Ticketing Archive

January 2012

Ecebs are delighted to announce the successful ITSO certification and launch of our latest transport smart card.

This ITSO certified card is, we believe, the fastest ITSO compliant smart card currently available in its class (CMD2).

The Infineon SLE77 based Smart Card has a measured performance of less than 35msecs for the smart card components of ITSO’s benchmark transactions, making it five times faster than any other card in its class. It has speed as well as flexibility; featuring contact, contactless and dual interface capabilities.

The Paragon card has been tested using official ITSO test tools and has proved to be the fastest in its class.

Increased memory size means that multiple applications can be added to the Paragon Card as and when they are needed and with post issuance update support these applications can be added in the field, without the need for the smart cards to be recalled.

Ecebs’ smart card Solutions Manager Stephen McSpadden: “The Paragon card is the first product of a new smart card platform that Ecebs are bringing to market based on Infineon’s SLE77 smart card micro-controller. We understand that austerity for all needs to result in real and measurable value for money for our customers. The Paragon card has the latest hardware security features, excellent ITSO performance, MIFARE emulation to provide backwards compatibility with existing systems, the ability to support multiple applications and is capable of remote updates once issued. This allows past, present and future card applications all to be hosted on one card that costs no more than other (often single application) cards commonly in use today.”

The Paragon card is available as a single product or with any Paragon solutions:

• Paragon CMS
• Paragon HOPS
• Paragon RTD
• Paragon LITE

October 2011

An audit has been conducted by Ecebs across 100 City and County councils in the UK. The Ecebs Smart Audit assessed local authorities’ existing and future plans for the use of smart technology, which is typically used to provide a range of services.

Most schemes being delivered through smart technology by councils are isolated initiatives that could have been integrated using a shared system across council departments, local authorities and social/health care providers, potentially saving thousands or even millions of pounds. Just 29 per cent of councils in the audit use smart technology to deliver more than two local services.

Nationally, Scottish councils are the ‘smartest’ in the UK, with smart technology being used to deliver on average three public services per council, according to Ecebs. In England, the average number of services being delivered with smart technology is just 1.5 – half that in Scotland.

Southampton City Council’s smart card system has several uses such as a library card, proof of age, bus pass, to access leisure centres, managing the finances of people in social care and even to register as an organ donor. The council has also experimented with using the card for cashless catering in schools and it plans to enable drivers to use the card to pay a local bridge toll.

David Burdett, Managing Director of Ecebs, said: “Southampton City Council should be applauded for its efforts in modernising local services, and it is not alone. However, a large proportion of the UK’s local authorities have still to truly embrace technology across multiple services.

“Councils can cut costs and deliver better local services by sharing technology. Multi-application smart cards and associated technology enable this shared service vision to be delivered today. If we don’t upgrade our local services with new technology we will have missed a huge opportunity to create a more efficient, simpler system for everyone.”

The Ecebs Smart Audit revealed local transport to be the most common use for smart technology, with 49% having introduced smart cards for initiatives such as national concessionary travel schemes.

Use in schools was the second most popular method for using smart technology, with 38 per cent of councils claiming to have done so. Third most popular was I.D. services (28%) and fourth was library services (27%) such as membership or book renewals.

The survey also showed that local authorities are planning to reduce their investment in smart technology next year as Government budget cuts affect councils’ ability to make improvements to local services.

David Burdett added: “”The truth is, the foundations for change have already been laid – most local authorities now have smart transport systems in place, and one in three has introduced smart payments in schools. The technology is available to enable those services to be expanded without the need for huge extra investment in new technology or infrastructure.

“We can now deliver technology that can be implemented across multiple services while offering a range of benefits to residents and local authorities including fraud detection, a full audit trail, reduced administration costs and extensive management information. It’s a false economy simply to cut services – we need think smarter, literally.”

Only 12 per cent of UK councils plan to invest in smart technology in the foreseeable future as the focus turns to maintaining rather than improving essential services. This is a dramatic reduction from the 73 per cent of councils that have already taken steps to improve local services with smart technology, with the majority (49%) focused on smart cards used for transport initiatives such as national concessionary travel schemes.

Ecebs Smart Audit concluded in August 2011 amongst county and city councils only. All information on smart services was obtained directly from councils. 113 requests for information were submitted, with 100 responses.

August 2011

Ecebs is to take advantage of the skills and experience of Scottish digital IT Company of the Year iomart Hosting, to supply Tyne and Wear’s transport authority, Nexus, with the ability to process thousands of smart card transactionseach day.

Nexus is the first concessionary pass issuing authority in the North East of England to put a Smart processing system in place and will use Ecebs’ Paragon HOPS (Host Operator Processing System).

Ecebs technology already forms the backbone of Smart travel in the UK as Ecebs administers the security system for ITSO, guardian of the UK’s national open standard for smart ticketing.

The system will be hosted by iomart Hosting and will validate and record passengers’ journeys using Smart technology such as cards or phones.

David Burdett, Managing Director of Ecebs, commented: “We have recently won a number of projects that take advantage of our scalable Paragon HOPS technology to deliver efficiency savings and reduce fraud. We felt the support of a specialist hosting company with its own infrastructure, able to grow quickly along with the needs of our clients, was the best way to deliver a technology platform which matched our software capabilities.

iomart Hosting has a great reputation for service and we are looking forward to a close working relationship as the growth in Smart technology continues across the UK.”

Ecebs’ Paragon HOPS includes a vast array of processing and management capabilities and is set to become the backbone of Oyster style travel in Scotland following a recent deal with Strathclyde Partnership for Travel (SPT) to deliver contactless payments across all forms of travel in the SPT region.

iomart Hosting managing director Sarah Haran said: “iomart Hosting already has significant expertise in helping transport organisations deliver greener and smarter travel to the public so we are delighted to be helping Ecebs with the smart card project for Nexus. With our guaranteed service levels, Ecebs is free to concentrate on the development and delivery of the Paragon HOPS, knowing that their IT infrastructure is in safe hands.

Information security is a key issue around the delivery of this project. The fact that our all our data centres carry the ISO: 27001 standard gives Ecebs and Nexus peace of mind when it comes to managing the data on the smart cards for thousands of commuters.”

iomart Hosting will deliver a secure hybrid server and network infrastructure leveraging their virtualisation expertise and provide a 24/7 fully managed service desk in support of Ecebs objectives for service performance and availability. As part of the architecture, Ecebs will also benefit from iomart Hosting’s flexible managed collocation services, supporting custom smart card reader shelves with iomart Hosting’s on-site staff operating card-reader swap-outs on request.

July 2011

Operators say proposed new West ofScotland smart card ticketing system “could be used throughout the nation.”

The first operational elements of a new Oyster-style multi-modal transport system have been commissioned ahead of schedule for Glasgow and the West of Scotland’s smart travel scheme.

The Paragon Transport system designed and operated by Lanarkshire-based smart media Company -Ecebs, has now been commissioned and installed at their brand new data centre in East Kilbride. This represents the first step in enabling technology for passengers to use smart cards instead of paper tickets on all modes of public transport in the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (‘SPT’) area.

The Paragon Transport system will essentially provide a back office system to validate and record smart journeys on, buses, ferries, trains and the Subway using the same smart card or smartphone and forms the backbone of a fully integrated smart travel programme.

The system’s operator Ecebs, say the technology could be applied to any transport system in Scotland immediately because it is accredited by the U.K. Government’s technical standard, ITSO. According to Ecebs, the activity could pave the way for operators to benefit from a simple, cashless smart card system across the country, building on the concessionary Bus Travel scheme deployed by Scottish Government.

David Burdett, Managing Director of Ecebs commented “Our vision is to build on the successful concessionary travel scheme and to deliver the next step enabling everyone in Scotland and the wider U.K. to benefit from smart travel – and by delivering it quickly and efficiently to the entire SPT area we hope to demonstrate to others what can be achieved”.

“The heart of the system is in place, the operational systems are tried and tested and everyone agrees that a smart card for Scotland makes sense. Until recent years, a smart future for Scotland was just a theory, but now that we are on the road to making it a reality, we very much hope that other operators across the country will join us in delivering a truly inter-operable system.”

The smart travel programme is being implemented through a new Joint Venture between Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and leading smart technology company, Ecebs.

David Burdett added: “This week saw the opening of the new Riverside Museum marking the history of transport in Glasgow. The Joint Venture Company is now helping define the future of transport in the region.

The new system will enable passengers to top up cards or buy and download travel tickets on line or at multiple locations throughout the area such as bus stations, Rail and Subway stations and shops. In addition, customers will be able to access data about their travel habits, ensuring they can target best value products which suit their needs

The highly secure system will be fully operational in advance of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and allows for future inclusion of additional services onto the cards including delivering travel and events tickets to mobile phones, providing credit card-style payment services and a number of Council services such as travel passes for schools.

David Burdett added: “If we’re serious about improving Scotland’s transport, then ease, convenience and simplicity should be the lowest common denominators for every journey taken on public transport. An Oyster-style transport infrastructure is just the beginning and it will advance the ability for Scottish transport operators and local authorities to consider the positive impact on services of a fully integrated smart solution for Scotland.”

Read the BBC Scotland article about Smart Ticketing in Scotland.

December 2010

The MULTOS Consortium, the group of companies leading the on-going development and deployment of the MULTOS platform, today announced that Ecebs Limited has joined as a partner member of the consortium.

Many of Ecebs solutions are based on the proprietary Multefile™ technology that enables on-card applications to be developed more efficiently and dynamically reconfigured after a card has been issued. Ecebs first demonstrated Multefile™ for MULTOS over six years ago and has worked with MULTOS implementers to integrate Multefile™ into several MULTOS products.

Ecebs is a technology solutions provider that has, for over ten years, delivered a range of smart card products and applications in the fields of transport ticketing, EMV and payments, health, education, secure ID and access control. Ecebs has smart card expertise at every level, developing proprietary smart card platforms as well as supporting open platform multi-application operating systems, including MULTOS.

Ecebs is also a leading provider of technology for ITSO, the nationally interoperable smart transport ticketing system of the United Kingdom. It created and developed the ITSO Secure Application Module (ISAM) used in all ITSO ticketing point of sale terminals, the ITSO Security Management System (ISMS), and was awarded the first HOPS certificate by ITSO. In addition, Ecebs has a range of ITSO compliant smart cards and card issuance and management systems to fulfil an overall ITSO smart ticketing solution.

As smart ticketing becomes widely deployed across many territories, card issuers often look to combine this function with other applications, such as payments. Multefile™, when loaded on a MULTOS smart payment card, can provide the ticketing container as well as a framework to easily add new applications as required. Meanwhile other scheme-approved applications, such as M/Chip or VSDC provide the domestically or internationally accepted Chip & PIN and contactless payment functionality. MULTOS, in conjunction with Ecebs, permits both transport operators and financial institutions to share a single card with high assurance security mechanisms separating the applications and data for each function and provider. Multefile™ complements MULTOS’ own application loading mechanism by permitting a flexible, dynamically reconfigurable environment for many smart ticketing scenarios, including not only single journey fares, but also high-value travel permits and entertainment event ticketing.?David Burdett, Managing Director of Ecebs Limited explained why Ecebs has joined the consortium.

“Ecebs is very aware of the convergence occurring between the payment and ticketing markets. Leveraging the current MULTOS platforms and their strength in the payment arena, together with Ecebs’ strength and depth of experience in the transport markets, produces a very strong product foundation and new growth opportunity for those with an existing MULTOS investment. By introducing Ecebs’ Multefile™ technology on MULTOS, clients will be able to future-proof their investment and open up new opportunities for revenue through the ability to add and adapt card applications in the field.”

Welcoming Ecebs to the MULTOS Consortium, Alan Johnson Technical Director commented:

“Ecebs and the consortium have worked together for many years to ensure their innovative Multefile™ application and its flexible approach to application data storage was available to MULTOS customers worldwide. However, as increasing numbers of issuers look to combine many applications onto a single contactless card – realising the multi-application card future envisioned by MULTOS’ development back in the 1990’s – the consortium needs to work with expert providers like Ecebs to ensure these combined requirements of different applications, such as transport ticketing, payments and identity are delivered effectively by a single technology platform. We hope that Ecebs deep knowledge and experience in the transport ticketing arena will contribute to MULTOS continuing to provide the best in class platform for application convergence. We look forward to working with Ecebs in this endeavour.”

Ecebs will be joining other members of the MULTOS Consortium for this year’s Cartes show in Paris from 7th to 9th December, at booth 4N066. It will be showcasing their ITSO-based remote ticket download solution for MULTOS which was developed with Ecebs’ parent company, theTrainline.com in mind. The solution is enabled by Multefile™ and demonstrates a system that is capable of loading tickets to a card, over the internet, with full end-to-end security.

About MULTOS

MULTOS is the most robust, industry-backed smart card platform delivering simplicity and innovation to the world’s leading issuers. With more than 180 million issued smart cards across 40 countries, MULTOS is overseen and provided by a consortium of smart card and silicon manufacturers, payment schemes, card management system providers and integrators. A range of applications including payment, authentication, digital identity, biometrics, loyalty and contactless ticketing may securely co-reside on a MULTOS powered chip.

For more information visit www.multos.com

The MULTOS Consortium
Aline Schneider Marketing Specialist
aline.schneider@multos.com

Employees turned up armed with paint, brushes, cleaning and DIY materials with the goal to transform and re-decorate the premises inside and out.

Local MSP Christina McKelvie was clearly impressed at the awards ceremony and commented in her latest June statement:

‘Ecebs is a company that started out about eight years ago with a set of plastic garden furniture and an ambition to be the best. Since then the company has been built up to be a world leader in Smart card technology. It’s good to see success stories like that one coming out of Scotland’s business community’.

Ecebs benefited with teamwork and the simple satisfaction of being able to help others, while the Dementia Group has been able to enjoy the work done in the new premises.

For more information on the Dementia Carers Group visit www.dementiacarers.co.uk