Network tokens: the part of your migration nobody plans for
When clients ask us how long a gateway migration will take, the honest answer involves their card networks more than their engineering team. Network token transfers between processors are the single most common reason a migration slips by weeks rather than days.
The mechanics are dull and the deadlines are firm. The card networks want signed agreements between both processors, a transfer file in a specific format, and a window during which the receiving processor will accept the file. Miss the window and you wait for the next one.
There is no clever workaround. The only thing that works is to start the conversation with both processors before the engineering plan is even drafted. Once a calendar slot is held you can build the rest of the plan around it. Trying to retrofit the network token transfer into a programme that has already started is the version of this work that goes badly.
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