Here comes the era of less cash — and even less plastic — in payment systems. Thanks to the advancement of information and communication technology, more and more people have started to shift to “digital wallets” as a handy, rapid payment system through their cellphones for all their meals and groceries, as well as other services once beyond people’s imaginations.

Indonesian tech company PT Tata Sarana Mandiri, or TSM Technologies, showcased a prototype for an electronic data capture (EDC) machine with dual-display to read Quick Response (QR) Codes, applicable for the digital wallet system, at the 4YFN expo in Barcelona, Spain. The 4YFN, which stands for Four Years From Now, saw start-up companies pitching their projects to investors and networking among themselves.

Held at the Fira Montjuic exhibition hall at end of February, the 4YFN expo was organized in conjunction with the Mobile World Congress where major ICT companies showcased their new products.

TSM chief operating officer Riswanto said the mushrooming e-wallet solutions had apparently forced vendors to provide numerous EDC machines or display various stickers from solution providers.

“However, we can avoid this clutter as we can download various digital wallets into the dual-display EDC machine,” he explained.

“The gadget is carefully designed so it will be well balanced when held by a cashier.”

By having a dual-display, the TSM QR EDC will make it easier both for customers and cashiers when processing a transaction as the cashier does not have to turn the gadget to the customer as with the credit card payment system.

“The display facing the customer is also equipped with a camera to scan the customer’s QR Code. So it is much more convenient,” Riswanto said.

The company’s COO said TSM had held talks with various digital wallet providers to include their solutions in TSM QR EDC, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology 210, a lower end processor of the venerable mobile processor family. The QR EDC runs on the Android operating system and relies on a 4G network.

“We intentionally do this to keep the price low, at under Rp 1 million [US$70.50] so more vendors, including smaller ones, can use the gadget to accept more digital wallets,” Riswanto said.

“On average, an imported EDC machine costs about $200 and $300, so it would be a huge financial burden for smaller vendors to have multiple EDC machines.”

With an aggressive target of reaching out to about 100,000 retailers in Indonesia, excluding smaller vendors operating at traditional markets, the TSM would soon mass introduce the system during a trial period in April and May.

Riswanto said the prospect for a digital wallet system was promising, while citing that penetration of credit cards in Indonesia was only some 10 percent and it would likely be more difficult to get more customers as people had begun shifting to digital wallets.

TSM chairman and CTO Sam Ali said there should not be a problem with digital wallet system implementation as the EDC machine it had been developing was already compliant with the international EMV standards for secure payment.

Indian research and consultancy firm RedSeer issued a report earlier this year that said there were 167 financial technology (fintech) firms in operation in Indonesia worth some $1.5 billion in 2018.

The market was dominated by Go-Pay (from Go-Jek), Ovo, T-Cash (Telkomsel), and Doku.

Apart from the digital wallet system, TSM also showcased its latest digital music player at the 4YFN expo. The gadget — the TSM Music Phone — was already showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, in early January.

The TSM Music Phone is a 4G hybrid music player that can be used to stream your favorite music or movies, share internet connectivity with other devices and also functions as a cellphone as well as with a 3.5-inch touchscreen. Also powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the music player uses Android 8 as its operating system, allowing users to make phone calls, send short messages and chat.

Envisioned as a high-resolution audio device, the TSM Music Phone comes with two auxiliary output supporting Qualcomm aptX HD/LDAC technology to maintain high quality sound at 24-bit 19 kilohertz.

While most smartphones have good audio capabilities, chairman Sam said the music phone was dedicated to audiophiles, with the gadget also having some communication functions, being run on a 4G network.

When asked about other projects being developed by TSM, Riswanto said TSM was designing and developing small cell radio nodes and a smart electricity meter that would send customer usage directly to the server on the cloud.

Sam said the company had been commissioned to design an interface to allow a United States-made cancer detector to the cloud so that doctors could read the data in real-time.

Being among a handful of Indonesian companies designing and developing software and hardware for various mobile solutions, TSM says it needs government support, especially in the financial sector.

TSM CEO Yovita Bellina said the government should come up with a different tax scheme for companies involved in research and development (R&D).

“Currently, the government only provides a tax allowance to manufacturing companies with an investment of at least Rp 500 billion,” Yovita said.

“Those who are conducting R&D activities cannot achieve that kind of huge investment, it would have to be much, much lower.”

However, she acknowledged that R&D activities were essentially an investment for Indonesia’s own brightest minds, as the largest part of the investment is poured into recruiting talent to design and develop various software and hardware at home.

“We are directly upgrading Indonesia’s human resources, which will greatly benefit the country in the long run.” she said.

“If we focus too much on manufacturing, other countries can simply offer a better deal than Indonesia’s offer to have the manufacturing facilities relocated to their countries.”

— Photos JP/Novan Iman Santosa

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