The token management software company Bell ID has been selected by LEGIC Identsystems Ltd to work on Legic’s service LEGIC IDConnect. The service was recently announced in collaboration with Swisscom, the Swiss telecoms firm and Kaba, a manufacturer of products for the enterprise and the hospitality markets, to bring applications such as access control, ticketing and office automation to mobile devices in Switzerland. The new LEGIC service is open for application providers and mobile network operators (MNO), who will be connected over time.
As a provider of contactless people identification, LEGIC selected Bell ID’s Mobile Token Manager software to enable the lifecycle management of cryptographic keys and credentials on NFC-enabled mobile devices. The Bell ID solution sees LEGIC become a service provider (SP) trusted service manager (TSM), enabling it to deliver its mobile applet into the secure element of a smartphone by connecting to the Root TSM of Swisscom and other MNO TSMs.
Klaus Klosa, Managing Director at LEGIC, says: “Many aspects of working life are converging to mobile and access control is no exception. The delivery of an NFC-based trusted service is a logical extension to our product portfolio and provides another option for our partners and customers alongside our contactless transponder chip and reader chip offering. Bell ID’s proven software brings this project together, allowing us to connect to multiple MNOs. The solution integrated seamlessly with our current systems, allowing us to source the TSM capabilities that we needed quickly and cost effectively. This offers us flexibility for future service expansions and geographic roll-outs.”
David Orme, CEO of Bell ID, adds: “This has been an exciting project. LEGIC’s IDConnect solution opens the door for NFC-based ID services to organisations of any size creating a true mass-market deployment. We are delighted to be the technology enabling IDConnect and its delivery to handsets. In our digitised world, companies want secure and speedy delivery of access rights; our solution offers real-time provisioning of credentials to users over-the-air. Services are rapidly going mobile and our software is helping to get the right credential in the right device at the right time.”
IDConnect by LEGIC allows application servers to install all applications of a contactless card onto an NFC-capable smartphone. The authentication, data processing and communication between the back-end system and the network operator is ensured by IDConnect. LEGIC’s SP TSM capabilities, enabled by Bell ID, allow it to connect to the Root TSM of Swisscom to install its mobile applet on the secure element (SIM card) of a smartphone. LEGIC says that it’s cooperating with more than 250 partners who are running countless applications in over 100,000 installations. Soon, with IDConnect, all LEGIC license partners will have the option to use NFC smartphones.
