ItelliPay: The future of payments has begun

After a triumphant entry onto the world stage, “smartphone” technology has breathed new life into the whole area of payment transactions using mobile cell phones. It has to be said, though: what has long been a feature of everyday life in places like Japan has so far struggled to take off in Europe. Up to now, no method has succeeded in striking the right chord with retailers and their customers – even the highly acclaimed NFC (Near Field Communication) technology has so far failed to create a breakthrough for mobile-phone-based payments. A surfeit of standardisation issues, excessive up-front capital investment requirements for retailers and what is only a small number of existing NFC-capable smartphones all mean that NFC just isn’t ready to be marketed. There’s a certain irony in the fact that the technology breathing new life into mobile phone payment is actually one that’s been around for some years and has been tried-and-tested in the real world: yes, the barcode is enjoying an unexpected new lease of life. The unrelenting spread of sophisticated mobile phones with intelligent camera (imaging) technology means anyone can “scan in” a barcode. In fact, the market’s being flooded with more and more barcode-related apps.

Customer self-service applications are on the increase, and most of these only need the addition of simple payment functionality to herald the mobile payment age into Europe too – entirely without any capital-intensive hardware installations – as ably demonstrated by the “ItelliPay” mobile payment method presented by Itellium Services (www.itellium.com) at NGR Retail Summit Europe 2010.

"ItelliPay" is a flexible, low-cost mobile payment method requiring no special investment in hardware. Independent dual-channel communication means full security compliance, making it a born winner for bricks-and-mortar and online retailers alike. The "ItelliPay" method itself is as simple as it is effective: a special barcode containing all the necessary payment information is printed on the till receipt (or displayed on-screen during online payments) while an electronic request is sent to the relevant payment provider. Then the customer photographs the code with his or her smartphone, enters an authorisation PIN and sends the data to the payment provider where the two requests meet up. The payment provider then releases the funds and confirms the payment. This process takes just a few seconds - no longer than using debit or credit card.

ItelliPay offers retailers a flexible way to latch onto the future of mobile phone payments and open up new turnover opportunities as well as securing a low-cost way of maximising customer loyalty whether online or in a traditional bricks-and-mortar setting. It makes retailers highly attractive to their public, and in particular to the "i-generation" for whom mobile payment is set to be just as much a part of everyday life as credit cards and wallets are today.