Mobiata, Travelocity offer hotel booking via iPhone app

Travel application company Mobiata partnered with Travelocity to offer a wide range of options for consumers looking to book hotel rooms via their mobile device.

The HotelPal application lets travelers search, browse and book from millions of hotels. The iPhone application is available for free in Apple’s App Store.

“The goal for Mobiata is to make mobile products that give people the best tools possible for travel,” said Jeremy Xavier, vice president of Marketing at Mobiata, San Francisco. “HotelPal is designed to be the best way to find and book hotels on the go.

“The idea came as a logical next step to our FlightTrack application,” he said. “If a flight is cancelled, a traveler’s next question is very likely where to book a hotel and HotelPal gives people the power to do that with ease - all right in the app.

“We partnered with Travelocity for the hotel listings to have a wide range of options for our customers.”

Mobiata creates mobile travel applications and offers mobile travel design and development services.

Travelocity provides travel services for the leisure and business traveler. Its customers can access offerings, pricing information about airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, vacation and last-minute travel packages, and other travel-related services.

ENational Payments partners with Mocapay for mcommerce services

ENational Payments has partnered with Mocapay to offer secure mobile services to merchants and retailers, letting them reduce the time spent handling payments.

The company plans to use the service to eliminate the transmission of customer sensitive data. In addition, the use of the service and mobile marketing engine will help merchants reach consumers in real-time, per Mocapay.

“Through this strategic partnership, eNational Payments merchants and retailers can take advantage of Mocapay’s patented secure mobile payments solution and mobile marketing engine to reach customers in real-time,” said Kevin Grieve, CEO of Mocapay, Denver.

ENational Payments provides financial services, including check warranty and back office conversion, to more than 2,800 non-banking financial services businesses, collectively processing over $9 billion.

Mocapay is an end-to-end, mobile payments and experience platform for issuers. The platform addresses merchants’ need for a new channel that will broaden their loyalty and gift programs by mobilizing sales and marketing to reach customers anytime, encourage purchases and build a stronger brand affinity.

Mcommerce suite
Mocapay’s mobile commerce platform includes a suite of tools that help deliver interactivity between the consumer and merchant.

Merchants using the service can create mobile marketing campaigns that provide information such as demographics, redemption rates and purchasing behavior.

“Retailers are focusing on targeting customers where they are – mobile,” Mr. Grieve said. “Mobile commerce is changing in that the ability to purchase products and services using a mobile phone doesn’t provide value for either the merchant or consumer.

Mocapay platform
In February, Mocapay, has introduced a service that enables secure, hardware infrastructure agnostic, mobile payments regardless of tender type and transaction location – the company’s “dynamic cryptogram” architecture recently received a United States patent (see story).

Additionally, Full Cycle, retailer specializing in high-end bicycles tapped Mocapay to power its mobile initiative, which are designed to enhance its marketing and sales efforts and deliver a complete mobile experience to its customers (see story).

With this new mobile platform, merchants can also view the data to get a better sense of their customer.

“Mobile payments that integrate mobile marketing, mobile coupons, and mobile loyalty will help to increase market adoption because of the value added by additional services,” Mr. Grieve said. “Mobile marketing combined with a mobile payment solution will have the ability to enhance the relationship between merchants and consumers.”

Mocapay Partners With eNational For Contactless Mobile Commerce & Payments

Mobile commerce and contactless payment solutions are no doubt the future, but connecting technology providers with those who offer broad-based transaction processing solutions is key to advancing the concept.

Mocapay is one such technology provider who today announced a new partnership with eNational Payments — provider of all-in-one payment transaction processing solutions for the financial services industry, card issuing banks, acquiring or merchant banks, ISO’s and retailers — to provide its patented secure mobile payment solution and mobile marketing engine to reach customers in real-time.

The partnership is significant for Mocapay as eNational provides financial services to more than 2,800 non-banking financial services businesses, collectively processing over nine billion dollars. “We chose Mocapay as a partner because they are the only solution on the market that offers a secure mobile payment solution that eliminates the transmission of customer sensitive data,” said Sean Kumar, CEO, eNational Payments. “As retailers and merchants continue to evolve their mobile strategy, we want to be at the forefront in providing the most secure, innovative solution while making it cost effective to implement for merchants of any size.”

Mocapay provides a unique solution that combines new-age mobile commerce with an integrated mobile marketing platform that delivers “360° interactivity between the consumer and merchant.” As such, the platform enables merchants to create mobile marketing campaigns that, in return, provide valuable information including demographics, redemption rates, and purchasing behavior.

M-Com Announces World First Plug-And-Play SaaS Platform For Mobile Banking, Alerting And Payments

M-Com is an international mobile banking and payments solution provider with live Fortune 500 banking customers across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and North America. The ASP edition of M-Com’s BankAnywhere is live in the United States with more than 150 signed Financial Institutions.

International mobile banking solution provider, M-Com,announced today the launch of a complete ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS)version of its globally deployed mobile banking and payment platform – BankAnywhere. The new product has been labeled BankAnywhere ASP Edition.

"Having run ASP and multi-tenant mobile financial services since 2006, we have been focused on trying to create a full and complete ASP version of our award-winning product – BankAnywhere," states M-Com CEO and Founder, Adam Clark. "The team has worked very hard and the initiative has given our coffee machine a solid workout, but I can categorically say that M-Com now has the best mobile software-as-a-service platform in the world for banks and payment processors.”

M-Com's strategic partner Fiserv - the leading global provider of financial services technology solutions – contributed to the developmentof the new service and has incorporated BankAnywhere ASP Edition technology into Mobile Money™ from Fiserv. The company announced in Julythat more than 150 credit unions have chosen to implement Mobile Money,including 84 that are already live.

Using BankAnywhere ASP Edition, financial institutions’ customers andmembers are able to check balances and transaction history, transfer funds, view and pay bills and receive alerts. These mobile services are available through all three primary mobile access modes; SMS, Mobile Browser and Downloadable Applications.

BankAnywhere ASP Edition enables M-Com’s partners to configure and deploy mobile banking, alerting and payment services for new financial institution clients through a real-time set up process within BankAnywhere’s web-based administrative console. This includes configuring the service preferences and parameters for mobile financial services on a institution by institution basis.

“We think that this is the most compelling way for a bank or credit union to set up its mobile channel experience. Nowhere in the world is it easier or faster to add or extend an entirely new banking channel,” adds Clark.

Earlier in the year, Javelin Strategy and Research ranked M-Com, along with its strategic partner Fiserv, as "best in class" amongst the top 12 mobile banking vendors within the North American market.

About M-Com: Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, M-Com is an international mobile banking and payments solution provider with live Fortune 500 banking customers across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and North America. M-Com’s core proposition is centered onhelping financial institutions and payment processors deliver world class adoption and revenue metrics from the mobile channel. For more information, visit www.mcom.co.nz.

Smartphones May Soon Replace Credit Cards

AT&T and Verizon Wireless are readying a mobile payment system that could render plastic obsolete By Peter Eichenbaum and Margaret Collins

Back So Soon? revious IssueNext Issue Story Tools add to Business Exchange linkedin connections Smartphones may soon displace some of the estimated 1 billion credit and debit cards in American wallets. AT&T (T), Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile are planning a venture to develop a mobile payment system that works with smartphones, posing a new threat to Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA), three people with direct knowledge of the plan say. The partners aim to test the system at stores in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities, the people say, though they didn't provide a timetable. The trial would be the carriers' biggest effort to spur mobile payments in the U.S. "This is definitely a game changer," says industry consultant Richard K. Crone. Mobile carriers "are the biggest recurring billers in every market. They are experts at processing payments."

While the technical details are sketchy, the service would let customers make purchases by holding a smartphone in front of an electronic reader in stores. Transactions would be processed by Discover Financial Services (DFS), the fourth-biggest payments network in the U.S. behind Visa, MasterCard, and American Express (AXP). London-based Barclays (BCS) would help manage the accounts, say the people, who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. Representatives for the carriers, Barclays, and Discover declined to comment.

Retailers may be eager to support a rival network after years of tussling with Visa and MasterCard over transaction fees. "We have long argued that real competition is missing from today's payments market," says Brian Dodge of the Retail Industry Leaders Assn., which represents merchants such as Wal-Mart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), and Target (TGT). "A secure and reliable competing network that … reduces retailers' costs would be welcomed news."

Payment Trends
Visa and MasterCard are benefiting as people abandon cash and paper checks for cards and electronic payments, which account for more than half of U.S. consumer purchases, compared with 36 percent in 2003, according to The Nilson Report, an industry newsletter. Visa and MasterCard accounted for $2.45 trillion, or 79 percent, of $3.1 trillion in U.S. consumer spending last year on credit and debit cards. More than half of U.S. consumers, and almost 80 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34, will use mobile financial services within five years, according to Mercatus, a consulting firm in Boston.

Any new payment system may face barriers that prevent the technology from taking hold quickly in the U.S., the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said in a May policy paper. Consumers won't demand mobile payments "until they know that enough merchants accept them, and merchants will not implement the technology until a critical mass of consumers justifies the cost of doing so," the report said. Merchants would have to spend an estimated $200 per electronic reader, and updating mobile phones with embedded microchips would increase manufacturing costs by $10 to $15 per handset, according to the Boston Fed. That may be worth the money if accepting mobile payments allows retailers to send rewards and information about promotions to their customers' phones at checkout.

Visa and MasterCard are investing in their own mobile payment systems. MasterCard has worked for years with carriers, handset makers, and banks on developing mobile payment technologies in countries around the world, including Japan, Turkey, and the U.K., Chief Executive Ajay Banga said in an Aug. 3 conference call with analysts. "While the business model for mobile payments is yet to be proven in a tangible way across the world, I have no doubt that it will get proven in some form," he said.

Info at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_33/b4191037299913.htm

PayPal introduces mobile payments program for employees

PayPal is offering its San Jose, CA-based employees BlingTags that let them make purchases throughout the company’s entire campus and at participating merchants.

The company partnered with Bling Nation for the program. The mobile initiative lets PayPal employees fund Bling Nation purchases by linking the BlingTag to to a PayPal account.

“Bling Nation’s strategy is to drive mobile payment in the United States by enabling the mobile device to be used as a payment device,” said Meyer Malka, founder, co-CEO and director of Bling Nation, San Francisco. “Mobile is the future – and payments will be too.

“We’ll see mobile devices starting to replace the wallet for everyday purchases in the near future,” he said.

PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay, lets members send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing.

Bling Nation mobile payment services connect local financial institutions and businesses, letting customers use their mobile devices to tap and pay for purchases and receive text account balance and transaction confirmations at the point of sale.

Paypal program
The program will feature more than 2,000 employees, as well as early adopters using the BlingTag for lunch and coffee purchases throughout Palo Alto, CA.

The program leverages PayPal’s open APIs, PayPal X, which enables more flexibility of payment options for consumers, per Bling Nation.

“For the Palo Alto market, the initial drivers for Bling Nation are the young college students and technology-savvy adults, our early adopters,” Mr. Malka said. “But because of how the Bling Nation mobile payment service is designed – it works with any phone that receives text messages and consumers just tap-to-pay – we really see Bling as a service for all consumers.

“We’re working closely with our financial institutions, merchants and partner to get the word out,” he said. “With PayPal, we have begun to roll out an initial program in the Palo Alto area, working with merchants and consumers.

“We have designed a number of promotions and marketing programs to help build buzz locally, and will continue to look for ways to sustain this momentum.”

Mobile bling
Bling Nation recently partnered with Valley National Bank to offer mobile payments to businesses and consumers, enabling tap-and-pay purchases at the point of sale (see story).

The PayPal program is currently taking place at the PayPal campus.

“Partnering with PayPal provides another option for consumers to pay with Bling, using their PayPal account,” Mr. Malka said. “We decided to use PayPal X, its open APIs, for this introductory program because the PayPal X APIs enable secure, convenient payments in applications and businesses just like ours.

“For Palo Alto, we’ve just rolled out with our beta phase,” he said. “Currently, BlingTags are available to PayPal employees on the PayPal campus, early adopters in Palo Alto and to local college students in the fall.

“In the coming future, you’ll see us announce new partnerships with financial institutions and rolling out in more cities and towns throughout the country.”

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