Michigan-based companies join forces on collection web site Pay It Square

March 14, 2011 - PRLog -- Local software development firm Open Systems Technologies (OST) completed its merger recently with Pay It Square (www.payitsquare.com) a web-based group collections site. Developed in 2009, Pay It Square, as a new partner with OST and its continuing market diversification strategy, will have the ability to leverage OST’s considerable resources around future development and marketing investments.

“The new partnership with Open Systems Technologies and Pay It Square will allow us to continue to grow while utilizing OST’s considerable resources to develop new applications and market the service to a broader audience,” stated Brian Anderson, a Pay It Square creator and now partner at OST.
“We are excited to diversify our portfolio of services with the addition of Pay It Square,” notes OST president Dan Behm. “There are numerous expansion options with this product, so we’re excited to take the site to the next level on the development side while at the same time attracting new users.”

How It Works
Pay It Square (http://www.payitsquare.com) gives groups (event registrations, fundraisers, fantasy sports, group trips, bachelor parties, class reunions, etc) an opportunity to control and monitor financial collections from members of the group. (see example below)

•   Allows organizers to set up a web page with content regarding event and money purposes
•   Organizers can create a list of group members they want to collect money from
•   Amounts owed can be viewed by the whole group or private to organizer
•   Group members are then notified via email as to the amount they owe and due date
•   Group members that owe money to the organizer can simply pay online with their credit card or

PayPal account
•   The site also allows for users to pay direct with cash or check while the organizer marks them paid offline
•   Offers organizers/groups to privately label their pages (i.e./www.payitsquare.com/ost)
•   Pay It Square can also allow organizations to create their own look & feel through photos/background skins

A major benefit of Pay It Square is its high level partnership with PayPal – giving groups the ability to leverage existing account with PayPal (approx. 95 million users) to make secure payments online with Pay It Square.
Future investments and developments are being made for Pay It Square, such as a Facebook App (expected to be completed in March 2011), a Pay It Square mobile app, and soon-to-be featured in the upcoming PayPal App Store.

The site is free to join, and it’s free for organizers to use.  For most scenarios the company only charges 99 cents per transaction.  For example, if you are collecting $50 USD per person then each person paying online with a bank or PayPal balance transfer will be charged $50.99 USD.  The organizer receives the $50 USD and Pay It Square receives $0.99 USD).

The idea came to Pay It Square creator Brian Anderson while playing in soccer leagues. He realized how much effort it was for the team captains to manage the team's registration every season.

“Most times, the team managers paid the entire registration fee up front so they could get our schedules,” Anderson notes. “Then they would pester people for weeks to collect all of the money. Often, they wouldn't even collect everyone's payments. It was way too hard for them to stay organized, or they felt bad about pestering all the time. Most of us wanted to pay them on time -- we just always forgot our checkbooks!”

To learn more about Pay It Square and how it can help you or your organization, visit the website at www.payitsquare.com


About OST
OST (Open Systems Technologies) is an employee-owned, $55 million company with offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Minneapolis, Minnesota. We specialize in information technology and business process services concentrated in three industry verticals: Healthcare, Manufacturing & Distribution, and Finance & Insurance.  Since 2003, the company has logged over 35 percent compounded growth in revenue and in the number of employees. In 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 OST was recognized on INC. 5,000's Fastest Growing Private Companies.  OST was all listed on CRN's FastGrowth100 in 2007 and 2008 and on the Michigan 50 Companies to Watch in 2009.  For more information visit http://www.ostusa.com

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