Workshops, Working Groups and a New Website – OSPT Alliance’s Year in Review

Workshops, Working Groups and a New Website – OSPT Alliance’s Year in Review

2018 was a productive, exciting year for OSPT Alliance. With the association at a cornerstone of maturity, I’m proud to look back over a year that’s seen deployments of CIPURSE™ rise globally, interest in our organization expand across mobility services and our membership reach (almost!) 100 companies from across the mobility ecosystem.

As today’s digital consumers continue to demand evermore seamless and ubiquitous services, the need for greater security, and more flexible and intuitive mobility-on-demand is higher than ever, with each region and market facing its own unique challenges. From the launch of our new website, to the reformation of local working groups and hosting of tailored workshops, addressing these complexities continues to form the basis of our organization’s efforts.

As we enter a new year, it felt apt to take the opportunity to look back on what has been achieved by the unwavering efforts of our membership and offer thanks to those who have made this happen.

Responding to market requirements

Latin America is a region that has long been receptive to the CIPURSE standard. In the last 18 months or so, a number of projects have been announced utilizing our specification; from Brazil’s new driving licence scheme, to its adoption in Cuenca as a multi-application card system for students encompassing both transport ticketing and access to school and library facilities.

As with every market, Latin America has its own unique considerations, opportunities and challenges. Two OSPT workshops were hosted last year in Santiago and São Paulo, providing local stakeholders in Chile and Brazil respectively the opportunity to learn more about the benefits of CIPURSE and how to effectively upgrade legacy systems.

In response to the success of these workshops and the growing interest, demand, and active implementations of CIPURSE, our Latin America Sub-Working Group (SWG) was reformed in H2 2018. Bringing together representatives from across the local mobility ecosystem, the group aims to promote and facilitate positive collaboration for the development and implementation of CIPURSE in the Latin American market. In turn, feedback from the group also helps inform the broader strategy and efforts of our organization. If you are an OSPT Alliance member interested in participating in the group, please contact mwg-chair@members.osptalliance.org

Expanding our support for APAC

Supporting local needs doesn’t just apply to Latin America! We’re committed to enhancing our support for the APAC region too and we were delighted to welcome representatives from across the transport and mobility sector to our cocktail reception in Singapore last December.

Welcoming over 30 delegates, the event provided a great platform for attendees to network and collaborate with other industry stakeholders and discuss new opportunities and key challenges for the region. This was just the beginning – stay tuned to our website for details of upcoming events and opportunities to get involved in the coming year!

Launching our new website!

As the work of our organization evolves and we continue to both attract new and support existing members, ensuring our website reflected our industry position as a leader in mobility services was a key priority. With the launch of our enhanced, more user friendly and resource-rich site, getting involved with OSPT Alliance has never been simpler.

Industry stakeholders including technology providers, transit operators and consultants can now quickly and easily learn about what we do, benefit from our resources and – crucially – get involved! Whether that’s watching our new animation on the future of mobility services, downloading our technical documents and whitepapers or keeping up-to-date on key industry topics via our new blog channel.

Our new membership page as also been given a refresh, offering an ‘at a glance’ view of the benefits available when you join our association.

Supporting our members

In parallel to our external site’s relaunch, we have also integrated a dedicated new member collaboration platform, Causeway. Dramatically simplifying member engagement and the efforts of our working groups, the site acts as the central point for information on upcoming meetings, documents available for member review and meeting minutes.

It is thanks to the active participation and efforts of our expanding membership base that OSPT Alliance has realized so many achievements over the past 12 months, and we hope this platform helps us to achieve much more!

Looking forward, we are working hard on several important initiatives to continue enabling the future of mobility services. Keep a look out for our upcoming member survey for the chance to share your feedback with us and if you haven’t already, sign up to our mailing list so that you can be kept up-to-date with the latest news from the association and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn!

Author

  • Mike Strock

    Mike Strock is General Secretary of OSPT Alliance. He brings with him experience managing other non-profit standards bodies and industry associations. Mike’s role includes managing the day-to-day activities of the alliance, supporting the President of the Board and Board members, coordinating with the working group chairs, overseeing the financial elements of the alliance, managing events and liaising with other organisations to expand the reach of the alliance. Prior to working with OSPT Alliance, Mike has supported the activities of SIMalliance, the Secure Technology Alliance and the US Payments Forum (formally the Smart Card Alliance and EMV Migration Forum respectively), as well as GlobalPlatform and EMVCo.