TokenEx Uses Multi-Variant Tokenization To Streamline Data Flows

Keep it simple. That guidance, handed down by parents since cavemen days, also applies to the cutting edge of digital data technology and, by extension, commerce and payments.

That includes tokenization, too — specifically, Multi-Variant Tokenization, a new proprietary technology from TokenEx that was designed to enhance how businesses operate and interact with sensitive data.

The role that tokenization can play in payments is the foundation of an upcoming PYMNTS digital discussion scheduled for Sept. 13. During that webinar, Karen Webster will take a deep dive into “Simplifying the Tokenization of Diverse Data” with Alex Pezold, CEO at data protection platform TokenEx.

Data Everywhere

Data is being used everywhere and for everything — that may seem obvious, but it always bears repeating. And data has never been more valuable — not only for retail and payments, but for healthcare and other areas, including sense of self, given how we define and group ourselves online and elsewhere according to prioritized attributes.

More specifically for payments and commerce, companies of all sizes — including large enterprises — are looking for better ways to get paid — and tapping into the power of mobile to access digital payment streams. It’s all made possible by tokenization, which has a future in not only securing transactions, but also in making them frictionless.

In fact, 75 percent of U.S. customers can be tokenized, according to Mastercard data that is part of the new PYMNTS “Tapping into the Tokenized Future” report. Tokenization is emerging as an option that will eventually be mandated, once all issuers are ready for token on file.

But the growth of the digital ecosystem adds transaction challenges. That’s because organizations keep expanding the ways that customers can buy, which results in more complexity for the process of mapping and securing sensitive data. As if that weren’t enough, those firms must comply with various state, federal and industry-specific compliance rules, while multi-national organizations have the added pressure of needing to comply with significant data privacy and data residency requirements.

That’s where Multi-Variant tokenization comes in.

Multi-Variant Tokenization allows a company’s sensitive data to be identified, mapped and secured as it moves across various environments, providing continuous, unparalleled security, while ensuring that an organization’s operations remain uninterrupted. As a result, these companies can generate higher returns while cutting costs and reducing compliance burdens at the same time.

Tokenization Promise

In short, multi-variant tokenization technology enables the following scenario: Any sensitive data element can be identified, mapped and secured as it moves across various environments, providing an unparalleled level of security continuity so an organization can continue to do business as usual. At the same time, this data is generating increasing returns and reducing costs as well as compliance burdens.

This may sound too good to be true, or too easily done. In some ways, it is. That’s why, during the Sept. 13 PYMNTs digital discussion, Pezold will detail the challenges of managing disparate data sets within an organization — even if that enterprise relies on multiple systems with differing nomenclature, and with confusing duplicates.

Agnostic Process

He will discuss how TokenEx technology can recognize those variances and work with them — to put it more technically, providing an abstraction layer and keeping things there while normalizing and mapping the data elements. It’s an agnostic process able to operate outside the bounds of specific tokenization standards from payment networks and organizations.

“A lot of what we are doing is on the back end,” he said, “server-to-server integration.” He added that if TokenEx decided to work more closely according to the parameters set by those payments groups, “we would be stuck with their changes and their rules.” And that would frustrate companies seeking to increase their tokenization efforts and limit their freedom for innovation.

“What we are trying to do is stay out of their way,” he said. In fact, when Pezold’s company works on tokenization with companies, TokenEx “is right there alongside them, one step away.”

The PYMNTS digital discussion also will cover such topics as how to craft a flexible data protection strategy that can protect against future data privacy and compliance issues, and the need to protect additional sensitive data sets that go beyond payment card information.