How the Payment Transactions of the Future Can Be Shaped
As announced at the ALVARA INNOVATION DAYS in 2017, ALVARA is turning its gaze towards the "Future of Payment Transactions" in the new year. With the "Future Payment" project, the Leipzig company once again shows its innovative side.
"All 140 participants of the ALVARA INNOVATION DAY 2017 agreed that digitalization is the key to the challenges and future viability of cash," explains Bernd Hohlfeld, CEO of ALVARA Cash Management Group AG. "We are taking on this task and making the topic 'Future Payment' a joint mission with our customers and partners."
The close and cooperative collaboration between ALVARA and its customers forms the fertile ground for innovative ideas. New market requirements and developments are identified early and transformed into solutions.
On the way to a holistic view of the topic "Future Payment", ALVARA is now also bringing representatives from science and research into the team: Together with the University of Leipzig, ALVARA experts are shaping ideas on how future payment transactions can be designed while meeting security and stability requirements.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Alt from the Institute of Information Systems at the University of Leipzig and a supervisory board member at ALVARA will support the project from the university's side. In joint innovation workshops, participants from science and practice will deal in depth with megatrends such as security, mobility and logistics, connectivity, and artificial intelligence or AI—which thematically fit ALVARA's business model and also go beyond. In addition, there are offers for topic-specific final theses and internships.
"I look forward to working with ALVARA," says Alt. "The company is an impressive example of how information technology has already created innovation well before the buzzword of digitalization emerged. For instance, the ICC platform has succeeded in electronically connecting all actors in the cash cycle—from retailers to the Federal Bank—creating for the first time continuous transparency of the entire cash cycle."
Prof. Dr. Alt is confident that this innovative power will give the joint project the necessary momentum. The project group will also deal with the topic of blockchain. "It is important not to reduce blockchain to just crypto-tokens like Bitcoin," Alt explains. "The underlying Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will be a key Internet technology for the coming years. Accordingly, it is advisable for companies to familiarize themselves early with this technology and determine the consequences for their existing and future application areas. For ALVARA, these could lie in the fields of logistics, machine communication, or identity control and strengthen the existing strategic areas of security and customer benefit."
Corresponding R&D projects (Research & Development) have already been initiated and initial results will be available soon. Additionally, a master's thesis on the subject has already been advertised to deepen and further develop the issues together.