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:

During the October 11-14, 2005, Alliance 2005 Fall Annual Conference in Miami, FL, there was a strong turn out of speakers and attendees from Brazil, Mexico, and the Caribbean. At a dinner reception and meeting on Thursday, October 13th,  twenty two representatives from the Latin America chapter gathered to hold their first meeting to discuss the direction the chapter will take in 2006 and how best to represent the Latin American smart card industry through education, media relations, conferences, and published reports. The group agreed to a list of targeted conference events at which the chapter will have a visible presence. The chapter will also seek opportunities to deliver smart card presentations and workshops at these events.
 
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 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, and Fargo Electronics.

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.  

• The Transportation Council has completed its first project, a white paper on smart cards and parking.   This white paper was developed to provide the parking industry with an overview of the technology and trends in the smart card marketplace and to provide the transit industry with an overview of the parking industry market and use of smart cards. The white paper is now available for download from the Smart Card Alliance web site at http://www.smartcardalliance.org/alliance_activities/parking.cfm. White paper topics include:
  • An overview of the trends for electronic payment in transportation markets
  • The parking market structure and operations
  • Smart card technology use in parking, transit and financial payment applications
  • The benefits and challenges of using smart card technology for parking applications
  • Profiles of implementations using smart cards for transportation applications
• The Council is holding an in-person meeting on Feb. 23-24 in Salt Lake City, UT.   The goal of the meeting is to develop the work plan for the Council for 2006.   Topics that will be covered include: report on Council 2005 activities; parking activities and next steps; review of key regional transit initiatives; toll industry initiatives; financial industry initiatives; discussion of 2006 projects and development of preliminary 2006 work plan.   Additional information about this meeting will be distributed via the Council email list.
• Elections for Council officers and steering committee for 2006 are complete, with the full slate of candidates approved by Council members.   The hand-off to the new Council officers and steering committee will take place during the in-person meeting.
• If you are interested in participating in the Transportation Council, please contact interim Council co-chairs, Greg Garback ( ggarback@wmata.com ) or Mike Dinning ( dinning@volpe.dot.gov ) or Cathy Medich .  

• The Physical Access Council has completed its second project, a presentation that outlines the issues involved in implementing FIPS 201 in physical access control systems.   The presentation will be available in late January.   The Council is also currently active scheduling briefing sessions with the appropriate government organizations to discuss the content in the presentation.
• 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.  

• The Healthcare Council is currently completing its first project, a white paper on the use of smart cards in healthcare applications in the US.   Target publication for the new white paper is February 2006.
• The Smart Card Alliance has a healthcare panel at the RSA Conference in February, with Healthcare Council members, Frank Avignone (Healthmeans), Chuck Wilson (Hitachi America) and Bill Page (EMIDASI), presenting.
• 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 is producing a webinar for retailers in late February, in partnership with the National Retail Federation Stores magazine.   Additional information about this webinar will be distributed via the Council email list.
• If you are interested in participating in the Contactless Payments Council, please contact Cathy Medich.  

Identity Council

• The Identity Council is completing its first project, a white paper on the top 10 hot topics in identity.   This white paper is a non-technical briefing that describes the top identity issues, along with the Council's perspectives on how the issues can be resolved.   Target publication for the new white paper is February 2006.  
• If you are interested in participating in the Identity Council, please contact Cathy Medich.  

Other Councils

• 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

SAIC – McLean, VA www.saic.com
Membership Level: General
Contact: Michael Miley, Assistant Vice President
Description: Largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the U.S., providing integration services to government.

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.

• AZ Central, 12/2/05, "Paying by cash, credit -- or fingertip?" [ link to article ]
• China Daily , 12/15/05, "Provide More People with Better Transport" [ link to article ]
• ComputerWorld, 12/12/05, "N.Y. Hospitals, Siemens Launch Smart-Card Pilot" [ link to article ]
• Contactless News, 12/12/05, "Securing Personal Identity and Country Borders with Contactless Radio Frequency Technology in 2006" [ link to article ]
• CSO, 12/6/05, "New York Hospitals Launch Smart Card Initiative" [ link to article ]
• Electronic Payments International, 12/12/05, "MOBILE PAYMENTS - OPERATORS: Canada co-operates as the US trails" [link not available]
• Federal Computer Week, "Feds to use faster, safer fingerprint standard" [ link to article ]
• Genetic Engineering News, 12/15/05, "MedLink International Announces Its Secure Digital Optical Memory Card Technology" [ link to article ]
• SecureIDNews , 12/20/05, " Building on 2005, smart card growth will lead to broader deployments" [ link to article ]
• Security Info Watch , 1/13/06, "SIA Reports Back on HSPD-12 Forum It Held with Smart Card Alliance" [ link to article ]
• USA Today, 12/2/05, "Will that be cash, credit -- or finger?" [ link to article ]
• Wireless News, 12/5/05, "Siemens, The Mount Sinai Medical Center and Elmhurst Hospital Center Form Patient Health Smart Card Alliance" [link not available]

Web Site News

NEW additions to the Smart Card Alliance web site

• 5th Annual Smart Cards in Government Conference information, with registration open
• New Transportation Council white paper, "Smart Cards and Parking"
• 2005 Fall Annual Conference proceedings in the members-only web site
• Frost & Sullivan "America's Smart Card Analysis" report executive summary

December 2005 web statistics

• 50,416 visitor sessions for the month
• 1,626 visitor sessions per day
• 302,711 total page views for the month
• 110,655 Industry News items viewed
• 25,129 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 .

Copyright 2006-2007· Smart Card Alliance · 191 Clarksville Rd. · Princeton Junction, NJ 08550
Phone: (800) 556-6828 info@smartcardalliance.org · www.smartcardalliance.org