In Saint-Lô and the surrounding conurbation, CEV is developing and experimenting a citizen card. From the swimming pool to the cafeteria, the card opens many doors.

The TES Cluster presents its projects | CEV joins the Chèque Déjeuner group

The TES Cluster presents its projects
On the 27th of February, the Secure Electronic Transactions (TES) Competitiveness Cluster presented 5 of its 49 certified projects. The morning presentation, initiated by the TES cluster’s president Pascal Baisnée, was aimed at illustrating, before institutions, authorities and consular bodies, how the various efforts by cluster members have materialised over the past three years. Over and above the “Clés de la ville” (see associated article), the following projects were presented:
• FC2 or Federation of circles of trust and digital identity management, presented by Jean-Pierre Tual, industrial relations manager at Gemalto;
• Automatics or the use of contactless technology (NFC) to offer new services to motorists, presented by Jean-Loup Depinay, programme manager R&D Funding Oberthur Card Systems;
• NFC Container or contactless service container for mobiles, presented by Houssem Assadi, E-Commerce and Banking lab manager at Orange;

CEV joins the Chèque Déjeuner group
On the 16th of March 2009, the three companies comprising the Softway group (CEV, Alios and Arnaud Bellée), specialised since 1993 in client relationships associated with the use of smart cards, were acquired by the cooperative group Chèque Déjeuner, the world’s third ranking in the social and cultural payment voucher market.

Codename: “les clés de la ville” (the town keys). It is one of the Secure Electronic Transactions (TES) competitiveness cluster’s 49 current projects. Designed and initiated by the Saint-Lô-based company CEV Group (1), “the project is the product of our desire to facilitate access to the town’s services, whilst eliminating any form of social discrimination,” explains Hervé Jean, Technical Manager at CEV Group. Swimming pools, public transport, catering, theatre, media library… citizens are offered access to a vast choice of activities. “Community services are numerous and varied. Consequently, it’s not necessarily a simple affair, since each service provider has its own particularities and methods, be they for payment, ticketing or access control,” he adds.

And to effectively accomplish this challenge (without infringing on existing methods), CEV has designed “les clés de la ville”, based on a unique technological medium, in keeping with the area’s image, a smart card (both contact and contactless). The project has successfully overcome the hurdle of technically integrating the card within existing service methods and applications. “The project is technically ‘open’ in order to efficiently handle issues concerning digital identity management, digitising via internet and the integration of new technologies such as NFC (2),” adds Hervé Jean.
Faced with the great heterogeneity of community offers, CEV Group has developed solutions to facilitate the system’s integration. “It was the main concern among many service providers. But our aim was not to replace existing systems but to adopt a new method for accessing services. We wanted to make life simpler.” he highlights.

CEV has in fact developed a light application ensuring a secure interface with the smart card and involving a dialogue with existing applications. The company has even developed a platform for managing compensation transactions via a digitised link with the Trésorerie Générale (public revenue office). The first service providers who will shortly be benefiting from the “keys” are the area’s multimedia centres and cafeterias. They will be rapidly followed by the theatre, sports centres, the young workers’ hostel… and finally buses by 2010. The “Cité Plus” card will progressively become part of everyday life for the inhabitants of the Saint-Lô conurbation. Well before many other towns!

(1) Business partners: Alios, Satori and MicoBE; higher education/research partner: University of Caen Lower Normandy
(2) NFC (Near Field Communication) technology is the contactless technology which enables cards to be read when presented at a short distance from a terminal for example.

Hervé Jean
CEV Technical Manager
Tél. : 02 33  77 65 00
Site : CEV

Send post as PDF to