Smart Technology Solutions Ltd. (STS) announces that it has provided Capita Software Services' range of managed services with a flexible, easily integrated platform to cater for emerging and future smart card and payment applications. Capita's public sector customers can now benefit from a fast, cost-effective migration path to chip & PIN with technology equipped to cater for the latest advances in payment and smart card functionality, such as mobile phone payment, contactless cards and the introduction of handheld payment terminals.
Andrew Davies, Product Manager of Capita, said: "We were very impressed by how quickly STS were able to develop, test, and deploy the chip & PIN functionality. It used to take us about six to nine months to provide our public sector customers with chip & PIN functionality with an onsite APACS solution. Using STS software with our pre-accredited Managed Service this is now reduced to three months starting from our first site visit."
Capita is talking to a number of public sector organisations with a view to introducing pre-accredited chip & PIN and exploring more effective payment options for services. Argyll Community Housing were the first site to Go Live with this integrated solution (in March 2007) and they will shortly be joined by a number of other customers, which include Local Authorities, Further Education Colleges and Housing Associations.
Andrew Davies, Product Manager of Capita said: "STS software provides us with a platform to respond to emerging market trends such as mobile, contactless payments and online fraud. Public sector organisations can now provide citizens with more convenient payment methods. For instance, council officers will be able to use handheld payment terminals to collect outstanding payments from residents at their homes. The STS technology also allows for the quick and simple introduction of smart card programmes, for example for residents collecting benefits, or to manage access to local services and amenities."
Capita Software Services' AXIS Managed Services suite of products currently supports more than 140 customers, processing in excess of #30 million worth of payments by credit and debit card each month. The services are provided via a range of modules, which support 'unattended' payments via internet, DTMF (Touch Tone), speech recognition, SMS text, MOTO (Mail Order Telephone Order) payments (where the customer provides card details over the phone) and face-to-face payments using Chip & PIN.
By shortening the deployment process and working with STS, Capita Software Services will be able to capitalise on the appetite of public sector organisations to upgrade their payment systems to accept chip & PIN.
Cameron Olsen, vice president of business development at STS, said: "We are delighted to partner with a successful company like Capita Software Services to ensure their public sector customers gain access to new payments technology. At STS, we pride ourselves on the capabilities of our technology for simplifying the integration of the different elements of payment and smart card systems. We're excited to have opened up a range of opportunities for Capita and that end users in local authorities can benefit from more convenient payment options. Capita's use of the STS technology also allows for new payment applications yet to emerge, such as using mobile phones."