Ticketing Kernel: Overview
Ogloba Ltd. continues to develop innovative solutions for its current and future clients, and following our previous involvement with public transport ticketing solutions for the Dubai Metro and MTR in Hong Kong, has recently launched a new “tap and go” ticketing middleware platform. This single core middleware manages every specific operation step, including:
-
Consumer level: Data organization in the card (multiple);
-
Operator level: Application of business rules to transactions with cards, following multi-data organizations;
-
Acquirers and Issuer: Definition of business rules for ticketing operation;
-
Activation and top-up: Managing card issuing and sales;
-
Logistics: Managing sales channels;
-
Easy interfacing with operators’ ERP through standard formats and protocols;
-
Managing any security infrastructure;
-
NFC, NFC/HCE, BLE, and so on;
-
Managing closed loop implementation in parallel with open loop operation, through common management of business rules.
The platform offers a new generation of ticketing platform, utilizing open and closed loop cards, and has full issuing and acquiring functionalities, in a secure environment. It allows both contactless “tap and go” using a plastic card, and mobile “tap and go” using a virtual card/app downloaded on to a smartphone. This gives users the flexibility to choose the most convenient way to pay.
For plastic cards, the Ogloba solution issues the closed loop contactless cards and acquires the transactions from the validators. A mobile app with top-up functions and transaction history is available, making the Ogloba solution compatible, and convenient to use, with MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) NFC smartphones.
Closed Loop Cards
Closed loop cards function within a classical closed loop card architecture, with integration with validators. The cards are issued by the platform and activated online. Transactions are processed offline and the validator writes directly into the contactless cards.
The platform allows closed-loop card users to top-up from any retailer with payment terminals, cash registers, or mobile phones, as well as from vending machines. The system manages the cash collection from the merchants and the associated financial and logistic flows. Within the same platform, Ogloba connects chain stores, middlemen, owned sales force, and direct merchants, and all the risk assessment and finance flows are in real time.
Open Loop Cards
In the open loop architecture, the validators recognize contactless EMV payment cards. The customer taps-in, and the card is authenticated. The tap data are encrypted, and the card data are tokenized and sent to the authorizer over fixed or 3G network. Initial authorization is sought for first tapped cards. The deny list is updated.
The Ogloba middleware authorizer infers journeys made from a sequence of taps and applies fares tariffs to generate a daily charge for each card user. For example, multiple journeys in 1 hour, or 1 day, will trigger a payment corresponding to a 1 hour, or 1 day, pass.
Back Office
Running at the end of each day, the Back Office system generates a single charge for each card used on the day, including the calculation of student discounts, daily capping, weekly capping, and so on. Season-passes are also facilitated via online enrolment/registration by the customer. Authorization, clearing and settlement messages are all sent and received in standard payment industry formats, for easy integration. The settlement is processed by the acquire overnight, and the customer’s account/balance is updated for accessing via a web portal, smartphone app, or call center.
Ogloba also offers a unique Pay-As-You-Go system which allows holders of any contactless bank card to use public transports with standard tariffs, and in addition, the solution also facilitates payment to third-parties, so the cards can be used to pay for associated goods and services.
