Belgian pioneer in electronic payments stays highly flexible in R&D with TASS
The Belgian subsidiary of Atos Worldline is a real pioneer in electronic payments and has been active in this area for years. Today, Atos Worldline Belgium has over one thousand employees. One of its departments focuses solely on developing innovative payment terminals and hardware security modules. Electronic payment terminals facilitate easy payment in shops, hotels and other places where consumers buy goods or services. Naturally, the Banksys brand is renowned for superior quality, the result of incessant striving for terminals that are safe and reliable and meet the highest standards. For years now, embedded technology specialist TASS Belgium has assisted Atos Worldline in various ways in developing state-of-the-art technology for the Banksys terminals.
A few years ago, the company developed a new platform architecture for its Banksys terminals, which was based on Linux. Part of the project consisted in the development of a new chip. “At that time we needed support in collecting and compiling all the technical documentation and came into contact with TASS, that helped us out with this specific task,” says Peter Timmermans, Embedded Systems Architect at Atos Worldline Technologies & Products division. “This initial cooperation went very well and soon thereafter we asked TASS to help us out on other projects.”
Today, TASS’ activities for Atos Worldline range from the development of a production process for new terminals to the creation of tests for the terminals as well as test scenario’s and test suites for the platform.
Innovation, reliability and ease of use are important aspects as well. Peter Timmermans states that these activities have a very cyclic nature. “We need different expertise at different points in time, varying from development and testing to writing technical documentation. It is often not practical to develop all these skills ourselves, as the need is only temporary. By hiring TASS to deliver this knowledge and expertise, we remain flexible and are able to address situations as they arise. We are very positive about our long-standing relationship. TASS’ expertise is exactly what we need on a regular basis. This is best illustrated by the fact that the first TASS employee we hired for writing technical documentation, back in 2003, still works on our projects.”