Problem Statement
Context
Acquirers, also known as Resellers, are Visa’s direct customers. They act as intermediaries, providing online payment infrastructure to their own customers — the merchants. By leveraging Visa’s network, acquirers enable millions of merchants to accept secure and seamless digital payments.
Onboarding is the very first interaction between CyberSource and an acquirer. This moment sets the tone for the relationship — and it needs to be simple, fast, and trustworthy. Delivering a best-in-class onboarding experience was critical to building confidence and unlocking long-term value for both acquirers and their merchants.
Key Challenges
Scalability
The onboarding process was lengthy and inefficient, often taking 7–8 months to complete.
As more acquirers entered the pipeline, timelines stretched even further due to limited resources, creating major scalability issues that made it difficult to onboard new acquirers efficiently.
Unmanaged Internal Workload
The main friction lay within internal teams. CDMs, product managers, developers, and testers faced heavy workloads, often handling multiple acquirer requests at once. Communication was fragmented across email threads, causing misalignment, inefficiencies, and delays that further extended onboarding timelines.