NEC, Valista Partner for Payments Solutions

NEC and Valista's partnership includes joint development of the 'Value Chain' payments platform, an emerging payments platform fuelled by multi-industry offerings. The `Value Chain' payments platform will be designed for deployment on the next generation network and integration of Valista's products into NEC's NGN service application platform. The collaboration will also include joint marketing of payments solutions in digital commerce and emerging fields, sales of Valista's products and services by NEC, and the provision of system integration and maintenance service for Valista's products by NEC.

"The arrival of the era of the Next Generation Network will have a considerable impact on the lifestyle of individuals and enterprise business models. NGN will enable a more real communication with a sense of immediacy. We expect that it will be possible to offer various services such as video/music delivery and digital commerce securely and cheaply, with enhanced user experience. The fusion of Valista's experience in payments, settlement, and merchandizing and NEC's proven strength in system integration will allow us to realize total solutions supporting the provision of new services," commented Shigeru Okuya, Assistant General Manager of the 2nd Network Software Division, NEC Corporation. "NEC will further endeavour to create the optimum environment for service provision, to propose a variety of service solutions for implementation on the NGN, and to contribute towards improved convenience for the user and profitability for the operator."

Due to the increasing number of e-commerce users and the adoption of virtual currency usages such as stored value or mobile credit service, person to person transfer of e-tickets and points, and service offerings coordinated across multiple industries, a secure and safe payments platform is becoming a necessity for businesses. It is essential that a secure and highly reliable payments platform for the "Value Chain business model" is implemented onto NGN providing authentication and QoS capability to support these services.

"The realization of the 'Value Chain' business model, where players from diverse industries collaborate in the provision of each service, is increasingly seen as the key to successful business on the next generation network. NEC's proven strength combined with Valista's experience in payments, settlement, and merchandizing, will enable the provision of a secure and reliable business platform, " said Yutaka Nozawa, Japan Country Manager, Valista.