A Generic Electronic Purse System – GEPS™

Product Description

GEPS™ is not an “off the self product”.

Is a semi-final product, a set of software applications and specification documents, with a very fast implementation time to a final product.  

GEPS™ consist of:

Technology

An eft/pos terminal software application

The eft/pos terminal software application works on a number of models/brands such as BITEL IC3100 & IC5000 (wireless), PAX P80 & P90 (wireless) and Ingenico Elite 710. A separate application version works on PC based ECRs (with Linux or W2K/XP MS-Windows) or just PCs with Smart Card Reader/Witter or secure Pin-Pads.

In case that the end-user wishes to use a terminal device that is not supported yet; a terminal application specification document is delivered in order the terminal application to be developed on the terminal device chosen.

Purse medium

Purse medium is the smart card on which the electronic purse is stored. Due to the nature of the product we propose a number of low cost protected memory cards for usage such as Infenion's SLE55(44)42, SLE55(44)28 and Gemplus' GemClub Memo, GPM2K, GPM8K.

In case that the end-user wishes to use a different purse medium such as a microprocessor smart card; a purse medium specification document is delivered in order the desired card to be correctly personalized and seamlessly, as far as possible, integrated in the electronic purse scheme. 

Central software application

The central software application, GEPS/Server™, consists of the following modules: (a) the card management database, (b) the card personalization subsystem and (c) the card transaction capture communication engine. An optional Terminal Management System compliments the electronic purse system in case the participating eft/pos terminals require application parameters management and remote download. GEPS/Server™ runs on MS-Windows operating systems (W2K & XP) and uses either MS-Access or MS-SQL Server as the system database engine. GEPS/Server™ is currently ported to Linux.

Specification documents

Most of the documents are ready for distribution. Some of them are in an initial stage and they will be  developed in cooperation with the operator due to the fact that each operator’s electronic payment environment has its uniqueness that cannot be included in such type of documents before a thorough analysis.  

Features and benefits

A strong feature of the solution is flexibility.  The customer – operating institution can choose the purse to be anonymous or not, to have a full trace audit or not, to return money contained in lost purses or not, to print a transaction receipt or not and a number of other operational parameters that he can choose from. 

The strongest feature though is the ability the purse to be used also from end users that are not customers of the operating institution. Typical end users that are not known customers are tourists and traveling businessmen. This feature is accomplished though a smart approach on the purse initial loading mechanism. The ability to include users that are not known customers gives to the system a significant momentum for expansion and an easy way of adoption by the end-users.  

GEPS™ is a highly secure virtual payment solution that can operate to a closed environment (a hotel), to a retail environment or on a national basis scheme. The solution allows organizations to manage fund transfers and payment transactions for their micro-payment business. The solution is flexible, multifunctional, secure and can provide a comprehensive range of standard reports.

GEPS™ could also be used together with a loyalty scheme shearing the purse medium (card) and infrastructure resources such as the communication network, the card and card holder database and the transaction capture facilities.

For additional information please contact:

epurse@ma-systems.com