Orange Business Services launches NFC Service Center, making it easier than ever for companies to develop and deploy NFC services

Paris

As new mobile opportunities and the number of NFC compatible devices (smart phones, payment terminals, etc.) continue to grow, the development of NFC services on the French market is very promising. With its new NFC Service Center, Orange Business Services is making it easier than ever for companies to implement and manage a wide range of NFC services. This further supports Orange’s vision to become the trusted partner of companies developing their own NFC services.

a virtualization solution for multi-operator & multi-feature NFC services

Orange Business Services’ NFC Service Center provides banks, companies and public organizations a solution to virtualize all services provided by a card or bank note on a SIM card, such as payment of transport fees, loyalty cards, access badge, access to public infrastructures (swimming pools, libraries, etc.). In an environment where users are more and more connected and mobile, NFC Services Center gives companies the opportunity to enrich their customer journey by developing new services and making them easier to acess.

• two standalone secured platforms for all use cases
• This new service relies on two TSM (Trusted Service Manager) platforms interacting with all French mobile carriers and NFC terminals:

* A highly secured platform dedicated to banking applications and payment services. Compliant with all international standards related to NFC payment security (this platform is already “Mastercard Certified”).
* A multi-service platform focused on transportation, commerce and loyalty, access control and facilities security.

Those two platforms are hosted and managed within Orange Business Service redundant, certified, and highly secure data centers. Service availability is guaranteed through stringent service level agreements (SLAs). The NFC Service Center leverages a scalable and flexible infrastructure to respond and anticipate changing business needs and international standards1 .

• support and consulting services
• Orange Business Services experts provide an end-to-end support to their customers: initial design, deployment, operational management, maintenance, etc.
• advanced monitoring tools
• NFC Service Center also provides monitoring and statistic analysis services to streamline daily service management. For services requiring a special identification process or service customization (access control, etc.), Orange Business Services developed the NFC Office option, providing a Web GUI to manage independently access rights of end users and authorized services.

“ Thanks to NFC, Orange Business Services strenghtens its trusted operator and integrator positioning to support companies’ digital transformation.” added Béatrice Felder, Manager of the Customer Contact Solutions unit.
Several companies have already chosen NFC Service Center among which the Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois. Since June 2013, the citizens of the city of Strasbourg can subscribe to the service, buy transportation tickets and validate them with their NFC smart phone.

Since 2004, Orange Business Services played a key role in the specification of the NFC standard, and is now the most advanced European operator in the deployment of NFC services. With its technical and technological know-how, Orange plays a leading role in the deployment of NFC solutions in France which has been since 2011 one of its strategic programs of innovation.

1Standard specified by Global Platform and AFSCM

about Orange

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 43.5 billion euros in 2012 and has 168,000 employees worldwide at 30 June 2013, including 103,000 employees in France. Present in 32 countries, the Group has a total customer base of more than 231 million customers at 30 June 2013, including 174 million mobile customers and 15 million fixed broadband customers worldwide. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services.

Orange is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).
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