Events

9 regions building life in a single operation!

For its Annual General Meeting last Thursday March 21st, the mobile contactless services Forum invited the main players in the contactless industry to the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry, for a debate on the topic “The contactless mobile sector, a new universe for regional based services”. Almost 120 decision-makers were there to discover the results of the work carried out by the members of the mobile contactless services Forum and discuss with the major players in the French NFC market.

One thing is for sure: from now on, users are ready!

As shown by the study by MV2, carried out at the request of members of the mobile contactless services Forum, to analyze users’ perception and interest in contactless mobile services, users are now increasingly mature. Two figures show how much NFC technology services are appealing to the general public: 69 % of those users questioned declare that they are interested in mobile services and 72 % are willing to change their mobile phones to benefit from them. The study also reveals that some services are more in demand than others. Services that will make administrative procedures easier and in particular services that improve public transport experience. Also in demand are services that encourage the development of tourism.

Nine regions** and their professional bodies are becoming leaders in developing applications locally.

The majority of NFC services are managed by the State and local authorities. It is therefore perfectly logical that their involvement is one of the key factors to success.
Eric Besson, Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy, sent a clear message in his closing speech at the meeting: “The regions will be supported by the national coordinating bodies we have set up and whose work is coordinated by the mobile contactless services Forum. Firstly, this support will enable professional bodies to improve the quality of the services they provide with their individual projects, as well as helping them to define a schedule for deployment. It also encourages exchange of information and services between the professional bodies and cross-fertilization between the experimental projects already launched. Finally, it will lead to implementation of a methodology reference base detailing each action to be carried out by the various partners. This reference base will consist of practical tools for professional bodies wishing to launch contactless projects”. The nine regions are committed to ensuring fast development of NFC services. Support is focused on four main areas: guidance in NFC service deployment, organization of meetings and conferences on different topics, individual meetings and on-site visits. In its mission as a national coordination body, the mobile contactless services Forum, with the help of the French Organization in charge of Competitiveness, Industry and Services (DGCIS), has selected the Cabinet Monetech to help it coordinate projects in the leading contactless regions.

We need to move fast and strive even better… to create a strong contactless industry in France.

Under the chairmanship of Jean-Michel Gadrat, the meeting was the opportunity for detailed discussions between members of the Forum and players in the industry. Together they underlined a certain number of areas requiring particular attention, as well as other achievements to be satisfied about. One thing is certain, the industry is off to a flying a start and the various initiatives set up by small businesses, start-ups et major groups just go to show the energy and enthusiasm injected into creating a new open-standard contactless ecosystem. However, we will soon be facing problems if we are not quick to react. Jean-Michel Gadrat made this quite clear, “France has the leading edge in contactless mobile services”. This should place France at the top of the table, provided that all of the players work together to develop a common platform for all user applications. Indeed, the Japanese, English and especially the Americans, with the highly promoted arrival of Google and maybe Apple, who are showing interest in the subject, can only provide more incentive to players in the industry to work harder and faster. “Stronger together” could be the slogan for the coming months…
The Minister announced a call for proposals aimed at future NFC businesses, providing further proof of growing interest by the Government for this sector of industry with a promising economic future ahead of it. During this meeting, Eric Besson officially announced the creation of a new call for proposals that will be entirely dedicated to contactless mobile services. It will be launched during the first half of 2011. This new action by the government is part of the future digital investment programme organized by René Ricol.
Eric Besson reiterated the importance of deploying contactless services on a national scale too, since their wide scale diffusion will only be possible when a vital number of users has been reached. Bearing in mind the role of regional authorities in developing local public services or transport services, for the first time this call for proposals will provide direct financing for local initiatives. The Government’s aim is also to accompany professional bodies in developing contactless services right from the initial project framework stage to their implementation.

The means are available, projects are on the way, and services will soon be made available to all citizens. The mobile contactless services Forum conference/debate, followed by the Association’s General Assembly, were an opportunity to underline the importance of such a Forum for discussion and project building. The players in the industry are making no mistake about it, since the beginning of the year the Forum has welcomed 3 new members: Dassault Systèmes, Samsung Electronics and Transdev.


RELATED DOCUMENTS

Presentations
- Summary of the MV2 study
- Presentation of the contactless / NFC service package by the E-Secure transactions cluster
- The NFC industrial sector (Gemalto) (Gemalto)
- Summary of the study “The issues at stake with mobile payments and access to local authority services using NFC mobile phones” (Greenwich)(Greenwich)

Speeches
- Speech by Jean Michel Gadrat, President of the mobile contactless services Forum
- Speech by Eric Besson, Minister of Industry,


**Bordeaux/Pessac, Caen/Manche, Lille, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse.


Contact : Alison Maisonneuve,Communications Assistant at the mobile contactless services Forum
Tél. : 01 44 92 50 68, E-Mail : alison@forum-smsc.org