Confidex Smart Booklet™ fights against fraud and improves usability Software Specialist Ville Ruhanen and Senior Product Engineer Jaana Kahra develop the world’s most complex customer specific smart tickets Confidex Named one of CIOReview’s “20 Most Promising Smart City Solution Providers” for 2016 Meet Confidex in Paris at Transports Publics 2016
Trust EARNING YOUR TRUST
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We build strong, sustainable relationships based on honesty and responsibility. We are committed to following laws, rules and regulations, and we require absolute integrity from our staff and partners. We keep our promises. We say what we do, We do what we say.
Geneva, June 3rd 2016
Confidex Fare Media at your service Dear reader,
For this second issue of our Smart Ticketing magazine, I would like to share my genuine excitement about the current state of our business – and as importantly, where it is going. We are proud to share that 2015 was another record year for Confidex Smart Ticketing in terms of topline growth, having added also more than 20 transport systems to our customer base. Our business has continued to progress in our core market of EMEA, and 2015 has also seen significant growth in the North American market, as contactless ticketing and the value it brings to operators is increasingly recognized the world over.
As you will find out in this issue, there are two key elements underpinning this success. This first is our highly qualified, highly competent and, as our values require, highly committed team. The Smart Ticketing team in our organization, from Sales to engineering and product management, through to production, is fully dedicated and grounded in unmatched knowhow and competence in Smart Ticketing and is core to our value proposition. We have added significant resources to the team during 2015 to be able to better serve and support our increasing customer base, but also to continue to drive the second element of our success: innovation. Indeed, since inception, and in high
complementarity with our other business unit at Confidex, Smart Identification, Confidex has been a hallmark of innovation in its target markets. In Smart Ticketing, we are not just innovating at the product level, making our products the most reliable, robust and easily used in the market, but we are innovating at the process and services level. Today we offer turnkey solutions to customers that fit their own purchasing and usage processes. We are continuing to develop our service offerings and will continue to introduce services always with the operator and the modern traveler in mind. Thank you for your continued confidence in us and our team. Yours sincerely, Robert Mullins CFO, Head of Smart Ticketing Confidex Ltd.
Confidex, the world’s leading supplier of high-performing contactless smart tickets, provides smart ticketing solutions for millions of users to more than 70 major cities and transport operators worldwide - including Venice, Dubai, Glasgow, Istanbul, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
In this issue June 2016
Confidex editorial At Confidex,Ville Ruhanen, Software Specialist, and Jaana Kahra, Senior Product Engineer, develop
Confidex Smart Booklet™ fights against fraud and improves usability
Confidex Named one of CIOReview’s “20 Most Promising Smart City Solution Providers” for 2016
the world’s most complex customer
specific smart tickets
Meet Confidex Transports Publics 2016 - the European Mobility Exhibiton takes place on 14th to 16th June, in Paris. Confidex will be exhibiting at the event.
Confidex editorial Ville Ruhanen, Software Specialist, and Jaana Kahra, Senior Production Engineer, develop
the world’s most complex customer specific smart tickets at Confidex What happens after one of the world’s largest capitals, with tens of interoperating metro, bus, train and tram zones – each requiring an individual certified fare, value and validity date – have chosen Confidex as their supplier for fare media? The finalized tender processing at
Pyramid of sample ticket boxes in Jaana Kahra’s office. The readyto-use Confidex smart tickets come in four different physical formats: on reel, fanfold, booklet and as single cut tickets.
the public transport operator headquarters means a project opening for the department of Confidex production management – and creates, rather urgently, a new task for Ville Ruhanen, Software Specialist at Confidex. “We have yet to see a smart ticket tender we have won, without the element of urgency”, he states, as he rolls his desk chair over, to meet me instead of his multiple computer screens. “When a new customer specific encoding project opens up, we tend to book some evenings for it. Although that is not very unusual – we have, in the Software department, a tendency towards booking evening shifts within the limits of our flexible working hours”, Ville adds while he leans back on his black chair. The software room is filled with wiring, racks and accessories. The ever silent humming of the machines gives only a slight contrast to the soft midsummer sunset outside a shaded window. Today, approximately half of Confidex’s smart ticket
deliveries include some form of visual or electrical encoding on the tickets. And these are the most challenging – 80% of these deliveries employ Confidex’s software department with complex development tasks, one after other. To get the idea - just one of the system manuals for a public transport system can be about 500 pages of encoding specifications, rules and system requirements – a manual that Confidex smart ticketing IT team, including software and production engineering specialists, will study, implement and soon enough, master. When a public transport operator or a representative of the city with a public transport system in need of tickets, contacts Confidex’s technical department for completing their order details, they talk with Jaana Kahra, Senior Production Engineer at Confidex. She is a seasoned smart ticketing requirements expert and in charge of relaying the customer specifications to the production and software teams. “Most of our customers have very clear specifications for their tickets. They know their system to the detail and know
what they want”, Jaana conveys. “On the other hand there’s still many cities and customers who are new to smart ticketing, to the technical elements and possibilities that the solutions offer – these customers might have a brand new system or they are in the process of upgrading their old one to the 21st century. If so, our task is to guide them through the process the best way we can”, she tells. Superb Ready-To-Use Tickets When I ask about the most challenging and professionally rewarding cases, she smiles with an easy answer. “The Netherlands are my favorite country – their public transport systems is one of the most advanced and they know how to run it smoothly. I think many cities would benefit from benchmarking the densely inhabited cities, like Amsterdam, which is one our repeated customers. Also Asian cities are very high-tech and on the top of the development.” But with some challenges comes also, in the end, some of the most rewarding experiences and groundbreaking innovations. “At Confidex we focus on long-term customer relationships and to the high quality of our offering - products and to our customer service”, Jaana tells. “Once our customer encountered a problem with some non-functional tickets in the past. For some unknown reason the tickets that were delivered fully tested and working from our factory, were failing at the customer’s on-site tests. We took the issue
very seriously and looked into our processes – but not only at our own premises. We wanted to understand the whole chain of transport of the tickets, to be able to understand the environmental requirements and locating any risks on their way to customer’s site”, Jaana recalls and lifts up a bundle of tickets, holding them explanatorily. “And then, by doing our best – even a swift R&D innovating and manufacturing optimizing check – we found a practical new way to ensure that the structure of our tickets are protected as well as possible. This great innovation is now in the process of being patented – even though the original source of the problem was eventually traced to a foreign postal office, where the ticket boxes were roughly handled during the sorting process. ” Jaana gives the bundle of fine printed tickets to me and continues. “Today, the customer is receiving highly reliable tickets from us – no matter how the ticket batches are handled during the delivery, or in their actual operating environment. The long-term customer relationship creates this way very direct monetary benefits to our customers, as well as eases the use and order processing for them. In 99% of the time we are able to guide our customers to fix their emerging issues.” Every week there’s a ticketing team meeting at Confidex headquarters. On Tuesday mornings the meeting room Hertz, named after a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of electromagnetic waves,
Commitment SUCCEEDING TOGETHER
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Our dedicated personnel are the most important resource in our company. Understanding the customer’s needs and requirements is the foundation for our success. With each other’s encouragement and support, we can all reach our full potential. We treat each other with dignity and respect. We are talented individuals, but realize that together we can achieve even more things to be proud of.
turns into an international control room: the video call connected steering professionals of smart ticketing production go through all the statuses of on-going projects. Software Specialist Ville updates the status of latest encoding specifications to factory team and instructs the setup of new ticket testing environment and at factory the material department confirms the raw material stock levels. Everything is rolling smoothly – just waiting for the artwork approvals from customer’s side. About Confidex Smart Booklet™ and other novel products After the hectic and fast paced hour’s meeting, I ask from Jaana how is it like to handle such a demanding and urgent processes – keeping a multimillion inhabitant’s city stocked with public transport tickets? Jaana takes a sip of coffee and smiles. “Our internal processes are finetuned. We just recently even got more capacity and machines to our factory – but with the customer communication, there’s always something to improve. We could offer more – like knowhow about the actual tickets, when it comes to developing a city’s ticketing system. Currently I feel that the ticket tendering process can at some occasions hold back the development. Many cities and operators still order tickets always with “the same specifications as previously” – when actually they could benefit from
the novel options and innovations available today. For instance, many cities would benefit using Confidex Smart Booklets instead of their basic vouchers: the Confidex Smart Booklet is visually fraud proof and gives fast ROI, compared to the only seemingly more economical voucher type “dummy” tickets. As the smart ticket is not only encoded but individually numbered, the driver can check and confirm the validity immediately onsite – this is not possible with the old paper vouchers, which in the end can be more costly as a result of lost revenue by fraud.” Jaana and the other members of Confidex smart ticketing production engineering team are the primary technical interface to customers, but occasionally customer’s software department wants to speak directly with supplier’s software specialists – and this is when they call to Ville. I reach him on the way back to his computer site and ask how it is to communicate with clients. “Of course it’s nice to work with a customer who has an advanced systems and internal know-how – but I would say the situation is quite rare still. For now, many cities and operators are in the process of developing or upgrading their systems and do not possess such resources yet. In such occasion it means that we often have to guide and educate them about smart tickets and the order process – as we don’t have a
crystal ball. We don’t know how their original ticket was made, when it was not ours”, Ville summarizes. He points to a world map on Confidex’s office wall, full with dots numbering the customer cities worldwide. “When the business is growing, this challenge is global. Even in a country you can find both cities with highly advanced systems, zones and interoperability and cities that are only just starting to use fare media or are in the process of upgrading to a more advanced smart ticketing solution. Anyway – although I think that “well planned is half done”, this is all part of our business - and we take care of our customers, no matter how complex their case is. It makes my days interesting.”
Jaana Kahra and Ville Ruhanen at Confidex headquaters break room. A comfortable space invites for a sip of coffee between projects.
In the middle of our conversation Ville receives an urgent call. He starts to talk about encoding details and solutions relating to the latest dot in the Confidex world map. ■ Read more about Confidex at www.confidex.com
Confidex Named one of CIOReview’s “20 Most Promising Smart City Solution Providers” for 2016 The list was voted by a panel of experts and members of the CIOReview editorial board after evaluation across more than a dozen quantitative and qualitative elements, including the company’s experience, industry recognition, technical certifications, market presence and positive client reviews. “Confidex continued to break new ground within the past year, benefiting its customers,” noted Jeevan George, Managing Editor of CIOReview. “CIOReview is happy to showcase Confidex this year due to its continuing excellence in delivering top-notch technology driven solutions.”
About CIO Review CIOReview is an IT magazine which constantly endeavors to identify “The Best” in a variety of areas important to tech business. Through nominations and consultations with industry leaders, its editors choose the best in different domains. The Smart City Special Edition is an annual listing of 20 Most Promising Smart City Solution Providers in the U.S.
“Confidex continued to break new ground within the past year, benefiting its customers,” noted Jeevan George, Managing Editor of CIOReview. “CIOReview is happy to showcase Confidex this year due to its continuing excellence in delivering top-notch technology driven solutions.”
Confidex Enables Smart City Efficiency For Smart Cities, the use of Smart Ticketing increases not only passenger satisfaction, but security against fraud –by reducing revenue loss and enabling creation of new service models at the same time. Therefore, the increase in demand for smart technology and contactless ticketing solutions led Confidex to provide a wide range of capabilities that includes smart ticketing, special printable on-metal RFID and NFC labels, contactless toll collection and parking tickets and tourist cards. “Our team is able to develop a product, that fits the constraints of most equipment available in the market,” comments Confidex’s CEO, Timo Lindström. “We enable a better customer experience with new payment options, multi-
services, reliability and durability of fare media, fast transactions, and less queuing at gates,” Lindström adds. For the future, Confidex plans to develop full solution ecosystem as a key contributor. “We continue to add value to our new products and services in the field of short range wireless IoT. The value of Internet of Things as the way to make cities Smart is not about hardware, connectivity nor software alone. It is about having reliable data available exactly when needed,” concludes Lindström. ■ An article about Confidex Smart City solutions can be read in full at CIO Review’s website: http://smartcity. cioreview.com/vendor/2016/confidex.
Confidex Smart Booklet™ fights against fraud and improves usability Today public transport operators face many challenges - like how to implement a smart ticketing system while meeting the ever increasing expectations of the modern traveller - but still succeed in achieving the fundamental aims of fraud prevention and revenue loss? Luckily, Confidex Smart Booklet™ gives an affordable, sustainable solution. A booklet is easy to handle When Confidex innovated the Smart Booklet, a better usability was one of the key features. A bundle of 10-50 tickets is lot easier to store, handle and distribute to passengers from than a pack of loose single tickets. No more fraud! Every ticket on Confidex Smart Booklet™ is individually numbered both visually and by encoding. The visual ID number allows a driver to check that a ticket belongs to a booklet that he or she is currently holding. This means that the ticket can’t be, for example, changed to a broken one behind drivers back and asked to be replaced with a new one. Add Citycard features With a safe ticket format it’s a practical and profitable decision to add some extra features. A passenger can receive either a visual voucher on the printed surface or an encoded access or a discount to any attraction or shop. The public transport ticket can easily be upgraded to a Citycard. Ensure Interoperability Confidex Smart Booklet™, like any
Citycard features
Durab Smart
Include encoded access or enable printed advertising space with discount vouchers, free entry to museum, art gallery, casino, restaurant, amusement park or an event!
Durable material papers a structure bending washing!
of Confidex fare media, can include multiple fares - like zones, time limits, passenger group or age discounts or number of trips. Durable Smart Ticket A passenger can bend, wrinkle, or even machine wash the Confidex smart ticket - and it’s still working reliably. Our ticket
CONFIDEX Smart Booklet™
ble t Ticket
and safe ls. Recyclable and innovative e: ticket resists and even !
structure is highly tested against any rough handling, which makes it great for example for young passengers, who can now reach their home stop without worries! ■
No more fraud! Interoperability Zone, day or season tickets, student tickets or from city traffic to long distance travel!
Visual serial number in every booklet and individual ticket.
Easy to handle Booklet of 10-50 tickets.
Expertise OFFERING OUR EXPERTISE
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Our aim is to lead the industry by continuously developing our performance and skills. We are highly professional, hard working, creative and innovative in everything we do. We dare to question old ways of thinking and find brand new solutions. We look forward to overcoming each new challenge. We highlight quality in every single area in which we work.
Meet Confidex in Paris at Transports Publics 2016 - the European Mobility Exhibition Transport Publics 2016 takes place on the 14-16 June 2016 in the Paris-Expo, Porte de Versailles, Paris, France. Transports Publics, the European Mobility Exhibition, is the notto-bemissed biennial exhibition for all the key players in public transport and sustainable mobility from across Europe. Over 10,000 highly qualified participants come together over three days in Paris to discuss the latest innovations for urban, interurban and regional transport, as well as green mode transport. Transports Publics is recognised as the leading European showcase for innovations in equipment, services and policies relating to the entire mobility sector, bringing together leading European decision-makers from transport and politics.
‘Made-to-measure mobility’ is the theme of the 2016 edition of the Exhibition – and a key driver in the development of sustainable mobility and modal transfer from the individual use of private vehicles to mass transit. Confidex will be exhibiting at the event and showcasing smart ticketing innovations and readyto-use environmental friendly fare media. ■ Come and meet us at booth #I29! Venue: Paris-Expo, Porte de Versailles Date: 14-16 June, 2016
To get more information on the event visit: www.transportspublics-expo.com
Confidex Headquarters Confidex Ltd. Lumpeenkatu 6 33900 Tampere Finland Confidex France 325, Chemin du Château 06340 Drap France Confidex Switzerland 15 Rue du Cendrier 1201 Geneva Switzerland Kaiserstuhlstrasse 34 8154 Oberglatt Switzerland Confidex USA 2607 Woodruff Road Suite E #125 Simpsonville SC 29681 USA Confidex China - Sales Office Room 2003A, North Tower, Huaning Plaza, No. 300 Xuanhua Road, Changning District, Shanghai 200050 People’s Republic of China
Confidex factory located at Guangzhou science city.
www.confidex.com