ABnote Europe and Sicap have signed a collaboration agreement designed to cut the cost of operating NFC services.
The ‘traditional’ NFC business model calls for the establishment of a Trusted Service Manager or TSM which can act as a central, trusted provider of NFC services on behalf of mobile network operators and service providers such as banks, transport operators and retailers.
The addition of a third party to the NFC ecosystem, however, can add to the costs of implementing an NFC system and can also make it more complicated for the various parties involved to reach agreement over how the costs of launching a service should be split.
ABnote and Sicap’s idea is that, by combining their respective areas of expertise, they can jointly fulfil the role usually seen as being handled by a TSM without the need to add any extra overhead, ABnote’s Victoria Richardson told NFCW.
ABnote already manages the personalisation and packaging of smart cards and plastic cards plus the collection, processing and storage of sensitive client information for more than fifty banks around the world, including Citibank, RBS and BNP Paribas.
Sicap, meanwhile, currently handles over-the-air device and SIM management for more than 80 mobile network operators around the world.
“With existing customers right across the NFC ecosystem, ABnote Europe and Sicap can together offer all stakeholders a turnkey solution for end-to-end NFC services,” say the two companies.
“Our partnership is based on the principle that a best of breed approach is the most effective way of addressing secure provisioning and seamless services,” explains Philippe Delanoue, CEO of ABnote Europe. “Importantly, our solution is flexible, technology agnostic and proven.”
“NFC stakeholders have a real need for go-to-market applications built on carrier grade platforms,” adds Jürgen Samuel, CEO of Sicap. “Sicap and ABnote Europe can deliver a comprehensive solution which works first time on all devices”.
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