From Manual Processes to Seamless Payments:
BISM Boosts Efficiency with PayTrace
About BISM
Blind Industries & Services of Maryland (BISM) is a non-profit organization that provides employment, education, and rehabilitation to blind and visually impaired individuals. With its headquarters in Baltimore, BISM serves thousands of individuals annually and operates manufacturing and service businesses that create meaningful job opportunities across four manufacturing facilities and eight physical stores.
The organization’s revenue comes primarily from selling products and services, such as office and janitorial supplies, manufactured by its blind and visually impaired workforce. BISM also earns income through service contracts, rehabilitation programs, and philanthropic grants and donations.
The Challenge
“BISM was juggling multiple systems and a manual payment process that frustrated staff. It was clear they needed one payment processor that could integrate across platforms and processes, delivering automation from authorization to reconciliation.”
– GRANT WASCH Implementation Advisor, Epic Solution Partners
Like many growing organizations, BISM faced significant challenges with its outdated systems and manual processes. Their accounting system, Microsoft Dynamics GP, was nearing its end of life, plus they managed four additional systems for various business processes. As can happen so often when using a variety of non-integrated systems, BISM was experiencing reporting issues and inconsistent pricing between its stores and e-commerce website.
BISM was also struggling with a time-consuming, manual credit card processing workflow. Their customer service and finance teams had to enter payments manually, one by one, through a virtual terminal. The process was not only inefficient for the organization, but also a hassle for repeat customers who had to provide their card information every time they placed an order.
To complicate matters further, as they were upgrading their website to a new e-commerce solution, EvolutionX, they discovered a broken process: the website couldn’t capture payments after an item was shipped. The site would authorize the payment, but lacked the ability to charge the card once the order shipped due to a lack of integration between Microsoft and EvolutionX.
The Solution
BISM decided the best way to address their challenges was to consolidate their five separate systems into a unified ERP and integrated e -commerce platform. They selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central due to its ability to handle the processes previously spread out among disparate systems, but also because of Business Central’s enhanced accessibility features for screen readers and other tools, which was a top priority for BISM’s blind and visually impaired employees.
As a long-time PayTrace customer, BISM was also able to keep their existing payment processing account, thanks to PayTrace’s embedded ERP solution for Business Central. This eliminated the need for finding a new payment provider, which saved time and money, while reducing the learning curve for the team.
BISM worked closely with PayTrace to adopt Trace AR for Business Central, which embeds seamless payment and accounts receivable (AR) automation, as well as payment batch reconciliation, directly within Business Central, addressing the unique challenges faced by BISM.
“PayTrace’s Business Central integration gave us exactly what we needed:
keep our PayTrace relationship, store cards securely, pre authorize, and auto capture at invoicing—
inside Business Central. That depth of integration by PayTrace has greatly streamlined our processes.”
– HOLLY STANLEY CFO, BISM
The Results
“We are extremely satisfied with the solution and the support from PayTrace, who have proven to be a flexible partner willing to accommodate our complex and unique scenarios. PayTrace’s continuous involvement, product innovations, and dedication to meeting our needs have been invaluable to the success of moving to Business Central.”
– HOLLY STANLEY CFO, BISM
Consolidating systems to centralize data in Business Central has significantly streamlined BISM’s business. And adopting Trace AR for Business Central has ensured that payment information from the website and the ERP is unified in one system, providing a single source of truth. This has helped save countless hours for customer service and accounting team members. Now, when a sales order is created in Business Central, the payment is preauthorized with a securely stored credit card. Once the order is invoiced, the payment is automatically captured, saving valuable time and protecting revenue.
Regarding the integration issue with the e-commerce website and Business Central, PayTrace developed an additional API enhancement to specifically handle the integration. This updated API allows the authorization token from the website to be stored securely in Business Central, enabling BISM to charge the payment after the order has been shipped and invoiced.
Additionally, BISM can now securely store multiple credit cards on file for repeat customers, which makes the checkout process faster and more convenient for everyone involved. Plus, storing customer profiles on PayTrace’s secure servers helps BISM meet PCI DSS compliance requirements.
Transforming AR, Payments, and Customer Experience
By moving to Business Central and using Trace AR, BISM reduced manual efforts by 60%,
saving both time and money, and has also been able to:
Improve customer service
Automate accounts receivable
BISM can automatically send invoices and reminders that include digital payment options that let their customers pay the way they prefer: credit card, debit card or ACH payments.
Provide omni-channel commerce
For their 8 physical stores, BISM is working with Insight Works to provide a Point-of-Sale (POS) solution integrated with Business Central.
Save money
PayTrace’s solution helps BISM submit enhanced data with each transaction, whether it originates through Business Central, the website or POS, helping BISM qualify for reduced Level 2 and 3 interchange rates and assisting with CEDP compliance.
Accommodate complex needs
PayTrace’s willingness to develop a new API for BISM’s website allowed the project to move forward and ensured a seamless process.
