February 6, 2020

Dear Friends,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your trust in LEAF and your invaluable contribution to the program.  It’s been a fun couple of years, and LEAF couldn’t have become the success it is today without your dedication to open technologies.  As we enter 2020 with strong inertia, I am asking you to take the time to help bolster the value of LEAF by providing feedback on these four topics:

LEAF Business Guidelines

LEAF’s mission is to promote the adoption of OPEN, INTEROPERABLE, and SECURE identification solutions.  As such, many of you have requested that we publish a set of guidelines to facilitate more effective interactions and common business directions to serve our customers.  I am asking that you submit your proposed guidelines. Example of guidelines could be:

• LEAF vendor products to support open and interoperable credential technologies
• LEAF vendor go-to-market strategy to be focused on the promotion of open protocols.  
• LEAF vendors to fully support end-users to transition away from their legacy technologies, to offer means of collaboration with the other vendors, and to provide the necessary product configuration for the most seamless upgrade possible.
• New LEAF vendors to bring added value and complementary technology to grow the ecosystem.  

LEAF Innovations

This topic is very dear to me.  As new technologies become available, let’s add them to LEAF.  I believe that between all of us, we have the ability to expand well beyond the DESFire technology.  I would like to hear your thoughts on what technologies you see as essential to our end-users, and how we work together on the implementation.  Think big! Here are a few examples of the topics that have been brought up already:

• PKI credential technologies
• The transition to Mobile
• A common credential management server/service
• Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB)

Kill Prox

Now is the time to put together a #KillProx campaign.  Too many vendors are still selling various forms of Prox cards and readers.  Too many end-users are still using Prox. I would like to get your thoughts on how we combine forces to induce the shift.  Let me know what you’re thinking on the matter. The cat is out of the bag--if you haven’t seen this video, take a look: https://youtu.be/Ccm1caB6bao.

Marketing Pool

Should there be an annual budget to promote LEAF?  What should it be? $100k? $500k? We have come so far with essentially just blood, sweat, and tears, and we now see the benefits of working together and leveraging each vendor’s know-how.  Let’s take it to the next natural step. How do you suggest we promote LEAF further?  

Please submit your thoughts by the 28th of February 2020 at hugo@wavelynxtech.com, call me directly at 303-332-6038, or send them to the LEAF site at info@leafidentity.com.  I very much look forward to hearing from you and to working with you on the growth of our consortium.  I wish everyone a fantastic and fruitful year, and I hope to see you all at the LEAF event at ISC West.

~ Hugo Wendling