GLOBALPLATFORM MAKES STRATEGIC NEW APPOINTMENT
GlobalPlatform announces that its Board of Directors has elected Jean-Paul Billon, Director, Software Architecture, SchlumbergerSema Cards, to the position of Chairman for the organisation’s Device Committee. The appointment will commence with immediate effect.
Mr Billon brings vast experience of application interoperability in the arena of small devices, particularly Card Acceptance Devices (CADs), to his new role at GlobalPlatform, gained in part, through his complementary role as President and Chairman of the Small Terminal Interoperability Platform (STIP) Consortium. Jean-Paul Billon plans to utilise his connections with both GlobalPlatform and STIP to further enhance the goals and potential of both organisations.
The new Chairman comments: “My first aim in my new role is to achieve a complete technical merger between the GlobalPlatform Device Committee and STIP Consortium and I look forward to accomplishing this in 2002. Following this I also intend to address the issues of device application management and security, incorporating concepts developed by the GlobalPlatform Card and System Committees and the STIP Consortium.”
As a first step, the Device Committee plans to publish a new Framework Application Programming Interface and specification this summer. This will provide a complete solution for programming interoperability between CADs of various types
Applications written in Java can run on this new software platform across many different device types without needing to be rewritten each time. Therefore, the introduction of this specification will bring significant benefits to CAD vendors by reducing the Research & Development resources and time to market for new applications, and allowing Vendors to focus on value added functionality
Card Issuers will also benefit from the adoption of GlobalPlatform Specifications of this nature, as the technical and operational compatibility of these standards will mitigate implementation risks.
Mr Billon continues: “Another of my priorities is to extend the impact of the Device Committee beyond just those industries interested in point of sale terminals, by raising awareness of what we do in other industries, such as the mobile personal device sector. I consider this to be a key target sector in the future.
“I also intend to continue building relationships between the Device Committee and other related organisations - some of those which the STIP Consortium is in active discussions with at the moment.”
Mr Billon replaces former Device Committee Chairman, Bernard Morvant - General Manager Business Development and Partnership at Ingenico - who has elected in February 2001. Bernard, took the decision to step down from the position due to his evolving responsibilities and changing role within Ingenico.
For further information on GlobalPlatform, please visit www.globalplatform.org
