Wokingham, United Kingdom (PressExposure) May 18, 2010 -- Every Industry has its rules and regulations that appear to be designed to trip the unwary, in Ecommerce, PCI Compliancy has many smaller businesses worried for a number of reasons.
Certain banks demand that you ensure that your website and your business practices are PCI compliant in order that they will continue to support your business. In informing you of this fact few banks make it perfectly clear what PCI Compliancy is and how it is achieved.
Smaller businesses can find this very threatening as the documentation that is given as guidance is aimed to be legally accurate and cover businesses from SME up to multinational corporations. Making the process seem far more daunting than it actually is.
Simply put PCI Compliance is operating your business, and building your Ecommerce Website in compliance with the security standards set by the Payment Card Industry (The PCI). This is achieved by scanning your website every 90 days for security issues and by you filling in a self assessment questionnaire (SAQ) to determine if your business practices are compliant to the same standards.
It is possible to use the facilities provided by the bank to ensure compliancy but this is by no means necessary, especially not when there are alternatives that may be more cost effective, especially in the long run given that the scanning of your website to verify compliancy is run every 90 days and a new set of paperwork must be completed each year.
Advansys, a company who specialise in Modular and bespoke Ecommerce Solutions, provide one such alternative with a PCI compliancy service that is based around supporting your business rather than challenging it. This support initially takes the form of organising the scanning of your website and fixing any security issues or potential vulnerabilities that fall within the focus of the PCI standards. These standards are subject to changes by the PCI themselves, but Advansys are committed to ensuring that you remain compliant and will undertake to resolve any new issues that arise from later scans within the same contract.
The Self Assessment Questionnaire is another part of the PCI Compliancy process that makes it a daunting task for many as it has many questions that have little meaning to a smaller enterprise, and is written in language that is painfully precise. Advansys are one of the few companies providing PCI Compliancy who have taken the time to effectively translate the document so that not only can the document be explained but the knowledge from this document can be used to retain a compliant status as the business grows.
So if you've had the scary bank letter and wish to talk to a more level headed team about PCI Compliancy, give Advansys a call to sort it out.