Smart Technology Solutions Limited (STS), an innovator in providing smart card solutions, announces the launch of its contactless payment system, Touchlink. Touchlink, based on its award-winning Emvelink, a plug-in for the STS SmartNS framework, offers all retailers and banks a versatile platform for the introduction of contactless payment schemes.
Malaysia and the UK have been the global leaders in the roll-out of smart cards into the consumers’ hands. This roll-out, driven by the growing use of EMV-based credit and debit cards, is gradually being replicated into new markets as these cards replace magnetic stripe cards. Traditionally payments markets around the world have been stand-alone with no common platforms between different countries. This lack of consistency has been a large barrier to multi-national companies and an impediment to new payments companies looking to compete in these markets.
STS doesn’t always make a habit of promoting other people’s literary endeavours, however we are always willing to encourage and highlight the work of people we consider visionaries in our field.
One of these industry visionaries is Mike Hendry, a consultant who has worked globally with banks, retailers and service providers, specialising in electronic payments.
Through STS, the Co-operative Group is now able to gather up to 300,000 customer responses from stores around the country within 24 hours at a saving of £100,000 a time.
The move to EMV in the APAC region is really starting to gather momentum with countries like New Zealand in the process of migration and Australia set to switch over in the next 1-2 years. With this in mind STS have partnered with Australian-based consulting and solutions company, Smarta Technology.
STS have appointed new distributor ITOS Outsourcing Services to manage a network of resellers and provide local support and sales functions in Spain. ITOS have been involved in the payments arena in Spain for many years and have a range of their own PIN pads and mobile payment devices as well as their own POS applications. ITOS have an incredible understanding of the STS solutions from a technical perspective and this was just one of the reasons that led to their selection.
STS has always been at the forefront of the EMV wave in the UK and is now embracing some of the 'younger technologies' such as contactless that are emerging. But, if you cast your eye beyond the British shores at the moment you can see the same wave of EMV activity that the UK saw in 2005 / 2006 happening elsewhere. Over the last six months we have been really spreading our wings and getting involved in projects in Japan, Finland, Estonia, Spain and Australia / New Zealand in addition to the work in the UK.
STS was pleased to have held its first Technical User Group Seminar in the last week of February. With guests from Japan, USA, Germany, Spain, France as well as UK visitors, it was an opportunity to bring together partners of STS to discuss the future of smart card technology.
STS held 2 days of education and information. Guest speakers included large UK retailers, Boots and The Co-Operative as well as technology partners Glue4 and Votiva.
STS announces that it has developed the software to provide chip and PIN functionality for the new ITWell Mobile Point of Sale terminal, the XPDA-V. Through this work, the ITWell XPDA-V POS will be available for use as an EMV Level 2 enabled mobile point of sale.
ITWell's focus has been on providing wireless solutions for retailers with large success in the Korean market. ITWell deliver a large amount of experience in the mobile POS industry helping connect customers and retailers and transacting payments securely.
STS is pleased to announce support for three new PIN pads, the NEC PW-PE33, VeriFone's Vx810 and ITWell's XPDA-V. Using STS' flexible smart card framework, SmartNS, STS partners are able to gain access to these with no further device integration requirements.
Supported specifically for the Japanese market, the NEC PW-PE33 is STS' first EMVCo approval for an NEC PIN pad. Designed to accept IC cards only, the support of this device will provide Japanese retailers with access to EMV functionality as well as the benefits of using STS' SmartNS smart card framework.
