The Payments Playbook for Software Platforms / ISVs

Wind River Payments is a multi‑generational, family‑owned payment processor based in Madison, Wisconsin, with more than 25 years of experience helping businesses and software providers. More specifically, we integrate payment processing into software platforms to enable their merchants to accept payments.

We are a registered ISO/MSP of Pinnacle Bank, a Tennessee bank, dba Synovus Bank. We also operate as an Independent Sales Organization (ISO) of Fiserv Canada Ltd.

We have a deep understanding of SaaS and integrated software platforms, and our capabilities go beyond simply enabling payment acceptance. We help our partners turn payments into a strategic advantage. At the heart of our company is the “After the Handshake” promise, a commitment to long‑term partnerships built on dedicated service, proactive support, transparent pricing, and accountability. We ensure software providers and their customers are supported well after implementation, not just at the point of sale.

Wind River’s integration is designed to integrate payments directly into your software using a simplified API and workflows that align with how your platform already operates. We work closely with your team to integrate payment acceptance into key touchpoints (such as ecommerce, invoicing, payment portals, point‑of‑sale, or call‑center workflows) so users can initiate and complete transactions without leaving your application. This approach minimizes development and support burden for your team while delivering a seamless, fully integrated payment experience for your customers.

In existing partner relationships, payment methods that are commonly implemented are:

• In-person payments via customer-facing devices integrated directly into your software
• ACH payments
• Phone payments
• Mobile payments/mobile wallets
• eCommerce/customer-portal payments fully embedded into quote/order/payment flows

We focus on enabling “how your customers want to pay,” including modern acceptance options and, where relevant, industry-specific transaction needs such as HSA/FSA-eligible payments.

Security is a key component of our integration philosophy. Wind River handles payment security and PCI compliance by designing integrations that minimize risk and reduce PCI scope for software providers and their customers. Transactions are processed through PCI‑compliant gateways and card information is protected through end‑to‑end encryption and tokenization.

Wind River manages the ongoing compliance requirements, risk monitoring, and fraud oversight, while guiding your merchants through simplified PCI validation rather than full certification. This approach delivers high-standard security while removing much of the operational and compliance burden from software providers.

We take a true partnership approach to our relationship with our software partners. That includes utilizing a simplified API integration, managing customer underwriting and onboarding, providing your customers with a dedicated relationship manager, creating sales and marketing resources to accelerate adoption, program reporting, and sharing revenue with you.

Revenue share is structured to be transparent and sustainable, based on the portion of processing fees generated above the underlying card brand costs, and is designed to scale as adoption and transaction volume grow - turning payments into a recurring, long‑term revenue stream rather than a one‑time add‑on.