Smartspace Software Share Discussion Threads

[wjccghcc] 21/4/2006 18:33

Getting closer but I'd certainly want to wait for some numbers. Forecasts like this always concern me because IMHO things hardly ever develop as quickly as the company expects (like IGP) when it's a new market opening up, and there's a fair amount of that forecast hype in the valuation. Also, revenue-wise, I would expect the govt to put ISAM manufacture out to tender if they ever did go big time so the question is what is their revenue model for Multifile? Is it per card, per reader or per transport network and what element is recurring vs initial license? BTW, when's their year end?

Thanks
WJ

[garth] 21/4/2006 16:41

WJ,

Shhhhh.... ISAM's are delivered by Ecebs and only by Ecebs. They are smartcards that slot into the readers on the street (store, bus, train) and in back offices. I guess anyone can manufacture them but the point is that the software running the smartcard is based on elements of Eceb's Multefile and provided by Ecebs. That is exactly the point I have tried to make on the IGP thread: Multefile is right at the heart of the UK Government's transport smartcard interoperability standard. You don't have multiple suppliers for the same core software application..... And the software is certified to banking transaction levels of security and ITSO is being lined up for much more than transport: library's, schools, car parking, electronic purse etc.... Everywhere an ITSO certified transaction is made or processed you need an ISAM. And Multefile is also being applied (non-ITSO) to health records via smartcard, to anti-counterfeiting measures etc.... That's why I believe that these are a no brainer. The Scottish Executive Entitlement card is already ITSO - that is only going to gain pace. The Welsh Assembly has also adopted it. Mersyside, Cheshire, Southampton etc.... the ball is rolling. Convincing you yet WJ? ;0)

Warm regards,

G.

[wjccghcc] 21/4/2006 16:27

garth, who else manufactures ISAMs? If the interoperability does roll out into the UK and Europe, there's no way the government won't insist on at least dual sourcing and competitive tenders to suppliers.

[garth] 21/4/2006 15:19

And just a reminder that Cubic already have the equipment ready for ITSO/Oyster interoperabilty. As Cubic are part of the Transys consortium who provide the Oyster hardware it is surely just a matter of time.....

[garth] 21/4/2006 15:02

Interview with Neil Scales in Transport Times 7th April edition p.15-16

Interesting comment on travel in Merseyside but last 2 columns p.16 suggest that progress on Oyster-ITSO interoperability is going well. Extract only:

"Progress is good, he says. It has been
adopted by schemes in Chester, Merseyside,
South and West Yorkshire's
Yorcard, the NoWcard set up by local
authorities in Lancashire and Cumbria,
and perhaps most importantly for the nationwide
citizen's card being introduced
in Scotland.
"We're making good progress with
the DfT on ITSO and Oyster compatibility,"
he adds. "The minister supports
it in a big way. Interoperability has to be
the right way forward. You can't have a
Betamax versus VHS scenario."
Ultimately, Mr Scales predicts, "You'll
come out of your house in London, use
you card to pay a cab or the Tube, get off
at Euston and use the same card to travel
on Virgin to Lime Street."

[garth] 21/4/2006 14:31

And we're up a bit more.....

[garth] 21/4/2006 13:12

BTW, FWIW, as Calypso (the European standard) becomes ITSO certified it will need an ISAM to verify every transaction....

The ISAM's provided to the Scottish Exec appeared to be worth £50 a time to Ecebs. How many would be needed in Europe??????? Woof! :0P

DYOR.

G.

[garth] 21/4/2006 13:09

And let pages 15-16 on this slightly older piece tickle the imagination...

In the UK the long term vision is for a smartcard that will operate across the whole country and provide easy access to the whole network, while allowing for the fare policies and products behind the card to vary at the local or regional level. This is what is meant by the term 'interoperability' in the ticketing context.
Britain's ITSO Project to develop a Smartcard Standard The Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation or ITSO, is a UK-wide members' organisation that covers public transport authorities, transport operators, suppliers and subscribers such as local authorities.
ITSO aims to develop a national smartcard ticketing standard or application that will work anywhere in the country while, at the same time, maintaining security and allowing local control of pricing of fares. This would then offer travellers seamless travel across the national rail network, regional cities and London with the a single smartcard. The back office would do the invisible work of settling payments with transport operators whose vehicles were used.
ITSO is already bound by the international standard for the card's physical dimensions.
This is ISO 14443, a and b, and covers aspects such as size, thickness and durability.
In addition to this, ITSO is now aiming to develop the other standards that will
determine the card's environment and enablement features for local transport ticketing schemes. The best analogy for this is the way VISA provides the credit card environment for the many different credit card schemes promoted and offered by various banks....

[garth] 21/4/2006 12:58

Some interest to holders of SMRT from the INN website. Big jump in 2009 projections.....

[sell sell sell] 21/4/2006 12:36

Not much has happened here for a while, so seeing a 333,333 T trade then a 250,000 buy is probably a good sign.

[archa] 21/4/2006 12:18

From which observation you would draw what conclusions, precisely?

Arch

[sell sell sell] 21/4/2006 11:42

First T trade I have noticed going through - 333,333

[zed] 20/4/2006 15:27

Its pretty weird garth,regarding oil stocks at the mo,when i first
started investing c2001 oil stocks were for the brave,and not much
oil was being found.Now every drilling report by every oil Co seems
to be positive!

Generally it is a problem at the mo if you are investing in anything
other than the bigcaps or oil explorers,capital seems to still be
flowing into them,and with earnings multiples still relatively low
for the bigcaps im told and no end in sight for high oil prices,it
is going to be awhile before we get a look in.

zed

[garth] 20/4/2006 15:13

Zed,

No problem with the post - better to be posted twice than not at all!!

I agree - these look a fantastic investment - one to tuck away for a while. At some point resource stocks and pie-in-the-sky FCT stocks will cool.....

G.

[zed] 20/4/2006 12:20

sorry about that.

Very intersting this company,especially due to the fact that it is
making profits+is projected to grow very quickly.There are not
many new companies out there at the moment that can claim that.
It amazes me that alot of private investors havent picked up
on this yet.If you look through the advhn boards there seems to
be very poor stock selection choices amongst P.I's at the moment.
People seem chosing/holding stocks on hope than fundamentals,with
profits many years away.

Pre-IPO broker forecasts for operating profit SMRT:

2004 £101K (actual)
2005 £153K (actual)
2006 £300K (predicted)
2007 £701K (predicted)
2008 £3.025M (predicted)

How many small caps have broker forecasts like these?
Not many!

Your looking at 100%+ growth per annum on PROFIT,not Turnover
Obviously things can change quickly,nothing is guaranteed in
life Dyor etc etc.

But ive bought some as an investment.

[garth] 20/4/2006 11:23

Zed,

Thanks. Although it has already been posted with a fair bit of evaluation from posters here - that too would make interesting reading. I can't remember which of the two threads it is on though.

Regards,

G.

[zed] 20/4/2006 09:51

Have a look,posted on the iii thread,very interesting read

[badday] 19/4/2006 13:16

Garth, Colsmith, thanks vey much.
Chanced upon this via IDD and IGP. Much prefer the look of this, although IGP looks good too. Will look to get involved shortly.

Cheers.

[colsmith] 19/4/2006 10:36

Badday - re your question and maybe a few points of interest well they are to me.

I suggest your read the link and para on "Product Options". This shows that that the software permits turnkey or customer defined secure card software suites. In other words its not "you take what I sell and thats it" (well OK if you want that as some cusomters would) but take this and customise for your onw environment. Seems a good strategy for a software architecute when requirments capture in the software indusrty has been and still are notoriolusy problematic areas of the design process - just consider all the probles the governemnt has on its IT contracts. So on customise they give you the core software and development tools for an application environment that can be tailored by the customer.

Also interesitngly the sub para above this refers to a pending patent to overcome the issue of replay of security keys between processor and memory - effectivley a new key each time say a transaction to pay for something is carried out.

All suggests these guys are technically and market asture? So although not having an exclsive market they are well positioned and of course immersed in the standards scene which is the driver for the big market. MONDEX of course was a trial and not standards(well in the country, EU or ISO wordl sense).

[sell sell sell] 19/4/2006 09:47

Been in for a while now and I'm hoping things start to pick up quite soon.

Don't know much about Smartcards etc, I simply put money in on the back of a much larger invester, who paid them a site visit and was very impressed. The setup was first class apparently and they were very bullish about prospects.

It was suggested to me that 30p was easily attainable within the 18 to 24 month period. This seemed to me to tie in prefectly with the current and anticipated profit returns, so it seemed like a simple decision to make.

[garth] 19/4/2006 07:44

Badday,

There is a bit more about Eceb's Multefile software on the other thread - or follow the hyperlinked logo from that thread to their site.

As far as I understand it every Smartcard has an operating system - just like your PC or laptop. Javacard and Multos are the main two - there is a third (I forget what its called). Multefile sits on the Operating system and provides a 'shell' into which other applications can sit. That function makes it 'middleware'. Its benefits are that it allows new applications to be added or old applications to be modified without needing for the cards to be reissued. Also important is the ease with which that process can be carried out - its as easy as using a spreadsheet. That places control with the client rather than the expensive 'expert'. It has also been certified to a level suitable for use in banking (interesting that RBS are involved).

I'm no expert in software or smartcards so happy to be corrected on any of that.

G.

[colsmith] 18/4/2006 13:25

Badday, thanks interesting. Based on Japanese experience the use of SMART/ITSO on the UK Rail Net will swell quickly for the reasons articualted. Link of a year back or so interestig and this extract from it. Note also the inclusion of credit card capabilty - moving to one card does the lot!


----
EXTRACT
But Tokyo commuters outdo them all: Some 5.6 million people -- or roughly half the possible users -- have the green-and-silver Suica cards introduced about a year ago by East Japan Railway Co.

[jimbaloo] 18/4/2006 09:04

Badday,

Interesting stuff. Also interesting is that SMRT's Managing director's CV includes a senior role in Mondex, the electronic cash prototype.

[garth] 18/4/2006 08:27

Hhhmmm. What becomes even more interesting is that it appears that Visa are using Javacard OS while Mastercard are using Multos. A certain link between Ecebs and Multos (BH). The soup thickens......