Responses provided by Pascal Le Ray, CEO at FIME

What are your company’s objectives for the forthcoming 12 months relating to chip?

The coming year will be a busy one since FIME has several ambitious goals related to the chip sector. First and foremost it aims to achieve GlobalPlatform qualification for the newly released FIME Global test suite (a new tool for evaluating compliance to GlobalPlatform's UICC Configuration and Mapping Guidelines). In addition, the organization aims to have the FIME laboratory recognized by GlobalPlatform for the provision of associated test services to the card industry.

FIME will also be working to deliver debugging, testing and consulting services to card manufacturers that want to be listed as GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.2 compliant, as well as helping Mobile Network Operators validate new UICC products as a third party providing assessments of their suppliers' products.

It is equally important for FIME, as a member of GlobalPlatform, to actively support the development of GlobalPlatform for NFC markets and to support payment and transportation schemes. This is due to the current market trend towards using GlobalPlatform as an underlying layer of specifications.

What challenges do you currently recognize in the global chip marketplace and how is your organization working to overcome them?

There are a number of challenges to overcome, but that is what makes the chip marketplace an interesting sector to be involved in. Specifically, the transportation, telecom and payment markets are converging, bringing together different business schemes with different requirements. A good example of this is the numerous questions regarding security and interoperability being raised through the development of NFC mobile payment. To address this challenge we regularly participate in pilots, as well as developing security evaluations and interoperability testing.

Another issue the industry is seeing more frequently is the increase in functional specifications. As a result, the associated test specifications become more complex. To address this challenge FIME participates in working groups to deal with the changes at an early stage. We also partner with other companies when working together proves faster and more cost effective.

Finally, with chip migrations taking place all over the world, regional migrations present the challenge of an increasing need for local support. To address this challenge FIME opened new offices to support regional customers by establishing a base with local expertise or a partnership with local companies. So far in 2010 FIME has already launched new offices in Bangalore, India, Shanghai and Belgium, giving the organization more proximity with customers.

What are the key reasons behind your organization’s decision to become a GlobalPlatform member?

FIME decided to join GlobalPlatform to contribute to the development of a standardized smartcard infrastructure. This demonstrates its commitment to GlobalPlatform’s drive towards creating an open compliance ecosystem. This decision shows that FIME has reached a new maturity in its evolution. The new GlobalPlatform Compliance Program was also a key reason for joining due to its alignment with FIME’s business strategy.

What GlobalPlatform initiatives will your organization most actively engage in and why?

FIME intends to actively participate in the promotion of the organization’s initiatives and increase the visibility of its achievements and solutions on the international smart card scene. In addition to this, FIME has recently launched a brand new test tool for evaluating compliance to GlobalPlatform’s configurations, called the Global test suite. FIME is currently taking part in the GlobalPlatform Compliance Program in order to achieve qualification for this new product and for the laboratory to provide test services to the card industry. FIME will also continue to take part in several of Global Platform’s working groups.