On top of the Honour received from Hong Kong Awards for Industry 1997, MASS bears several "First" in itself in Asia-Pacific.

Merchant acquiring and credit cards

Living in the new century of electronic cash and electronic transaction, credit cards are no longer strangers to us. It is only one of our many daily necessities we bring along with us everyday. Applying for one is simple and easy. Nearly everyone of us got the experience in applying a credit card from a card issuing body. But how is merchant acquiring related to credit cards?

For card business, there are two major areas, namely, card issuing business and merchant acquiring business. When an acquirer, say a Visa acquirer, recruits a merchant, it guarantees payment for all Visa card transactions authorised on the merchant's EDC terminal, no matter who the issuer of the Visa cards used is. Since merchant acquiring business is one of the most profitable sector in banking business, the competition is very keen and the application of latest technology is a very critical factor. Besides, highest security technology is always required for financial credit cards and smart cards as money or even cash are involved. Therefore, international standard conformation for the applications is a must and certification from relevant institutions is usually required.

More about MASS

MASS, developed by SPECTRA Technologies, is designed for card centres or large scale department stores to handle all kinds of card acquiring business automatically. Its components can be applied freely for any part of merchant acquiring service. MASS is composed of tightly coupled proprietary hardware and proprietary software modules on common hardware platform. MASS is an example of successful integration of proprietary financial transaction technology and Hong Kong's operation experience in the industry. It has two core parts, namely, EFT Network Access Controller (ENAC-16R) System and the EDC Transaction Processing System.

Network Access Controller technology has been monopolised by an American company in the past ten years until the launch of SPECTRA Technologies' ENAC-16R System in 1995. SPECTRA Technologies is the First Alternative Vendor in the World for this kind of equipment. ENAC employs more advanced concept, for example it is a fully programmable device. Together with flexible supporting service, it is a total tailor-made solution. Like ENAC-16R System, EDC Transaction Processing System is also developed in-house by SPECTRA Technologies.

SPECTRA Technologies is the First in Asia Pacific to originate and own both technologies under the same roof. By developing and possessing both technologies, it makes the core of MASS very tightly coupled and extremely powerful.

Its application

Though MASS has only been launched for no more than two years, it already won recognition in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. Initially, MASS is designed for banks' card centres. Yet, it is interesting to see that MASS also attracted special customers looking for special applications. One good example is Kuang San SOGO in Taichung, the biggest department store in Asia. In Kuang San SOGO, MASS is used for handling all private label cards automatically. This illustrated MASS application in big department store's in-house card central processing system.

Another interesting installation site for MASS is China Construction Bank's card centre in Guang Zhou, which is the fastest growing card centre in China. MASS is installed for handling of international cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Aeon. China Construction Bank is reputable for its Dragon Card which is the first successful all-in-one financial smart card application in China, and perhaps even in Asia. It integrates the functions of credit card, debit card, passbook, reloadable cash card and even medical card in one single smart card. The card was launched earlier than the Asian pilot launch of VisaCash and Mondex. The role of MASS in this case is the central host for advanced financial smart card based applications like loyalty program, electronic purse, profiling management, health care etc.

Obviously, MASS still performs its initial role as a card centre's central system for credit cards and debit cards. Wing Lung Bank in Hong Kong is employing MASS to do this job.

Relevant example for "service enhanced products"

The development of MASS aligns, coincidentally, with the advanced model of "service enhanced production" advocated by the report of "Made By Hong Kong" study sponsored by the Industry and Technology Development Center, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC), Hong Kong Industrial Technology Centre Corporation (HKITCC), the Better Hong Kong Foundation and Chen Hsong Holdings. MASS is a relevant and excellent sample of selling "not just hardware but integrated systems, consisting of the equipment itself, electronic controls, information systems, software packages, reliability guarantees, and operating and maintenance support." MASS itself packs all the state-of-the-art financial transaction technologies plus the accumulated process and operation experience as a tangible product for export. SPECTRA Technologies is not just providing "processes" but also, "solutions".

SPECTRA Technologies' latest development

Staying ahead of competitors, SPECTRA Technologies focuses much of its resources on research and development. Its latest development is the Universal Electronic Money Manager (UEMM) which will be launched very soon. The applications of this 'Manager' cover three areas:

• as a cashless ATM for account balance checking, account transfer and changing password;
• as a Smart Card Top-up terminal for IC cash card balance checking, transaction record checking, upload and download cash value or bonus points onto smart card, card-to-card transfer, locking and unlocking of smart card, changing password; and
• as a Self-service Payment terminal for settling all kinds of bills like credit cards, portable phone, public utilities, tax and insurance as well as a registered terminal for Payment by Phone Services.