Smart Cards Are Smart Business

Everyone is looking for a market with "explosive" growth predictions. The reality? Not many markets explode. The Internet market exploded, but look how many dot-coms have failed. The smart card market is growing the way a market should; it is growing steadily.

Read The Signs
Most VARs and integrators have a unique talent...they have the ability to look at a problem and solve it. This is how VARs provide "solutions" to their customers' needs. With that in mind, VARs should be able to read the signs in the smart card market. The American Express Blue card - which has a smart card chip - is a sign that major banks and credit card companies are taking advantage of smart card benefits.

Tarvinder Karsandh, VP of marketing communications, Gemplus Americas (Redwood City, CA), told me she considers banking to be a key market for smart cards. Banks have many branches, so they will need many integrators to install smart card solutions.

Karsandh also mentioned the enterprise market as an area of great opportunity. Again, intuitive VARs should see signs that this is a terrific market for smart cards. With so many business transactions taking place through the use of computers and the Internet, there is a huge need for security. "Large corporations are looking for ways to reduce their footprint, while at the same time, ensure secure access to their networks," Karsandh explained. "Smart cards help do both. Corporations can store both 'physical' access (entry into office buildings, campuses, etc.) and 'logical' access (access to corporate networks) technology on one card."

Standards Increase Sales
Mario Di Prizio, director of engineering and product development, Motorola Worldwide Smartcard Solutions Division (Schaumburg, IL), is also encouraged by new developments and signs in the smart card market. "Most of the smart card platforms to date have been proprietary," Di Prizio told me. "Now, there are two new and exciting open standards that I believe will help propel smart card sales: Java and Open Platform. Open Platform is endorsed by Global Platform, a group of industry vendors aligned to promote smart cards and interoperability."

Continuing, Di Prizio stated, "These standards are good news for VARs. VARs are not tied to a single vendor for chips and readers. This cuts down on capital investment, because VARs do not have to stock a single supplier's hardware. VARs can simply develop applications. Motorola offers multiple platforms to VARs. VARs will play an important role in developing the smart card market."

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet
Superman was characterized as "faster than a speeding bullet." Often, technology vendors make the same claim about market growth using terms such as "explosive." As I said before, I believe most markets don't explode. Smart card technology works; it's that simple. More and more, you will see this technology used in physical and logical security applications. Eventually, you will also see it used for stored money (e-cash) applications, as well. E-cash is already popular in Europe. Smart cards are a rather simple technology, and standards are making the technology easy to integrate...a plus for VARs. Check the technology out. I think you'll agree it can be a valuable source of added income in your business.