How Smart Card Technology Could Be Used for Dynamic Pricing in Transportation Network?

The past decade has witnessed an increased application for dynamic pricing in transportation industry, where firms use various forms of dynamic pricing to respond to market fluctuations and uncertainty in demand. In light of the success in the airline dynamic pricing practice and given the advancement of the ICT technology, the question is raised as follows: can technology adoptions, such as smart card, help the transportation companies, especially public transport operators, to approach the dynamic pricing in an innovative way? By using the case of the smart card adoption in the Dutch transportation industry, this article articulates the opportunities the smart card brings to the dynamic pricing design and use. It is demonstrated that the smart card data gives a dimensional view on the travellers, where both the market segmentation and the travel behaviour could be better studied. It is also argued that the rich segmentation information on the travellers and the increased understanding of the travel behaviour could lead to the level of refinement of the dynamic pricing strategies for the transportation companies. Furthermore, a number of dynamic pricing strategies are proposed that correspond to the discussed smart card dimensions

The Octopus in Hong Kong: The Success of a Smart Card-based E-payment System and Beyond

The success of the Octopus as a smart card-based E-payment system in Hong Kong is unparalleled by its counterparts worldwide. The number of daily transactions is over 8.1 million, generating over US$7 million in revenue on average. Although the majority of these transactions are transport-related, the Octopus is seeking to extend its arms into retailing payments. This research investigates whether retailers and consumers in Hong Kong would accept the Octopus better than its rivals such as cash, credit cards, or Electronic Payment System (EPS) to become a preferred payment method for retailing in Hong Kong

End-to-end encryption in on-line payment systems:The industry reluctance and the role of laws

Various security breaches at third-party payment processors show that online payment systems are the primary target for cyber-criminals. In general, the security of online payment systems relies on a number of factors, namely technical factors, processing factors, and legal factors. The industry gives its best endeavors to strengthen the technical and processing factors, while the government has been called upon to improve the legal factors. However, a breach of consumer's data and financial losses resulting from such a breach keep occurring. Findings from the forensic audit show that most online payment systems, such as those using credit and debit cards as their instruments, have a weak point leaving the systems vulnerable to hacking. This weak point concerns the so-called financial data in transit that are not fully encrypted. Encryption is indeed employed within the systems, but only on certain networks. Industry’s standard reflected by code of conducts only obliges the players to encrypt the financial data transmitted on the public network, and not on their private networks. On top of that, laws and regulations are often in a vacuum to regulate the encryption. Thus, although seen as the strongest method so far to prevent the breach, end-to-end encryption has not entirely been implemented. Why does the industry seem to be reluctant in implementing end-to-end encryption? What do laws rule on this and would it be appropriate for the law to rule such obligation for the sake of consumer protection? This paper tries to shed a light on these issues. To investigate the industry reluctance, this paper discusses security of online payment systems and the nature of the retail payment systems. As for the laws and regulatory frameworks, this paper outlines and focuses on the EU level. Online payment systems using credit or debit cards are used as the main example in this paper as such methods have much more matured compared to the others. However, special attention on the innovative payments such as mobile payments and virtual currencies will be drawn as the security issues of such innovative payments have given rise to regulatory challenges

Near Field Communications (NFC) - Case Study: Mobile Banking in South Africa

Η κινητή τηλεφωνία έχει βαθιά επίδραση στην κοινωνία μας. Το τελευταίο διάστημα έχει κάνει την εμφάνισή της μια καινούρια τεχνολογία στο χώρο της κινητής τηλεφωνίας με την ονομασία επικοινωνία κοντινού πεδίου (ΕΚΠ -Near Field Communication - NFC). Ως τεχνολογία ασύρματης επικοινωνίας με μικρή εμβέλεια, η ΕΚΠ προσφέρει ασφαλή και απλή επικοινωνία μεταξύ ηλεκτρονικών συσκευών. Εν ολίγοις επιτρέπει τη χρήση του κινητού τηλεφώνου ως μέσου ασφαλών συναλλαγών και πληρωμής λογαριασμών μετατρέποντάς το κινητό τηλέφωνο ουσιαστικά σε ηλεκτρονικό πορτοφόλι. Στην εργασία αυτή θα εξετάσουμε το χώρο των πληρωμών μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα δώσουμε μια γενική εικόνα, αναλύοντας την τεχνολογία, τους κρίσιμους παράγοντες για την επιτυχία της τεχνολογίας αυτής και το σχετικό νομοθετικό πλαίσιο. Θα εξετάσουμε διάφορες εφαρμογές των πληρωμών μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου που χρησιμοποιούνται σήμερα και που βασίζονται σε τραπεζικούς λογαριασμούς, πιστωτικές κάρτες και συστήματα τιμολόγησης των τηλεπικοινωνιακών επιχειρήσεων. Θα αναλυθεί το τεχνολογικό υπόβαθρο που απαιτείται και περιλαμβάνει SMS, USSD, GRPS ή 3G, WAP,J2ME,LBS,NFC,IVR. Θα δώσουμε έμφαση στην μελέτη της Νότιας Αφρικής όπου υπάρχει πλήρης εφαρμογή τεχνολογιών κοντινού πεδίου. Θα εξετάσουμε τους εμπλεκόμενους φορείς και τους ενδιαφερόμενους από την πλευρά των τραπεζών (Wizzit mobile banking, ΜΤΝ Banking και FNB cellphone banking), από την πλευρά των φορέων εκμετάλλευσης κινητών δικτύων (Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C και του εικονικού φορέα κινητών δικτύων (VMNO) Virgin Mobile) καθώς και από την πλευρά των εμπόρων. Κατόπιν, θα δοθεί το βάρος στις διάφορες προκλήσεις που αντιμετωπίζουν οι ηλεκτρονικές πληρωμές μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα εξεταστούν οι κρίσιμοι παράγοντες επιτυχίας, όπως η αντιμετώπιση συγκρουόμενων συμφερόντων, η συμπεριφορά των καταναλωτών, το κόστος, η εμπιστοσύνη, η ασφάλεια, η χρηστικότητα, και τέλος η νομοθεσία που διέπει τις πληρωμές μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Επιπλέον, θα υποδειχθούν τρόποι για την ανάπτυξη των ηλεκτρονικών πληρωμών που μπορούν να μειώσουν σημαντικά το κοινωνικό κόστος του συστήματος πληρωμών της χώρας. Παρέχουμε μια εκτίμηση για τη μείωση του κοινωνικού κόστους και την ανταπόκριση των χρηστών, όταν οι σχετικές τιμές ορίζονται με στόχο την επιτάχυνση της αντικατάστασης των παραδοσιακών πληρωμών με ηλεκτρονικές και ιδίως πληρωμές μέσω κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα εξετάσουμε τα διάφορα επιχειρηματικά μοντέλα που προτείνονται και εφαρμόζονται κατά τη διάρκεια υλοποίησης πληρωμών με χρήση κινητού τηλεφώνου. Θα δοθεί έμφαση στα οφέλη, στις προκλήσεις που συνδέονται με την τεχνολογία κοντινού πεδίου και τις πληρωμές μέσω αυτών. Θα αναφερθούμε στα δικαιώματα προαίρεσης κατά διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων. Τέλος, θα γίνει αναφορά στο μέλλον της συγκεκριμένης τεχνολογίας και στις πληρωμές μέσω αυτής.Mobile phone technology has had a profound effect on our society and Near Field Communication (NFC) has become one of the promising technological developments in IT industry. NFC is one of the latest wireless communication technologies. As a short-range wireless connectivity technology, NFC offers safe yet simple and intuitive communication between electronic devices. We will review the mobile payments space by giving an overview, examining mobile payments technology, assessing mobile payments in South Africa, analysing the various critical success factors, and examining the various governing legislation that exists. We will review various mobile payment solutions currently in use that are based on bank accounts, credit cards and mobile telecommunication company billing systems. These technological solutions include Short Message Service (SMS), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), General Packet Radio Service (GRPS) or 3G (Third-generation), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), J2ME, Location-Based service (LBS), Near Field Communication (NFC), and Interactive Voice Response (IVR). We will then take a look at the mobile payments space in South Africa. This will involve reviewing some of the major stakeholders and players. Popular mobile payments solutions in South Africa include Wizzit mobile banking, MTN Banking, and FNB cellphone banking. The mobile network operators include Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C and the virtual mobile network operator (VMNO) Virgin Mobile. The other important stakeholders include the big four banks, electronic payment network operators Visa and MasterCard, and specific merchants. Reviewing the various challenges faced by mobile payment solutions will give this research weight. These challenges include critical success factors such as dealing with the dynamics of different stakeholders with conflicting interests, consumer behaviour, costs, trust and security, usability, and lastly legislation governing mobile payments. Moreover, we we will indicate ways the growth of electronic payments can substantially reduce the social cost of a country's payment system. We provide an estimate of the potential savings in social cost and determine the responsiveness of payment users when relative prices are used to speed up the substitution of electronic and especially mobile-based for paper-based payments. Then, we will explore the various business models being proposed and applied during the implementation of NFC mobile payments. The various stakeholders that are part of the NFC mobile payment ecosystem will then be studied and lastly the benefits and challenges associated with NFC mobile payments will be noted. Finally, we will review real options methodology to the investment-making process

Analyse comparative entre les enquêtes ménages origine-destination et les systèmes de paiements par carte à puce en transport urbain

Les enquêtes transport -- L'approche totalement désagrégée -- Modélisation orientée objets -- Carte à puce -- La fusion des données -- Les systèmes d'informations -- Analyse du contexte de la STO -- Présentation des données de L'EOD -- Présentation des données CAP -- Préparation des données -- Analyse globale -- Analyse segmentée -- Analyse du réseau -- Les facteurs d'expansion -- Le potentiel de fusion -- Les améliorations

Informedness and Customer-Centric Revenue management

The recent pervasive adoption of modern IT in the marketplace has profoundly changed information availability to customers and firms. This improved information endowment results in changes in consumer behavior and corporate strategy. This dissertation proposes new theoretical perspectives – firm informedness, customer informedness, and informedness through learning – to re-conceptualize the decision making process of customer-centric revenue management. It consists of three studies. First, using multiple cases in which firms adopt smart cards and mobile technologies in America, Europe, and Asia, we examine the value creation process of the firm using the explanation of firm informedness and investigate how it advances revenue management. Second, we test the theory of consumer informedness and examine heterogeneity in consumer preferences using stated choice experiments. We find the evidence for trading down and trading out behavior and show that the use of mobile ticketing technologies can help firms to build a hyper-differentiated transport market. Finally, using a computational simulation, we explore the opportunity for devising service offerings to capture profitable consumer responses, considering demand-driven revenue and capacity-management. Overall, this research introduces methods, models, and guidelines for organizations to strategize the informational challenge, make informed decisions, and create transformational values to win in today’s competitive network environment

Digital Skills Colloquium 2020: Enhancing Human Capacity for Digital Transformation

The theme for the Digital Skills 2020 Colloquium and Postgraduate Symposium was “Enhancing Human Capacity for Digital Transformation: It is about people”. It is widely accepted that current digital changes that are sweeping through the world are significantly altering the environment in which every organisation, including government, is operating. The scale and scope of the change is what makes all the difference. The way in which organisations respond to these environmental changes will determine their survival. The nature of a digitally transformed organisation cannot be foretold as every organisation will respond according to their local and global environment. There are, however, some uncomfortable realities; manufacturing jobs will not be reinstated, and even if they did, the manufacturing industries are necessarily more capital and not labour intensive (Stiglitz, 2017). Globally, we are experiencing rising unemployment and income inequality as well as increased demand for high skilled labour (Glenn, Florescu & Project, 2019). Accordingly, the Colloquium sought to explore the role played by digital skills in our rapidly transforming realities. The event attracted full academic research papers, case studies, research work that still in progress and practitioner reports and models that portray the NEMISA collaborative ethos involving government, industry and other sectors. Some plenary sessions and guest speakers shared insights on topics such as emerging technologies, blockchain, machine learning, gamification in education, application of 3D printing, upscaling of ICT for development programmes and citizen online safety.School of Computin