TSA and Continental Ramp up Paperless Transaction Project

The Transportation Security Administration and Continental Airlines reportedly announced the expansion of the Paperless Boarding Pass pilot program at the San Diego International Airport with the objective to eventually eliminate the need for a paper boarding pass and help towards reducing the carbon footprint.

Officials said the pilot project enables passengers to receive boarding passes digitally on their mobile hand held devices and the relevant information is then scanned by TSA security officers at the checkpoint. Each pass displays a two dimensional bar code along with additional passenger and flight information that identifies the boarding passenger.

"The deployment of the paperless technology signifies TSA's ongoing commitment to develop and implement new technologies while enhancing security," said Mike Aguilar, federal security director for San Diego, TSA, in a statement. "We are pleased to be able to partner with Continental Airlines to expand this program that will help our officers validate authentic boarding documents."

TSA and Continental said the new technology, which involves scanning of the barcode by a hand held device connected to an Internet network enabled computer, eliminates the possibility of fraud boarding passes and enhances customer experience. Officials claimed it was a collaborative effort in which TSA figured out how to effectively scan the screens of the mobile hand held devices and Continental developed an implementation plan that involved encrypting the paperless boarding pass to ensure authenticity.

Collaborative efforts, such as this one between TSA and Continental, are in keeping with one of the seven mantras of the time, which dictates that organizations must make serious efforts to reach out and work with each other. The seven guidelines for succeeding in current economic environment are collectively called the CES (News - Alert) 7 and were pronounced and initiated at the Consumer Electronics Show 2009.

"We are pleased to expand our pioneering mobile boarding product that provides enhanced security and customer service for our passengers," said Mark Bergsrud, senior vice president, marketing programs and distribution for Continental Airlines, in a statement. "Continental Airlines is committed to innovation and leveraging technology to the benefit of our customers."

The Airlines said it is the first U.S. carrier to successfully try out this method and has now extended this service to 18 other airports, bringing the total to 22, and the project has complied with all the non-negotiable demands laid down by the International Air Transport Association for bar coding of passenger boarding passes.

TSA says it is keen on extending this service to all interested airlines and further information can be gleaned from their Web site.

Here are some more forms and findings of paperless transactions.

An analysis firm recently released two market research studies titled, “Mobile Coupons: Strategies and Forecasts 2008-2013" and "Mobile Commerce: Payments, Ticketing and Banking 2008-2013," which found that cash conserving mobile Coupons will increase by 30 percent over the next two years.

The prime reasons for the demand for m-Coupons are that shoppers want to make purchases for the lowest price possible to protect savings and are generally wary and are apprehensive about the current recession. Sales staff, retail outlets and merchants simply have to sell commodities and attract consumers any which way they can for sustenance.

In addition, m-Coupons can be tailored to suit particular tastes and purchasing patterns for different customer segments to intelligently leverage potential spending and this approach is in direct contrast to the old plain and simple approach in which every customer got every coupon.

The firm estimated that more than 100 million mobile users will use m-Coupons all across the globe with pronounced usage in North America, Western Europe, the Far East and China, and cautioned that the stumbling blocks m-Coupons to really take off could be lack of fully fledged development of point of sale terminals to accept Near Field Communication payments.

Some 36 million customers of Coupons.com reportedly saved over $300 million in 2008 and the company is now targeting $ one billion in savings via e-Coupons for 2009. The problem with e-Coupons is that they have to be first printed from the net and then taken to the sales outlet. This printing method is detrimental to the environment. Hence, the attempted drive towards m-Coupons to eliminate printing and to enhance customer convenience. In addition to m-Coupons, mobiles are generally all set to replace the conventional wallet and all its contents such as credit, debit, membership and other transaction plastic cards.

Another firm released a research study titled, “Mobile Financial Services: The Market Today & Opportunities for Tomorrow,” found that smartphones and enhanced 3G services are poised to propel growth significantly in this rapidly evolving area, and revealed that more than 44 percent of Smartphone users and more than 53 percent of 3G users prefer using their mobile phone’s Web browser to access their banking accounts. Mobile applications came in close at the No. 2 spot as a means for conducting financial transactions with more than 40 percent of Smartphone users and more than 48 percent of 3G consumers prefer this method.

A recent report indicated that transactions other than Near Field Communication may touch the $1.6 Billion mark in 2009 while NFC payments may flounder. NFC allows devices to wirelessly exchange data without physical contact within a range of 4 inches. The NFC market has failed to live up to predictions and hope because business models, and not technology, are still in a grey zone. Non-NFC business models should be able to fill the interim gap until banks, financial institutions, local governments and mobile service providers can formally agree on the rules required to make NFC a fully fledged and thriving business stream.

Another report highlighted that mobile banking transactions - also called mBanking – are conducted via smartphones that act as hand held computers and are constantly connected to the net. mBanking is performed in exactly the same way as e-Banking is conducted via a computer. Since Smartphones sales are picking up and their growth is expected to be more significant than that of normal mobile phones mBanking will consequently become more popular.

Mobile money transfer – also called mMoneyTransfer – is a key form of mBanking where people transfer funds to other people or other bank accounts, and with the healthy growth of Smartphones, it is also expected to pick up. While the figure in 2009 is expected to be healthy, the figure by 2013 is estimated allegedly to be $200 billion.

Recent analyses discovered that in 2008, approximately $72 billion mobile initiated business accrued via an estimated 25 billion transactions made by nearly 40 million consumers, which included roughly $24 billion for purchasing games, music and ringtones. However, by 2013, the figures could well shoot up exponentially to $860 billion generated via 300 billion transactions made by close to 450 million consumers with 285 billion transactions dedicated towards the purchase of physical goods and services other than mobile content on-demand.