Background

The Green Lycamoney Card was introduced to enable customers to carry a low cost Debit Card providing fee-less transactions and electronic payments, with the ability to upgrade to a fully personalised Silver Lycamoney card.

The requirement for the Lycamoney contract was for Green Cards to be packed in tamper-evident, sealed packs suitable for bulk distribution throughout Lycamobile’s extensive retail network.  In addition, the chosen card vendor was required to process requests for fully personalised cards to be mailed directly to the cardholder.

Services Provided

• Card Manufacture
• Personalisation
• Sealed Card Pack Production
• Fulfilment

Project Key Successes

• Successful launch of card packs for retail distribution
• Daily fulfilment of cards with ability to roll out into new markets

Challenges

The brief required that TCT guarantee a 100% match between the personalised card and the carrier pack. The carrier pack is personalised with a unique barcode for this matching process.

How Thames met the challenge

TCT’s Project Management Team worked closely with production personnel to develop a fully automated solution.

Using the specifications provided by Lycamoney and with TCT’s knowledge and experience of receiving and processing data from 3rd party processors, we were able to provide sample packs which demonstrated our ability to produce fully functioning, sealed, tamper-evident packs.

On satisfactory testing and approval, TCT fully implemented the required systems and bespoke procedures to guarantee that the automated solution was in place to ensure the accuracy of matched items, this provides much shorter lead-times compared to hand fulfilment.

The result

Development and implementation of the solution was successfully completed within twelve weeks, with approximately 250,000 packs planned into production. Simultaneously, stock for fully personalised cards were also completed and put into secure storage awaiting calloff.

To download this case study as a PDF click here: Lycamoney Case Study

14 July 2011

Thames Card Technology is proud to announce that it has received orders for in excess of 2 million Dual Interface cards for the UK banking market. This firmly cements our position as one of the leading producers of Dual Interface cards in the UK.

Thames Card Technology, in partnership with our technology partner Morpho, are able to offer the market a range of fully accredited products, coupled with a development roadmap that provides future stability.

Having added Dual Interface to our portfolio early in 2010 Thames have successfully manufactured and delivered the product to a very high specification whilst retaining the service flexibility that is synonymous with Thames and our clients.

Paul Underwood – Director of Thames Card Technology, commented;

“We are extremely proud of our achievements, we feel that this demonstrates the flexibility that we can offer and confirms to the market that Thames Card Technology provides an excellent solution for Dual Interface banking card requirements.”

With new contracts being negotiated we are confident of significantly increasing our share of this market during the remainder of 2011 and beyond.

May 2011

Clients, both new and existing, are welcome to visit us on stand number 4 M 052 but should anyone wish to make an appointment to meet one of our sales team, please contact us via our website or at the following email address: cartes2011@thamesgroup.co.uk

April 2011

Thames Card Technology (TCT) has recently supported the launch of the Lycamoney Cash Card by Lycamobile.

Lycamobile, one of the world’s leading airtime and SIM card providers, have launched the Green instant issue Lycamoney EMV MasterCard product. These are available through a network of Payzone outlets in the UK with the facility for cardholders to upgrade their cards to a fully personalised EMV Silver Card which is mailed direct to their homes.

TCT supplies the Green Cards for retail distribution in scheme approved, tamper-evident, sealed packs which are processed via TCT’s automated systems.

Continued investment in machine upgrades, combined with market knowledge and technical experience, ensures that TCT remains at the forefront of the Prepaid debit card market, offering cutting edge technology, products and services.

To see the full Case Study of this project please see the Lycamoney page in the Case Studies section.

For further information regarding our EMV products and services please see the Banking page or please Contact Us.

Thames Card Technology’s sales of EMV MasterCard and Visa chip bank card products in 2010 to West Africa showed excellent year-on-year growth with sales exceeding 3 million cards.

Working with some of West Africa’s leading financial institutions and personalisation bureaux, Thames Card Technology, supported by their technical partners Morpho, continue to develop a significant share of the fast evolving West African EMV bank card market.

Thames Card Technology has recently been awarded with the ISO 14001 environmental certification; ISO 14001 is an internationally recognised standard that sets out the requirements for an Environmental Management System (EMS).

As part of our assessment we were able to focus on improvements that could be made to our existing environmental commitments in line with our Environmental Policy.

An example of some of the improvements made are that our forklift trucks have now been converted from gas to electric, paper towels have been replaced across the site by energy efficient hand dryers and energy generated from our compressor room can now be used to heat our loading bay during the winter.

This certification demonstrates our commitment to legal and regulatory compliance as well as our continuing commitment to protecting the environment, now and for future generations.

Thames is continuously striving to increase quality and improve processes with activity led by our Quality team, headed by Martin Sexton. Significant investment has been made into new processes which include a new specialised clean area for card production.

This effort has been externally recognised with two quality accreditations being upgraded in the last month.

Firstly, we have been recommended to move from recognition level to full accreditation for CQM (Card Quality Management). This is a recognised MasterCard quality standard for the manufacture of cards.

Secondly, we have had the recommendation that our ISO 9001:2000 accreditation for our Quality Management System be upgraded to the ISO 9001:2008 version.

Both of these achievements strengthen our standards and ensure that all cards delivered to our customers are of the highest quality.

The conference is presented by a number of key speakers from the retail industry covering all aspects of gift voucher and gift card programs and is a must to keep up to date with the latest Gift Card trends and technology.

Thames are at the forefront of gift card manufacture, personalisation and fulfilment for both Open Loop and Closed Loop Gift Card programs and are able to offer expertise through every step of your project.

Dean King (Business Development Manager) and Kevin Freidrich (Sales executive) will be attending the show and are available for meetings throughout the day. If you would like to arrange a meeting to discuss any aspect of your Gift Card program, please contact us on 01268 77 55 55.

Thames Card Technology Ltd and Sagem Orga announce the launch of a new EMV Dual Interface Payment Card for production in the UK.

The EMV Pro CL dual interface payment card from Sagem Orga (Safran group) has been successfully certified by MasterCard and Visa for production in the UK by Thames Card Technology.

The EMV Pro CL combines the advantages of a dual interface card with the speed and efficiency of a native operating system. EMV Pro CL offers highly secure payment functionality and added value solutions. This card offers card issuers the combination of convenience, security and cost-efficiency for low-value payment transactions.

Sagem Orga‘s and Thames Card Technology’s new dual interface product complies with the latest standards specified by Visa and MasterCard and completes a full payment product range.

The EMV Pro CL card is produced in the UK by Thames Card Technology using an innovative production method where there is no physical connection between chip and antenna. This therefore provides excellent resilience and helps ensure consistently fast production lead times can be offered.

“We are pleased to enhance the range of products offered to banks and other Card issuers.  Our continued investment in smartcard production equipment enables Thames to continue to supply full EMV card solutions, including innovative card bodies and comprehensive personalisation and fulfillment services from a UK production site”, commented Paul Underwood, Managing Director at Thames.

Pierre Henri Manegrier, Senior VP EMEA Banking Sales at Sagem Orga underlines, “Thames and Sagem Orga have established a successful partnership and sold several million EMV payment cards to banks and card issuers, especially in the prepaid segment. The launch of the EMV Pro CL cards will contribute to strengthen this relationship further in the future.”

Sagem Orga is a global leader in the smart card industry. Its portfolio includes hardware, software, consulting and services, all focused on smart cards for the telecommunications, health, identification and banking sectors. As a subsidiary of Sagem Sécurité (Safran group), the world’s No. 1 in identification, Sagem Orga offers comprehensive integrated solutions designed to secure the digital and mobile community. The company has a workforce of over 2,100 people around the world and production facilities incorporating the latest technology in Germany, Brazil, Russia, Mexico and India.
www.sagem-orga.com

Thames Card Technology has produced the first UK customisable prepaid MasterCard® gift cards.

These cards, issued by Newcastle Building Society and offered through Quantum Card Services, use Retransfer printing technology enabling images that cardholders upload via Quantum’s website to be used to create a fully personalised gift card that can be used at any MasterCard® outlet worldwide.

Card customisation has already been proven to result in increased transactions, acquisition and retention rates in traditional card markets. It will also offer an immediate differentiator for marketing purposes, particularly important in the ultra-competitive prepaid market

The service is provided in conjunction with the Serverside Group a global technology leader in digital card design to ensure that the images meet with MasterCard® design requirements.

The result is a high quality bespoke product that gives the customer the opportunity to make a gift card far more personal.

Cards are available from the MasterCard® Prepaid Gift Card Home Page