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.

Getting to understand what I really subscribe to has become a clear expectation of end users with the profusion of on-line service offers. One of the first NFC services provided and advertised by Telecom Operators is banking. NFC indeed enables to securely offer the service of a payment card through a NFC phone that in essence acts as a contactless payment card.

Mobile Banking: Smart but…

That sounds awesome as I will basically only need my phone to follow-up with my different spending. Interestingly, a survey conducted by MobileCover (December 2012), reveals that 72% of the people would rather forget their wallet than their mobile phone. Well, if NFC brings me both in one device, I am certainly better off. If you add the NFC subscriber profiling capability offered by some Wallet management solution providers (like sicap) then we can talk about secure and tailored services offering for the end-subscriber.

Nonetheless, whatever great choice of NFC services are offered to me, I am very cautious about what I generally subscribe to. Nothing is better than a good detailed contract that I can physically sign. It provides to me - as well as to my preferred bank - the quality and security of a well-defined and protected relation.

When subscribing to an NFC service, what would be the quality of trust that I’d like to be offered?

… How to be contractually safe?

Market study shows that only very few  parameters of usage should be changed to stimulate the adoption of a new process or service form factor. As such, I’d like to be offered to sign virtually a contract as in handle contracts entirely electronically, such as bank loans and insurance contracts, with full respect for the strict legal environment. Signing a contract is a must-have when one wants to subscribe to a service that directly connects to her bank account.

In brief, when choosing among the services being dynamically pushed to me through the NFC wallet service store, I select one and get a contract submitted to my screen that I need to sign by authenticating. A simple and time efficient process that generates trust in the service subscription, thus tightening the relationship between end-users and their service providers. This service can be offered by the MNO to its service providers as part of its value proposition.

“What I see is what I sign”

summarizes the m-contract solution that has been developed by Netheos, a French mobile software company. Its integration with the sicap NFC Wallet Manager Solution SecureMe will be demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013 in Barcelona, in Hall 6, booth 6D64.

Jean François d’Argenlieu
Director of Marketing at sicap