Croatian Railways (HŽ) Passenger Transport has adapted its business methods to the dynamic needs of its customers and the growing trend of using the Internet as a sales channel in the railway transport. By introducing an IT system for the sale and booking of train tickets, the company has also created an important prerequisite for the income increase.
Croatian Railways (HŽ) Passenger Transport is a company that performs the public transport of passengers in domestic and international railway traffic. Figures of around 5.9 million tickets sold in domestic transport and around 100,000 in international transport on an annual basis show the amount of passengers who use the services of rail transport.
In order to raise the level of service quality and modernize its business, the company has introduced new ways of sales, in line with the dynamic needs of the users and modern technologies.
In addition to the cash registers, train tickets can now be booked and bought online – via the HŽ Passenger Transport web portal and via smartphone. The possibility to purchase tickets on cashless vending machines has also been introduced, where the tickets are purchased using the card payment method. The existing ticket sales method at the box offices was also modernized with the implementation of so-called stable terminals, and the final phase of the project includes introduction of smart cards instead of paper cards for monthly and annual tickets (in progress).
The basis of new sales channels is a unique Fare Collection System for domestic and international transport.
Benefits for the customer
- Increase the service quality towards end users – the possibility of buying tickets 24/7, creating different tariff models, shorter time required for ticket issuing
- Better insight into the entire business, achieved by introducing a new system and connection with all other key IT systems of the company
- Safety and a continuous business activity – implemented infrastructure solutions enable system availability of 99.9%
Unique system for selling and booking tickets for domestic and international transport.
The project included:
- Implementation of integrated systems for the sale of passenger tickets on five sales channels: POS cash registers and mobile terminals, Ticket vending machines as well as web and smartphone sales
- Integration of the solution with other systems: CRM (customer management solution), SAP ERP system, BI solution for analytics and integration with the EPA system for international sales
- Implementation of an Internet portal for ticket sales
- Implementation of server infrastructure of high availability virtual environment
- Implementation of storage system with recovery in the event of contingencies
- Ensuring adequate protection for critical system services, by implementing firewall, system for preventing vulnerability (IPS) and system for the balancing of network traffic (Load Balancer)
- Delivery and implementation of equipment: cash registers, mobile terminals for conductors, devices for printing smart cards, ticket vending machines and other necessary equipment
- Introduction of smart cards with Mifare DESFire technology, instead of the existing paper cards
The project for HŽ Passenger Transport has been implemented by KING ICT, in collaboration with Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH from Germany and Četrta pot d.o.o. from Slovenia.
