Disruption and digitalization in transport ticketing

Disruption and digitalization in transport ticketing open up huge business opportunities as traditional ticket sales channels are facing competition from emerging technologies and trends.

At the very same time, climate change, overpopulation and growing traffic jams force cities and transport companies to rapidly react to market needs.
To respond to these needs, Plusdial has developed a technical platform and based on it, a service model that is flexible and scalable – supporting thus the business growing organically, or by licensing the platform to partners. Equally importantly, we have accumulated over 20 years of experience on applying the platform to varying business needs.

Plusdial provides public transport companies and authorities (PTCs/PTAs) with customizable Plusdial Ticketing Platform with open APIs for all players in the market willing to create, sell and deliver tickets either through a mobile application or via SMS, to transmit required data to back-office systems (like ticket inspection, reporting and Account Based Ticketing), and to manage these transactions (via user interfaces for functions like end customer helpdesk and service management).

As an example of a typical set-up, public transport authority may use the platform to interconnect several parties’ services to create a complete digital ticketing system:

• The PTA may either develop a ticketing application of its own or offer Ticketing Platform’s Open API to 3rd parties (Application Providers, on the right-hand side in the picture) with existing applications, willing to add transport tickets to their current service offering.
• Application Providers may either
  • Offer their customers payment methods like monthly subscriptions or dedicated mobile wallets, or
  • Handle payments via general payment services (typically, credit/debit cards, or any other mobile payment service with a payment API to service providers), or
  • Transmit just ticket orders and deliveries, and have Plusdial to mediate end customer charging to Telecom operators’ billing systems (so called “Direct Operator Billing” or “Charge to Bill”, or Premium SMS billing)
• Plusdial Ticketing Platform connects to required PTA back-office systems (on the left in the picture) for
  • Sales reporting
  • Reporting all events in detail for analysis or other purposes
  • Fetching ticket specific data – like validation data – to be included in produced tickets, if applicable.
  • Plusdial Platform can also generate QR codes itself according to PTA specifications, and add links for fetching them to customer’s phone in SMS tickets; thus QR codes can be used without separate applications, just via phone’s own browser.
  • Alternatively, SMS tickets can be equipped with machine readable, textual codes, for which reader software for handheld devices – at its simplest, smart phones – can also be provided
  • Or PTA’s inspectors may rely on human readable, visual control code embedded in SMS tickets
  • Inserting ticket data to existing ticket validation or inspection back-office systems, like metro gates, or existing validation back-office systems
    • Note that even Account Based Ticketing systems, possibly also supporting EMV payments, can be complemented with a SMS based solution where also non-credit card holders may pay their tickets with more cash-like mobile operator billing!
  • Plusdial provides also its own tools for inspection
  • Platform also provides uniform user interface (regardless of number of Application providers) to help desk and service management

Initially, Plusdial Ticketing Platform has been developed for public transport companies and authorities. However, in many markets the same organizations manage also city parking and functions like congestion charging; thus, the platform also includes customer driven add-on functionality for implementing parking and congestion payments.

As a company, Plusdial is a lean organization with a strong focus on its core business – ticketing systems for public transport, parking and congestion services. Company’s organization structure is also flat, typical for Finnish small and medium size companies, with dedicated and stock-owning key personnel having over 20 years of experience on the field.

Further, remotely managed, centralized Platform and service management allows ultimate cost efficiency without investments to market specific personnel and infrastructure.

Plusdial’s main resources, available to boost our partner’s business, are:

• The Plusdial Ticketing Platform for providing a proven and scalable technical solution for configuring
  • State of the art, high-performance and high-availability mobile ticketing services
  • Backed up by patented ticket authenticity (security) method
• Customers and long-lasting customer relationships in Europe (see Highlights)
• Competence of employees and key partners
• Position as a neutral and independent party between public transport organizations and other parties, thus contributing to mutual business interests of all parties
• Over 20 years of mobile ticketing and public transport experience