P-Card

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   From the FINANCIAL TIMES, FT IT, 18 April 2001, pg. VI, col. 6:

_E-PROCUREMENT_ by Mark Vernon
_P-cards point to_
_significant savings_
Electronic tendering will streamline the contracting process
(...)  Companies routinely issue employees photo-ID cards.  Embedding them with microchips, turning them into smart cards, should be a simple way administratively and financially, to manage the complex security e-business demands.  But, as yet, the idea has yet to find the right solution to drive wide-spread adoption.
   Some companies are planning pilots with magnetic stripe cards as a kind of staging post to smart cards proper.  These are often called P-cards and are, for example, planned for the e-procurement system installed at Unilever Research Vlaardingen in Holland by Biomni, a UK-based e-procurement software provider.

(P-CARD?  Illogical, captain!  For the person who uses this, set phasers on stun!--ed.)