Custom Smart Cards programming

First and foremost: THE SKY IS A LIMIT!

You have a great idea for Smart card implementation but you don't know where to start! You probably already know that greatest ideas are in essence very simple to start with. So don't hesitate to develop your own "Simple Idea".

One of the biggest obstacles in smart card wide spread use is the lack of software. Smart cards are encrypted and special kind of programs are used to run smart cards and smart card systems. Software engineers specialized in smart card applications don't come by cheap and easy.

However, we do have solution for you! Expert smart card programming software engineers ready to take on your projects or parts of the projects. It can be something on small scale or big, we do have expertise to handle it. You have ideas and we do have hardware and software to support those ideas!

Basic Cards, JAVA cards, other types of smart cards, POS terminals, complete software/hardware solutions based on custom programmed smart cards. Field proven applications, multiple smart card programming resources, flexible smart cards hardware that can be custom programmed to meet your needs.

SMART CARDS - where to use them?

You can use smart cards for almost any application where you would use any kind of regular paper card, coupon, plastic card, paying card, as portable secure document, ID, money...many more. Here is a short list to kick start your mind:

• ID card
• Student card - multiple uses
• Driver's license
• ePurse - replace money with electronic money
• Loyalty card - collect valuable points, join forces with different vendors
• Health card - load patient history, emergency data, insurance data...more
• Safe PC access - Logon
• Biometric data - secure access to resources
• Control machinery
• Time card - log-in and out
• Digital signature card
• Bus, train - mass transportation, fast, easy pay

What do you need to do to start successful SMART CARD project?

Before writing or calling Almex SmartCard Solutions you have to do your homework and have a plan. Strange as it sounds, many potential customers contact us without having a clear idea what they want smart cards to do for them. It doesn't have to be Power Point presentation or flow chart but rather transactions aligned in logical order describing real life situation as you want them to develop.

Description of project you want to undertake should have answers (but not limited to) to the following questions:

SMART CARDS

• Will card store data (information) or value like monetary value, or both?
• Try to estimate how much data you need to store in the card? Is it few hundred bytes, kilobytes or tens of kb?
• Will that card serve one purpose or it will be multipurpose card with more functionalities?
• How many cards do you require?
• How many cards do you think system will have after full deployment?
  
• Is contact smart card that you are looking for or contactless card? Maybe dual interface (both contact and contactless)?
• Do you require cards to be printed for you? Front, back, black, color, laminated?
• Do you have artwork ready?
  

SMART CARD READERS

• What kind of readers your project requires, PC connected, stand alone terminals, POS or something different?
• How many readers do you need?
• Is there need to enter PIN when using smart cards with those readers?
• Will readers communicate with central server and send data there?
• What kind of communications infra structure do you have available?

PROJECT SOFTWARE - SYSTEM DEPLOYMENT

• If PCs are involved they should be oriented to run Windows 7 since XP is gone and Vista is problematic and should not be used
• What exactly smart cards suppose to do for you?
• Will system require MDB (Main Data Base)?
• How many issuing PC stations you need for your project?
• How many update/re-loading stations do you require?
• If value is involved what is maximum value that you would want to write into smart cards?
• Will card need PIN? 4, 6 digits?
• Did you clearly define authority levels in your application? Who will be able to do what?
• What kind of environment will system work at, office, retail, outdoors, vehicles, portable ...?
• Will your system be released as one time deployment or it phases?
• Do you need some kind of transaction log written in the cards?

Remember, better and more detailed your requirements are, easier and more precise quote can be!