The value of partner feedback and the new CorrelationID
This blog post comes from John Jackovin, our Senior Product Manager at Dwolla.
I love partner feedback.
As a product person, I’ve always been wired that way — and you just have to be.
I especially love partner feedback when I’m able to easily identify trends, hearing the same thing over and over (and over). Why, you might be wondering?
Because it means there is a common need that our Access API Partners share, and my goal is to make sure real partner needs are met — and met quickly.
Even as we develop new features for our Access API product, I’m always listening to what the partner needs. For example, when we added multi-user functionality to the Dashboard, our partners had a large influence in that.
More feedback, more improvements
One particular ask we have been hearing more frequently from our Access API partners is for the ability to create and use a partner-generated identifier on payment transfers and mass payments. The need to create this sort of ID is compelling — if you think about it, the transaction is initiated by the partner and undoubtedly an ID will be generated by the partner, but not until it is sent to Dwolla will the partner know the ID that corresponds to that transaction. This makes the correlation between the two transactions potentially cumbersome, and our partners were looking for a way to follow a transaction throughout the entire process, from initiation to completion.
In order to help simplify the process for our partners, we have created the CorrelationID. The CorrelationID helps improve the traceability of a transaction, between two systems; it allows you to create an ID and use that ID from the point of origin on, instead of waiting for a response from Dwolla to then get an ID.
This CorrelationID is generated by an Access API Partner and can be used throughout the ACH transaction process to identify both single transfers and mass payments. The CorrelationID is also searchable within the API allowing a much more simple interface to and from Dwolla.
Now, partners can generate and use their ID throughout the flow making the correlation process more efficient.
Our product team is excited to see and learn from how our Access API Partners use this feature. Additionally, as we continue to listen to feedback, I look forward to providing more features that help simplify and streamline the ACH transaction processes.
Originally published at Dwolla by John Jackovin on September 21, 2017.
