Mobile contracting & NFC services: what is the way forward?

With the deployment of NFC services, two key drivers need to be particularly addressed:

1. Adequate service offering to the end user
2. Trusted process to high value service subscription.

Focusing on the latter implies for Service Providers and Mobile Operators to re-create on the mobile phone the condition of physical secure subscription.

Andreas Heimgartner appointed as CEO of Sicap

Sicap’s Board of Directors has announced the appointment of Andreas Heimgartner as the new Chief Executive Officer of Sicap. Andreas Heimgartner (55) has extensive experience in corporate consultancy, managing complex strategic projects and in key account management in the field of cutting-edge technology. He has worked in more than 20 different countries. Over the last two decades Andreas Heimgartner has been a director at Cisco Systems, a partner and management board member of Arthur D. Little and vice-president and management board member at XMIT Data Communications, a former leading systems integration company in Switzerland.

Swiss-born Andreas Heimgartner said "I look forward to work on my new challenge from my home country, and travelling to support our regional offices across the Globe. Sicap has succeeded in differentiating its offer according to local opportunities and constraints and has build solid working relations with operator customers and partners in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Russian Federation and Asia. We will be showcasing sicap’s expertise at the Mobile World Congress 2013”.

Mobile Money ATM in Cote d'Ivoire





Sicap gained recognition of the popularity of its ATM Solutions at the Awards ceremony of AfricaCom, the largest Telecom event on the African continent, held last week.

Sicap Mobile Money ATMs awarded

The success story of the ATMs deployed in Orange Cote d’Ivoire shops was instrumental in persuading the judges of their popularity. Orange Cote d’Ivoire Marketing affirms that Orange Money subscribers who use the ATMs once tend to use them for their subsequent transactions.
Mr. Mamadou Bamba, CEO of Orange Côte d’Ivoire said that “waiting times have rapidly decreased in Orange shops equipped with Sicap ATMs. The ATMs have allowed us to multiply the number of users and also the number of transactions”.

NFC & Mobile Identity - Two Sides of the Same Coin

I have recently spoken to my colleague Marc Printz, Mobile Identity Product Manager at sicap, about the SIM cards required for Mobile ID services. Some of the mobile operators are concerned about the availability of PKI-SIM cards required for Mobile ID services and even more so about the necessity for the subscribers to exchange their old SIM cards in order to be able to use such services.

As most operators are looking to launch NFC in the very near future, it is worth in this context to look at the relationship between NFC and Mobile Identity. As it turns out, they are two sides of the same coin. Moreover, they have a symbiotic relationship, a mutually beneficial relationship. And here is why. 

Sicap Mobile Money ATM wins Best User Experience award at AfricaCom

Sicap Mobile Money ATMs awarded in 2012.

The 5th Annual AfricaCom event, hosted in Cape Town this week, ended with the awards ceremony which aims at "recognising and rewarding excellence In the African Telecommunications market".

Sicap was awarded the Best User Experience prize for its innovative Mobile Money ATMs. Hugely popular in West Africa, numerous deployments are underway across the continent.

Expect to see Sicap Mobile Money ATMs installed in operator stores in 2013 !