Two years ago, Maine launched a payment program designed to benefit both low-income residents in need of food assistance and the state’s farmers. The initiative introduced an app-based digital currency under the WIC program, with farmers using an app called Merchant Link, developed by Solutran, to process payments at their markets for low-income shoppers seeking fresh produce.
Then the problems started. Farmers reported that payments processed smoothly only about half the time. The app’s cumbersome verification system often locks users out or displays error messages indicating that eligible individuals are ineligible. What should be a quick 30-second transaction often turns into a frustrating 10 minute ordeal, leading many farmers to give away food for free.
According to nonprofit Maine Morning Star, the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act offered federal grants to provide mobile software that recipients could use to access their benefits at farmers markets. Given the simplicity of most payment apps today, it should have been easy to solve. So, what went wrong?
Doing Too Much
It’s hard to tell from a distance what the technical problems are, but processing payments while simultaneously verifying eligibility for the program was always going to be a heavy lift.
“The state government likely specified a process for Solutran to follow without having any real-world knowledge of how payments work, or how to properly balance fraud with speed,” said Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. “We like to blame the tech, but in reality, most of these bugs are likely the result of faulty business processes that the tech is required to drive. It sounds like they could be asking consumers for verification data that they don’t expect to have handy, like a case number.”
Apgar noted that before accepting a benefits payment, merchants must log into the app using two-factor authentication.
“Could you imagine if a merchant had to log in with 2FA every time they used their payment terminal?” Apgar said. “Good parameters from a data security perspective, but not practical in a point-of-sale environment.
“This underscores the need to bring in experts who can consult on process design,” he added. “Public sector programs like this should engage an expert to advise on the structure of the program before an RFP is issued.”
