Going PayCentrix

More than 60 billion checks, using Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
symbology, are written annually in the United States. For the last 30 years,
MICR check forms were preprinted with the other details filled in later on.
Desktop publishing with laser printers of the entire checks has improved the
process. Every business can now create a negotiable check from a blank piece of
security paper on site in minutes, across location(s). This process greatly
reduces both the document check cost and the associated labor involved in the
check issuance process.

Check processing software is a part of the process of check creation. The
software controls the arrangement of the variable data on the check form, the
digitized logo, the signature(s) and the MICR line. Create-A-Check offers
products and solutions for securely adding functions for check-writing and
payment management to the existing processes of an organization.

Business objectives and challenges

Create-a-Check chose Systime as its technology partner for creating a new
Web-based financial processing system –Paycentrex. The Systime team consisted
of 11 consultants including a project manager, one technical lead and nine
senior developers who specialized in developing Internet solutions for various
industry segments. The Paycentrex project for Create-a-Check commenced in July
2001.

The project was targeted to achieve the following objectives:
	To develop a Web-based, distributed environment for the payment requirements of an organization and to monitor operations effectively.
	The objective is to develop an advanced money transaction system incorporating electronic funds transfer and automatic check clearance.
	To develop an enterprise-wide system for printing checks, invoices and other documents
	To help create a computer system that’s "easy to use" yet having a structured security system to control access to the system.
	The system should also be able to easily interface with the available hardware and financial application software of the user.
	Post-processing features such as positive pay for bank-client fraud prevention processing.
	System should also be modular and enable new features to be easily added when required.

System selection process

Prior to developing a new web based payment processing system,
Create-a-Check had developed a system based on the client-server architecture.
As the market for payment processing systems grew, Create-a-Check felt the need
to increase its product line to introduce a Web-based system.

Create-a-Check commenced a technical evaluation process of various software
consulting companies to design and develop the Web based Payment Processing
system. It’s focus was to rapidly develop an easy-to-use Web based system.

Systime had the right mix of functional and technical skills, the required
resources, and industry knowledge to help Create-a-Check develop their product
on time and within the allocated budget. Create-a-Check relied on Systime’s
project management, technical, functional, change management, communication and
coordination skills to move their organization forward into the new millennium.

Solution

Systime provided the team infrastructure to assist in project management,
detailed design, development and rollout of the Paycentrex system. The following
modules were developed for the Paycentrex system:

Login and Sessions Manager:
	Every login attempt is tracked and an authentication failure redirects the user back to the login screen
	The username is automatically suspended if any user crosses the number of invalid attempts
	More than one instance of a username is not allowed
	On successful login the user is presented with navigation tree, appropriate to his/her profile
	Every single page request passes through login verification till the end of session
	A session ends when the user explicitly logs off the system or the session is invalidated automatically after preset inactivity period

Activity logger
	Activity Logger keeps track of each and every activity in a Paycentrex system.
	The user level logging can be briefly explained as maintaining a detail log of session activity i.e. the session start time and the end time with IP address uniquely identifying the client machine, host name of the client machine, username and the login status. The password is also logged when any invalid login attempt is recorded hence keeping a trace of every attempt to break into the Paycentrex system

License Manager
	The server modules are separate entities installed on a Paycentrex system
	The output engine and OE modules are separately registered on a remote machine
	The output engine sends registration information to Paycentrex server when it connects for the first time to the server

Connection Pooling
Connections to the database are managed by connection pool module. Following are some of the parameters that have to be set in the connection pool configuration file:
		Initial number of connections to be opened and maintained by the pool.
		Maximum size of connection pool, which can also be set to unlimited.
		The number of uses for a single connection before it is automatically closed.
		The JDBC Connection parameters like driver name, login and password specific to the database.
		The idle timeout for every connection opened in the pool.

Request manager
	Handles request from the client and sends response back to it.
	The request manager first gives the control to login & session manager.
	Once the login is verified and activity is logged the control is given to web agent which returns back the response.

Web agent
	The main functionality of web agent is to handle request from request manager and return appropriate response.
	The web agent will check if the request is to display static xml or to execute an external module.

Business router
	The Web Agent calls the Business Router. The Business Router will instantiate the required module and call the process method.

Transform engine
The Transform Engines job is
	To get the semi-processed response i.e. XML.
	Apply appropriate labels based on the language setting.
	Transform XML into HTML by applying the appropriate XSL.
	Return processed response i.e.. HTML.

Account manager
Allows the user to Add, Remove and Edit the following Profiles:
Company   Bank   Bank Account   Action Type   Executed Tasks   System related settings

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