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SCA Latin America News
The Smart Card Alliance Latin America project kicked off on October 19, 2004 with the presentation of the Department of Commerce Market Developer Cooperator Program (MDCP) award totaling $288,000 that forms a partnering effort between the International Trade Administration and SCA to develop international trade and support education, training, and resource development for smart cards in Mexico, Brazil, and the Caribbean Islands. The Alliance staff has held organizing meetings with ITA field office personnel in Mexico and Brazil to discuss ways to bring smart card awareness and education to the government and commercial markets in those countries. The Alliance has also met with ITA personnel based in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and Miami who are in support roles and are prepared to assist the Alliance's Latin American project.
In July 2005 the Latin America Chapter was launched. Organizations with smart card-related business interests in all Latin American countries and the Caribbean, plus any organization based in North America or internationally with interests in the Latin America markets, should contact Edgar Betts, Manager Business Development - Latin America at 1-954-590-3795 or ebetts@smartcardalliance.org. Memberships are available for Leadership Council, General, Government, and Associate levels.
A recent report released by Frost & Sullivan called The Americas Smart Card Market Analysis projected microprocessor smart card shipments of 136.4 million in 2005, and with over a 59 percent annual growth rate projected through 2010. The Latin American smart card market growth is due to many market factors including the migration of mobile telecommunications operators to GSM technology, the migration to EMV in the financial sector, the move to smart transit fare cards and new government and commercial secure identification initiatives. Responding to these market factors, the Smart Card Alliance today announced the formation of a new Latin American chapter to bring together smart card suppliers, partners and customers in order to address the challenges facing smart card deployment in the region.
“The Latin American smart card market is now emerging and could develop more rapidly than other markets by effectively learning from similar smart card initiatives and by forming business partnerships that can quickly deliver successful implementations,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance.
The main mission of the Smart Card Alliance Latin American chapter is in line with the overall goal of the Alliance: to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart cards. The Alliance plans to use specific projects such as bi-lingual education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums to keep Latin American chapter organization members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought.
“The Smart Card Alliance has played a valuable role in developing the U.S. market in both the public and private sector. Our organization provides an educational and collaborative forum in which all of the stakeholders—manufacturers, issuers and end users—can work together to develop the cross-industry real-world solutions needed to deploy smart card systems. Our organization is uniquely positioned to bring a collective energy and focus to this technology in Latin America,” said Vanderhoof.
Next Steps:
The Advisory Board of the Latin America Chapter met on December 1, 2005 to discuss the marketing plan for 2006, including the review of important conference events where the chapter will deliver conference educational sessions, member exhibitor pavilions, and promote the educational mission of the chapter. The group also discussed a proposed membership expansion program and outlined a “government to government information exchange” to bring government representatives together to share information about smart card-related initiatives.
THE SCALA web site is being developed to include company profiles of members, news items, industry statistics and reports, and an event calendar of upcoming conference events and SCALA educational programs. The chapter will be represented at Security Week Brasil – Sao Paulo (March 27-29); Cards Brasil 2006 – Sao Paulo (April 3-5), and Expo Seguridad – Mexico City (April 26-28). The chapter also announced its “Government to Government Information Exchange Program”, a way for member companies to sponsor a government official in Latin America to be introduced and share knowledge and information with a U.S. government official serving in a similar capacity.
The Foundation Members of the Latin America Chapter include Oberthur Card Systems, Rede Ponto Certo, Axalto, Visa International, Daruma Orga, Identification Technology Group (ITG), Atmel, STMicroelectronics, Fargo Electronics, and Datacard Group.
How to get involved:
If you would like to get involved in any of the Latin American activities listed above or wish to be added to the contact list for future announcements, please send an email to info@smartcardalliance.org.
Council and Task Force Report
Alliance Members: Participation in all current Councils is open to any Smart Card Alliance member who wishes to contribute to the Council projects. If you are interested in participating in any of the active councils, please contact Cathy Medich .
Transportation Council
- The Transportation Council has launched the "financial/transit linkages" white paper project. This white paper will look at transit needs for payment and financial industry requirements for merchants, identify gaps and challenges to transit accepting contactless financial payment cards, and make recommendations for linkages. Please contact Michael Laezza, co-project lead (mlaezza@erggroup.com) or Cathy Medich if you would like to participate.
- The Council has also launched a project in collaboration with APTA to write a white paper that examines the need for a security specification for the UTFS standard for transportation electronic payment systems. Please contact the project co-leaders, Tim Weisenberger (Timothy.Weisenberger@volpe.dot.gov) or Martin Schroeder (Mschroeder@apta.com) if you would like to participate.
- If you are interested in participating in the Transportation Council, please contact the Council chair, Paul Korczak (pakorcz@nyct.com), vice chairs, Chris Cipperly (ccipperly@wmata.com) and David deKozan (david.dekozan@cubic.com), or Cathy Medich.
Physical Access Council
- The Physical Access Council held an in-person meeting at the Alliance Smart Cards in Government Conference to discuss possible next projects. The group will be discussing the project ideas further in its next conference call.
- The Council completed a letter to GSA recommending that FIPS 201 test cards be made available to vendors to help with product development and testing. Council officers are following up with GSA to plan next steps.
- The Council completed the 2006 Physical Access Council steering committee election; a run-off election for a tied seat and a new election for the second biometrics seat is now being held. Once the run-off election is complete, the steering committee will elect the Council's 2006 officers.
- The Smart Card Alliance had a significant presence at ISC West. The Alliance booth featured Physical Access Council members and highlighted other members who were exhibiting at the event. In the Alliance booth, Northrop Grumman, Viisage and ActivIdentity demonstrated an end-to-end FIPS 201 identity process, with demo cards provided to other Council members who were present at the event.
- Council members are participating in a joint committee with the IAB, PAIIWG and SIA to work on the compilation of a joint list of FIPS 201 PACS issues.
- If you are interested in participating in the Physical Access Council, please contact Council chair, Bob Merkert (rmerkert@scmmicro.com), vice chair, Dwayne Pfeiffer (dwayne.pfeiffer@ngc.com) or Cathy Medich.
Healthcare Council
- The Healthcare Council is planning monthly conference calls during which the Council will focus on specific topics concerning smart cards in health care. The group has planned the first 2 calls. Paul Contino (Mt. Sinai) will lead the discussion on health care standards relevant to smart cards on May 12 and Frank Avignone (Healthmeans) will lead the discussion on regional health information network (RHIO) use of smart cards on June 16.
- The Council is soliciting members who would like to write case studies or implementation profiles of smart card implementations in the U.S. healthcare industry. Members would write these case studies, with the Council and Alliance editing and publishing the final documents. If you would like a copy of the case study template, please contact Cathy Medich.
- The Healthcare Council is now voting for its second year steering committee. The initial steering committee was formed of volunteers who helped to launch the Council and manage its initial year of projects. Votes are due by April 28.
- If you are interested in participating in the Healthcare Council, please contact Council co-chairs, Frank Avignone (favignone@healthmeans.com), Paul Davis (pdavis3@mindspring.com) or Cathy Medich.
Contactless Payments Council
- The Contactless Payments Council has established Retailer and Issuer Advisory Groups to collaborate at the industry level on issues and topics related to contactless payments implementation in the United States. The Council's goal in working with the Advisory Groups is to engage in cross-industry discussion on contactless payment trends and issues and to determine what the industry can do to make contactless payments deployment faster and easier. The first Advisory Group meeting is planned during CTST in May.
- The Council completed answers to all of the questions submitted during the successful Feb. 22 web seminar. Answers were emailed to each attendee. The Council plans to create a public Q&A based on these answers.
- If you are interested in participating in the Contactless Payments Council, please contact Cathy Medich.
Identity Council
- The Identity Council held an in-person meeting at the Alliance Smart Cards in Government Conference to discuss possible next projects. The Council is now working on statements of work for two projects: a position document on smart cards and the REAL ID Act and a position document on the use of smart cards for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative's PASS card.
- If you are interested in participating in the Identity Council, please contact Cathy Medich.
Other Councils
- A members-only council web site is now available at http://www.sca-councils.org. This is a password-protected site that contains council working documents and contact lists. Each Council area has a separate password since Councils may have different membership policies. If you are a Smart Card Alliance member and would like access to the council site, please contact Cathy Medich.
- A council calendar has been posted at http://calendar.yahoo.com/smartcardalliance. This calendar posts the date and time of all council calls. Meeting notices will still be sent by email.
- If you are interested in forming or participating in an Alliance council, contact Cathy Medich. Click here to download a description of the council structure, proposal process and council interest feedback form.
New Members
Cogent Systems - South Pasadena, CA www.cogentsystems.com
Membership Level: General
Contact: Christopher Crump, Director of Commercial Business
Description: Provider of biometrics solutions
BQT Solutions - Rancho Santa Margarita, CA www.bqtsolutions.com
Membership Level: General
Contact: John Spongr. Vice President Business Development
Description: Global provider of innovative products for access control,
biometrics, and CCTV markets
Membership Upgrade to Leadership Council Level
Booz Allen Hamilton - San Francisco, CA www.boozallen.com
Membership Level: Leadership Council (upgrade)
Contact: Willy Dommen, Principal
Description: Strategic management and technology consulting firm
Alliance in the News
The Alliance has an active communications program to promote industry messages in business, vertical market, and technology publications. Coverage results from both Alliance press releases and interviews with publications writing articles about smart cards. Selected recent coverage is shown below with links to online articles.
- Card Technology, 4/20/06, "Proposed Border-Crossing Card Raises Privacy Concerns" [link to article]
- Contactless News, 3/14/06, "Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council announces first year successes, upcoming initiatives" [link to article]
- CXO Today, 3/27/06, "Secure Identities With Smart Cards, Says Alliance" [link to article]
- Federal Computer Week, 4/18/06, " US-VISIT chief wants tougher border security" [link to article]
- Parking Network, 3/14/06, "Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council Announces First Year Successes, New Officers, Upcoming Initiatives" [link to article]
- Secure ID News, 3/15/06, "Government and industry leaders share experience with secure identity credentialing at Smart Cards in Government Conference" [link to article]
- Secure ID News, 3/15/06, "Open Security Exchange builds convergence roadmap; wants more participants" [link to article]
- Security, 4/2/06, "ID SYSTEMS: Flipping Over FIPS 201" [link to article]
- Telematics Journal, 3/14/06, "Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council Announces Upcoming Initiatives" [link to article]
- Washington Technology, 3/27/06, "RFID: Prepare to be carded" [link to article]
Web Site News
NEW additions to the Smart Card Alliance web site
March 2006 web statistics
- 84,138 visitor sessions for the month
- 2,714 visitor sessions per day
- 475,342 total page views for the month
- 125,221 Industry News items viewed
- 60,529 Card Reader Catalog items displayed
If you have any suggestions on content that you'd like to see on the Alliance web site, please send them to info@smartcardalliance.org.
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