JCB, a leading international credit card provider and the largest credit card issuer in Japan, launched a 2-month on-site trial of its new wristwatch ‘Offica’. The Offica Watch, developed in cooperation with Casio, contains employee ID information, allows the wearer access to areas within the corporate office and permits payment for goods and services in company facilities without using cash. Twenty-five JCB employees will use the Offica Watch instead of their current company card to make purchases at restaurants and stores, and carry out a variety of administrative functions at the JCB tower in Tokyo.
The introduction of a wristwatch-based alternative to an access card is a first for Japan. It follows the trial of JCB’s innovative Mobile Offica, a corporate mobile phone program that works through mobile phones in the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph system.
JCB’s Offica watch offers corporations a diverse and flexible menu of functions including control over which employees have access to what areas, authenticating approved computer network users, employee identification, attendance tracking, and cashless purchasing at the office. All charges are posted after the purchase has been made and are added to the employee’s own JCB credit card.
