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The Future of Mobility
Interview with Dr. Gottfried Greschner
The most important change for us was that at a single stroke we became the leading provider for e-ticketing in the US. We were awarded major contracts in this area of business, such as the ones in Tampa, Florida and Honolulu, Hawaii. Another important development in this connection, of course, was that after two weak years we also returned to an outstanding level of incoming orders in 2016. In addition, we strengthened our hand in the e-ticketing business through the acquisition of a 26 per cent stake in Bytemark, a provider of ticketing apps for smartphones with whom we have had a longstanding working relationship in the US, and through the complete acquisition of HanseCom Public Transport Ticketing Solutions GmbH. HanseCom manages a large part of the fares for German public transport services and has numerous customers in the area of mobile phone ticketing. This area grew by 40 per cent last year. We are hoping for considerable international growth, too, in this respect.
Of course there are new, small-scale providers that are trying to gain a foothold in this market. We have responded to this by expanding our range of products and services accordingly. For instance, we have accommodated a need on the part of our customers to award contracts for technical operations or parts thereof to partners like init. We are already doing this in Luxembourg and we expect to be doing the same in several other cities around the world in the near future. This is an exciting trend because the scale of the work over a number of years means that the order volume for the original investment is actually often exceeded. We have adapted our internal structures with this line of business in mind and we have created a department out of two teams which primarily operates the hotline for our customers but also ensures the smooth operation and maintenance of the systems. This, I believe, is the right way to guarantee an optimal service on the part of and for our customers.
Yes, in this way we were able to enhance our product range in a focused way. Nowadays, an integrated solution also includes ticketing systems, or what are called ID-based systems, with which other ordering and payment systems can be connected up. We can even imagine integrating all the different payment systems for mobility in a city. This begins with the use of an autonomous bus or car sharing as the feeder, moves on via the tram and finishes with the hiring of a bicycle. All of this can be planned, optimised and charged accordingly using our system.
