Frost & Sullivan explore trusted service management

The report also explores TSM for service providers (TSM SP) that enables banks, merchants and other service providers to instantly allow customers to use their credit, debit, prepaid, loyalty, reward, access, transit and other cards on mobile devices.

The global market for TSM has not quite lived up to expectations with the low level of near field communication (NFC) commercial deployments in the transportation sector. However, the banking and finance sectors are making up for this with the launch of mobile payment solutions that require the support of TSM platforms. These verticals are expected to implement pilot and even concrete TSM projects in 2014 and account for 80.1% of the total number of TSM projects by 2015.

Jean-Noël Georges, Global Programme Director, Information & Communication Technologies, Frost & Sullivan, comments: “TSM is crucial for certain NFC-using businesses, which require a high level of security due to the type of information transferred during the execution of applications. Although applications related to music or games do not require TSM for technical security, players in the entertainment industry adopt these solutions to act as business enablers and handle digital rights management for related applications.”

However, doubts surrounding the actual profitability of TSM platforms with existing pricing models are hampering market development. Market participants should educate end users on the extensive benefits of TSM to overcome this challenge. Solutions such as hub TSM appear as a promising option.

Further, the averse of some banks to adopt TSM solution due to the lack of transparency regarding the independence of the third party is lowering market potential. Banks are not reluctant to discuss with software companies that were able to offer pure cloud-based solution to handle tokens. Service providers would do well to focus on hybrid solutions, which combine tokens based on SE storage and a cloud-based platform, rather than pure cloud-based solutions as the former is more likely to gain traction globally. This will be particularly important with the recent introduction of host card emulation.

“Service providers that control the TSM platform will have a strong strategic position with regard to their relationship with customers,” adds Georges. “Moreover, participants that can directly interact with alliances, associations, and certification governance in order to influence or follow the selected security technology will drive a strong market interest globally.”