Payment Orchestration Platform BlueSnap Names Henry Helgeson as CEO

Payment orchestration platform BlueSnap has a new chief executive.

Henry Helgeson, a 25-year veteran of the payments sector and founder of the payments company Cayan (now Tsys), will become BlueSnap’s CEO and help boost its growth by focusing on middle-market merchants, the company said Monday (March 18) in a news release.

“With increasing frequency, companies across a wide range of industries recognize the critical link between enhanced payments capabilities, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth,” Helgeson said in a statement.

“With an expansive network of financial institutions and an existing suite of innovative payments, billing, and invoicing solutions, BlueSnap is well-positioned and primed to expand the footprint of our global payment orchestration platform around the world,” he added.

In addition to his time with Cayan — which was sold to Global Payments for $1.05 billion in 2018 — Helgeson has served on the boards of payments and billing firms that include BillingTree, Infinicept and Payroc.

According to the release, he also hopes to expand BlueSnap’s network of partnerships with independent software vendors (ISVs) “who are looking to generate revenue, improve customer experience for financial services, and increase their product value for their customer base.”

PYMNTS explored the concept of orchestration last year, noting in the report “A Primer on Payments Orchestration: What It Is — and Is Not” that the practice can help both merchants and merchant aggregators surmount the technological barriers of creating their own payments infrastructure.

“Building and maintaining an adaptive payments engine in-house is often a burden that grows exponentially,” that report said. “Organizations are not just maintaining existing connections but also tracking — or ignoring — new entrants and enhancements that could benefit their businesses.”

Orchestration, which involves the process of facilitating routing and other activities across a number of providers, can help determine “which pieces fit where … and [client firms] don’t have to manage 15 things by themselves,” Andy McHale, senior director, product and market strategy at Spreedly, told PYMNTS in an interview on the topic published in December.

As that report noted, orchestration can come with its own complexities, considering the fact that platforms need to adapt to whether clients are digital goods merchants or marketplaces, or where omnichannel commerce is a major contributor to business.

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