Wales ITSO roll-out is enabled by ACT

ACT has been chosen by the Welsh Assembly Government to provide a full range of travel products and managed services, for the Wales national concessionary travel programme.

ACT is delivering the ACT ITSO HOPS travel transaction processing engine, national Customer Management System (CMS), card production and fulfilment and ongoing programme management.

2008 was an exciting year for Welsh transport, featuring the start of the roll-out of the all-Wales ITSO concessionary travel project. The Welsh Concessionary Travel Pass entitles all those aged 60+ and the disabled to free bus travel across Wales; all existing concessionary bus passes will be replaced by smart cards delivered by ACT and its sub contractor ESP Systex Limited.

The project will enable over 600,000 concessionary travellers and some 2,500 buses across the whole of Wales and in some cases the smart card will be valid for cross border travel into England. For the project to function successfully, the ACT HOPS (AMS) is integrated with the ACT Customer Management System, which manages customer details and gathers the ITSO transactional information from the ACT HOPS resulting in a comprehensive view of cardholder information, ITSO card details, journey statistics and information such as concessionary fares.

Gary Watts, Managing Director ACT said “The transition to ITSO will enable a more flexible transport system, reducing costs, improving efficiency and offering travellers throughout Wales a better, improved and seamless journey. The sophistication of the HOPS and CMS products means that each Wales local authority will be able to manage each individual customer and benefit from having a wealth of travel management information to shape future policies and services.

ACT and sQuid win Gemalto award

At the recent international annual Gemalto VAR conference held in Paris, ACT and its customer, sQuid, won the award for the most advanced new application on a Gemalto terminal.

The award was presented by the Managing Director of Gemalto’s Terminals division, and is a positive reflection on the high quality of design and the ingenuity shown within the sQuid scheme. It also provides clear recognition of the skill of ACT’s development engineers in building the complex sQuid application on the Gemalto platform.

The Gemalto VAR conference was held prior to the world’s premier card technology exhibition, CARTES 2008, also hosted in Paris. ACT is a long term VAR and system integrator of Gemalto’s terminal hardware, and the majority of Gemalto’s smart card systems have been serviced by ACT. Gemalto terminals have been placed through ACT schemes in over 4,000 locations worldwide.

Peterborough chooses ACT

In November 2008 Peterborough City Council, a unitary authority, chose ACT to provide their CMS (Customer Management System). The CMS will produce Peterborough’s new smart concessionary passes using locally sited ITSO enabled card-issuing equipment.

Part of Peterborough’s decision to adopt ACT’s CMS was based on their requirement to move from using an external card bureau to using an in house ‘on demand’ method of card issuance. The new concessionary cards will be produced directly on dedicated card-issuing systems at the Travelchoice Centre based at Peterborough’s Bus Depot.

With the ACT CMS, Peterborough can issue a card while the applicant waits. The applicant’s data can be entered and their photo captured on site at the Travelchoice Centre enquiry desk. Alternatively, the staff at the concessionary transport offices can process new postal applications by inputting data directly into the system. The cards can then be printed remotely on the card-issuing workstations at the Travelchoice Centre.

The ACT CMS gives Peterborough’s staff instant access to many important functions for card issuance. Their help desk can effectively and accurately handle any enquires on card issuing or loss, which helps Peterborough to maintain a high level of customer service.

"The ACT CMS system continues to be deployed in a number of varying ITSO card issuing scenarios which demonstrates the product’s flexibility and ease of use” comments Nigel Cullum Commercial Director at ACT. “The installation in Peterborough at a very busy customer service point allows a Concessionary Pass to be issued to an applicant in a matter of minutes, thus providing a first class service"

New support portal from ACT

In January 2009, ACT launched a new dedicated ServiceDesk portal to provide a single point of contact for all its customers’ support needs.

Using the new online portal at http://servicedesk.card.co.uk ACT customers can raise new requests and access specific, detailed and real-time progress updates 24/7. Customers can also add comments to existing requests and view information about known issues.

ACT is justly proud of its technical expertise and product reputation, not only does it form a major part of its identity, it also sets ACT apart from its competition. In an industry which faces the conflicting challenges of a rapidly deteriorating economic environment and rapidly evolving technology, finding focused, effective solution delivery is absolutely vital.

ACT is driving forward new standards in transparency of service, and the launch of its new ServiceDesk portal is a major part of this change.

Read more about ACT’s ServiceDesk at
http://www.card.co.uk/support.html