As a Technology Company, Kartuku Develops End-to-End Electronic Payment Solutions

Not many companies in the Indonesian technology industry are trying to build their own systems and capabilities. my card is one exception. With the vision of its CTO, Rama Notowidigdo, who wants local companies to be more than just "system integrators", Kartuku is trying to build an electronic payment solution. end-to-end based on cloud. Kartuku currently controls 31 percent of the total 800 EDCs spread across Indonesia.

Kartuku builds electronic payment solutions from upstream to downstream, from self-assembly multibank EDCs that compliance with various security standards, cooperation with the majority of banks acquirer, and build a cloud-based system and customer service that can be accessed 24/7 for its clients. When it was first built in 2001, Kartuku was in the "system integrator" category. Now Kartuku builds everything on its own.

Although it focuses on services that use cards (debit, credit, prepaid), it does not mean that Kartuku does not serve payment transactions for Internet-based services. Kartuku also builds electronic payment systems for Internet services, for example McDelivery Indonesia, as part of the integrated payment system for McDonald's. The startups assisted by Kartuku include Ruma, which targets traditional consumers.

As revealed by Rama in a media interview at the Kartuku office in Kuningan, the services provided by Kartuku are:

• build software as a service (SaaS) – transaction management services, mini ATMs, e-commerce, Bill Payment, Rewards Management, distribution of pension funds, prepaid and top-up.
• build platform as a service (PaaS) – queuing services, reconciliation, virtual accounts, account management, identity access management, remote software download, data store terminal
• build infrastructure as a service (IaaS) – leading network with visuals and sumo logic

Rama wants his technical team to be engineer, not just programmers so they can have a full understanding of what they do. Kartuku itself is undergoing a major expansion, including building a technical office in Bandung which is closer to campuses. Currently they have 110 employees who are under the IT and system development team and are still recruiting more engineers for the system scalable.

Kartuku's clients have been corporations (B2B) and in the future, Rama said that his party would target the potential SME market. Technologically, his party said they were ready, but they had to be more familiar with market conditions and what strategies to educate the market. This step is in line with Bank Indonesia's vision to create cashless society which allows all transactions to be carried out without involving cash.

Regarding the latest technologies that are being widely discussed, such as mPOS and Apple Pay, Rama answered that technology is not a problem and they have the capability to implement it, but more importantly how to build a reliable system and how people want to use and adopt this. Kartuku is now more focused on building a system network by building endpoint at various points making it easier to use and more reliable.