Eckoh, the global provider of secure payment products and customer contact solutions, has won the Payment Innovation of the Year Award at last night’s Payments Awards 2017.

Eckoh’s submission was for their unique and ground-breaking solution, which was launched successfully in October 2016, for paying securely with Apple Pay over a telephone call. Eckoh created their breakthrough solution alongside Worldpay, applying market-leading Apple eCommerce payment capability in a novel way to a telephone call, the first time anywhere in the world that such a payment had been made.

Eckoh’s solution won over strong competition from six other finalists in the category. Now, in their fifth year, the awards are regarded as a benchmark in the card and payment sector, distinguishing nominees, individuals, companies and organisations who have launched and implemented the most outstanding payments solutions, initiatives and projects during the past year.

This year’s winners were announced at the Payments Awards Gala Dinner and Ceremony on 16 November 2017 at the London Marriott Hotel, in Grosvenor Square. The Eckoh team shared their success with their Apple Pay solution client – Thames Water – who were the first to go live with the solution in their contact centre earlier in 2017 and are delighted with the result.

Nik Philpot, CEO at Eckoh, commented: “It’s a great achievement for Eckoh and the team who worked on this innovation to have won this award for our unique Apple Pay solution and we’re delighted that it is a success for Thames Water too. We’re always seeking the very best technology solutions for today’s contact centres and their customers and we firmly believe that good customer service is to allow customers to engage on their channel of choice and to pay securely using their payment method of choice. This is a great example of that approach, and creating a phone solution for Apple Pay illustrates the vital role that contact centres continue to play as part of the multi and Omni-channel engagement that customers expect today.”