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Semafone and Cognia Partner to Bring PCI DSS Security to Call Centers

July 2, 2014         By: Melanie Macinas

US call centers will soon be able to protect sensitive customer details when taking debit and credit card payments via phone thanks to a partnership between UK-based industry leaders Semafone and Cognia.

Secure telephone payments company Semafone will combine its technology and skills with communications intelligence and analytics solutions provider Cognia to offer a new suite of solutions allowing contact centers to take customer card payments in compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

This hosted payment service will also significantly reduce the operational limitations and security costs linked with traditional methods such as pause-and-resume recording.

The breed of solutions will include DTMF-masking, automated IVR payment processing, agent monitoring and recording, and secure archiving for legacy ‘at-risk’ media—all compliant with the PCI.

The companies also plan to launch a combination of on-premise and cloud based deployment models for ultimate local to global scalability.

Stressing that card payment scams are a mounting problem in the United States, Tim Critchley, CEO of Semafone, said, “Our partnership with Cognia marks another milestone in the battle against card fraud and in the protection of our customers’ brand reputations.”

Curtis Nash, CEO of Cognia, commented, “The crucial element in this alliance is about delivering more choice and greater flexibility to customers.”