In cooperation with Visa, IBA Group implemented an automation solution built on the Visa Mobility & Transport Transaction (MTT) technology at the Azerbaijan Railways, the national state-owned rail transport operator in the Republic of Azerbaijan.  The Central Bank of Azerbaijan, the International Bank of Azerbaijan, RBC Group, and AzeriCard acted as partners in the project.

The Visa’s MTT technology allows for accumulating fares of a commuter into one transaction with the total amount charged at the end of the day. The project is the first in Azerbaijan to feature the MTT technology.

IBA Group launched a contactless fare payment project for the Azerbaijan Railways in July 2021, installing card validators at all stations of the Absheron Ring Railway, one of the busiest rail routes in the country. Initially, passengers were able to pay for a one-time trip with a contactless bankcard. Using the Mobility & Transport Transaction technology, they pay once for all their rides during a day, as fees for trips made within one day are accumulated in one transaction. This way, transit operators can give benefits to the commuters who make multiple trips within a day. As for commuters, they are relieved of the need to purchase and keep track of a variety of standalone passes and tickets.

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

In the post-pandemic age, we are seeing a rise in demand for contactless technology across industries and around the world. But contactless is neither new, nor linked to health and safety alone. When we deploy contactless technology in the field, our clients (particularly transportation systems) attest to convenience, ease of use, and seamlessness. This translates to better experiences for them and for their passengers.

Of course, that does not mean that contactless technology generally or contactless payment solutions specifically, are without their challenges. Before we jump into some of those challenges, however, let’s take a moment to examine how contactless technology helps to power Fare Collection solutions.

Fare Collection Solutions

Contactless technology is one of the keys to Fare Collection solution viability. For the state-of-the-art Fare Collection system, it is essential to create interfaces with traditional ways of fare payments as well as payment cards from traditional players like MasterCard and Visa.

“Right now,” Vadim Smotryaev, IBA Group Director of Technical Division says, “contactless is best” for passenger journeys, for sustainability, and for ease of use across the band of service. In terms of closing the loop, as Vadim explains, it is important to integrate contactless payment solutions with multiple payment options, not just MasterCard and Visa.

In fact, as he explains it, options like Apple Pay are “really popular among more passengers.” What he calls the “new wave of payments” is not contactless for the sake of contactless. It is a solution that allows technology providers to create a true user experience for passengers.

Ease of Use is Not Always Easy

Along this journey, new opportunities emerge to add simplicity and efficiency. This includes launching Rapid Payment. Rapid Payment eliminates extra steps for the transit systems and for passengers, maximizing technologies that allow faster payment processing.

That said, in order to create these efficiencies, there are a number of challenges. On the transit side, for instance, we recognize that the best way to collect payment is digitization. However, digitization requires significant investments of time and money. Before a project can even get off the ground, especially one with as broad a scope as a city’s entire transit system, the transit operator must be willing and able to make the necessary investments.

Securing that willingness to invest rests on the vendor’s ability to explain the technologies involved, and to put together an appropriate strategy to come in on time and on budget.

Legacy Challenges and Construction Implications

Once again, legacy systems come back to haunt technology solutions providers. While we most often associate legacy challenges with the mainframe support side of our business, we also see legacy challenges in our contactless payment projects for transit system clients.

In this case, we are looking at the complexities that arise from legacy construction. This includes what Vadim calls the “old-fashioned ways of collecting fares.” And it ranges from cards to coins to tickets, across public transportation. Remember, many stations were designed to accommodate these forms of conducting transactions.

That means existing architecture needs to be adapted or replaced to accommodate – and to maximize the customer experience impact – of contactless payment. Doing so can involve adding construction, and often unexpected expense, to the overall project scope.

Security Challenges

Security is another complexity that lurks behind seamless contactless experiences. In order for the system to operate, it must be completely safe. There can be absolutely no risk to use credit cards or other types of payments.

Again, this is where investment comes in. When safety is a priority, as Vadim points out, “cheaper solutions simply will not work.” As an example, look at the new programs Visa and MasterCard are offering. With a focus on mobility that extends from public transit to car and bike sharing, both companies have strict requirements for transaction security. This is one of the reasons we partner with them to protect the security and privacy of both our clients and their passengers.

Hardware Challenges

However, security is not only an issue as it relates to protecting financial information and securing transactions. In the physical space, the technology itself is vulnerable.

Think about the damage vandals can do to card readers in train stations. Something as simple as cutting a few wires can upend a system’s ability to collect fares.

Data Challenges

In addition to building safety measures for the physical space, it is also possible to manage security challenges and improve efficiencies by creating more data centers. In working with major transit systems, we found that, often, they are not ready. They need to hire new employees to handle operations in the physical space. But they also need to increase data capacity.

Now that we understand these challenges, we are working to create cloud platforms and bring them to market as cloud business services. By doing so, we are making it easier for our clients to deliver the experiences their passengers need, while mitigating the challenges that emerge as threats to successful implementation of contactless solutions.

Software Solutions

Observed in this context, SaaS emerges as one of the most important components of the technology services required to build, implement, and support contactless payments. Fundamentally, it is the fact that software as a service actually has the customer, not just the technology, in mind.

Weaving customer-focused technologies throughout the passenger journey helps to reduce contactless challenges and deliver the simplicity customers want. Of course, that is impossible to do without the right work behind the scenes.

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

By this point, we all should know that contactless technology is convenient, easy to use, secure, and future-ready. But these contactless technology basics are not what we are focusing on today. We are looking at the four things to know about contactless technology so you can better implement it into your business.

Contactless Technology is Not Only for Payments

Speaking of the basics, although most individuals (and many businesses) associate contactless technology with payments, that is not the only environment where we deploy them.

In fact, contactless technology is used for security, for access to buildings, and for transit, among other applications.

For different companies there are different changes to introduce new or contactless technologies

Ultimately, the goal of all businesses is to evolve to the point at which they can best serve customers. This means they aim for efficiency across all processes. It also means they seek out the most efficient technologies that serve their customers seamlessly. Contactless technology puts customer convenience front and center. It also improves the speed of service from suppliers, hitting business targets from both sides.

With this comprehensive utility, contactless technology is not limited to payment processing, even though that is what tends to get the most attention. Customer convenience and efficiency notwithstanding, contactless technology does present a set of complexities in whatever environment it is implemented.

Those complexities include migrating and supporting the technology. To address these complexities, companies like ours must provide a new level of service to support contactless technologies.

Mindset Shift to Meet Customer Needs

Contactless technology is an example of a mindset shift to meet customer needs. It is a prime example of technology that serves the customer, rather than technology for its own sake.

So, where does that come from? It comes from global changes in the ways we do business. And how customer expectations are changing. In so many cases, transportation authorities and other services are dealing with more people concentrated in the same place. We see this with our railway clients who come to us for contactless technology.

They are recognizing a new demand for contactless technology. And for the services to support that technology in ways that enable them to serve their customers better. Their customers demand speed, more than anything. Contactless is the first step to meeting that demand.

This is an exciting time for contactless. With more demand comes more of a push for technology adoption, straight from the customer. That is the surest way to move towards SMARTer cities and to see contactless and other innovative technologies help more cities grow and thrive around the world.

Contactless Technology ROI

In many cases, you can get a better return on investment (ROI) with contactless than with other technologies. And you can see those returns more quickly. For this, let’s take a look at contactless payment.

If you are a small vendor and you want to accept credit or debit, in the past, you needed to purchase at least one expensive piece of hardware. This is an overhead cost that can take a long time to recuperate. On the other hand, with contactless, a vendor does not need to invest in new hardware. Your point of sale (POS) device is the software, not hardware. It is cheaper to purchase and to maintain.

Environmentally Responsible

When there is no hardware, there is also no e-waste. Because contactless technology does not require a special device to accept payment, for instance, you avoid the negative environmental impact associated with hardware. Both on the production side and on the disposal side, you are saving energy. And you are keeping harmful metals, plastics, and other materials out of the environment.

Devices do not need to be replaced. So, electronics waste stays out of landfills. Instead, you are able to accept payments using just an application. With contactless payment, you no longer need to provide paper receipts, adding to a reduction in the environmental impact of sales transactions.

To learn more about contactless technology and whether it is the right decision for your business, contact us.

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

Recently, we have covered some of our contactless solutions in action for the transportation sector, as well as best practices for implementing contactless solutions. Today, we are digging a little deeper into how contactless payments operate for businesses. And how they lower costs and create opportunities for smaller businesses, as well as the large-scale organizations we have looked at previously.

To begin, let’s examine some of the terminology around payment solutions. We will also take a moment to outline how standards protect privacy and promote safety in the contactless space.

What is PCI CPoC?

As an industry, we refer to Payment Card Industry Contactless Payments on Commercial off-the-shelf device as a PCI CPoC.

PCIPoC makes it possible to turn any NFC-enabled handset into a payment terminal. Effectively, it enables a business (even a one-person business) to have a Point of Sale instrument without having to buy a costly POS device.

The NFC (near-field communication)-enabled device makes it possible for two devices (such as a customer’s smartphone and a retailer’s smartphone) to exchange data with each other.

Using software (specifically a mobile application), rather than any additional hardware, that retailer can process payments without the burden of equipment maintenance, or the overhead of equipment purchase.

What is the PCI CPoC Standard for Contactless Payment Solutions?

Certainly, this is good news for any business (no matter the size) that wants to make payment collection efficient and cost effective. However, it is also easy to imagine some hesitation on the part of businesses and consumers who are faced with utilizing mobile devices to complete transactions.

A host of safety and privacy concerns spring to mind. That is why there is a PCI CPoC Standard. The PCI Security Standards Council, a global council whose objective is to “increase payment security by providing industry-driven, flexible and effective data security standards and programs that help businesses detect, mitigate and prevent cyberattacks and breaches [of the] PCI CPoC Standard.”

In 2019, the PCI Security Standards Council issued an updated security standard for contactless payments The updated PCI CPoC Standard includes requirements that protect payment data. It also ensures that software and back-end systems are “independent from the COTS device and support monitoring, integrity checks and payment processing.”

PCI Security Standards Council

PCI Security Standards for contactless payment providers are rigorous. At this time, less than a dozen companies worldwide have been able to meet all requirements laid out in the PCI CPoC Standard.

Recently, the PCI Security Standards Council informed IBA Group that our solution has been certified by the Council. The letter of Attestation and Validation confirmed that IBA Group’s tapXphone is certified as meeting the standard.

TapXphone

Bringing tapXphone to the market has been a long journey for the Development Team at IBA Group. We are excited to report that tapXphone has joined the field of global leaders in accepting contactless payments.

TapXphone leverages the power of contactless payment solutions to reduce costs for businesses accepting contactless payments. And it maximizes ease of use for customers.

To learn more about tapXphone for your business, contact us.

Author: Andrew Dvirnyk

For anyone who has taken a train or bus ride in a major city, anywhere in the world, you know how complex a system it can be. From multiple routes, to aging equipment, to safety standards, and overcrowding, transit systems face a variety of complexities, but share one need. They need to get commuters where they are going as quickly and as safely as possible.

When we worked on the transit system in Kazakhstan and in other locations, we shared this same goal. As a result, we provided a range of technology and services around contactless payment processing that enabled cost savings and efficiency, while also prioritizing data privacy.

How IBA Group Works with Transit Systems

Just like transit systems have a diverse array of needs, we provide a variety of technologies and services to meet those needs, all in the context of contactless payment processing.

To get the job done, we have functioned as a system vendor, and as the group responsible for the electronic parts used for public transportation payment collection.

Additionally, we develop both hardware and software. In the software space, our teams both develop the software and set up a processing center that provides the infrastructure to accept payments.

Underscoring the development and provision of software and hardware is a series of certifications and requirements that IBA Group maintains, to protect secure transactions on the side of our clients and our client’s customers.

Why Take the Service Approach?

For projects like contactless payment processing for transportation systems, it is important to go beyond the vendor function and provide the solution as a service.

The fact that we utilize our own independent data center to host solutions benefits our clients and the customers they serve. Dedicated platforms mean easier, more timely maintenance, and a continued commitment to data privacy.

Beyond that, our concept of a service approach extends to providing customer support. We have tools in place to receive and respond to customer questions quickly and accurately. Customers talk to us about the range of problems they are facing. Since we are manufacturer of hardware and software, and we focus on service, we get to bring our expertise to them. And we have built in the flexibility to respond not only to their problems. Because of our service approach, we are also responsive to their new ideas and needs as things change.