VeriFone Holdings, Inc. has announced two new partnerships that will both enhance and extend its services to retail customers.

VeriFone announced the formation of a new services organization created out of a partnership with Integrand Systems Professional Services Worldwide (ISTS)and a new global partnership with ArcSight aimed at enabling merchants in retail and petroleum markets to proactively protect cardholder data.

As part of the partnership with ArcSight, VeriFone's sales force will join with that of ArcSight to inform merchants from the VeriFone customer base about the benefits of the ArcSight PCI Protection Suite. The intent is to help merchants protect against breaches, insider threats, and non-compliance risks across the spectrum of Payment Card Industry data security standards (PCI DSS) rules and regulations.

"PCI compliance is a nightmare-issue for companies struggling to keep up with evolving PCI security requirements, which are difficult and costly to implement, maintain, and monitor across distributed networks," said Jeff Wakefield, VeriFone vice president of marketing, Integrated Systems. "The ArcSight offering directly addresses all 12 PCI DSS mandates and provides a real-time monitoring and early-warning breach detection system and is a key part of VeriFone's initiative to both educate and assist the industry about payment security compliance."

"This partnership brings ArcSight's proven and scalable technology solution to VeriFone's global customer base of Level 1 and 2 merchants that desire to achieve PCI compliance and protect their brand and customer information," said Tom Reilly, president and COO of ArcSight. "ArcSight is fortunate to partner with VeriFone, a world-class organization committed to the success of their customers and partners."

The ArcSight PCI Protection Suite is a comprehensive, scalable, and cost-effective solution for protecting cardholder data and monitoring ongoing PCI compliance. Many Level 1 and 2 merchants across the retail, transportation, telecommunications, medical, and financial markets have already selected the ArcSight PCI Protection Suite to secure their customers against the growing global threats to cardholder identity and data privacy. Level 1 and Level 2 merchants that are interested in the solution can contact either their local VeriFone or ArcSight representatives. Additional resources may be found at http://www.arcsight.com/pci-protection-suite.htm.

New VeriFone Services Organization

VeriFone also announced the formation of the VeriFone Integrated Systems Professional Services organization and an agreement with ISTS Worldwide, Inc. to augment VeriFone's existing solutions delivery capabilities.

VeriFone Integrated Systems Professional Services will expand VeriFone's solution delivery capabilities in the area of retail IT, enterprise level payments software, POS integration, and custom application development. ISTS Worldwide is a successful solutions provider specializing in the retail and payments industry with experience working with VeriFone products and customers.

"Partnering with ISTS significantly expands VeriFone's professional services capabilities and provides customers with one-stop shopping for integrated products and services," said Bud Waller, VeriFone executive vice president, Integrated Solutions. "ISTS has demonstrated unique expertise in retail payments front-end and back office applications and has developed a cost-effective global delivery model."

"Our ability to consistently deliver innovative, customer-focused and cost-effective solutions to the retail and payments market makes ISTS an ideal partner for implementation of VeriFone's market-leading solutions," said Viren Rana, president and CEO, ISTS Worldwide, Inc.

The new professional services organization and partnership will enable VeriFone to deliver any custom solution or systems integration project required by its retail and software customers, the companies said.

"As retailers increase the customer touch points within their stores, implement self-service applications, or add new payment methods utilizing VeriFone products, these new applications need to be integrated into a retailer's existing infrastructure to deliver full value to the retailer," Waller said. "Our customers look to VeriFone to develop the complete solutions that we can now offer with our Professional Services Organization." Additional resources may be found at http://www.verifone.com/services/professional/index.html.

About ISTS Worldwide

ISTS Worldwide (http://www.istsinc.com) is a leading software development, consulting and systems integration services firm leveraging complementary enablers of people, process, technology, global delivery capabilities and domain expertise in the retail and payment technology verticals. ISTS enables organizations to maximize performance and reduce operating costs through its best-of-breed technology services stack delivered through a proven hybrid (onsite-offshore) global delivery model.

About ArcSight

ArcSight is a leading provider of security and compliance solutions that intelligently identify and mitigate business risk and deliver a centralized view of enterprisewide events across heterogeneous infrastructures. This real-time and historic view into external attacks, insider threats, and regulatory compliance provides enterprises, MSSPs, and government agencies with the intelligence and response capabilities required to effectively protect and manage their networks and their businesses. For more information, see http://www.arcsight.com.

About VeriFone

VeriFone Holdings, Inc. is the global leader in secure electronic payment solutions. VeriFone provides expertise, solutions, and services that add value to the point of sale with merchant-operated, consumer-facing, and self-service payment systems for the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare vertical markets. VeriFone solutions are designed to meet the needs of merchants, processors, and acquirers in developed and emerging economies worldwide.