By Ed Jacobsen, SchlumbergerSema Transaction Systems
Canadian wireless communications operator Microcell
Solutions faced a big challenge. How could it maintain a leadership
position in the fast-growing Personal Communications Services (PCS)
market; increase revenues; and, increase customer retention? The company
decided that the best way to do this was to offer its nearly 788,000
customers a mobile banking application through its popular Fido Service,
the company's digital PCS network.
Wanting to give its customers the ability to view
bank account and credit card balances as well as recent bank and credit
card transactions, Microcell decided to create an advanced, Subscriber
Identity Module (SIM) card-based, mobile banking application that offered
maximum flexibility and fully customizable value-added services. SchlumbergerSema,
a leading provider of smart card-based solutions, was selected to direct
the initiative.
Microcell signed an agreement with the National Bank
of Canada to provide their respective customers access to these financial
services via SchlumbergerSema-enhanced Fido handsets. Chosen for its
position as a pioneer in smart card innovation and 20 years of industry
experience, SchlumbergerSema delivered a complete solution based on
its Cyberflex Simera SIM card, Mobile Banking application and Aremis
management system to manage the communication between the handset and
the bank.
The solution features a simple menu-driven interface
instead of keying number sequences. Now, Microcell customers with existing
Phase 2+ compatible handsets can check bank account and line of credit
balances as well as credit available on all of their National Bank of
Canada credit cards. Users can also review the last five transactions
for each of their bank accounts and lines of credit and the last eight
transactions on their MasterCard credit cards. In addition, users have
direct access to Customer Service at the National Bank of Canada and
MasterCard, making help just one quick step away.
The Mobile Banking solution combines the Java™-based
Cyberflex™ Simera™ card and the Aremis™ management system. Allowing
for the addition of future applications, Cyberflex Simera runs on any
application written in Java and is fully compliant with all the newest
GSM and Java card standards. Because the Aremis management system distributes
and manages a wide-range of GSM-based, value-added services, Microcell
is able to offer its customers completely customized service packages.
On an administrative level, Aremis provides Microcell with an efficient
and versatile environment for allocating, tracking and billing mobile
services.
"Cyberflex Simera allows us to provide our customers
with a user-friendly interface and the necessary security to launch
mobile banking services," stated Microcell's Sean Dalton, vice president,
marketing. "We are pleased to leverage the world-leading expertise and
experience of SchlumbergerSema in the development and deployment of
smart card-based, value-added services for the mobile communications
market and to provide our subscribers with a powerful new solution -
the first of its kind in North America."
As the multi-application architecture of Cyberflex
Simera offers the potential to launch additional service applications
after deployment. SchlumbergerSema is now working with Microcell to
identify additional applications, such as mobile banking account transfers
and transactions.