Ease Congestion in Manhattan with “Future Proof” IT Solution

EDISON, N.J.--A flexible information technology infrastructure that can adapt to future change will be the key to developing a successful congestion pricing system in New York, according to MajescoMastek, an IT solutions provider that developed the software for London’s project.

“From an IT standpoint, a congestion pricing system can work here in New York and provide many benefits,” says Subu Vasudevan, senior solution architect. “Despite the differences in the two cities, the technology framework has to be designed to capture information from drivers, process it quickly and adapt to future changes and needs.”

Mastek, the parent company of MajescoMastek, partnered with Capita Group, UK’s leading professional and support services organization, to develop the IT architecture and integrate the software for this mission-critical project. The solution was designed to be highly scalable and handle significant volumes of transaction and image captures.

The end result in London is a seamless and highly secure system that captures license plate information using video cameras without stopping drivers at tollbooths or barriers. Security of personal data was especially ensured with a strict adherence to the Data Protection Act of UK.

From London to NY

As New York studies implementing a pilot system in Manhattan proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, officials should look not only at the current needs of the city, but anticipate future changes when building the system.

In London, for example, Mastek developed an agile system so it was not dependent on a certain number of payment channels. As a result, when additional channels were added only months before the system went live, they were easily incorporated into the flexible framework.

“We understood that to ensure ease of use to the end customer, which was one of the greater goals of the project, the system had to be future proof,” he said. “We are able to incorporate changes in the solution at the last minute since the system has been designed to adapt to such changes.”

The London system also was designed so it was accessible and easy for customers to use, with options of paying charges in person, electronically via the Internet, or though new age media such as text messaging via cell phones, and other methods.

Mark Brown, technical director for Capita, said the introduction of the text message payment system (SMS) represented an innovative new approach.

“SMS was developed as an additional low-cost payment channel and was not part of the original specification,” Brown said. “This represents the first large scale application of SMS for the payment of goods and services.”

Mastek’s IT solution for the London project was based on the Microsoft.net framework that enables integration through Web services and was the largest project of this kind in the world.

MajescoMastek, the U.S. company of Mastek, is a $156 million global software solutions and services provider that provides services in the insurance, government and financial services segments. http://www.majescomastek.com/itcasestudies/traffic-management.php.

Editor’s Note: Experts from MajescoMastek who worked on the London project are available for comment on congestion pricing in New York.