A Semantic-Based Architecture for Electronic Money System and Multi-channel Value-Added Services

The evolution of microchips and embedded technologies and those related to the mobile world has led to the growth and proliferation of devices and systems for electronic payment used by end users to buy products or services. Over the last few years there has been a tendency to use these devices and systems to provide users a way to benefit of services that are accessories to the payment (e.g. Value Added Services - VAS) and can be used before or after a transaction takes place. The heterogeneity of users´ devices and instruments, linked to the heterogeneity of acceptance devices and service platforms, also makes life harder to new service providers and to users (e.g. merchants). This paper describes the solution defined in the context of TITAN project which objective is to create an integrated and innovative system for managing Electronic Money and Value Added Services offering an integrated, multichannel and customer-centric view through the integration of perspectives of Business Partners, Customers and Service Providers by defining a business partner network (modeled semantically) and supporting marketing policies (facilitated by exploiting users´ profiles). This paper is focused on the architecture of TITAN platform and on the models used to represent semantic services and the user profiling.