SmartCity

Citation

(1999), "SmartCity", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948bab.008

SmartCity

Industry news

SmartCity

ICL, the IT systems and services company, has announced the availability of version 5 of SmartCity. SmartCity is an end-to-end multi-application smart card solution, developed by ICL. SmartCity 5 incorporates support for additional Gemplus smart card types, a new higher performance and lower cost security and authentication processor, seamless Sybase or Oracle database support, and new and enhanced wizards for improved SmartCity Back Office operator throughput. Gemplus smart cards now supported by SmartCity include GemSAFE, a card for securing computer access, email and Internet access; the low cost MPCOS-3DES 1KB card for use in applications requiring a single purse and a limited number of applications; and the low cost GPM271 card, a disposable card used in the SmartCity gift certificate application. SmartCity also supports Gemplus' PCOS, GPM416 and MPCOS-EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) compatible smart cards. All card types can be supported within a single SmartCity system. SmartCity 5 runs on Microsoft Windows NT clients interfacing with relational databases running on Windows NT or a UNIX server. ICL recently released the findings of international research into consumer attitudes to smart card technologies in a report entitled The Lifestyle Revolution. It indicated consumers' growing acceptance to using smart card technology and electronic payment instead of cash. As many as 60 per cent of those surveyed in the UK, 52 per cent in Sweden, and 47 per cent in the USA, expressed interest in the use of smart card technology if it would reduce the number of cards carried to one. Around 40 per cent of all those surveyed were favourable towards the concept of only ever using electronic payment instead of cash. See ICL's Website: http://www.icl.com to find out more.