As one of the largest employers in Austria’s capital city, Wiener Linien is Vienna’s public transport operator carrying around 2.5 million passengers everyday on their 161 underground, tram and bus lines.
Customer
As one of the largest employers in Austria’s capital city, Wiener Linien is Vienna’s public transport operator carrying around 2.5 million passengers everyday on their 161 underground, tram and bus lines.
The project was a collaboration between MAKIDATA GmbH and exceet Card Austria GmbH having been selected by the primary supplier WienIT, an IT supplier specialized to serve the utilities and public services sector in Austria.
Challenge
WienIT was chosen by Wiener Linien to personalize and send out its new multi-functional annual pass (Jahreskarte). exceet and MAKIDATA won an EU-wide tender to provide WienIT with a complete solution for data preparation, personalization and mailing of these annual passes. While the partner exceet also won the part for delivering the cards, the consulting of MAKIDATA together with the service contract and its dedicated Service Level Agreement (SLA) became a complete solution for WienIT.
This multifunctional card had to be able to offer a number of services to the cardholder prompting different applications for today and the future:
- Public transport access
- Car parking authorization
- E-payment for taxi and car sharing
- Future additional services such as applications for senior citizens and extension of the use of the ticket for national rail connections
Owing to the choice of services, MAKIDATA needed to facilitate the card output production of several card layouts, which needed high performance technology in:
- Precise and advanced color printing
- High-speed printing
- Complex processing of photos with black and white text, chip and card data
Solution
Closer look at Matica’s S7000 System with CardAttach:
- MD Data Preparation Software (MAKIDATA customized solution for SAP systems)
- S7000 Main controller with MaticardPro software
- ChipMan Mifare Desfire Encoding Software (MAKIDATA)
- Dual card feeder for different plastics (card layouts) to feed different card layouts in one mailing product
- RFID encoding with SAM module based on Mifare DESfire EV1
- Magnetic stripe encoder
- Seven printing modules for sequential photo color printing, black and white text and overlay protection on environmental friendly PET-G cards
- CardAttach mailing unit
- Neopost DS100 card folding, attachment feeder and inserting unit
Innovating in business takes you to new places
The annual pass, which was introduced through a central government initiative, will endeavor to support Vienna’s citizens to manage transport-related responsibilities all from one multi-functional card. Currently, there are two types of cards available to its citizens: annual and premium.
MAKIDATA advised the company to deploy the environmentally friendly (bio-degradable) PET-G plastic cards, which provide a lifespan of three to five years. This supports Wiener Linien’s ambitions to limit the vast quantities of paper they were consuming in paper-based tickets. In finding technology that could upload new personal data year-on-year without compromising the same plastic card, Wiener Linien could optimize their carbon footprint even further.
For this multi-functional card, MAKIDATA have provided seamless transition as and when the business requires additional applications.
MAKIDATA deployed seven S7000 printing modules for sequential photo color printing and black and white text; the sequential color printing was realized thanks to S1 high-speed printing modules. Further, the capacity to print a photo with black on the back and white on the front of the card with different print speed can be achieved with at least 1,000 cards per hour.
When high-speed issuance is required, reliability and flexibility are the keys to success.
- Matica’s S7000 provides high-volume card issuance with a reliable central issuance platform, its modular approach allowed for the processing of high-quality color printing and lamination while handling multiple card layouts.
- The challenge to process complex personalization in photos combined with black and white printing, chip and card data was achieved in conjunction with MAKIDATA’s customized data preparation solution.
Transporting Vienna into the future
The project is a complex ambition to bring a smoother and more carbon-friendly travelling experience to Viennese citizens who currently use public transport with a smart card instead of a paper ticket and are able to pay for a taxi or parking with the same card.\
It is thought that further applications are imminent and these may also include non-transport led services, which will see a fully utilized smart card for the city of Vienna. Additional transport applications may include the use of car sharing services or discounted travel for senior citizens or students.