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Business Apps Needed For Smart Card Take-Off - Fujitsu
Makati City, Philippines, February 23, 2000
By Erwin Lemuel G Oliva, Metropolitan Computer Times.
Smart cards have not yet taken off in the commercial market space as has long been expected because vendors have somehow "overlooked" potential business applications for them, according to Fujitsu and ICL smart card experts.
For some time, vendors have mesmerized people with the potential applications companies can get out of smart cards, but have failed to convince them to invest time and money on this technology.
"A lot of smart card vendors have failed because they don?t have a business case for customers," said Bill Mangino, vice president of sales and marketing, ICL Smart Card Group, Product Technologies.
ICL acquired by Fujitsu Ltd. in 1990, is involved in the provision of IT services in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and recently Asia.
Mangino said that for Fujitsu-ICL, getting into the business of smart cards is not simply because they want to showcase technology. "We want to focus on business applications for this technology," he emphasized.
Smart cards or plastic cards armed with a chip (a ferroelectric random access memory chip, for example) for storing information, allow various applications, including cashless transactions with banks, retail shops, and even mass transport systems, among others.
The local retail industry, for instance, may find smart cards useful since these can be used to maintain customer loyalty, and even limit the customer?s spending in pre-selected areas, say, a number of shopping malls.
"We?re looking at large retail shops as potential customers for our smart card system," Mangino said. "I believe this can be a competitive edge for local retailers," he added.
In the United States, some retailers have used smart cards for issuing gift certificates or vouchers to customers. This system tries to ensure that customers would spend their money only on merchants of their choice.
"People will always have the option to pay cash," remarked Manuel Cerilles, senior manager of retail and Smart Card Systems of Fujitsu Ltd?s International Computer Business Group. He believes that smart cards allow big retail owners to "keep the money within the shop."
Smart card systems can also be applied on a wider-scale such as the case of cashless payment system used in mass transport services. Such system is best for sectors that want to avoid squabbling in handling cash.
The US military, banks, insurance companies have been using smart card sytems for cashless transactions.
Some universities in the US and Europe have been utilizing smart card systems for non-payment transactions such as access control, concessions and benefits, identification, computer and Internet access, among others.
Cerilles stressed, however, that the ubiquitous smart card system is likely to work in the local market if all "players" are willing to collaborate.
"I think banks alone don?t have the clout to create a wide-scale smart card system. They need partners from the retail industry and even schools," he added.
In Thailand, for instance, a consortium between banks, schools, and the retailers had been formed to promote smart card systems, according to Cerilles.
He even disclosed that Thailand?s Siam Commercial Bank is rolling out half a million smart cards this year. He, however, didn't specify what kind of application would run on the bank?s smart card system.
The major stumbling block for smart cards, however, is "the dearth of technical know-how in developing customized business applications" for smart cards.
Fujitsu-ICL, Cerilles said, hope to fill this gap by developing customized business applications for the industry. Fujitsu's Smart City, a multi-application smart card management and issuing system, aims to "create" and operate smart cards tailored to customers' needs.
The companies hope to do more for the smart card industry this year, according to Cerilles. |
