Client & Product
Shenzhen Xinguodu Technology Co., Ltd (Xinguodu) is a technology company dedicated to the research, development and manufacture of
payment terminals (POS) and other technical services associated with electronic payments.
The T2 payment terminal, developed by Xinguodu, has a significant install base in China. The T2 is fully-equipped and set up to support all the most common payment scenarios: contact and contactless payments, PIN-free payments for smaller amounts, electronic signature.
In order to bring the T2 terminal to the international market, Xinguodu decided to obtain
AMEX Expresspay L2 certification. Expresspay certification ensures interoperability between the T2 terminal and any contactless AMEX card, worldwide.
Challenge
Xinguodu needed a trusted laboratory with which it had already partnered on successful certification projects in the local market, and which was able to carry out the tests needed to obtain AMEX certification. The main requirements of the project were:
- American Express accreditation for carrying out Expresspay L2 tests.
- Experience and knowledge necessary to overcome technical difficulties in the quality assurance phase, avoiding problems during the official Type Approval tests
- Technical capacity to carry out a fast evaluation while maintaining the highest quality standards.
Solution
Xinguodu picked the Applus+ laboratory in Shanghai to carry out the test campaign. This was based on Xinguodu's positive assessment of Applus+ engineers' knowledge and experience, as demonstrated in previous test campaigns on Xinguodu products for other schemes such as
Visa PayWave.
Applus+ had already worked with Xinguodu during the lab's AMEX accreditation process. Applus+ used the Xinguodu G3 terminal for the pilot program needed to obtain accreditation. Thanks to this successfully completed process, Applus+ became the first laboratory in mainland China to achieve accreditation for Expresspay L2 terminals.
Different test tools: one of the main challenges during the Quality Assurance phase was that Xinguodu had used a different test tool during the terminal's development from the one Applus+ uses. To resolve this, Applus+ needed to check any strange behavior or problem with the product to ensure that it wasn't the result of using a different tool during its development.
This analysis was made possible by the Applus+ engineers' technical expertise. Our experts didn't limit themselves to checking whether the terminal passed a test or not, but rather they analyzed the aims of each test and AMEX's implementation requirements. This way, Applus+ could verify that the tool correctly implemented the tests and that the terminal successfully passed them.
After completing the QA sessions, it was demonstrated that the tool Applus used, Galitt, hadn't added any complexity or problems into the development and certification process. In fact, the experience with the new tool was very positive for both parties.
Coordination: another key aspect of the Quality Assurance phase was the level of coordination between the main parties involved: the developer (Xinguodu), the laboratory (Applus+), the certifier (American Express) and the test tool manufacturer (Galitt).
Xinguodu placed full trust in the feedback received from Applus+ Laboratories and moved quickly to fix problems found during the Quality Assurance phase. The use of Galitt's tool and close cooperation with American Express allowed for quick clarifications and improvements to be made to the testing process, which in turn led to easier device debugging.
Despite being Applus+ Laboratories Shanghai's first official AMEX project, the certification process was satisfactorily concluded thanks to the great technical ability of the Applus+ functional testing teams, their prior experience dealing with Xinguodu's products, and the good relations between the two companies.