A New analysis from Datatel examines how shifting routine phone payments from employee-assisted collection to automated IVR can change the underlying payment flow
Miami/Toronto, United States (PRUnderground) September 9th, 2026
Datatel today released a new Payment Flow Intelligence analysis examining the operational impact of moving routine phone payments from staff-assisted collection to automated IVR payment processing.
The analysis applies Datatel’s Payment Flow Intelligence Framework™ to a common payment workflow: a customer calls an organization to make a payment, and an employee is required to manage the transaction from beginning to end.
While the payment itself may appear simple, the underlying workflow can require an employee to authenticate the customer, obtain account information, collect payment card details, enter information into a payment system, process the transaction and provide confirmation.
Across a large volume of payments, those individual steps can create significant operational dependency on staff.
Examining the Current Payment Flow
Datatel’s analysis looks beyond the payment channel itself and examines how the payment moves through the organization.
The current state staff-assisted flow may include:
Customer → Employee → Account Lookup → Payment Information Collection → Payment Processing → Confirmation
The analysis considers several operational factors within that flow, including:
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– employee involvement in routine transactions;
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– repetitive payment-handling activity;
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– contact center and accounts receivable workload;
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– interaction between employees and payment card information;
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– availability of payment services outside normal business hours; and
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– the ability of the process to scale as payment volumes increase.
“Organizations often look at IVR as simply another way for customers to pay,” said Barnard Crespi, Co-CEO of Datatel. “The more important question is what happens to the payment flow when the employee no longer needs to handle every routine transaction.”
Redesigning the Flow With IVR Automation
Datatel’s analysis then compares the current state process with an automated IVR payment flow.
With IVR automation, customers can call, identify or authenticate themselves where required, hear relevant account information, enter their payment details and receive confirmation through a secure self-service process.
The resulting flow becomes:
Customer → IVR → Account Lookup → Secure Payment Processing → Confirmation
This changes more than the customer facing payment channel. It can also reduce the number of routine transactions that require employee involvement while allowing staff to focus on situations where human assistance provides greater value.
The analysis also examines how reducing employee interaction with payment card information may affect PCI exposure and the operational controls surrounding payment collection.
Applying Payment Flow Intelligence
Datatel evaluates the workflow using its Payment Flow Intelligence Framework™, which examines payment operations across five areas:
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1. Channel Dependency Analysis
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2. Human Touchpoint Mapping
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3. Revenue Leakage Identification
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4. PCI Exposure Assessment
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5. Operational Scalability Review
The objective is not simply to determine whether an organization should add another payment channel.
Instead, the framework helps organizations understand where unnecessary complexity, manual intervention and operational risk may exist within the way money currently moves.
For finance, accounts receivable, operations and contact center leaders, comparing current-state and automated payment flows can provide a clearer view of where payment automation may create measurable operational improvement.
Explore IVR Payment Automation
Organizations evaluating staff-assisted phone payments can use the analysis as a starting point for examining where employees are involved, which transactions could move to self-service and how an automated IVR payment process could change the overall payment flow.
To learn more about IVR Payment Automation and Datatel’s Payment Flow Intelligence approach, contact Datatel. https://www.datatel-systems.com/contact/
About Datatel
Datatel is a payment technology and advisory company that helps organizations modernize how they securely accept and manage payments. For more than 25 years, Datatel has specialized in secure payment infrastructure, IVR payment technology, and PCI compliance advisory services that reduce the risks associated with handling payment card data. As more organizations introduce AI technologies into customer interactions, Datatel helps ensure payment transactions remain isolated, secure, and compliant by protecting Voice AI and other automated systems from directly handling sensitive cardholder data. Datatel’s solutions are used by healthcare providers, utilities, financial services organizations, and government agencies across North America.
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