Similar in size and shape to a credit card, smart cards store and process information on an integrated microprocessor chip embedded in the card. Smart cards are now used extensively in Europe, Asia and South America for making electronic cash, debit and credit payments, information management and storage and a host of other useful applications. While the United States in behind Europe in acceptance and widespread usage of smart cards, it is estimated that by the year 2000 more than 2.5 billion smart cards will be in 25 percent of U.S. households. Financial services, transportation, telecommunications, healthcare, education - whatever your field, smart cards will soon have an unprecedented and far-reaching impact.Smart Cards: Seizing Strategic Business Opportunities brings you face to face with the growing impact of the smart card, and provides insights on implementing and profiting from new technologies and innovations. Written by leading experts drawn from Smart Card Forum and including specific and informational scenarios of smart card use in everyday life, Smart Cards brings you facts and figures that will allow you to: create a business model for introducing a variety of smart card applications; define your markets in terms of card usage and identify potential smart card partners; make financial projections, while anticipating legal and regulatory hurdles; and flatten your learning curve as you develop market trial implementation plans.Prepare yourself and your company to make the critical strategic and investment decisions this revolutionary technology will demand. Smart Cards brings you the latest facts and opinions, in chapters written by leaders in this expanding field - 20 members of the cutting-edge Smart Card Forum - and gives you a head start in understanding and preparing for this new technology. Read Less