Issue 010402

Table of Contents

More Kudos for eGems

A Big Idea for Small Transactions

MIST Expands to US and Japan

Sold to the Highest Bidder

Smart Cards, Biometrics Conference

Differentiation in the Age of a Commodity Market

A One-Stop Shop

Proven Methods Yield Online Profit

New Web Ads Available

Yes, But Can They Sing?

Telecom Innovator Pairs with Hypercom

Go Get 'Em

NCR and QVS Unite

Think Globally

IVI Checkmate Retools, Relishes Revenue Increase

The Tribe Has Spoken

Your Signature

Are You a Customer Service Rep?

My What a Big Ego You Have

Lead Story:

IrFM Moving Forward

Infrared Financial Messaging (IrFM), a protocol developed and funded by CrossCheck Inc., under a Special Interest Group approved by the Infrared Device Association (IrDA), is beginning to move forward in its market testing.

On April 4, in conjunction with an IrDA quarterly meeting, an IrFM press conference was held in San Francisco. ìWe are using this meeting to leverage IrFM into a major public relations effort on behalf of all IrDA members, noted Ron Brown, Executive Director, IrDA.

Speakers at the event included top management from Visa, ZiLOG, and CrossCheck, as well as influential Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and POS manufacturers. Visa noted that Visa customers using Palm PDAs will soon be able to point their devices at an infrared interface on cash registers and pay for merchandise directly, without using a credit card or other token. This type of ìproximity paymentî interface (under development by Palm and Visa International), will provide a further mechanism for building loyalty, similar to that of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones with customized home pages that were used as part of many bank loyalty schemes.

Historically, telephony devices have been the focus of this development. However, the move to lifestyle computing and the ever-broadening range of devices (e.g., Leviís smart clothing research and watches such as Swatch Access) imply that no single payment device will win. Instead, companies must investigate a multitude of devices to identify those that map to specific consumer lifestyle affiliations.

The press in attendance came to hear about financial transactions over infrared and the announcement of the IrFM profile. Dave Siembieda, President and CEO of CrossCheck, remarked on the significance of the event, ìThis is step one in a major international public relations effort to create awareness of the impact that IrDA technology is having on important new applications in todayís marketplace. The technology was first shown last year by CrossCheck in both the Japan and the U.S. Comdex forums, in which CrossCheck demonstrated the use of PALM PDAs to create and transmit electronic check payments from a wireless PDA through first, second, and third generation VeriFone equipment fitted with an IR dongle and communicating with CrossCheck data centers in California and Wisconsin.