Likening both Taronga and Western Plains zoos to an alligator lying below the waterline, the Director and CEO of the Zoological Parks Board (ZPB) of NSW, Guy Cooper, has unveiled the first Australian Web site to offer commercial SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) for online credit card transactions in Sydney.
"People who come to our zoos only see the animals--they don't see a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on, such as our IT department. In that way, you could say that we're very much like an alligator--you can just see the eyes and snout above the water," Cooper commented.
The SET-enabled Web site, created by Creative Digital Technology (CDT), is currently accessible to selected ANZ Visa cardholders who can use the SET standard to sponsor animals or buy zoo merchandise. The trial is expected to be conducted over several months.
"People are always 'ooohing and aaahing' over our animals, now we want them to do the same over our SET set-up," Cooper quipped, adding that while around $1.5 million was generated each year through corporate sponsorships, the zoo also received around $250,000 each year via private sponsorships--such as those now accessible via the Web site.
According to Bahram Boutorabi, founder and CEO of CDT, the deployment of SET as part of his company's ActivePayments technology will increase the security of online credit card transactions.
"CDT is committed to the deployment of the SET standard in Australia because SET is the only mechanism available today to authenticate payments over the Internet," Boutorabi said.
Whenever an electronic transaction takes place via SET, a series of counterchecks and measures occurs between the computers of all parties involved, to ensure that both the vendor and buyer are legitimate.
Dan O'Hara, Managing Director of Data General Australia and New Zealand said that he was happy to be involved with an organisation that was keen to talk about its implementation. Too often, O'Hara said, companies will not discuss their implementations in detail in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Data General contributed hardware (an Intel-based AViiON server running Windows NT) and support, valued at around $35,000, to the zoo as part of the company's "Invest In Australia" program.
Visa's Executive Vice President Australia/New Zealand, Hilton Sack, said that he was "delighted" that SET had received the backing of organisations such as the Zoological Parks Board, CDT and ANZ.
"Users of e-commerce continually demand higher levels of security and increased convenience. SET well and truly delivers on both these counts," Sack said.
"We believe the zoo project will demonstrate that SET's time has come in Australia. We expect that this will be the first of many successful utilisations of the SET standard."
Data General's O'Hara concluded proceedings by saying that the ZPB brings a lot of joy to many Australians which his company regards as "a very good investment".
