Unipagos changes the way Mexicans pay for goods and services

Unipagos changes the way Mexicans pay for goods and services

April 20

The Company

Unipagos mission is to provide simple and secure financial products and services to the disadvantaged sectors of society using the transformative capabilities of technology to affect social and economic change.

Unipagos is:
✓ An alternative to cash
✓ An app used by more than half a million Mexicans
✓ A way to electronically send and receive funds
✓ Freedom from relying on the country’s banks and cash

The Challenge

As CEO of Unipagos, Paul Coppinger faced a significant challenge: spinning up a unique infrastructure that would enable Mexicans from all walks of life to use technology in a way they’d never done before: sending and receiving money via their smartphones. Think PayPal, but specifically for the Mexican market.

Finding end-users and merchants willing to use the ecosystem was one thing, but Coppinger realized that he’d need to involve financial services corporations like Visa.

That would require Unipagos to comply with the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standard or PCI DSS.

When he started a business relationship with Visa, it became clear that he couldn’t just operate in the cloud. He had to have some physical infrastructure in order to accept the equipment Visa was providing.

Making it even more vital was the fact that Unipagos was doing something that was truly unique. In fact, it was something that had never been done in Visa’s history. Coppinger needed a trusted partner to make the project work, one that could rapidly host his company’s infrastructure and deliver the consistent reliability required to make Unipagos a success.

Moving Forward with Evoque Data Center Solutions

Coppinger had worked with members of the Evoque team before he founded Unipagos and knew they could meet his demanding requirements.

Coppinger expected superior service from the Evoque team to ensure that Unipagos’ half-million customers were able to access the system every minute of every day, and he got it. “Our contact in the data center has been more than willing to help any time we need anything. He’s never said ‘no’ to us on anything and, even though he has other customers to attend to whenever we need his help, he gets to us quickly.

Running a lean operation also meant Unipagos also needed Evoque’s help to maintain its data center infrastructure. “Evoque’s Remote Hands capability is critical to our success; it’s been very important and very useful to us. We won’t need it very often, but when we need it, we’re going to need it fast, and we know it’s there.”

He says Evoque’s willingness to “go the extra mile” went far beyond the company’s technical team. “Your sales executive was very helpful. Sometimes, after the sale, the salesperson disappears. But that wasn’t the case with him. I’ve always been able to reach him and usually it’s one phone call away to give me whatever solution that I need,’ Coppinger adds.

The Future

Mexico is just the start, according to Coppinger; he has significant plans to take Unipagos far beyond that one
country. In the near term, Coppinger says he’ll be working to establish relationships with other credit card companies
like MasterCard and American Express, which will require additional space in his data center configuration as his firm
continues to grow.

“I know where I’m going to put those computers as the business becomes more successful. There’s always a risk that
any transaction going through our system may process incorrectly, or that we might have a communications or
technical issue that causes us to fail.” Evoque’s superior level of reliability, he says, gives him one less thing to worry
about.

“I will be putting a lot of stuff in the cloud over time; that’s the direction in which the world is going. But with the
nature of financial information and the requirements of companies like Visa, not everything can go there. You need a
trusted partner, and that’s where I see Evoque as playing a key role in Unipagos’ success, both today and as we grow
over time.”

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