Readers enhance Operational Efficiency of Public and Private Sectors

In a scientific research under the title "Triggering the Smart Card Readers Supply Chain", EIDA stressed that governments that will adopt advanced biometric systems to verify the identity of their residents will excel in their customer service capabilities over the few coming years.

The research asserted that the e-readers will naturally demonstrate stronger authentication capabilities, a matter that would support higher levels of trust and plastic card. This may also have a significant impact on the progress and development of e-government and e-commerce business models and support the development of digital economy.

EIDA called on governments, public and private entities around the globe to collaborate to put in place clear strategies as to how they intend to support the identification and authentication requirements both in the public and private sectors, and thus enhance their customer services.

The research highlighted UAE's prudent leadership vision in this regard and its support to the e-government initiatives. It observed EIDA's efforts to facilitate government services through developing a sophisticated delivery system, and its initiative to distribute more than one million ID e-reader in space of the next two years across the different local and federal government authorities and private sector.

The research has noted that distributing the e-readers would enable public and private organizations to provide innovative services using the features of the ID card.

It emphasized that the readers along with the high tech features and applications of the ID card would result in a secure environment which would contribute to containing fraud on account of identity theft and electronic transaction fraud, and thus instill the "Secure Digital Economy" concept.

EIDA explained that many governments around the world have launched, during the past two decades, modern identity management systems to provide identification and authentication capabilities. The major output of such systems was smart identity cards or electronic passports. The field of government practice has been focusing on the enrolment capabilities and infrastructure rollout, with little focus on smart card applications in the public service domain.

The research envisioned that the rapid technological pace in the smart identity card industry will not only revolutionize the future of identification and authentication, but will also open up new business opportunities and create new economy niches.

The research, which was also published on EIDA's website, envisaged that governments across the world will show increasing interest in different systems and technologies to support the adoption of "smart identity cards" through smart phones and online portals; noting that smart cards have the potential to reshape service delivery and the way in which services are provided, and hence widen the availability of services to customers anywhere and anytime.

WHEN I was in Silicon Valley in May 2013, I met some incredible entrepreneurs and made excellent business connections with people from some of the leading tech companies in the world such as Facebook, Linkedin, Cisco, Eventbrite and more.

Naturally, I was keen to obtain the details of the people that I met, and would request their business card when appropriate with the intention of remaining in contact to explore both immediate and potential business synergies.

I was amazed however at the number of people who seemed genuinely happy to connect, but who did not have any business cards on them and confessed to not really carry them any longer.

It appears you see, that business cards are a thing of the past in the US, most certainly in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, which was where I spent the majority of my time.

The reaction to a request for a business card was often met with, "just look me up on LinkedIn".

This made it extra important to take a good mental note of their name, and where possible the spelling of it, and even their roles at the companies so I could go ahead and look them up on LinkedIn, particularly, if their name was a common one.

This phenomena really made me sit up and take notice of how powerful LinkedIn has become to have even taken over the world of chip card.

In my LinkedIn presentations that I regularly take, for the visual people in the room, I often use the image of a rolodex and explain how LinkedIn is effectively a global rolodex.  Now it is even more so.

Even though my company offers graphic design services, and has access to excellent trade printers, I must admit that I find my cards date quickly too, and moving in this direction actually makes a lot of sense. Whether it would be another social network I wish to include, or a new award we've won, or even job title changes as staff progress in the company, it doesn't always seem worthwhile to chop down a few more trees in the quest of getting another business card run.

Another technology I must point you towards on this topic, if you do ever get handed a business card (though unlikely in Silicon Valley!) is a fantastic app you can download from any smart phone called Card Munch.

When you get handed a business card, open up the Card Munch app on your phone and using the scan feature, allow your phone to scan the details of the business card. The app will conveniently give you the option to save their details direct to your phone, and will also connect to the internet and retrieve information on whether the person is on LinkedIn or not. If they are, a little blue "in" icon will display indicating they are on LinkedIn, and it will give you the option to connect with them on the network.

Using Card Munch you can therefore request a connection on LinkedIn and then throw away their business card. You have them on LinkedIn now - so why do you still need their business card which will simply date and take up valuable office or drawer space?