Questions & Answers

What is CEESCA and what does it do?
Is CEESCA focused on smart card business or technology?
What level of international smart card contacts and networking can CEESCA offer?
What type of smart card information resources are available through CEESCA?
How do we apply for membership and join CEESCA?
Which smart card end-users should join CEESCA - private sector companies or government organizations?
How does CEESCA provide benefits and value to smart card end-users?
What is the key benefit provided by CEESCA to end-user organisations?
Our organization understands our own business and service very well - why would we need CEESCA?
Our organization needs to expand outside of our core business - can CEESCA help?
How can CEESCA provide our end-user organization with essential business and technical information?
What types of organizations join CEESCA?
How can we follow up on the opportunities provided by CEESCA events?
What type of smart card information can CEESCA provide to an IT consultant?
How can CEEESCA assist us with business development and sales lead generation?

 

What is CEESCA and what does it do?
The Central Eastern European Smart Card Association (CEESCA) is a independent association for organizations in the smart card industry in the Central Eastern European region. The Association delivers information, consultancy, guidance and networking to corporations and government organizations, including smart card scheme operators and suppliers, providing an unparalleled opportunity to solve problems, facilitate smart card initiatives and generate increased business development.

Is CEESCA focused on smart card business or technology?
Almost everything that happens in the smart card industry, including success or failure, is determined by business requirements and commercial issues. For this reason CEESCA is an industry association that focuses on the development of the smart card business. We strive to deliver services, find opportunities and recommend strategies which can benefit and grow the businesses of CEESCA members, whether they are smart card end-users or suppliers. However this business focus is inextricably linked to the underlying technology of smart cards. It is CEESCA's unique ability to understand the technology and its commercial implications which enables us to provide value to members.

What level of international smart card contacts and networking can CEESCA offer?
CEESCA is part of Smartex Group, the world's largest professional body for smart card related businesses, technologies and services, with smart card forums and associations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region. The entire Smartex Group has over 500 members around the world and thousands of contacts in the smart card industry, ranging from companies and individuals that founded and established the smart card industry over 20 years ago to technologists and business people that are building new smart card organizations today.

What type of smart card information resources are available through CEESCA?
CEESCA provides an extensive variety of smart card information resources to enable members to stay on top of developments in the smart card industry. These include presentation materials from all CEESCA events, newsletters, news headlines, as well as a rich online resource of professional papers available on the CEESCA web site. Through an international membership network and many industry contacts, CEESCA can also help you source specific information on any smart card business and technical subject. These information and knowledge channels provide CEESCA members with significant advantageous their smart card initiatives and businesses.

How do we apply for membership and join CEESCA?
Please visit the join us section on this page to learn how to apply for membership and join the Central Eastern European Smart Card Association. The membership application process simply involves completing the membership application form, send by fax to+ 385 (0) 1 3327 994 and paying the membership fee.

Which smart card end-users should join CEESCA - private sector companies or government organizations?
The answer is that there are benefits to organizations in both the public and the private sector - government agencies, banks, national banking organizations, card payments associations, telecommunications companies, transport operators, systems integrators and solutions providers. These end-user organizations understand that CEESCA is the only smart card industry association for the Central Eastern European region that is not commercially motivated and provides unbiased information and services to its members.

How does CEESCA provide benefits and value to smart card end-users?
CEESCA assists end-user organizations, in the public and private sector, by providing a focus for smart card knowledge, expertise, networking and partnerships, on a regular basis across the Central Eastern Europe. CEESCA keeps members up-to-date on the latest technologies, standards, applications and market trends and provides guidance and consultancy when required. CEESCA focuses on the business case and commercial considerations of smart card schemes as well as the implementation issues. CEESCA provides opportunities for end-users to learn of smart card applications and developments in other countries and markets and examine their potential for end-users in their own market. CEESCA enables existing and potential scheme operators to meet suppliers, in a non-sales environment, and assists scheme operators in evaluating their possible options.

What is the key benefit provided by CEESCA to end-user organisations?
Private and public sector smart card end-users need trusted and independent information, guidance and assistance with their smart card projects and initiatives. This can only be provided by a trusted and independent organization that does not sell, supply, advocate or promote any particular smart card solution, platform, technology or service. In the Central Eastern European, CEESCA is the only regional trusted, independent body that can provide neutral information and credibly assist end-users in the public and private sector with the issues that affect their services and businesses. As a growing number of suppliers enter the smart card market offering solutions to sell to end-users and smart card scheme operators, this will be increasingly important.

Our organization understands our own business and service very well - why would we need CEESCA?
If your organization has not previously worked with smart cards then you will be facing many unfamiliar technical, operational and business challenges. There is a lot to learn, and to continue to learn because the smart card business and technology develops rapidly. CEESCA can help you with decisions you will need to make in adopting and using smart cards. CEESCA can help you to evaluate and communicate with vendors. CEESCA can help you to understand proposals and recommendations from vendors. This can help to avoid costly mistakes made by other end-users who discovered too late that “smart cards are more difficult than we thought.

Our organization needs to expand outside of our core business - can CEESCA help?
An increasing number of private and public sector end-users are attempting to use smart cards to offer new services to their cardholders which are outside of their traditional core service area (such as financial payments, e-commerce, digital identity or transport payments and ticketing, etc.). Based on the most extensive multi-sector, international knowledge and experience of the smart card business, CEESCA services are particularly valuable in providing a channel for information, guidance and contacts that can assist end-users with these new and unfamiliar initiatives.

How can CEESCA provide our end-user organization with essential business and technical information?
Up-to-date, relevant industry information and market analysis is essential to the design, implementation and ongoing development of any smart card scheme or initiative. CEESCA is one of the world's leading providers, as well as a source, of smart card business and technical information. With thousands of smart card experts with CEESCA members around the world, CEESCA is in the best position to track smart card developments for our members. Much of the information which CEESCA disseminates (to members only) is not in the public domain and is known only to the industry (at the time of dissemination).

What types of organizations join CEESCA?
CEESCA members are either end-users (buyers) of smart card related technologies and services, in both the public and the private sector, or they are providers (sellers) of smart card related technologies and services. CEESCA is part of Smartex Group which is the world's largest professional body for smart card related technologies and services, with almost 500 end-user and supplier members around the world.

How can we follow up on the opportunities provided by CEESCA events?
After every CEESCA event, a list of all delegates who attended the event, together with their contact details, is made available for CEESCA members. The event delegate list is available to all Full and Associate CEESCA members, whether or not they attended the event. This allows members to maximize the potential benefits from each CEESCA event as it is usually impossible to meet all delegates when attending the event. When contact details alone may not be sufficient to establish a business meeting or to initiate a business development approach, CEESCA can make a business introduction.

What type of smart card information can CEESCA provide to an IT consultant?
A consultancy is expected to be highly informed on all issues, in relation to both the business and technical aspects of the subject on which they consult. CEESCA provides the most effective platform available for staying on top of developments in the smart card sector through regular events as well as a rich online resource in the shape of the CEESCA web site.

How can CEEESCA assist us with business development and sales lead generation?
Consulting companies usually have no products that generate revenue, instead trading their knowledge and experience by way of their most valuable resource, their consultants. As a result, a continuous stream of business is essential to keep their business profitable. CEESCA can be an extremely beneficial vehicle for generating new contacts and sales leads and helping to convert these leads into business. The Association is often approached by its many public and private sector members as well as non-members, to recommend consultants for projects that they intend to outsource.