|
| [November 07, 2006] |
 |
alphyra and ViVOtech Announce Strategic Alliance at Cartes 2006 Event in Paris
SANTA CLARA, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- alphyra, the owner of payzone, Europe's largest branded network for the collection of consumer payments, and ViVOtech, the leading infrastructure provider of the third generation of electronic payment technologies, today announced the signing of a software licence and services agreement.
The agreement gives alphyra access to ViVOplatform, a software platform that supports a new range of integrated gift, prepaid, promotions, and loyalty products for retailers including department stores, convenience stores, gift shops, restaurants, hotels, leisure outlets, bookshops and music stores. ViVOplatform software is designed to work with the current generation of payment cards and to integrate with ViVOtech's contactless, Near Field Communication (NFC) and Over-the-Air (OTA) payment provisioning technologies.
The United States market is the largest gift and prepaid card market in the world and ViVOplatform has a number of unique functional and technical features that will enable European retailers to launch new and exciting products to their consumers.
According to Payment System Europe (PSE) Consulting, Europeans are expected to spend some EUR 75 billion using prepaid cards by 2010, of which EUR 20 billion will be spent using retailer-issued gift cards. This strategic alliance with ViVOtech positions alphyra well to capitalise on the growth in the prepaid and gift card market. In addition, alphyra will be able to exploit the next generation of payment systems developed by ViVOtech using ViVOpay contactless readers, ViVOcards/fobs, and ViVOnfc mobile phone and OTA payment provisioning software. These innovative solutions allow consumers to make contactless payments with radio frequency-enabled credit cards, smart cards, debit cards, key fobs, and NFC-enabled mobile phones. These new technologies will also enable retailers and card issuers such as banks to offer location-based and personalised loyalty, coupon and promotion programs.
alphyra already has a significant pre-paid mobile top up business relationship with the mobile telephone operators in Europe and is in a unique position to work with the mobile telephone sector to leverage new commercial opportunities presented by the imminent deployment of NFC-enabled mobile phones.
John Nagle, CEO of alphyra said: "alphyra is delighted to partner with a Silicon Valley company that has pioneered the development of the next generation of payment technologies. The ViVOtech gift and loyalty platform gives alphyra an immediate competitive edge in cross-selling these services to the 100,000 + retailers with whom we have relationships across Europe and it has already helped us to win new customers in the retail sector.
"We're very excited about the synergies that will flow from ViVOtech's leadership in contactless, NFC phone, and OTA payment provisioning technologies and alphyra's strategic relationship with the mobile telephone industry in Europe. The fast transaction speeds and other advantages offered by contactless/NFC solutions will bring real benefits to convenience stores and other retailers where quick and efficient check out service is important for both the retailer and the consumer."
"ViVOtech's strategy is to be the leading enabler of innovative payments providers. We are honoured to work with Europe's largest branded network for the collection of consumer payments - alphyra has a unique presence in Europe and through working with ViVOtech they are ideally positioned to capitalize on the expected high growth in prepaid, gift, and loyalty markets in the coming years," said Michael Mullagh, CEO, ViVOtech. "Using ViVOtech software products alphyra is able to leap frog on to the next generation of payment and loyalty services and to offer them to European retailers. This has already resulted in wins for alphyra in Europe."
alphyra plans to go live with its gift card, prepaid and loyalty services at two major retailers before the end of year 2006.
To see the demo of ViVOplatform and other contactless and NFC technologies, visit ViVOtech booth #4L34 at Cartes 2006 in Paris, France.
About alphyra
alphyra operates payzone, Europe's largest branded network of 150,000 retail points for the collection of consumer payments. Headquartered in Dublin, with operations in 20 countries across Europe, it processes over 400 million transactions per year on behalf of its clients with a value of over 12 billion Euro. alphyra is the clear market leader in its industry offering a wide range of services including pre-paid mobile top-ups, energy pre-payments, bill & general payments, pre-paid VISA vouchers, local & housing authority payments, pre-paid credit cards, payment vouchers for online use, pre-paid stored value cards including gift card and loyalty, contactless payment solutions, transport ticketing, lottery applications, parking and electronic road tolling, debit & credit card transactions and money transfer. For further, information visit www.alphyra.com
About ViVOtech
ViVOtech is the market leader in contactless/NFC/OTA payment software, transaction management systems, and readers. These innovative solutions allow consumers to make contactless payments with radio frequency-enabled credit cards, debit cards, key fobs, and NFC-enabled mobile phones. ViVOtech's products are used by some of the most prominent retailers in the United States. Currently, with more than 200,000 units in 18 countries, ViVOtech's products are in use at movie theaters, fast food restaurants (QSR), casual dining establishments, convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores, buses, taxicabs and vending machine locations, enabling a wide variety of businesses to accept contactless/NFC payments. In 2005, ViVOtech received the prestigious Frost & Sullivan technology award for its role in transforming the contactless payment industry, as well as winning the first annual ETA Technology Innovation Award. ViVOtech was recently honored with a MasterCard "Best Vendor Partner Award" as the first vendor to deliver stand-alone contactless readers for MasterCard PayPass customers. For further information, visit www.vivotech.com.
About Cartes 2006
Visit www.cartes.com
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, September 16-18, 2008. Los Angeles, California.
