Capturing first-hand perspectives from Independent Software Vendors to understand how software businesses serve merchants, integrate payment capabilities, evaluate payment providers, and make partnership decisions across selected European markets.
Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) play an increasingly important role in how businesses access software and payment capabilities.
Rather than purchasing payment solutions separately, many merchants and businesses access payment functionality through the software platforms they already use for activities such as point-of-sale, retail management, hospitality management, booking, inventory, customer engagement, accounting, and business operations.
For payment providers, understanding the ISV ecosystem requires more than identifying software companies. It requires understanding which ISVs serve relevant merchant segments, what software products they develop, how payments are integrated into those products, which providers they work with, and who influences or makes payment-provider decisions.
For this study, the client sought to refine its go-to-market strategy for the ISV market by developing a clearer understanding of the software businesses operating across selected European markets.
The research focused on ISVs that owned and developed their core software products or SaaS platforms, served established business customers, and had live relationships or integrations with payment providers.
Vertex Expert Network supported the initiative by identifying and recruiting professionals whose companies, responsibilities, and experience aligned directly with the client’s research requirements.
The objective was to provide the client with access to professionals working within relevant ISVs across key European markets.
The research focused on understanding:
- The types of ISVs operating across the target markets
- The merchant and business segments they primarily serve
- The software categories and solutions they develop
- How payment acceptance is incorporated into their products
- Which PSPs, acquirers, and payment providers they currently work with
- The payment scenarios supported through their software
- How payment-provider partnerships are evaluated and managed
- The roles involved in payment-provider decisions
- The product, technical, operational, and commercial considerations influencing provider relationships
The study specifically targeted ISVs across the Nordics, Italy, and Germany, with the Nordic market structured to provide representation across individual Nordic countries.
The research was designed to help the client better understand the ISV market structure, payment ecosystem, provider relationships, and decision-making dynamics that could inform its go-to-market approach.
Vertex applied a highly specific recruitment framework to identify professionals working within qualifying software businesses.
The target organizations were required to operate as Independent Software Vendors, meaning they develop, own, and sell or license their own software product or SaaS platform.
The screening framework specifically distinguished ISVs from other types of technology businesses, including:
- Systems integrators / IT consulting firms, which primarily integrate third-party software solutions for clients
- Value-added resellers / VARs, which primarily resell third-party software with added support services
- Managed service providers / MSPs, which primarily manage IT infrastructure, applications, or cloud environments on behalf of clients
- Custom software development agencies, which build bespoke software for clients that is not sold to other customers
- Other software businesses that did not meet the required ISV definition
This ensured that the research focused specifically on companies with ownership and control over their core software products rather than businesses primarily implementing, reselling, or managing third-party technology.
The screening also required participating companies to demonstrate that they own and develop the core software products or solutions they sell to customers.
Companies that primarily resold, distributed, or implemented third-party software were excluded from the study.
Understanding the ISV Customer Market
The recruitment framework also examined the types of merchants and businesses served by participating ISVs.
Target customer segments included:
- Retailers
- Restaurants, cafés, bars, and hospitality businesses
- Hotels and accommodation providers
- Grocery, convenience, and food stores
- Beauty, wellness, and personal services businesses
- Leisure, entertainment, and events businesses
- Healthcare, clinics, and appointment-based businesses
- Professional or business services
- Ecommerce and online-only sellers
- Public sector / education
The research also required participating companies to have an established customer base, with at least 50 merchants or business customers using their software.
This helped ensure that the study focused on operationally active ISVs with meaningful exposure to established merchant and business segments.
The research explored the types of software products being developed by participating ISVs and the role payment capabilities play within those products.
Relevant software categories included:
- POS / EPOS / ECR software
- Restaurant, café, or hospitality management software
- Retail management software
- Booking, appointment, or reservation software
- Inventory, stock, or product management software
- Loyalty, CRM, or customer engagement software
- Business management / operations software
- Accounting, invoicing, or finance software
- Ecommerce or online marketplace software
- Generic business productivity software
POS / EPOS / ECR functionality was a key qualification requirement, ensuring that the research remained relevant to software environments connected to physical merchant checkout and payment activity.
The screening also captured the wider software environments in which payment functionality is embedded, helping establish how different types of ISVs incorporate payment capabilities into their products.
Payment Integration Models
A central part of the study focused on how participating ISVs currently support payment acceptance for their customers.
Qualified companies could:
- Integrate payment providers directly into their software
- Refer customers to payment providers
- Resell or bundle payment services
Companies that did not currently support payments were screened out, while companies that were only planning to introduce a payment integration in the future were also excluded.
The study then distinguished between companies with live payment integrations and those with integrations still in development.
Only companies with a live, working integration with at least one PSP, acquirer, or payment provider progressed as qualified participants.
Payment Scenarios Supported
The research also examined the specific payment scenarios supported through participating ISVs’ software.
These included:
- Card payments at a physical POS / checkout
- Payment terminals integrated with the software
- SoftPOS
- Online card payments / ecommerce checkout
- Pay-by-link / remote payment links
- QR or app-based payments
This provided a clearer understanding of the ways payment acceptance is embedded within the software products used by merchants and businesses.
The recruitment framework was designed to move beyond general software professionals and identify individuals with direct involvement in payment-provider partnerships, integrations, and operational relationships.
Participants could be:
- Final decision-makers for payment-provider partnerships
- Joint decision-makers
- Professionals who strongly influenced which payment providers the company worked with
- Professionals who evaluated payment providers from a product or technical perspective
- Professionals who managed operational relationships with payment providers
- Professionals involved in merchant onboarding, terminal management, or payment operations
Participants who were aware of payment topics but were not involved in decisions or management were excluded.
Functional & Seniority Representation
The study considered professionals across different functions within qualifying ISVs, including:
- Founder / CEO / Managing Director
- COO / Operations Director
- CTO / Technical Director / Head of Engineering
- CPO / Head of Product / Product Director / Product Manager
- Head of Partnerships / Partner Manager
- Head of Payments / Payments Lead
- Commercial Director / Sales Director
- Finance / Accounting Lead
- Developer / Engineer
The recruitment framework allowed flexibility around technical roles, particularly because smaller ISVs could operate with leaner organizational structures.
Within smaller ISVs, developers and technical leads could sit close to the core of the business and have significant influence over how integrations were evaluated and implemented.
For this reason, relevant developers could be included where they were genuinely involved in evaluating payment providers from a product or technical perspective.
Technical evaluators, operational managers, and payment-operations participants were subject to the relevant maximum one participant per region quota to maintain diversity of perspectives.
This ensured that the professionals engaged were relevant not simply because they worked within an ISV, but because their responsibilities aligned directly with the payment-provider decisions being explored.
The study was structured to provide representation across the Nordics, Italy, and Germany, with specific consideration given to individual Nordic markets.
The agreed distribution was designed to ensure that the research did not treat the Nordics as a single market but instead provided representation across individual Nordic countries.
Nordic Market Coverage
The Nordic region included:
- Denmark
- Finland
- Norway
- Sweden
The recruitment approach targeted approximately 3 interviews per Nordic market, allowing the study to capture market-level perspectives rather than relying on a single aggregated Nordic sample.
Italy
The study targeted 4 participants in Italy within the core quota structure.
Germany
The study targeted 4 participants in Germany, with Germany serving as the preferred market within the broader DACH scope.
The overall market structure was designed around the agreed geographic priorities while maintaining representation across relevant ISV profiles and decision-making roles.
Research Engagement
Qualified participants were invited to take part in 60 minute in-depth qualitative interview.
Each interview was designed to be:
- Highly discursive and flexible
- Structured around the participant’s professional experience
- Open to exploring relevant tangents
- Supported by a variety of techniques designed to elicit detailed insights
The screener was used to ensure that only professionals meeting the required market, company, payment, geographic, and decision-making criteria progressed to the research engagement.
The research was designed to understand how ISVs interact with payment providers throughout the broader partnership and integration journey.
This included exploring:
Payment needs → Provider evaluation → Technical integration → Partnership management → Merchant enablement
The study considered the different stakeholders involved at each stage and how responsibilities can differ between commercial, product, technical, and operational teams.
For example, a payment-provider partnership may involve a senior executive or partnership lead at the commercial level, while technical teams evaluate integration requirements and developers may play a direct role in implementation.
Operational teams may subsequently manage the ongoing relationship, merchant onboarding, or terminal-related processes.
Understanding these different roles was important to building a clearer picture of how payment-provider decisions are actually made within ISVs, rather than assuming that one senior executive is solely responsible.
The research therefore looked beyond the title of the decision-maker to understand the broader influence structure surrounding payment-provider partnerships.
Vertex Expert Network’s role was to provide the client with access to the right professionals within the targeted ISV market.
This involved:
- Identifying relevant ISVs across the target European markets
- Screening companies against detailed market and business criteria
- Verifying that companies owned and developed their core software
- Confirming the number and type of business customers served
- Verifying the customer segments and business sizes served
- Confirming active payment acceptance capabilities
- Confirming live payment-provider integrations
- Identifying relevant payment scenarios
- Capturing existing PSP, acquirer, and payment-provider relationships
- Verifying participants’ roles and decision-making responsibilities
- Matching professionals to the required functional quotas
- Maintaining geographic representation across the target markets
- Maintaining diversity across technical, operational, commercial, product, and partnership roles
- Recruiting relevant technical professionals from smaller ISVs where appropriate
- Applying the required regional role quotas
- Coordinating qualified participants for the research engagement
The value of the engagement came from ensuring that the client could speak directly with professionals whose companies, market exposure, payment integrations, functional responsibilities, and decision-making experience matched the requirements of the study.
The study targeted professionals working within qualifying Independent Software Vendors, including:
- CEOs, and Managing Directors involved in strategic and partnership decisions
- COOs and Operations Directors involved in operational relationships with payment providers
- CTOs, Technical Directors, and Heads of Engineering evaluating payment integrations and technical requirements
- CPOs, Heads of Product, Product Directors, and Product Managers involved in product and integration decisions
- Heads of Partnerships and Partner Managers involved in provider relationships
- Heads of Payments and Payments Leads responsible for payment-provider relationships
- Commercial and Sales Directors involved in commercial and provider decisions
- Developers and Engineers with direct involvement in evaluating payment providers from a product or technical perspective
The participant mix included professionals directly involved in payment-provider selection, technical integration, product evaluation, partnership management, merchant onboarding, and payment operations.
The study covered ISVs across the Nordics, Italy, and Germany, with representation across individual Nordic markets and the required functional quotas.
Participants included senior decision-makers, technical evaluators, operational managers, payment professionals, product leaders, partnership professionals, and relevant developers from qualifying ISVs.
All participants were recruited and screened against the study’s company, market, payment-integration, geographic, seniority, and decision-making requirements before progressing to the research engagement.
Looking to understand how ISVs shape payment partnerships and go-to-market opportunities across Europe? [Explore how Vertex connected the client with relevant ISV professionals to uncover market-level perspectives on payments, integrations, and provider decision-making.]
