Meeting to focus on uses for smart cards

A major conference next week will heighten awareness of smart card potential as Ireland's largest pilot scheme of the multi-functional technology gets underway.

The Smart Cards in Business Conference next Wednesday and Thursday will primarily highlight the retail applications of electronic transaction systems.

Electronic money schemes are already well established in Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Finland, and electronic health care and health insurance cards are held by most people in France and Germany. However, Ireland is lagging behind.

The conference takes place as the CAROLAN pilot project recruits up to 3,000 people to test its RAPID card on DART services between Bray and Dublin, and in Dawson Street or Drury Street car parks in the capital.

The pre-paid card can be used for car park charges, bus tickets, DART tickets, and goods purchased at participating retail outlets. It can be reloaded with additional value once the credits have been spent.

Application forms for the scheme are available at Bray and Pearse Street DART stations, at AIB branches in Bray and Grafton Street, on Dublin Bus routes 145, 184 and 185, and on Finnegan local bus services around Bray. Forms are also available at the two car parks involved.

The smart cards conference will feature 23 speakers from eight countries and highlight possible retail applications, such as customer loyalty schemes and electronic purses. It is primarily targeting people in businesses who need to develop solutions for managing their customers.

Organised by European Transport and Telematics Systems (ETTS), an Irish consultancy and smart card systems developer, the event will deal with electronic commerce, electronic money, services such as transportation, and integrated city cards or administration cards.

The most common usage of the technology here is as phone cards, but soon people will use them for shopping, transportation fares, and Internet transactions.

Banks and card issuers are keen to replace magnetic stripe cards with smart cards in order to reduce fraud. Smart cards - though more expensive to produce - are generally accepted as more secure than magnetic cards. The technology required to read the data on the smart card chip is practically impossible to counterfeit.

As the range of smart card payment options grows, retailers need to ensure compatibility between different cards so they can offer various payment methods using just one card reader at each pointof-sale terminal.