Most teams don't think about token portability until it’s a late addition to a weekly stand-up agenda. This constraint ties tokens to specific providers, a major roadblock to operating a multi-PSP strategy.
Token migrations then become cost centers, and the flexibility that was promised is now a constant negotiation about usage fees. Even worse, existing customers are asked to re-enter payment information when a new PSP is added.
Maxio, a billing and financial reporting software platform that serves B2B subscription businesses, identified this risk early. Long before token migrations were needed, and during a time when geographic expansion and alternative payment methods were being planned, Maxio’s tech stack began evolving to work with more acquirers, processors, and issuing banks.
Jon Cochrane, GM of Partnerships and Payments at Maxio, said the team wanted to maintain the ability to swap out or shift around the underlying foundation based on the needs of new geographic markets.
“Different geographic markets have different needs, and we knew there would be multiple additions to our payment stack as we grew with our customers,” Cochrane said. “We wanted to maintain the ability to swap out pieces of our stack with no customer pain.”
Maxio didn’t approach adding a payment vault with the typical vendor evaluation because the goal wasn’t just to add another tool. The Maxio team was on a mission to remove a structural constraint from their tech stack.
“We realized we had to have an international footprint,” Cochrane says. “And then we realized our tech stack doesn’t go beyond the borders of North America. This was limiting who we could service.”
It was this realization that kicked off a search for a piece of infrastructure that Maxio could build on top of. Cochrane said they had several non-negotiables with an independent third-party tokenization provider:
Each requirement was load-bearing. Miss one, and the entire structure would buckle.
After defining the requirements, Maxio formed a cross-functional team with product, engineering, and Cochrane as the executive sponsor.
With Basis Theory identified as the solution, Maxio began treating third-party tokenization as part of their infrastructure, and not a customer-facing feature.
“We knew there could be instances where we had to upgrade back-end portions of our infrastructure to facilitate growth. It was critical any upgrades occur with zero disruption to our customers and most importantly, their customers,” Cochrane says. “Basis Theory was a key part of making sure zero disruption occurred.”
When it came time to upgrade its payment infrastructure, Maxio only needed to notify customers of the change, with no action required on their end. This was possible because Maxio leveraged Basis Theory.
“Many providers hold tokens hostage in an attempt to prevent you from leaving their platform,” Cochrane explains. “Because we had Basis Theory in place, this was a non-issue. We could simply focus on creating the best product experience for our customers. Without Basis Theory, that was a potential seven-figure problem for us.”
With Basis Theory in place as an independent tokenization provider, Cochrane says Maxio could avoid any vendor lock-in, expand into new regions, add payment methods, and avoid customer disruptions.
“So now when we think about our payment tech stack and where we want to go, whether that be regions, methods, currencies, Basis Theory has been a great partner,” Cochrane says.
Cochrane says anyone who wants to embed payments needs to use a third-party tokenization service.
“Basis Theory has been too valuable to not do that [have them in our tech stack],” Cochrane says. “And on top of that, we still haven’t had a product problem. The team is pleasant and reasonable to work with, and the product just works.”