case study: isis mobile wallet
TRANSCRIPT
The consumer experience
Since the launch of a pilot in Salt Lake City and Austin in October 2012, IsisTM
has used local television, newspapers, outdoor and in-store advertising to
call on consumers to sign up and use the wallet. IsisTM also held events in
shopping malls and other venues to provide information about IsisTM services.
“Isis is everywhere – billboards, radio, stickers, booths, it’s all pervasive,”
says Johnson.
To set up the IsisTM Mobile Wallet, the consumer needs to:
Have a Near Field Communications (NFC)-capable handset
Have a compatible UICC (SIM card)
Download the IsisTM Wallet software from Google Play
Register to use the wallet and create a four-digit passcode
When the consumer first signs up, they receive offers from participating
merchants. To continue receiving offers, the consumer needs to ‘follow’ the
appropriate merchant in the directory within the wallet. Some merchants’
web sites and NFC-enabled posters also have a ‘clip to IsisTM’ feature that
enables consumers to select an offer and have it delivered directly to their
wallet. During the pilot, two-thirds of active users opted in to receive
offers and messages from their favourite brands, following an average
of seven brands.
Consumers can use their wallet to pay by holding the phone against
a compatible point of sale terminal, which will then send a transaction
confirmation to the wallet. They then follow any further instructions on the
payment terminal. For some merchants, that single tap will also enable the
consumer to redeem any pre-selected offers and accumulate relevant loyalty
points. In other cases, the consumer will need to show the offer barcode or
numeric code to the store staff.
KEY STATISTICS
Operators: AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless
US Cities: Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah (nationwide later in 2013)
Launch date: October 2012
Services offered: Contactless payments, loyalty services and vouchers
Strategic partnerships: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Chase, Barclaycard, Capital One, and Utah Transit Authority
Target audience demographics: All population segments
TSM provider: Gemalto
Operating system: Android with support for iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry 10 coming
Handset compatibility: Downloadable application compatible with more than 35 handsets.
Executive summary
A joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon
Wireless, IsisTM has deployed the IsisTM Mobile Wallet as part of the
broader pilot of a suite of mobile commerce services for banks and
merchants. Although merchants and banks are Isis’ direct customers,
its brand is also designed to be consumer-facing.
Kai Johnson, Chief Architect at Isis, says: “We have been happy with the
usage of payments, offers and loyalty. We are on target with projections
and meeting our goals for the two pilots.” Early adopters of IsisTM
have primarily been young, tech-savvy consumers. “If we can get a
consumer signed up to use the service once, we have a consumer who
will keep using the service going forward, which has implications for the
provisioning process in operators’ stores,” says Johnson. “We are talking
to our operator partners about the best way to do that. Getting over
that first hurdle is very important.”
CASE STUDY: ISIS MOBILE WALLET
Isis is working with the Utah Transport Authority (UTA), to enable consumers
to travel for free on a local bus or train if they tap their IsisTM-enabled handset
against the appropriate contactless reader. “It has been a very successful
promotion – a really good way to build awareness,” says Johnson.
IsisTM has found that consumers need precise instructions on how to use the
wallet. For example, consumers need to know that to complete a transaction,
they have to hold their NFC handset against the contactless reader for half
a second at a certain orientation.
Not all retailers that accept contactless payments have Isis logos in their
outlets, so Isis is also educating consumers on looking for other indications,
such as the EMVCo logo, that denotes contactless acceptance.
During the pilot, the average active IsisTM Mobile Wallet user tapped their
NFC-enabled handset more than 10 times per month. Isis says that more than
80 percent of transactions take place at ‘everyday spend locations’, such
as quick-service restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, convenience and
grocery stores.
Features and functionality
The IsisTM Mobile Wallet supports three services – contactless payments
(compatible with VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover
payment networks), loyalty services (supporting merchants’ existing loyalty
programmes) and the delivery of offers/coupons for merchants.
The services in the wallet draw on relevant data held in a secure element
on the consumer’s NFC-enabled SIM card. Access to the wallet requires
a four-digit passcode and the secure element plays a key role in ensuring
security. A consumer can suspend the wallet by calling their operator
or via the Isis web site.
Limitations
The IsisTM Mobile Wallet is available for handsets running the Android
operating system, but support for Windows Phone, BlackBerry 10 and iOS
is coming. Although U.S. mobile operators are rolling out NFC-enabled
handsets across the U.S., the Isis SIM cards are only available to residents
of Salt Lake City and Austin today, but will be available nationwide later
this year. Johnson says IsisTM is planning to simplify and improve the ‘very
functional’ wallet user experience in the next iteration.
Interoperability features
If IsisTM Mobile Wallet users switch mobile operators, they can take their
wallet with them. “We put a lot of work into that and lifecycle events,” says
Johnson. The wallet makes some use of the operators’ SMS, push messaging
and data services, together with their provisioning systems. “We have a
dedicated area of the UICC we can access, but the mobile operator retains
control of the UICC,” says Johnson. Isis says it is open to working with all
mobile operators.
However, there could be problems enabling international interoperability, as
the payment systems in the U.S. don’t use the same kind of authentication
systems used in Europe and most parts of Asia, according to Isis.
Ecosystem involvement
As well as working with the four payment networks (Visa, MasterCard
American Express and Discover), IsisTM is looking to support as many of
the 10,000 U.S. banks as it can. It is also working with both large national
merchants, such as Macy’s and Coca-Cola, and local merchants, but Johnson
says it will take time to fully convert merchants from legacy systems to
contactless systems. “We make sure both handset manufacturers and
point of sale terminal suppliers have our requirements and implement our
protocols for coupons and loyalty.” During the pilot, the number or locations
in Austin and Salt Lake City accepting contactless transactions nearly
quadrupled to more than 4,000.
Regulation
In the U.S., banking and payment regulations can limit the scope of new
payment services. “The rules have a profound impact on what can be done
in terms of innovation,” says Johnson.
Future plans
Now that the Austin and Salt Lake City launches have proven successful,
IsisTM is looking to expand the service to the rest of the U.S. later this year.
“We need to get handsets to consumers and wallets to consumers, but the
distribution channels through mobile operators are pretty well in place, so
that is not the hard part.” says Johnson. “A lot of contactless infrastructure is
still to be deployed. The USA is a big place and it’s going to take more than
IsisTM to make that happen.”
CASE STUDY: ISIS MOBILE WALLET
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September 2013