Flexible rail ticketing system uses cloud computing

UK-headquartered IT consultancy firm Smart421 is to design, build and manage a new Live Sales Management system for Rail Settlement Plan (RSP). This system will provide the rail industry with a flexible, high availability cloud-based solution to support ticket on departure - the collection of rail tickets from self service ticket machines after purchasing them earlier on the web.
November 26, 2012 Read time: 3 mins

UK-headquartered IT consultancy firm 6929 Smart421 is to design, build and manage a new Live Sales Management system for Rail Settlement Plan (RSP).

This system will provide the rail industry with a flexible, high availability cloud-based solution to support ticket on departure - the collection of rail tickets from self service ticket machines after purchasing them earlier on the web. It also provides a foundation for other delivery channels such as mobile and smartcards. The new system will support the next generation of ticket issuing systems and will enable cost reductions and better productivity for all franchises when issuing passenger rail tickets.

Smart421 has chosen to develop this innovative solution in the cloud, using Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the cloud computing platform to deliver support for business processes including deferred ticket delivery and sales reconciliation. The system will receive, validate and store records within a secure repository, validate that the correct railcard has been used and deliver reporting on all transactions from all areas of the system.

By taking advantage of automated, on-demand infrastructure, the system enables RSP to give the train operating companies the ability to support large fluctuations in the demand for tickets during peak periods. By utilising cloud services it will allow the system to scale to a billion tickets per annum by 2018 without the need for capital investment in additional computer hardware. It can also be easily upgraded to support future generations of ticketing technology intended to enable cost reductions and better productivity for all rail franchises when issuing passenger tickets.

The RSP Live Sales Management system is vital to updating RSP’s business services over the next few years and is the first step within RSP’s modernisation programme.  The system will be designed and built by Smart421 and involves a range of technologies in the AWS Cloud, including: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Elastic Map Reduce (EMR) and will be built across multiple availability zones in the AWS European region to ensure security and high availability of the new system.

Smart421 will manage the scalability features within AWS by deploying tailored automation scripts to match peaks in demand, whilst minimising infrastructure costs to provide a utility based computing model

The system also integrates leading open source technologies such as an identity and access management platform and reporting database and reports server with the core transaction process and routing platform.

Steve Howes, managing director at RSP, said: “This Live Sales Management project will deliver high quality service at reasonable cost which is good news for all industry stakeholders. We realise that this project will be watched very carefully because of its importance to RSP and the train operating companies we serve.”

Neil Miles, managing director at Smart421, said: “Rail ticketing demand goes through seasonal and daily peaks and troughs, which makes it a great use case for cloud computing. As well as cloud computing services provided by AWS, we are making best use of leading open technologies. By choosing AWS technologies, Smart421 is giving RSP the ability to scale up their infrastructure during peak seasons and scale back during the off-peak times. This means that RSP can save money and time on managing technology infrastructure and can better serve the rail customers of the UK.”

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