W-21: Partner Management Ways of Work¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Document | W-21 |
| Title | Partner Management Ways of Work |
| Status | Draft |
| Owner | COO (Kamil Shaikh) |
| Created | 2026-04-05 |
| Review | Quarterly |
| Depends On | W-01 (Company Operating Rhythm), W-20 (Operations Ways of Work), MERCHANT-ONBOARDING-STANDARD, SLA-MANAGEMENT-FRAMEWORK |
Purpose¶
Define how Simpaisa manages its banking partners, mobile money operators, card networks, and merchant relationships through their full lifecycle — from onboarding through ongoing performance management to offboarding. This document covers the operational relationship management that sits alongside commercial agreements (see W-40).
Simpaisa's payment gateway connects merchants to financial infrastructure across six markets. Each market has a distinct set of partners: banks, mobile money operators (e.g., JazzCash, bKash), and card networks (Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay). The quality of these partnerships directly determines transaction success rates and merchant satisfaction.
1. Partner Onboarding¶
1.1 Onboarding Pipeline¶
| Stage | Owner | SLA | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial agreement signed | Commercial | - | Signed contract with SLAs and pricing |
| Technical kick-off | CDO Engineering | Within 5 business days of signing | Integration plan, API credentials issued |
| Integration development | CDO Engineering + Partner | Per integration plan (typically 4–8 weeks) | Working integration in staging |
| UAT | SQA + Operations | 2 weeks | Test results, sign-off from both parties |
| Go-live checklist | Operations | 3 business days | Monitoring configured, alerting set up, settlement process confirmed |
| Production launch | Operations + CDO | Per agreed date | Live transactions flowing |
| Post-launch review | Operations | T+14 days | Performance baseline established |
1.2 Onboarding Checklist¶
Before a partner goes live, the following must be confirmed:
- Commercial agreement signed and filed
- Regulatory approval obtained (if required for market)
- API integration tested in staging with >99% success rate on test suite
- Settlement file format agreed and tested
- Reconciliation process tested end-to-end
- Monitoring dashboards configured per CHANNEL-HEALTH-MONITORING-STANDARD
- Alerting thresholds set in PagerDuty
- Escalation contacts exchanged (Simpaisa ops → partner NOC and vice versa)
- SLA baselines documented in partner profile
- Merchant communication prepared (if partner enables new payment method)
1.3 Merchant Onboarding (Operational Steps)¶
Per the MERCHANT-ONBOARDING-STANDARD, the operational steps are:
- Commercial team hands off signed merchant agreement to operations.
- Operations creates merchant profile in the platform (merchant ID, configuration, enabled channels).
- Operations issues sandbox credentials and integration documentation to the merchant.
- CDO engineering provides integration support if the merchant requires assistance.
- SQA runs certification tests against the merchant's integration.
- Operations activates the merchant in production.
- Operations monitors the merchant's first 48 hours of live transactions and flags anomalies.
2. Monthly Partner Performance Reviews¶
2.1 Review Cadence¶
- When: Second week of each month, reviewing previous calendar month.
- Participants: Operations lead, partner management analyst, CDO engineering representative (for technical partners).
- Escalation: COO reviews any partner scoring below threshold.
2.2 Partner Scorecard¶
Each partner is scored monthly on the following metrics:
| Metric | Weight | Green | Amber | Red |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction success rate | 30% | ≥99.0% | 97.0–98.9% | <97.0% |
| Average response time | 20% | <500ms | 500–1000ms | >1000ms |
| Settlement timeliness | 20% | 100% on time | 1 late settlement | 2+ late settlements |
| Uptime | 15% | ≥99.9% | 99.5–99.8% | <99.5% |
| Issue resolution speed | 15% | Within SLA | 1 breach | 2+ breaches |
2.3 Volume Trends¶
Monthly review includes:
- Transaction volume (count and value) vs. previous month and same month prior year.
- Volume by transaction type (pay-in, pay-out, refund).
- Peak-hour analysis (capacity planning input).
- New merchant activations on the partner channel.
2.4 Review Output¶
- Updated partner scorecard stored in the partner management system.
- Amber/Red partners flagged to COO with remediation plan.
- Summary included in the weekly operations report (W-20 §5.2).
3. Partner SLA Enforcement¶
3.1 SLA Breach Process¶
| Breach Count (Rolling 30 Days) | Action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| 1st breach | Logged; partner notified via email | Operations analyst |
| 2nd breach | Formal notice to partner; internal escalation to COO | Operations lead |
| 3rd breach | Partner review meeting (Simpaisa COO + partner management) | COO |
| 4th+ breaches | Commercial review: penalty clauses activated or contract renegotiation | COO + Commercial |
| Persistent (3+ months consecutive Red) | Offboarding assessment initiated | COO + CDO + Commercial |
3.2 SLA Credits and Penalties¶
- SLA credits and penalties are defined in each partner's commercial agreement.
- Operations tracks and calculates credit eligibility.
- Finance applies credits to the next settlement cycle upon COO approval.
3.3 Emergency SLA Waiver¶
During force majeure events (natural disasters, regulatory shutdowns, nationwide outages), the COO may declare an SLA waiver period. Waiver periods are:
- Communicated to all affected partners in writing.
- Documented in the partner management system.
- Reported to the ELT in the monthly operations report.
4. Technical Integration Support¶
4.1 Ongoing Integration Maintenance¶
| Activity | Owner | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| API version upgrade coordination | CDO Engineering | As released; 90-day deprecation notice |
| Certificate renewal | DevOps (CDO) | 30 days before expiry; automated alerting |
| IP allowlist changes | DevOps (CDO) | On request; 48-hour notice |
| Settlement file format changes | Operations + CDO Engineering | 30-day notice; UAT required |
4.2 Handoff to CDO Engineering¶
Operations hands off to CDO engineering when:
- A partner requests a new API feature or endpoint.
- Integration errors indicate a Simpaisa-side bug (not a configuration issue).
- A partner is upgrading their API and Simpaisa must adapt.
- Performance testing is required (load testing, failover testing).
Handoff process:
- Operations creates a Jira ticket tagged
partner-engineeringwith: partner name, issue description, business impact, and urgency. - CDO engineering triages within 4 business hours.
- CDO engineering assigns to the relevant delivery team (Pay-In, Pay-Out, or Portal).
- Operations remains the partner-facing contact; engineering communicates technical details through operations.
5. Partner Offboarding¶
5.1 Triggers for Offboarding¶
- Persistent SLA failures (3+ consecutive months of Red scorecard).
- Commercial decision (volume too low to justify operational cost).
- Regulatory requirement (licence revocation, sanctions).
- Partner requests termination.
- Market exit by Simpaisa.
5.2 Offboarding Process¶
| Step | Owner | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Offboarding decision approved by COO | COO | Day 0 |
| Notify partner in writing per contractual terms | Commercial | Day 1 |
| Notify affected merchants with alternative channels | Operations + Commercial | Day 1–3 |
| Migrate merchant traffic to alternative channels | Operations + CDO Engineering | Day 1–14 |
| Final settlement reconciliation | Operations + Finance | Per settlement cycle |
| Disable partner channel in production | CDO Engineering | After final settlement confirmed |
| Archive partner configuration and logs | DevOps (CDO) | Within 7 days of channel disable |
| Close partner profile in management system | Operations | Within 7 days |
| Post-offboarding review | COO | Day 30 |
5.3 Merchant Communication¶
When a partner is offboarded:
- All affected merchants receive written notice at least 14 days before channel deactivation (unless regulatory emergency).
- Notice includes: reason (at appropriate level of detail), alternative payment channels available, any action required by the merchant, timeline.
- Operations proactively contacts the top 20 merchants by volume on the affected channel to assist with migration.
6. Operator Management¶
6.1 Operator Categories¶
| Category | Examples | Typical Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Banking partners | HBL, UBL (PK); BRAC Bank, Dutch-Bangla (BD); NIC Asia (NP) | Direct integration; settlement accounts |
| Mobile money operators | JazzCash, Easypaisa (PK); bKash, Nagad (BD) | API integration; pre-funded wallets |
| Card networks | Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay | Indirect via acquiring banks |
| E-wallets | SadaPay (PK); various per market | API integration |
6.2 Per-Operator Responsibilities¶
Each operator has a designated Simpaisa relationship owner:
- Banking partners: Operations lead for the relevant country.
- Mobile money operators: Operations lead for the relevant country, with CDO engineering for API matters.
- Card networks: COO (relationship) + CDO engineering (certification and compliance).
6.3 Operator Review Cadence¶
- Banking partners: Quarterly business review (COO + Country Head + bank relationship manager).
- Mobile money operators: Monthly performance review (operations lead + operator account manager).
- Card networks: Semi-annual compliance review (COO + CDO + network representative).
Appendix: RACI¶
| Activity | Operations | COO | CDO | Commercial | Finance | Country Head |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partner onboarding (operational) | R | A | C | I | I | I |
| Partner onboarding (technical) | C | I | R/A | I | - | I |
| Monthly performance review | R | A | C | I | - | I |
| SLA enforcement | R | A | I | C | I | I |
| Partner offboarding | R | A | C | C | C | I |
| Merchant onboarding (operational) | R | A | I | I | - | I |
| Operator relationship management | R | A | C | C | - | C |