IBM IOD 2010: Visa heralded as BI innovator

Visa has been awarded an accolade by IBM in recognition of its leadership when it comes to information management and business analytics.

The card payments giant was given the Information on Demand 2010 Innovation Award this week at Big Blue's business analytics conference in Las Vegas.

Visa won the award for demonstrating innovation in the way it handles vast volumes of complex data there are more than 1.8 billion Visa cards in operation at present to prevent fraud, boost growth and enhance the payment experience for customers. More than 100 billion transactions, equating to more than $4.8 trillion in value, are powered each year by the company's VisaNet global network.

By analysing trends and gaining valuable insight into business data, Visa is able to look at each transaction and make decisions accordingly, claimed chief information officer (CIO) Mike Dreyer, who took to the stage to tell delegates how this theory works in practice.

"We think of ourselves as a payments technology company We continue to make technical innovations," he said.

"We apply innovation from an IT standpoint in a very disciplined and focused manner," he added before going on to cite an example where Visa used data analysis to deduce that the instances of fraud below $25 was very scarce. As a result, the company introduced a swipe and go functionality for transactions below that value.

"It's one of the best uses of information I've seen," Dreyer said. "It's a winner for everyone."

In another example, Dreyer said that Visa have ascertained that 92 per cent of transactions in India are still cash-based.

Given the country is more likely to invest in its mobile rather than fixed-line infrastructure going forward, Visa must respond to this with the services it offers and the form factors it targets, according to Dreyer.