TLH EP.29 Mastering B2B Transactions: Tony Loiacono’s Strategies for Success

Hello Legal Helm listeners! Today, we’re thrilled to have Anthony Loiacono, managing director at Corpay. With over 30 years of industry experience, Tony is not only an expert in his field but also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Corpay, a leading B2B payment provider, has facilitated billions of transactions across 145 currencies and 100+ countries. In this episode, Bim and Tony explore how Corpay is revolutionizing payment processes for businesses, making international transfers seamless and cost-effective. Get ready for an insightful discussion on optimizing B2B payments. Stay tuned!

Your Host

Bim Dave is Helm360’s Executive Vice President. With 15+ years in the legal industry, his keen understanding of how law firms and lawyers use technology has propelled Helm360 to the industry’s forefront. A technical expert with a penchant for developing solutions that improve business systems and user experience, Bim has a knack for bringing high quality IT architects and developers together to create innovative, useable solutions to the legal arena.

Hour Guest

Anthony Loiacono is the Managing Director of Corpay Cross-Border’s global Invoice Automation Solutions (IAS), where he has a wide range of responsibilities related to the success of the overall business. Corpay’s Cross-Border IAS division is an industry-leading foreign exchange and international payment solutions company serving major law firms and businesses around the globe. These solutions address the need for business to improve the global payment process utilizing proprietary technology for seamless foreign invoice processing, custom workflow, FX hedging integration & international payment processing.

Transcript

Bim Dave: Hello Legal Helm listeners today I am delighted to be speaking with Tony Loiacono, managing director at Corpay, a leading B2B payment provider that has handled over a billion payment transactions across 145 currencies in over a hundred countries, as well as being one of the nicest people I know Tony has been in the industry for over 30 years.

Helping business streamline and improve payment processes, as well as taking the pain and cost away from sending funds internationally. In this podcast today I’m going to be talking to Tony about how Corpay is helping businesses gain efficiency by improving their payment processes. Tony, hello and welcome to the show.

Anthony Loiacono: Hi Bim, how are you? Thank you for having me. It’s uh, always a pleasure.

Bim Dave: Likewise, great to be talking to you again.

So when

I, we were kind of just chatting about this before we started recording, but when I, when I first met you, it was in Wayne, um, Philadelphia. For in person, I think for the first time. And you were running at that time, what I believe was known as Global Exchange Solutions, um, which went, then, went on to be acquired by Corpay.

Um, later on, tell us a little bit about the journey of the early days of co-founding Global Exchange and what led you to Corpay.

Anthony Loiacono: Sure. Yeah. So we started Global Exchange, two of us, myself and Frank Signarello. basically we were in the international payment space in the late eighties and decided that we think, or thought we could do it better than the company we were working for. So it took us two years to get global off the ground.

So we officially started our, our venture in 92, on secured, you know, banking facility and banking partners. And, you know, we needed the route funds around the globe for our, corporate clients at the time. Uh, so in 94 we opened our doors. So early stage obviously we’re, you know, we’re startup. So, uh, both of us were. not only working for the startup, but um, uh, working other big companies. And actually during that time I worked for, for Westlaw. I worked for Thompson, uh, believe it or not. So, uh, kind of parallel my careers while starting a company that I ultimately, uh, secured into, you know, being acquired in 2017.

And the rest is history, right? During that time, 30 years ago, certainly as a startup, and I’m sure you can attest to this, Bim, it’s, you know, it’s not always a, a straight road. So we’ve, uh, meandered through, uh, the complexities of starting a business. Uh, grew it, you know, the focus obviously was growth and new client acquisitions. And at the time we were a foreign exchange business, if you’re not familiar with that. Basically we made international payments for corporate clients, so they would call us to move, say. At the time, this is, pre euro, you know, Italian lira, Deutsche Marx, things on that level for their, you know, vendor payments. So we grew the business in that space. And then we realized in the, the mid to late nineties that our, most active clients, uh, were law firms. So we started the business in Philadelphia, which is, you know, still in this area. And, you know, again, through our, uh, sales model, we, you know, again, acquired law firms in affiliate area.

And then over time they, we became to know them really well. And then with my experience with Westlaw, kind of had a little bit of the, legal centric approach and the back office approach to understanding more of the pain points within a firm. Uh, and then back in the day. we realized that we can, within foreign exchange, you can, there’s a hedging component.

There’s a strategy that businesses use to protect an exchange rate, uh, when they ultimately have to make a future payment. So back in the, in the late nineties, we built a solution around a integrated hedging strategy for our law firm clients to help them build their client without having to deal with currency fluctuation risk.

So that’s what kind of we built off of, and then we grew from there. So law firms realized that, hey, this is a very good, robust service, uh, that integrates into our back office, be it Elite or at Orant. that really does everything from the original document. So we built capacity to process from a law firm’s foreign invoice that they passed to us. And we extracted the data, converted currency created a billable rate in one currency while in fact, when their client paid them, were in fact making a payment in a different currency without having to revalue that payment. So it became a substantial, solution for law firms who have this need. In particular, we focused on law firms, that are intellectual property. Have an IP practice, treasury, I mean a, a patent and trademark practice within law firms around the globe now. So, uh, fast forward, you know, we built out these services, to a point where in 2006, we were, we were approached, by a couple competitors to bias, and a bank, to. Kind of help us, address some of, uh, being a, a money service business that we were and are, there’s rules and regulations around remitting payments around the globe.

So we felt that becoming part of a bank would probably be the next natural step. cause it’ll help us with a more secure approach when we’re approaching law firm opportunities or opportunities that are outside of law that have this unique need to process from. An invoice, do the data extraction, validate the future payment, build the payment, make the, you know, send the funds globally. So, uh, we were, we merged with a bank outside of Philly here called Fulton Bank. Uh, and we, you know, kind of still had ownership capacity as well, which is a big factor for Frank and myself. cause our goal was just to continue to grow the business.

So, we did that and, um, we were with them for I think five or six years where, uh, we outgrew their capability to support us, was really the bottom line. So, they needed to divest their interest in us. And what happened was, uh, 2012, we, uh, company called Cambridge came in and bought Fulton’s, shares of Global Exchange. So, we merged into Cambridge is a foreign exchange business. Uh, and the rest is history. Basically, Cambridge collectively sold to a company called FleetCor, which is now rebranded to Corco.

So generally, that’s kind of where we are now. But over that period of time, we built solutions around enhancing this, the experience for our clients, in particular our law firm clients. So, we broaden our capacity, broaden our capabilities, where we do OCR process. We scrub for compliance, we integrate through API, we have the capacity to actually offer additional solutions through our vendor portal. So, we just build upon what we know in our knowledge base. And good news is we have very low attrition rate. A lot of the people are with us from day one, are still with us and a part of the team. we serve law firms around the globe, uh, who have this unique need, and we continue to grow the business, which is a wonderful experience. My capacity now is running our business unit. Uh, we’re still pretty much outside of Philly. Frank and I are still in the same place. We’re encouraged to continue to grow the business under this giant BM month of a business called FleetCor, uh, which is, uh, uh, fortune 1000, payments business. But we have very unique skill sets because, as you know, uh, within a law firm is very unique as opposed to even any other. Uh, business. So now we’re tasked to grow outside the legal space, which we’re doing a great job at, uh, to offer the same services we offer to law firms, to other entities who could benefit from the capacity that we can offer them. So that’s kind of our, quick story.

Bim Dave: Fantastic. And a great, great story how, how? I’m interested just on, on a per, on a personal level, I’m interested to know. How different the, the kind of outcome was in terms of like, now you’re managing director of core Pay compared to you are leaving university education, whatever you were doing in the early days.

What, what did you dream of being, and, and, and, and where you’ve ended up now is obviously like an amazing position, but is it in, in the same industry that you were thinking about? Uh, is this what you were kind of educated in? Like just interested to know that that part of the journey as

Anthony Loiacono: Yeah, sure. So, I graduated from university in 1985. I was a strategic management major and, and an IT major, so I was a dual major. so, I had that capacity and that capability. I, you know, at the end of the day, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and own my own business. That’s bottom line is something that I’ve always aspired to do from when I, as long as I can remember naturally, you just don’t fall into starting a business when you graduate from university.

So. Uh, started working for a company called ADP Automatic Data Processing, and that’s where I kind of, uh, had an opportunity because I was hired as, uh, to really learn how to, um, uh, kind of develop business strategically. So, it was a program that I was, um, a part of that was kind of advanced or accelerated, opportunity, uh, to really learn their business from the inside out. There was only a handful of people who were hired to do this, perform this role. I was the guy hired outside of our area in Philadelphia.

And your kind of un, you know, kind of a reverse engineer the, the business development process. So, from there I went into foreign exchange. I kind of left ADP uh, I always liked international business and. I had an opportunity to kind of enter the international payment space, and that’s kind of when my career kind of took off. I kind of backfilled into Thompson Elite, uh, 90 92 because I left the international payment space knowing that we were starting Global Exchange. So, I decided that it was good, it was best interest to kind of leave that space. I took an opportunity. Naturally I was pursued, is a good thing. Um, I. by Thompson, uh, to work in their Westlaw division, which is a very good opportunity. Uh, but it also helped bridge me into international payments where I ultimately left Elite. And then just obviously, I mean, not Elite left Thompson Westlaw to, you know, kind of when the business was ready to have me to kind of go into my own business.

It’s, you know, our, the company that we built and could support me. And that’s when our growth really accelerated. I think if I have one regret is not leaving sooner, obably a few years sooner than when I left, but it was fine.

Bim Dave: I, I feel like at some point we should do some kind of reunion of all the Tom X Thompson and Elite people, and I think we’d be, we, we’d, we’d be able to fill a very big venue, I think of all

Anthony Loiacono: I think you’re right. You’re

Bim Dave: yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a bit like having an extended family, right? Um, uh.

Anthony Loiacono: true. It

Bim Dave: Yeah. But it’s, it’s, it’s an amazing thing.

It’s an amazing thing. Tha Thank you for sharing that. So, so just, uh, I’m, I’m guessing that over, over the years that you’ve been in the industry, the whole B two PB uh, payment market has changed significantly. What, what are some of the highlights of that that you’ve seen in terms of how things have progressed?

Anthony Loiacono: you. Yeah. I think it’s changed. So, there are two things. One, fundamentally when you look under hood, it hasn’t changed. You know, in order to assemble a payment, especially an international payment, so there are two types of payments, one’s international, one’s domestic on the, on the US domestic side. For example.

You, you know, payments were made through check an ACH. Um, and what’s what’s becoming a little more, uh, popular is through a credit card as well too. Vendors who accept card. Um, on the international side, it’s still swift wire transfer or an IACH, which is international, an ACH payment. The difference is on a swift wire there’s more characters for you to include reference information, purpose of payment on a law.

On our law firm side, that’s very important ’cause we include reference information in the swift messaging. So, um, on, you know, from, from that process, it’s really, I’m not saying it hasn’t changed, but it’s still the same secure network in order to facilitate a payment from. One point of entry says in the US to say, you know, London, for example. So, you’re still using the same, you know, MT 1 0 3, you’re still using the same fundamental payment process. However, with that being said, above board, above the hood, or you know, when you look at kind of the the car, there’s a lot of processes around creating that swift message or that payment that has really substantially changed. You know, from processing directly from an original document doing data extraction using OCR AI capabilities that we’ve kind of incorporated into our process as well in order to help us become more efficient when we receive an ultimate payment from a client, but really before it becomes a payment needs to be integrated into their, you know, their billing system or their ERP or whatever it is that they have on their side. To record it and then ultimately make the payment when they’re ready to payment. So, from a high end, there’s been substantial changes. We built a vendor portal, for example, to connect actually foreign vendors with our clients. So, if we have a client here in Philadelphia, we had the capacity now to connect all their vendors, international vendors through a portal. Saves them a tremendous amount of time. ‘Cause it does, the validation does kind of the pre. You know, the pre-bill kind of validation and things on that level before it actually could hit, say, Chrome River for example, and then obviously go through the approval process and then ultimately hit us again.

So, then we can, you know, convert those currencies in order to create matter currencies and then ultimately make the payment after the client’s been paid same 60 or 90 days. So, on the, you know, on the high end, there’s been substantial changes, dynamic steps in the process. But underneath, you know, the process, the underlayment, there’s a bedrock there, of you know, it’s foundational in order to create the payment and secure funding anyone around the globe.

So that’s actually a good thing because, you know, now where we are now, we work with a multitude of banks around the globe in order to remit payments on behalf of, you know, our client needs. Depending on whether, you know, you’re a major law firm or whether you’re a major corporation or even a small business. Doesn’t really matter. We don’t, um, gauge our relationships on business size or client size. It’s just based on them flowing into our workflow. So,

Bim Dave: Understood. And, and you, you mentioned, um, earlier kind of like some of the focus on law firms, um, in particular and some of their unique needs around security compliance and the complex fee structures that, that they may have. I’d be interested to learn a little bit more about how, how Corpay kind of tailors its solutions for that market specifically, so that, you know, you’re really focused on, on the needs of a law firm.

Anthony Loiacono: Yeah, law firms are very complex, as you know. Um, their needs are very more, I would say, more granular than any other type of organization in my experience. Um, and the reason why is because they’re basically performing. If you think about what a law firm’s doing, it’s performing a service for its customer, and part of that service is they need to build ’em for the work they’re doing in order to do what they need to do for their customer. So that involves a lot of details around the billing process and the cost recovery process. And then the layer into that, there’s nonrecoverable expenses as well that are [00:16:00] firm charges. So, in our world, we process based on the unique needs of each law firm client. So, for example, we have certain, you know, every law firm in our world is, has a unique profile, uh, that is unique to them.

It’s like their fingerprint, uh, that their processing instructions are very different between, you know, one client and another. And that’s only because they’re law firms.

So on the, you know, on the high end law firms, you know, while they’re all, you know, practicing law, fundamentally their back office is very different.

Um, each one is a separate, has separate unique requirements because at the end of the day, law firms are owned by a bunch of partners that everyone has unique needs. And that’s what creates the uniquenesses of, uh, our processing standards.

So. You know, we have, you know, standard processes, but then, you know, within our standard processes, you know, every client is, is different. What that means for us is that we can validate, so we validate from their you know, elite for example, or their, or at Orant for example. It doesn’t really matter, uh, to ensure that you know the matter currency is correct. Um, their matter numbers are validated against what’s in their system. They’re timekeeper.

So, if a timekeeper leaves, for example, kicks out of our system before it’s even billed, ’cause then we ask the firm, Hey, is this, you know, you still want to build it ’cause you have a different con. You know, here’s a timekeeper that no longer at the firm as an example. You know, things like that happen and they happen in real time. So, our process is, is very unique in that space. One difference between us and every competitor in our space. Uh, is that our services are built by law firms for law firms. So, it’s very unique that the experience you get, if you’re, when you’re dealing with us as opposed to any competitor, is that we’re not putting, lipstick on a pig as they say.

Our services, our technology is based on the law firm experience. So immediately when a client onboards with us is their process is immediately different. And it’s not different to a fault, it’s different to an enhancement, meaning that, um, they’ll experience an immediate, increase in their experience, their client experience, because it’s just a very granular process.

I can’t tell you how many times them I’ve heard clients have told me I wish I would’ve. Use you guys sooner. I can’t believe how much you know much better you are, um, than, you know, who we were using before. And so, while the integration is still very similar to what our competitors can do, um, the overall experience is much far greater than, than, anything that they can, that they can offer. So, we know where all the issues are and I think that helps us with what, with our tenure in the space. Our experience in back office in a law firm. But then all that experience kind of is helping us springboard us into non-legal opportunities, who just don’t have as many data points. They don’t have as many critical elements in, you know, kind of creating a disbursement, for example. Uh, so we have that capability, but we can dilute that down based on the need. ‘Cause again, every client has their own unique foot fingerprint within.

You know, they’re, they’re, you, know, set up within our system,

Bim Dave: Yeah. No, that’s, that’s really helpful. And, and you, I think you kind of touched on this a little bit with your, with your answer, but the experience and understanding of of the industry is, is a big part of what you guys do. And I think when, when I think about, and I think when a lot of people think about, um, some of the things that can be done from a payment automation perspective, they’re thinking technology first.

I’d be interested to get your view in terms of how much of it is actually the people around the technology. That and, and the process side of things, that that could be actually the, the winning formula for you guys.

Anthony Loiacono: Yeah, that’s great question. So, it’s interesting, it’s, like I said before, we have very low attrition rate. Um, within our team. Our team is very experienced. Uh, they. It is just not a question of them knowing the back office say of a law firm and uniquenesses of the billing systems and all that good stuff, but it’s the fact that just, you know, they’ve been with us for such a long time, but then we also, so there it is, there, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of complimentary elements of r. Of our team because not only do we have the team, but we also have the technology. So, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to continue to, uh, improve the experience on the client side. And that’s really through technology, but we’re using our team to do that. And, you know, encouraging them through. Our experience and us just being here, you know, the fact, for example, that Frank and I are still in the business, is it a testament to the fact that, hey, we’re very passionate about our clients, we’re very passionate about the business and the success of the business.

And what comes with that is the fact that, you know, we from the top want to make sure that not only our employees and our team is happy and um. Incented encouraged, uh, you know, just a part of the decision-making process. Uh, and that really applies to our clients as well. So, you know, one of the key elements of what we’re doing is making sure that each client is served, uh, purposefully. Uh, and making sure that, you know, their experience is nothing but the best.

So, for example, a client has, if a client has any issue, they can call me directly as an example. Fortunately, I don’t get many calls like that, but you know, we know clients and we know them well, and those clients know our team. So there’s more of a personalized approached approach to our relationships, but we don’t rely on that, from a perspective of, Hey, they know us and everything’s gonna be fine. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, uh, to continue to build upon our technology, to ensure that our clients stay with us for a long period of time. So we have very little, erosion of our clients. Our clients typically do not leave us. And, you know, we pride ourselves on that. And that has to do with. You know, and I say this a lot, so you know, clients aren’t gonna stay with us just because we’re here. Clients must stay with us because the experience is nothing but the best. And we keep pushing ourselves to be better. And that’s kind of the underlying current in our organization. And part of that process is making sure that we have a good team who’s been with us, who is kind of, kind of part of the process and not just. Plugging people in just to do a job. We’re plugging people in and we want to, you know, you know, we’re not micromanaging people, let’s put it that way. We’re making people be a part of that process and helping our clients be, you know, just be more efficient.

Bim Dave: Yeah. No, it, it sounds like it, it sounds like the, the passion that you guys have,

Um, as, as founders and people who’ve started this kind of business, um, is replicated amongst the team. Right. And, and that’s really, lovely to see actually. Yeah. Good. So, so on the, on the technology front, um, as, as I’m sure you are aware, there’s lots in the news about, um, uh, cybersecurity attacks, um, and just security in general when it comes to technology solutions that are delivered in the cloud, et cetera.

What are you seeing from, um, like the payment side of things and what kind of things are you guys thinking about in terms of security for the future and making sure customers are, are protected from that perspective?

Anthony Loiacono: Yeah, that’s another good question. So that’s a big thing obviously in our space because you’re sending funds all over the globe. Um, you know, we, through our internal validation process, we have a com. We integrate compliance within our, so whenever you remit funds through your bank, for example, they have a compliance team that before funds leave the door, they scrub for validating a vendor and ensuring that you know the elements of the payment are correct and. Reconfirm with the client, things like that. We do the same thing on our side, but we kind of, it’s, it’s the same thing on steroids, if that makes sense. So through our technology, before even the payments built and created and sent, we’re scrubbing for compliance. We run through, for example, an OFAC list, which is an Office of Foreign Assets Control to ensure that you’re not sending funds to the wrong people.

Those things kick out of our system, sanction, country payments, things on that level. I. Um, but even once that’s done, once the payment is built, we also do a secondary compliance screening and then go back to our client to ensure that they recognize that this, [00:26:00] these payments are being made. It’s all really designed to make sure that if any invoice, for example, hits our system, there’s an invoice that shouldn’t be in, you know, it’s a fraudulent invoice. So those things have the ability to be kicked out of our system. Naturally as opposed to integrating through our system. So for example, someone you know, uh, some, someone who shouldn’t be is sending an invoice to a law firm and it hits our system through whichever way ’cause someone overlooked it, it’s going to kick out of our system and we kick it back to the firm, um, to ensure that payments aren’t made.

’cause once a payment’s made then, you know, it’s very difficult to repatriate funds obviously, internationally. So we do have a process built around that. Um, but you know, we, you know, ensure before that point of entry is, is executed just like any other financial institution. We comply within the rules and regulations, not only remitting funds across the globe, but using the technology we have in order to, you know, protect the payment, ultimate payment.

And that’s really important. ’cause there’s always phishing, you know, uh, there’s always scams, there’s always someone trying to remit payment. We have experience with I… You know, client sending us a payment request and you know, it’s a fraudulent payment request. And those things like that do kick out of our system.

We do use technology and people to, to look at the purpose of the payment, um, you know, to ensure that, you know, we, we revalidate physically back to the client, verbally back to the client through, you know, for larger transactions. For example, all large transactions, for example, hit up to me to, to ensure that. Hey, anything looks extraordinary or outta the ordinary, we kind of pull it. Um, and just, you know, reconfirm with the client, Hey, is this a legitimate payment? For example, you know, for us, I’d rather be, South on the safety side and north on the uh, just the remitting and payment side. So, you know, and that’s kind of the thing, the thing we do on our side, plus being a part of a very large financial, large, it’s not financial institution, but organization that focus exclusively on payments cause that’s what we do. Um, there’s secondary layers of protection as well that we have baked into our capability, our technology And things on that level.

Bim Dave: And does, does, does AI play a part in this? Because obviously there’s, there’s the negative side of AI where, um, that’s kind of encouraging it to become. Easier potentially and be like better sophisticated hacks by leveraging AI to be able to do, to do that kind of stuff. But actually there’s also some benefits in terms of being able to use AI from a fraud detection perspective and that kind of stuff.

So what are you seeing in terms of that side of things from the pure technology angle?

Anthony Loiacono: Yeah, I mean, so on the payment request side, you know, you have your, um, bad apples out there who want to try to be paid in some capacity, so I don’t think that’s going to stop. And I think that is, with ai, it’s getting more and more sophisticated. they’re very savvy. people out there are trying to get paid in any way they can. I think on our side, while we can’t, you know, we can’t prevent that from happening. We have internal controls to prevent that from happening. So through our internal validation process, our prescreening process, our vendor validation process.

Um, you know, we have our system in place is that if a unique request comes in that’s larger than an average transaction, it kicks out of our system, for example. So anything that looks unique, if it’s in a different currency, for example, that has never been paid by this client, it’ll kick out of our system.

Um, and, you know, and basically we go back to the client to request that we physically have a list of, you know, contacts in order to validate that. So. While a request to come in and the firm would firm or client would never know that, um, we’d go directly back to, uh, to the authority within our, our client to confirm that and validate then, Hey, this is a legitimate request.

Yes. Or, we didn’t know about that. Thank you for catching it. And, you know, then we had, you know, we have to go to the authorities and all that good stuff like we normally do Anyway, that’s just a part of the process. So, but from ai, from an AI perspective, yeah. AI’s getting better on the bad Apple side obviously.

But on our side, we are using AI in some capacity to process our, our invoices and our pay ultimate payment requests, uh, just to become more efficient. But we still have humans behind the scenes too who are kind of managing that, those steps along the way as well. So there’s always a big human element, and I think that’s the one big thing with what we offer in comparison to anyone else. So we’re not building services around, just put, pointing our clients in the direction of a portal or technology. We’re kind of blending the human element along with technology and continue to build upon the technology without. Um, eliminating the human element is always gonna be a factor, and especially in our space to have people so, which is good.

So we’re building bandwidth around adding more team in order to support the technology and then support, obviously, you know, come more clients coming on board. So we are always have capacity, but there are people involved, um, who are deeply knowledgeable, deeply passionate about, you know, client experience.

That’s kind of what we pride ourselves on. So.

Bim Dave: Yeah, no, it sounds, sounds like the perfect balance really. So, so if I’m a firm, um, looking to get some of the benefits of automation and leveraging some of the payment solutions that you guys offer. What, what does, what does the typ, what does the typical onboarding look like? And, um, what can firms expect coming onto your platform?

Anthony Loiacono: Sure. Um, so generally we have a whole systematic approach to onboarding clients. So naturally we go through the discovery phase with a non-client, for example, or a prospective client. Um, go through the process, do, you know, do everything we can in order to encourage that client to start using our, you know, our solution. Uh, once that happens, we go through na, a natural paperwork phase. but we also go through an onboarding process. So the onboarding team is based on our account management team. Uh, who is an assigned, you know, assigned an account manager along with, depending on the client would be myself, for example, or, um, you know, whoever is a part of that, discovery process to sit in on the call.

And it’s basically a virtual kickoff meeting to build our client’s profile. go through the process of onboarding, which is a natural component of kind of. Transitioning a non-client into our system and then passing that client off into the system. So there’s like a two phased approach. So we go through our onboarding phase, which is our process review phase, kind of similar to what probably you guys do, where you go through like, you know, just the process of getting a, a meeting together with the key stakeholders in order to. Understand what their, you know, needs are and build a profile and then start testing. So we go through the STA testing phase, incorporate, you know, say you guys, for example, to help with integrations, you know, depending on the needs, if their, you know, clients using you guys or anyone, um, you know, building out their billing system and obviously testing, you know, sample transactions, making sure the billing. System is integrated as an example on the law firm side, or just ensuring that, you know, there’s smooth transition. We set up a kind of a weekly cadence with these clients and these non-clients until they become, you know, kind of, kind of transition in and there’s a, a redirect date or, you know, start date.

So let’s say for example, it’s, you know, the start date is. March 1st, for example, then you know, that’s our, that’s our go live date, and then that’s when they redirect. So, but it’s a phased approach where before a client is actually redirected, I. Um, everything is tested, tried, and true, and systems are operational.

And then, you know, they’re encouraged to actually, once they redirect. You know, we go through training and all that good stuff. It’s not complicated to use our portal and use our service and our solution. Um, but you know, clients have to know the output that we’re receiving. You know, what to use within the portal, trying to report writing and things on that level, just how to get us their information. So, you know, that’s kind of the process. And then once they’re in, then, you know, we manage that workflow, have ongoing meetings, and to ensure that things are operational, working smoothly. So, you know, I, I can tell you a hundred percent of our clients have onboarded this way. it’s the most effective way with the least pain points, uh, in order to ensure smooth onboarding.

Bim Dave: Yeah. No. Fantastic. And it, it sounds, it sounds like, um, a lot of the benefits of using the service are obviously like. Big time savers, less error prone. In terms of the payment process, are there other benefits, like I think you mentioned earlier, um, some, some like the focus on foreign exchange in particular.

Are there other cost benefits in terms of using the service that the, um, that might be interesting for a firm who are doing international payments, for example?

Anthony Loiacono: No. Yeah, no question. That’s another great question. So, I mean, there’s many, many benefits as you would imagine far. You know, there’s billing is one thing. But when you layer in foreign currency and international payments, that’s another level. So we kind of manage that whole process, but our solutions and our services, so there’s no onboarding fees for example. There’s no fees. The only fees we charge are for what we call one for ones are like for like payments only because anything that’s integrated and has a conversion associated with it, we absorb any costs associated with wire transfer fees or anything on that level naturally through the solution. The one for ones only have one off fees and that’s it. Uh, in comparison, our competitors were always falling kind of the lower end of the spectrum on the cost side. The other most important factor is that our exchange rates, so typically when you’re dealing with a, an international payment provider, their exchange rates, their markups are all over the place.

So we don’t play that game. We don’t play the currency game with that. I always say this a few. Uh, if you’re looking for a provider who’s gonna sit there and, you know, play the exchange rate game, we’re not the, we’re not the company because we just set a markup and that’s it. And we don’t, we don’t do that.

We focus on the experience, we focus on technology, we focus on data integration, process improvement, just making our, our clients’ lives easier so our clients can rest assured knowing that, hey, we’re not sitting there. Trying to strip out more revenue from, you know, a dollar that may have gone, you know, gone north or south.

It’s not the business we’re in. We basically just focus on making sure our clients are integrated. Everything is tried and true. The integrity of the process is in place, and we look for our long term relationships is number one and key priority. And that really shows in our relationships we have with our clients. We don’t have any client turnover, I can tell you Touchwood. Um. We very rarely lose a client if we do lose a client through a merger, an acquisition, and some clients naturally we’ll go outta business, but we don’t see many law firms going out of business, thank goodness. So, um, so, you know, we, we kind of pride ourselves in the fact that once a client’s in with us, we work really hard to maintain the relationship and, uh, the pricing is very, very competitive as well in our space in comparison to everyone. Banks and competitors aside. So, um, you know, we never lose business on pricing. It’s just not a, an element in, um, our vocabulary that. we’re concerned with.

Bim Dave: Fantastic. Thank you Tony for sharing that. Um, I wanna, um, ask a couple of final wrap up questions if I may. Um, the first of which is if you could borrow Dr. Who’s time machine and go back to Tony at 18 years old, what advice would you give him?

Anthony Loiacono: Oh, man, that’s a great question.

Um, I, I think, um, you know, follow your passion. I think if you’re passionate about something, I mean, it started sooner than later. Um, don’t focus on negativity, just focus on, you know, getting, making yourself better go, you know, schools your roadmap, and. You have to obviously get educated.

Get experienced. Don’t be afraid to work for companies where you’re going to garner experience and, you know, always try to learn something and always try to, you know, I always look for a takeaway. I mean, me personally, um, I always try to learn something and take away something from an experience or a relationship in some capacity and use that to make myself better.

I think if I had to go back to, to that point, I, I probably would make, you know, everyone. You know, has changes they would make. But I think the fundamental thing on my side is that I know I followed my passion. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I realized that early stage, that’s not possible. Um, but you have to understand that, you know, while you’re, you want to, you know, achieve a goal, you have to also, you know, kinda get a little muddy along the way.

And I think you always have to realize that you, you know.

Entitlement’s a bad thing in my opinion, because people who are entitled, uh, feel that they’re owed something and, um, I don’t think anyone’s owed anything in my opinion. And it’s just, you know, you have to work for everything you have, no matter what level you’re at.

Bim Dave: Fantastic. Great, great advice. And fi, final question. You are, you are obviously a well traveled man. Um, where in the world is your favorite destination and why?

Anthony Loiacono: Oh boy. Um,

Bim Dave: I.

Anthony Loiacono: I’m going to have to say, the, a Mafi coast of Italy, there’s no question. In my opinion, uh, it’s one of the most beautiful places, uh, not only from a historical perspective, uh, it’s just a vibrant life perspective. Uh, while I’ve been to Greece though too, I’ve been to Santorini and. uh, Crete as well is beautiful

I love the, you know, the, uh, experience of Greece. So I think, uh, my number one would, no mo no question be Italy. Uh, I think it has a lot to do with my, my descent as well, my Italian descent. But, um, without question, it’s just, uh, one of the most beautiful places, if anyone. I always tell people they, or have. An opportunity to, to visit Italy at one point in their life, they should go, but I think it don’t, it don’t bite it off. Don’t think you’re gonna bite that apple in one bite because it’s just physically not possible. To experience Italy in one bite, in a Mafi coast, in my opinion, would be that. one of the top places to visit and the least initially.

Bim Dave: Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. That’s definitely on, on my bucket list as well and I had a funny feeling that you were going to say some somewhere initially. Um, so good.

Anthony Loiacono: Shocker. Shocker, right Bim, you know me too well.

Bim Dave: There you go. There you go. Tony, um, thank you so much for spending so much time with us today. We’ve learned a lot about, um, payments and, and core pay, and really interesting to learn about your, your history in terms of getting there, really some, um, inspirational parts of this conversation.

So really enjoyed it. Thank you so much and look forward to seeing you soon.

Anthony Loiacono: Absolutely. Thank you Bim. I appreciate it and uh, it was always, uh, a nice thing. I will be in London the first week of March, so hopefully we’ll get to see each other.

Bim Dave: Fantastic. Yep.

Anthony Loiacono: All right. Great. Thank you.

We hope you enjoyed today’s episode of The Legal Helm, thank you as always for listening

If you enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, it really helps us out.