Project details
The Brief
Perlas Group provides various financial services, including:
- collection utility fees and other taxes, including road vignettes, fishing permits, park visitor tickets;
- cash transfers, cash withdrawals, deposits;
- prepaid phone bill replenishment;
- lotteries;
- insurance brokerage services;
- credits.
Perlas Group has a well-developed network of terminals where most of the above services are available. The terminals can be found in almost every supermarket or store in the country, which is very convenient for people as this also guarantees that financial services are available outside usual business hours.
The terminals were a timely and proven solution. Over the last decade, smartphones and tablets have become an essential part of our everyday lives, and many everyday affairs are handled using them. This is how the idea of the Perlas GO application was born – “move the terminal to a mobile phone,” i.e. services available at terminals to be made available on mobile devices. The system of commercial services, which supports the entire network of terminals and the services provided in them, has already been developed. All that remains is to make it available on mobile devices.
What We Did
The Perlas GO application has a separate backend system that “cooperates” with the Commercial Services system through the API. All payment data is transferred to the Commercial Services system and the existing Commercial Services solution is used for settlements with service providers, partners and intermediaries. Data on invoices that can be paid by Perlas GO users is periodically sent from the commercial services system to the Perlas GO system.
In parallel, another subsystem was developed for loading data from service providers. Vendors can transfer billing data both in files and through web services. Because service providers provide data in a variety of ways (e.g., file formats vary), a mechanism has been developed in the data loading subsystem to allow the configuration to describe the format of the data provided. This means that the data can now be presented in a variety of ways without the need for any software changes.
Some of the main app features include:
- Users can scan invoices or enter data manually;
- An unlimited list of service providers;
- Service providers can upload specific data into the system regarding the payments;
- Users can create recurring payments;
- Automatic payment data updates from service providers;
- Users can pay for the entire list of payments they have created or separate individual invoices in it;
- Users can create an unlimited number of payment lists and group them more easily;
- Users can pay either via e-bank systems or in cash at Perlas terminals all over the country;
- Users will be reminded of the invoices due and provided a detailed payment history.
The PerlasGO application is integrated into the PIS (Payment Initiation Service) system, which is being currently developed and allows payments through banks operating in Lithuania.
The Result
The Perlas GO app is available in the Apple, Google and Huawei app stores and it can be used to pay for a wide range of services. Everything in one place, at the touch of a button. The app has also made it possible to reach younger tech-savvy users who had not used Perlas terminals before.
