Combining access control and payment systems on one card. NFC...?

DJ...

DJ...

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Need some advice in this respect. I want to simplify this process down to a single card, or single undefined object, at least. Doesn't have to be a card, but canot be biometric for various reasons.

I'd ideally like to have the following possible on this single card, and through this single POS system:

Access control
Payments for goods using the card itself using our proprietary monetary system where users upload cash to their card
The POS still accepts ordinary credit card, cheque card and debit card purchases.

I am toying with the idea of NFC for these, as I believe that this is the future of payments. I don't want to invest in a card-based system and build our systems around this, only to find in 3 year's time it is becoming redundant.

So do you know of any companies involved in this at all? I know the banks are trialling NFC cellular payment systems but this doesn't help with the access control side of things. Would it be possible to add multiple NFC chips into a single object and have them work independently? Or do I have to opt for RFID here instead? Which POS companies offer NFC/RFID payment solutions?

What would you suggest?

EDIT: ignore the cost factor for the time being...
 
DJ... said:
Payments for goods using the card itself using our proprietary monetary system where users upload cash to their card
The POS still accepts ordinary credit card, cheque card and debit card purchases.
Click to expand...

A very interesting topic.

Anyway, I'm not 100% sure, but I think for NFC payments you are forced to use MasterCard's PayPass POS device.
Not sure if there are any companies in South Africa that make their own devices. All the banks are using PayPass.

Anyway, can you tell me a bit about the "proprietary monetary system"?
Because, I know a company that is playing around with NFC and making their proprietary wallets to work on MasterCard PayPass devices.
 
VG008 said:
Anyway, can you tell me a bit about the "proprietary monetary system"?
Because, I know a company that is playing around with NFC and making their proprietary wallets to work on MasterCard PayPass devices.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Well it is for a resort that will house permanent residents and a massive staff compliment as well. On the retail side, we have our own retailers, owned by us as a business, but we will have supermarket chains on-site as well. We're hoping to make the payment process simple, with just a single card across as retailers and for all payment points, while combining access control into the same device/card. Payments to our own vendors will be made using the card, with cash uploaded to the card from any account. The external retailers will be paid in an ordinary fashion, as per their usual operations, but using the same card...
 
Something like The Oyster Card in London. But with added security layers, like PIN ad signature, but also compatible with ordinary payment systems.

I guess this is a little pipe-dreamish, but we're happy to invest in making it happen.

My thoughts are that we'd have to piece-meal a solution, with our primary partner being the payment gateway company. We'd need a custom POS software. And a separate access control chip inside the device that works off a different strip or chip from the payment system...
 
I would focus on the POS side of the equation first - find out if NFC is actually being used in the real world by any POS supplier - I very much doubt it at the moment. That being said, I agree NFC is the way of the future, unfortunately your project may just be kicking off a little too soon for mature solutions to be available.
I picked this link up from another myBB post on NFC - seems like they sell a bunch of cards, readers, etc. there's even an SDK if you want to try your hand at writing your own POS interface. http://www.projectionsa.co.za


The access control part will dovetail into the choice of POS because most access control systems just require compatible readers and a central enrollment/zone control system - NFC vs RFID makes no real difference as both tags would be acting in unidirectional mode - simply responding to a poll with a unique ID which is then verified against the enrollment system.
 
If there are no mature solutions yet, then I guess we need to look at protecting IP and monetising the solution that we come up with. I'm not happy spending tens of millions on a system that for all intents and purposes, has an end-life that I can see being in the near future. There is more to it than simply my own personal opinion as well, as our residents will be very averse to change once a system is adopted.

To be honest, NFC payment systems seem like the perfect opportunity for a company like PayPal to enter the retail market, globally. Are they missing a trick here?
 
I send you a PM

We do NFC payment systems, as for access control its pretty common on NFC already and I'm sure lots of people are doing it.
 
We have this at work. NFC access control as well as a POS system which acts as a debit card. Top up with cash at a machine, then swipe to pay in the canteen.
 
DJ... said:
What sort of security do you have on this debit card?
Click to expand...

Named user, and canteen staff who know us? No pin/anythign like that if that's what you mean. But a company is a different prospect to a resort/hotel...
 
Hi There,
I am not convinced given some of the reading I have done that NFC is going to take off as originally thought. Financial institutions are notoriously slow to move and there are enormous costs associated with all the card devices out in the market. Look how long it took to deploy chip and pin technology in RSA.
I would suggest though that you try and be as accomodating as possible. So having a POS system that supports a variety of current technologies as well as the potential for future ones (including NFC) would make sense.
Q-Tech is right the access control will be easier to implement once you have the POS side sorted.

Regards

Tim
 
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