UK utility Thames Water has awarded a contract to Eckoh for the provision of a number of hosted secure payment services.

Eckoh has a range of secure payment products designed to help merchants become compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (‘PCI DSS’). The solution being provided to Thames Water comprises CallGuard and EckohPAY.

CallGuard prevents payment card details from being seen or heard by contact centre agents when customers make payments over the phone, and stops any of the card data entering the utility’s IT environment. Eckoh’s own contact centre operation, compliant with PCI DSS high volume, level one service provider requirements, will also be used as an overflow facility for taking secure customer payments where necessary.

Customers will also be able to make bill payments at any time over the phone using EckohPAY, Eckoh’s fully automated service, which will validate the caller against their unique customer number, capture card details and handle card authorisation and settlement.

According to Eckoh, the contract with Thames Water is its largest to date and strengthens its leading position in the UK water and wastewater industry, serving 65% of the market in England and Wales. Eckoh works with organisations in more than 10 countries and now handles more than $1bn in secure payments annually. It says that its products and services reduce the risk of fraud by eliminating card data from contact centres and IT environments. Its CallGuard product can be deployed on the customer’s site or hosted in the cloud, and allows contact centres to take card payments from customers without their agents needing to see, hear or access the card data in any way.