ABOUT US

CAS was created as an “Application Service Provider” as a sister company to Open Access, a pioneer and leading developer of Interactive Voice Response (IVR), customized Computer Telephony systems, Call Centre systems, On-line Banking and payment systems.

CAS offered IVR applications from its existing bureau and thereafter followed a lateral expansion of new services into the bill-payment area and other non-banking transactions associated with charities, community alert systems and Call-Centers.

Telephony services began to overtake the Agency Banking systems as the main revenue earner for outsourced bureau services during the early nineteen-nineties.

Telephony communications controllers underwent major technology changes from analogue low-density devices to all-digital systems. The carriers also added new "Voice and Data" functionality and tariff changes with their ISDN and Data Network Broadband networks.

These new carrier offerings enabled significant "Switching and conference mixing" services which were not previously available. CAS embraced this new functionality and integrated these new services into existing transaction modules and introduced new transaction-profiles.

CAS was able to offer clients telephony transfer services, which were quicker and more reliable than PABX services at a fraction of the costs associated with the purchase of PABX’s and Call-Center staff costs. This enabled CAS clients to enjoy the benefits of modern telephony without having to purchase expensive hardware or acquiring the high costs of technical and operational staff.

Until 1997 the client services provided by CAS and Open Access were technically common, and were delivered from the shared premises. Open Access was purchased and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Olivetti Australia and CAS remained a private company owned by the original shareholders and directors of Open Access.

CAS continued to grow and diversify and is now a supplier of Internet E-commerce and Information services to complement the telephony-based services. CAS offers a most elegant yet secure array of Credit Card transaction services. All are based on the assumption that a transaction is going to occur from a location remote from the product or service provider. This enables purchases to be initiated and completed from a buyer's home, office or mobile.

A transaction may be completed from a landline telephone, a mobile telephone, and a home computer or between several people in a real-time telephone conference call. The transaction may occur at any time and be successfully concluded in terms of Banking and payments systems with automatic cash balancing by CAS for the "Merchant" service provider.

Company Locations and Facilities
The company has its main offices in Sydney Australia from where it conducts the various activities of the “Card Access Services” group. The facilities include a network of computers used for the development of software products and solutions and a hardware laboratory.

The facilities also house a data center with significant telecommunications and data infrastructures that are used to house and deliver hosted solutions. The data center also houses the CAS e-commerce payment gateway that has connections to all of the major banks in Australia for the purposes of processing credit card transactions.

Recent Acquisitions
In November 2001 CAS acquired the Branch Delivery Systems unit from KeyCorp and currently supplies and maintains secure terminals for Westpac, CBA and other financial institutions around the globe. This acquisition was made specifically to enhance the technical capability of CAS in the area of financial terminals.

In March 2003 CAS acquired Smart Silicon Systems form Julia Corporation and currently supplies security smart cards to the CBA and SIM Manager products to a number of mobile telephone operators in Australia and overseas.

In October 2004 Card Access Services purchased a business in Perth Western Australia and has opened a local CAS office to provide service to WA clients that include Alinta Gas and HBF Health Funds.

The customer services available in WA include a totally managed service for retail payments and inquiries. Telephone payments can be accepted by “Interactive Voice Response” (IVR), Call-centre agents (on-site and off-site agents) , home PC payments through the Internet, mobile ‘phone payments through card –present CASPAD terminals for mobiles and EFTPOS front-counter services. All Australian banks are connected to the CAS services with audited security for Visa “Account Information Security” (AIS) and low-risk Internet payment payments schemes branded “Verified-by-Visa” and MasterCard “Securecode”.

CAS technical services are hosted at Bekkers in WA, a well known and highly regarded WA IT company that offers various specialised services that include Citrix systems.