillment.

Trusted Independent mCommerce Platform

The industry is fragmented with many competing solutions that have conflicting business models and interests that lead to distrust and lack of critical mass. Competing payment providers or device operating system providers or mobile operators are all offering their own wallet solutions while issuers and merchant service providers are wondering what to do next. ROAM has created a truly independent mCommerce platform that is meant to be agnostic of payment types, processors, device operating systems and networks. It is a platform that can avoid conflicts of interest and build critical mass, and existing payment providers can offer it to their merchants immediately. It is designed to be the de-facto standard for delivering mobile commerce to the industry.