By Amanda Ciccatelli, TMCnet Web Editor

Bluefin Payment Systems and Phone (News - Alert).com, a provider of U.S.-based VoIP and cloud-based telephony services, have decided to work together to give their customers more. This strategic new partnership will make the Bluefin payment gateway available to Phone.com's (News - Alert) customer base and enhanced cloud-based telephone services from Phone.com available to Bluefin's customers.

Bluefin Payment Systems specializes in providing secure payment gateway solutions to more than 15,000 U.S. and Canadian merchants. The company provides debit/credit card acceptance, ACH processing, recurring billing, backed by secure solutions including end-to-end encryption for POS transactions, transparent redirection, hosted pay page, store and convert processes and PCI (News - Alert) consulting.

“Bluefin is reaching many thousands of small businesses that need payment processing, but also need the high-quality, affordable, advanced communications and phone services offered by Phone.com. By working together, the services of each organization complement one another and help both organizations build on the vision of service and innovation to small businesses,” said Joel Maloff, vice president of Channel Development at Phone.com, in an exclusive interview with TMCnet.

Today, Phone.com is focused on the needs of small businesses and entrepreneurs - providing cost-effective access to the communications services needed to run their business globally.

Phone.com CEO and co-founder Ari Rabban (News - Alert) explained, "Phone.com recognizes that small businesses need comprehensive solutions to allow them to compete in today's challenging global markets, and most companies need the ability to accept electronic payments. We are thrilled to be able to provide Bluefin's services to our customers, and delighted to offer our communications solutions to the Bluefin universe."

Phone.com’s focus is specifically on the small business customer that has one to 20 or 30 employees."This is a market that we feel is substantially under-served today, and that will be at the vanguard of growth for our economy in years to come. Bluefin also focuses on this smaller end of the market, and as we are rapidly experiencing, small businesses need affordable and flexible payment processing.”

This fits seamlessly with the Phone.com strategy of being more than just “Internet dial tone” and becoming a truly valuable business partner for its customers. With this partnership, its clients will now have access to Bluefin's secure payment gateway by simply applying online for a merchant account, while Bluefin will be able to offer Phone.com's services to its base of merchants and more than 300 partners.

"This is our first partnership with a web-based telephony provider and we are excited to have formed a partnership with such a leader as Phone.com," said John M. Perry, CEO of Bluefin Payment Systems. "They have an extensive customer base of small businesses, which is a prime focus for Bluefin, particularly in the software space."

This collaboration is designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in several distinct ways, according to Maloff. Phone.com helps people to communicate more effectively with the help of its valuable partners that can benefit its customers.

“For those involved with start-ups, finding ways to accept customer or client payments as efficiently and economically as possible is essential!” commented Maloff. “At the same time, these start-ups want to present an image of an established organization with a seamless phone service that supports their mission but in a flexible, cost-effective, extensible, and high quality fashion.”