Executive Director’s Letter

Dear members and friends of the Alliance,

I want to begin this month’s commentary by thanking all of the sponsors, exhibitors, attendees, and especially the speakers for helping to make the 2010 Smart Card Alliance Annual Conference in Scottsdale, AZ in May a huge success. I was worried about how this event would fare since we were starting over in 2010 with our own standalone conference after the demise of the joint conference held with CTST in 2008 and 2009. The success of this year’s event proves that great content and a great location (the Marriott Camelback Inn was spectacular) will attract an audience–with just under 300 delegates attending the event. We are already planning our 2011 Annual Conference, tentatively set for May 2 - 5, 2011 in Chicago.

Several major news items from different industry fronts caught my eye this month and warrant further commentary. The first of these is another example of the Federal Government taking the lead in setting a national strategy and policy around secure digital transactions. The recently appointed Federal Cybersecurity Czar, Howard Schmidt, has released the National Strategy For Trusted Identities in Cyberspace for public comment. The first thing I noticed is that this strategy is about “trusted identities,” which puts the focus on the fundamental challenge of creating trusted digital identities and binding credentials to those identities–the challenge that we have been trying to address across every market from financial transactions, access security, cloud computing, healthcare IT, and even mobile payments. Smart cards are mentioned in this document as an example of how two unknown parties can transact business safely and efficiently in cyberspace.

Photos from the 2010 Smart Card Alliance Annual Conference

Member Profile

This month, Smart Card Talk spoke with Mohammad Khan, President and Founder of ViVOtech. Khan is a recognized leader in the emerging mobile payments and marketing industry with 27 years of experience in electronic payments and ecommerce. Prior to starting ViVOtech in 2001, Khan spent 15 years at VeriFone starting in its early stage in 1983 when it had only 5 employees. Khan held several management positions at VeriFone, helped the company develop its payment automation systems and later aided in successfully marketing these products in 96 countries.

Mr. Khan was also a co-founder of the Internet commerce business for VeriFone–a leading reason for the acquisition of the company by HP in 1997 for $1.2 billion. Mohammad Khan, sometimes referred as Mr. Contactless or Mobile Czar, has been recognized as a leader in the electronic payments industry by Transaction Trends Magazine and as a “Mover and Shaker” of the electronic payments industry by Transaction World magazine. Recently, Khan received the 2010 Outstanding Contributor Award for his contributions to Contactless and Mobile Payments Council by the Smart Card Alliance. Khan holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Feature of the Month

Planning for New Fare Payment and Collection Systems

The management and operation of fare payment systems in the U.S. public transportation industry require considerable expenditure of labor and materials. The manufacture and distribution of fare media, ongoing equipment maintenance, and the collection and processing of cash may require agencies to spend 5–15% of their total revenue to collect fares. Industry-wide, this expense is even more striking when viewed against a total annual revenue of $10.3 billion generated in 2008.

Transit agencies planning to upgrade fare collection systems must consider the entire range of cost implications associated with fare payment projects. This article is the first of two to outline an approach for planning and procuring a new fare payment system.

Two key considerations for agencies contemplating a new system are scope and approach. Agencies should begin by examining their fare payment strategy (in simple terms, where is the agency today, and where does it want to be in the long term). The answers require an agency to examine how it collects fares today and set goals for how it would process fares in the future.

New CSCIP Accreditations

Congratulations to the LEAP members who have successfully completed the requirements for professional accreditation as Certified Smart Card Industry Professionals. Most recent additions to CSCIP certifications listed in bold type.

Click here for more information about LEAP and CSCIP certification program.

New CSCIP/G Accreditations

Congratulations to the LEAP members who have successfully completed the requirements for professional accreditation as Certified Smart Card Industry Professionals / Government. Most recent additions to CSCIP/G certifications listed in bold type.

Click here for more information about LEAP and CSCIP/G certification program.