Today (June 29), MasterCard announced the integration of its Simplify Commerce solution with Microsoft Dynamics AX, their cloud-based ERP solution, in order to bring secure online payments to 13 markets around the globe.

As a result of this collaboration, Simplify Commerce, MasterCard’s cloud-based payments platform, will give Microsoft Dynamics' 20,000+ customers access to one system that connects their end-to-end planning with online commerce sales.

"This gives those customers the ability to effortlessly enable their payments within the system. They don't have to do an additional integration, which is a spot of needed improvement from the past," Debbie Barta, Simplify Commerce Global Lead of MasterCard, told Karen Webster in an interview.

Essentially, this integration enables payments to be sent or embedded into the overall payments flow. Barta explains a bit more about what that means for its users.

"We allow the payments capability to be seamlessly embedded within the Microsoft Dynamics software platform. In the past, merchants would go to Dynamics and get all of the different functions they were looking for, and integrate separately. Now, it's part of the core software," she said.

As for the benefits of this partnership, she lays out three specifically:

Easy Integration : Businesses can add payments to Dynamics AX to begin accepting and managing online and call center payments within their existing operation.

Seamless Updates : Customers will stay up to date on the latest developments in the payments industry. Through the integration, users will automatically take advantage of coordinated updates from MasterCard and Microsoft.

Expansive Global Footprint: Simplify Commerce provides connectivity to acquirers worldwide through a single connection point.

"We have a lot of applications for this for multinational relationships. With MasterCard in particular, clearly we've got the Simplify Commerce platform serving the small to medium size enterprises directly through our platform. But we also have this connector capability that can help merchants that are of the medium to large size variety as well," Barta said.

To be specific on which countries this solution will soon be available in, it will be offered in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, The Netherlands and the U.K. Additional market availability is planned over time.

“Businesses need to be able to sell to their customers wherever they are without headache or hassle,” Barta said. “We want to make life easier for businesses as they grow, and we look forward to working with Microsoft to bring safe, simple and secure electronic payments to more businesses around the world.”

On the merchant side, Barta explained that this gives them the chance to house everything in one platform and can implement payment systems for CNP transactions as it's ideal for eCommerce operations. It also is designed to simplify PCI compliance relief, and proving reconciliation back immediately.

"We help not just the merchants but also Microsoft's partners who are working with merchants by enabling the implementation to be seamless and that the upgrades are all automatic," Barta said.

Barta emphasized that MasterCard is providing the technology that makes the link between Dynamics and payments easier – connecting to all of the “great payments partners that we know and love on our backend," adding that MasterCard is integrated to well over 100 acquirers, globally. The value, Barta said, is in providing a global, single seamless payments platform to Microsoft Dynamics customers.