Public Funding for Vix Technology UK Limited

The objective of this phase 2 project is to develop a closed loop mobile ticketing solution for commuter public transport which has strong fraud prevention measures and provides rich data to operators and passengers. Within the public transport market the growing trend towards mobile ticketing solutions is in recognition of the reduction in capital and operational costs compared to traditional cash and smartcard based systems and the growing expectations from passengers that they should be able to pay for transport using their smart phone. With Gartner reporting that smartphone sales grew by 46.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2013 and exceeded feature phone sales for the first time the potential market for mobile ticketing continues to expand. A full mobile ticketing solution consists of three elements. The back office server element provides account management and product sales functions. The smartphone element enables a customer to purchase and display their tickets. Finally, an on vehicle 2D barcode scanner provides automated validation and fraud prevention to protect both the transit operator and the travelling customer. The on vehicle validator also provides data on ticket usage to the back office to enable data analysis and business intelligence functions. Most mobile ticketing solutions without an on vehicle validator are susceptible to fraud and have reduced ticketing data available for analysis. Above all the solution must convenient, performant, secure and robust for both the transit operators and the travelling customer. The solution must answer the needs of both the transit operator and the travelling customer and be convenient for both. If the mobile device is lost or stolen, the customer must be able to redeem their tickets on alternative devices. Providing a solution that addresses both fraud and customer service requirements is challenging and a key objective of this project. From the transit operators perspective a clear objective of the project is to help remove financial barriers and leverage previous capital investment by using existing equipment in new and innovative ways to enable a mobile ticketing solution for multiple ticket types. At the same time for those operators without existing infrastructure, the project seeks to provide a low cost, simple to mobile ticketing solution that requires minimal capital investment and low running costs. Mobile ticketing systems provide new and exciting market opportunities, but in order to understand the impact of these in an operational context is a significant challenge. Incorporating these data into the data warehouse and incorporating them into big data analyses is another objective of this project.