Flexibility, individuality, speed and comfort: These are the customer requirements that local public transportation must increasingly meet. For example, customers expect flexible pricing models or real-time traffic information during their ride.
Digitalization of local transportation
Patris: the digital platform for mobility services
The Patris (Passenger Transport Integrated Sales System) software solution gives local transportation companies an overall view of their customers, allowing them to address the customers with a multimodal range of products and show all processes in an audit-proof manner. Big Data functions easily enable transportation companies to reduce costs and increase revenues using flexible pricing models and intelligent maintenance reminders. This way they are ready for the local public transportation of the future.
- Software module available
- Attractive offer also for new customers
- Everything can be done in one app
- Chip card, paper or as a smartphone ticket (wallet)
- Alternatively, you get a personal company portal (front end/web page) for your employees
- Centralized management, including interface to HR/SAP
The digitalization of local transportation is gathering speed.
It is becoming more and more common for passengers to book their public transportation journeys by using an e-ticketing system with flexible pricing models. Increasingly, passengers also expect new services to be available both during and after their journeys - such as unlimited WiFi or real-time traffic information. It can be seen, therefore, that customer demand for flexibility, individuality, speed and comfort when using public transportation is on the increase. Bus and rail companies that want to keep pace with this development and actively benefit from it are confronted with a profound change to their processes. To do this, they need an IT that supports them in offering the target groups new mobility experiences according to their changed needs and to counter disruptive business models by providing efficient processes for planning, sales and invoicing.
Our products
Patris Office
Accelerate digitalization of local transportation with Patris
The new generation of the integrated software solution Patris (Passenger Transport Integrated Sales System) allows transportation companies to achieve a new level on the path to smart mobility. The two components Patris Office and Patris Ticketing form a tried-and-true complete solution. It bundles functions for setting rates, sales, billing, invoicing, sub-ledger accounting, subscription management, customer communication and more under a uniform user interface.
Patris’ next-generation software solutions enable transportation companies to offer their passengers intuitive and efficient processes for planning, booking, and paying. Seamless linking with a CRM module allows suppliers to strengthen both customer retention and customer satisfaction - for example, with personalized real-time information on the smartphone screen.
Patris Ticketing
Paris Ticketing delights both your employees and your passengers
Ticket sales across rates are easier than ever thanks to the close cooperation with leading suppliers of register hardware and the powerful Patris Ticketing sales application. To enable adaptation to any situation, the sales interface can be freely configured. In combination with a variety of user group rights and parameters, the transportation company can rise to any challenge.
Whether classic or electronic ticket, the large variety of options allows all customers to find the appropriate ticket. The advanced electronic fare management allows for selling chip cards.
Patris Office
Our customers
More than 30 transportation companies in Germany and Austria are implementing intelligent mobility for a livable future using Patris. We represent 15 transportation associations with the most varied rate models.
Patris modules at a glance
The Patris platform is as modular as the requirements in your company. All core and base models are already included in the standard package. Beyond this, the add-on modules can be booked flexibly.
The following overview provides detailed information about the range of services of all Patris modules.
The customer is at the center.
- Center for directing customers offers an overview of all relevant data about the customer
- New processes can be set up directly from the dialog
- Duplicate processing in the dialog or automated
- Forwarding of customer data to external systems
- Automated checking and activation of changes in customer data
Patris supports many different rate models.
- GVH Großraum-Verkehr Hannover [Hanover Regional Transportation]
- MDV Mitteldeutscher Verkehrsverbund GmbH [Central German Transportation Association]
- RMV Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund [Rhine-Main Transportation Association]
- RNN Rhein Nahe Nahverkehrsverbund [Local Rhine Local Transportation Association]
- SH Nahverkehrsverbund Schleswig-Holstein GmbH [Local Transportation Association Schleswig-Holstein]
- SWSW Stadtwerke Schweinfurt [Municipal Utilities Schweinfurt]
- VBB Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg [Transportation Association Berlin-Brandenburg]
- VGWS Verkehrsgemeinschaft Westfalen Süd [Transportation Cooperative Westphalia South]
- VMT Verkehrsverbund Mittelthüringen [Transportation Association Central Thuringia]
- VMW Verkehrsgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern [Transportation Company Mecklenburg-Vorpommern]
- VRB Verbundtarif Region Braunschweig [Combined Rate Braunschweig Region]
- VRM Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel [Transportation Association Rhine-Mosel]
- VRR Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr [Transportation Association Rhine-Ruhr]
- VRS Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg [Transportation Association Rhine-Sieg]
- VVS Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund Stuttgart [Transportation and Rate Association Stuttgart]
Patris Office offers a comprehensive range of functions that have been contributed by more than 30 transportation companies from more than 10 association areas during the course of 20 years.
The Patris component “product” defines all products with their associated properties from a sales perspective. Product management supports integration of new products in the context of a changing sales strategy.
This component allows a transportation company to design an attractive range of offers and to use their own sales offices’ potential more effectively by making flexible and short-term changes to the products offered.
Furthermore, maintenance of products and prices, as well as product-related commissions or discounts is possible. In the multimodal environment, product properties can be used in such a way that e.g., customers without a valid driver’s license get the property “blocked” for the car sharing product.
For rate products, a rate matrix can be imported to determine fares.
Patris features its own accounting as a sub-ledger.
- Definition of ranges of numbers for accounts, bookings, transfer numbers, receipt numbers
- Booking key masters are associated with business cases and, in addition, booking keys are associated with accounts
- Association of bookings with fiscal year and booking periods
- Booking method, availability of cancellation, revenue booking key can be defined
- Change log and reports
- Collective accounts, rebookings, incl. splitting
- Overdue notice processes and overdue deadlines
- Dialogs for account, bill, invoicing, deposits
- Interfaces for credit check, SEPA, bank data importing, debt collection, FinAcc transition
- SEPA business case codes can be configured
Patris features a three-stage rights concept with documentation function.
You not only control specific user roles, but also access to debtor groups and definite business cases.
Patris offers you the opportunity to not only maintain Patris-related master data but to also supply these data to external systems.
Patris features subscription management with quick entry.
Role-based concept:
- Contracting party
- Mandate owner
- Subscription user
- Parent or guardian
- Umbrella organization (e.g., company, school board)
- Training facility
- Setting of contract conditions at the subscription-type level (e.g., general subscription)
- Number groups for contract numbers
- Service processes for refunds, exchanges, replacement according to configured rules
- Additional business processes, such as versioning, mass exchange, purchase rules, interruption, pricing categories, discounts, overdue notice handling, subsidy providers
- Contract depiction (commissions, discounts, payment method, ranges of products)
- Sales data import via uniform interfaces
- Sales channel-specific invoicing (+ forecasts)
- Factoring in cooperation partners, coupon issuers, card issuers, subsidy providers
- Accounts receivable management (direct debit, overdue notice handling)
- Bundling of mobility offers
- Association of rights media, e.g., chip card, smartphone, customer card
- Definition of invoicing, e.g., monthly bill, fees, payment versions
- Linking to credit checks
- Definition of the overdue notice process, e.g., overdue notice lists
- Service processes for refunds, replacements
Warehouse management allows the transportation company to manage all its material inventory in an audit-proof manner and to control the flow of materials to the sales offices.
Chip cards and security modules can be managed just as easily as tourist tickets or the popular souvenirs.
Patris permits prosecution of misdemeanors, e.g., riding without a valid ticket/pass.
- Processing of the incident account in a dialog (penalty fare accounting)
- Mass processing in the background (batch), e.g., imports, overdue notices and offense reporting
- Checking penalty fares and customer data for goodwill gestures and duplicates
- Discount and track penalty fare incidents
- Document incident history
- Record deposits, automatically book bank transfers
- Agree to payments in installments
- Ticket checker and account balance
- Overdue notice processes and letters via batch
- Triggering, locking and processing overdue notices in a dialog
- Triggering offense reporting
- Preparing letters to parents and EMA [registered address] queries
- Automatically meeting deletion deadlines
Holistic customer service also includes payment of refund amounts according to the rules for the rate and payment of complaint amounts from using ticket machines.
Implementation of the requirements in the General Data Protection Regulation:
- Individual parameterization
- Display and processing locks after the business relationship ends
- Access rights and selection criteria for checking purposes as well as data deletion
- GoBD [German tax regulation]-compliant access Z1/Z2
Patris permits automated identification of error conditions.
- Automated systematic checking of money and sales data
- The following are checked: consistency, transitions, completeness and plausibility
- Missing data, loss of data, duplicate data reporting and counting differences can be identified and tracked before invoicing
- Correction and addition of data is enabled via special dialogs
Patris features its own document management system for archiving documents, such as applications, cancellations, objections, invoices and overdue notices, etc.
- Overview of all correspondence about a business case, or with a customer or contract partner
- Management and processing of customer-related business cases in subscription management, in penalty fares, in customer communication, etc.
- Searching for specific documents, even before a separate document management system may be invoked
- Logging of correspondence when documents are registered
In addition, Patris offers the option of integrating external document management systems.
- The Patris Office module ‘Electronic Fare Management’ (EFM) has been used productively since early 2003
- Based on VDV [Association of German Transportation Companies] core application standards, it covers a variety of business processes concerning the electronic ticket (eTicket)
Patris features an integrated complaint and concern management system.
- Recording events
- Recording and categorizing complaints
- Processing and tracking complaints
- Closing events
- Analyzing events
- Fast recording of events and complaints
- Supports processing stations without Patris
Patris uses a server-based BI environment, Jasper Reports, for reporting.
- Preparation of attractive, meaningful reports
- Preparation of ad hoc views and dashboards
- Querying of data without special technical knowledge
- Querying of data from a variety of data sources if there are appropriate licenses
- Multi-platform-capable § Implemented via Jasper Reports
The user-oriented, dynamic pricing model “Best price” allows you to offer your customers even more flexibility. Your customers can rest assured that they are always receiving the best price for their usage. “Reining in costs” for occasional users at a glance:
- Always ride flexibly at the most cost-effective rate
- All of a customer's trips within a specified period are accumulated and limited to the price of the corresponding timed ticket
- No self-assessment of usage behavior required prior to ticket purchase
- User never pays more than the price of the corresponding timed ticket
The “VDV barcode mobile +” offers you even more security in the eTicket sector, and we support you in using this feature. The “Mobile +” concept signs the smartphone tickets using a security certificate for the VDV barcode that was provided by the VDV eTicket Service; secure authentication and signed smartphone tickets protect the VDV barcode from manipulation and counterfeiting.
We offer you the conditions for a centralized security infrastructure:
- 2D barcode
- Connection to our Patris Ticket server
- Connection to your ticket app
The private customer portal offers your customers a perfect opportunity to view, process and cancel their own contracts. All changes are replicated in real time in the backend system. This offers your customers and yourself the best workflow, flexibility and security. Similarly, the private customer portal offers flexible use, since it can be retrieved on a smartphone, computer or tablet. In addition, you can easily integrate the private customer portal into your own website and adapt it to your corporate design. The private customer portal is connected to your Patris Office via web services.
Furthermore, the private customer portal offers the following functions, among others:
- Overview of one’s own contracts
- Management of subscriptions and the contract
- Upload options for documents, photos, etc.
- Management of one’s own master data
- Cancellation of customer contract
The company portal offers major customers and company customers a perfect opportunity to view, process and cancel their employees’ contracts. You, as a transportation company, can manage subscription orders. All changes are replicated in real time in the backend system. This offers your customers and yourself the best workflow, flexibility and security. Similarly, the company customer portal offers flexible use, since it can be retrieved on a smartphone, computer or tablet. In addition, you can easily integrate the portal into your own website and adapt it to your corporate design. The company portal is connected to your Patris Office via web services.
Furthermore, the company portal offers the following functions, among others:
- New subscription orders by company employees
- New subscription orders for third parties
- Administration of a customer’s master data
- Administration of major customer contracts for companies, as well as schools/school boards
- Administration of individual employee contracts in the context of these major customer contracts
- Assignment of access rights and roles to specific users
- Assignment of contracts to a company employee
- Forwarding of changes in real time to the backend system
The customer center is a browser-based application with intuitive user navigation and a clear design. It offers the following options:
- Creating, processing a customer, including log
- Creating, processing a subscription, including log
- Printing a ticket, printing a replacement ticket
- Can be individually configured thanks to rule-based fields
- Rules for restrictions and default settings
- Compilation of rules in profiles
- Assignment of profiles to users
- Login possible via Active Directory
- Customer center can be reached via external servers
Patris Ticketing
Our customers
Our customers are already relying on 20 years of experience by Patris Ticketing. In the process, they supply their passengers with tickets using more than 700 register systems.
Patris Ticketing at a glance
Patris Ticketing adapts to your company’s needs with its large variety of configurations. For example, you can select a “stand alone” (Ticketing POS) and a web-based register (Ticketing JPOS), but also both in combination. Both registers have the same properties. In addition, you can optionally book other extras.
The following overview provides detailed information about the range of all services provided by Patris Ticketing components.
Customers always find the appropriate product.
- Tickets (paper, eTicket)
- Deposit and payment processes (e.g., penalty fare)
- Shop items (including inventory tracking)
- Access products
- Immediate cancellation
- Printing of replacement ticket
- Exchange and refund based on refund rules
There is no end to the variety of configurations.
- 10-point and prior menu
- User-specific top 10 menu (favorites)
- Keyboard assignment (processes, direct dialing)
- Start-destination search (pricing level, relation and target codes)
- Product search
Common payment methods are possible.
- Cash
- Payment transaction terminal (e.g., card, smartphone)
- Coupon
- Mixed payment (cash + card + coupon)
There many different options for communication and documentation.
- Today's information
- Immediate notices and document exchange
- Cash journal
- Personal revenue analysis for a defined period
- Information on receipts issued
- Shift report, intermediate report
The properties of Ticketing JPOS are analogous to Ticketing POS.
Both sales systems and user profiles can be configured in Patris Ticketing AS.
- Cash administration
- Sales location rights
- User and group rights administration
- Rate data distribution
- Document and message dispatching
Importing various data from Patris Office is possible.
- Product ranges/products
- Registers/users
- Relationships
- Public holidays
Various data relevant to the transportation company are saved in Patris Ticketing.
- Sales data
- Register balances
- Barcode roll balances
Viewing different types of information is possible in Patris Ticketing AS.
- Cash journals
- Shift closings
- Revenue analyses
- Receipt information
Exporting various data to Patris Office or to other backend systems is possible.
- Sales data
- eTicket (e.g., locks)
Easy login without entering login name and password.
Various customer displays for showing product and pricing information are supported. Here Patris Ticketing relies on displays with 2x20 characters.
Patris Ticketing supports reading of barcodes for product selection and of tickets issued.
In Patris Ticketing, cards can be used for payment, among other methods. Here the provider requirements must be observed.
Cash can be stored in register drawers. In selected models, Patris Ticketing can open these electronically.
Patris Ticketing supports issuing eTickets and chip card checking.
This allows the targeted selection of products or processes by pressing a key.
Swissbit is one of the leading manufacturers of TSDs. This is a USB stick that works for 5 years. Since 4/1/2021, a TSD has been definitely required and is used for tamper-proof recording of sales processes.
The layout editor allows you to design your tickets directly using the Patris Ticketing layout editor.
Here layout changes are displayed in real time.
You can couple your Patris Ticketing with Patris Office.
- Coupling is the joint start of Patris Ticketing and Patris Office. (Here both programs then depend on each other.)
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