- Hello, and welcome to "Community Chats".
I'm Aley Hammer, and today we're interviewing Paul Grobler,
a Head of Platform and Security, from Vix Technology.
Paul, welcome to the show.
Can you start by telling our audience
a little bit about Vix?
- Sure, thank you for having me today.
So Vix is a 500-person technology company,
focused on providing fare collection,
transit information, and analytical solution
for the public transportation industry.
Vix helps transit agencies manage fare collection
by supplying automated fare collection systems
ranging from smart card-based, to open account-based systems
that enable contactless payments.
And we provide on-vehicle technology,
and from passenger information to fleet management.
And then we have a layer of services,
really to support these.
Our key offices are in Perth, Australia,
Cambridge, the UK, and then in Seattle in the United States.
But we do have a presence
in several locations across the globe.
Vix is about 35 years old,
with more than 200+ systems delivered across the globe.
- Well, I actually didn't realize that Vix is 35 years old
and has over 500 people, that's incredible.
And Paul, can you share with us a little bit about how Vix
is working with AWS to actually support your customers?
- Absolutely.
So transit agencies are faced
with operating highly traditional legacy businesses,
with modern issues such as congestion.
And as such, we're seeing a move towards micro-mobility
and the broadening of mass transit.
But trying new modes of transit, or tying new modes
of transit into a cohesive network is highly complicated.
With cloud, they can innovate at speed
and they can operate at a price point
that was really not possible before.
Previously also, these fare collection systems,
they've been fully bespoke,
very expensive, increasingly risky to operate,
and then of course, hard to protect from cyber crime.
Vix really needed to standardize
the underpinning technology, simplifying the management
and enabling agencies to really focus
on that digital innovation piece and the wider experience.
So as such, Vix has developed a modern,
state-of-the-art platform called Pulse,
to serve the needs of these customers.
Vix however, we do need to look after our existing customers
as well, so not just the new ones.
So migration plans for all the legacy systems
were developed, and then of course,
we looked at how we can re-host them in the AWS cloud.
- Well, I'm so glad that we've been able to help you focus
on innovation and that rider experience,
while we take care of the heavy lifting for you.
So, Paul, I wanted to know,
what has been your biggest challenge to date,
and how has the cloud actually helped you guys overcome it?
- Yeah, a great question.
I would say non-standardized deployments.
It's been incredibly hard to support some of the wide range
of deployments on the different platforms and data centers.
Some of these data center providers also would see
a bunch of major incidents throughout the year,
so we haven't really been able to reach
that stability we needed in the platform.
Where with AWS, it really got us
that 99.9% availability target state.
The other thing is how we overcame that,
was having a single code base running in the AWS cloud,
to allow us to move to a centralized support model
for cloud operations and engineering
where we can really benefit from follow-the-sun.
And that really helped us reduce the typical size
of the support team for these deployments by about 50%.
And we have five customers live on this platform now,
with two more coming across this year.
And all these customers are now benefiting
from speed-to-value improvements.
Where previously, these typical bespoke build projects
could take several years to complete.
But we can now deliver software modules using our APIs
and using some automations to build these
in six to 12 months, which is really great.
And then of course, we're looking at the future
to deploy our software almost out of the box,
and covering about 98% of the requirements doing so.
- Wow, that really is incredible,
and some amazing outcomes there.
So, Paul, how does AWS help Vix create
an enjoyable experience for your passengers?
- From a fare collection perspective,
transit is very much evolving towards
a power-in-payment options.
Passengers will always choose
the most convenient mode of travel,
and as such the most convenient way to pay as well.
Enabling a range of payment options such as contactless EMV,
really simplifies the decision process for passengers.
Equality is also very important.
Agencies have an obligation
to make transit accessible for all.
Services must really address the range of needs
of all the riders.
Many don't have smart phones or even bank accounts.
And the cloud has really enabled us to connect
with retail networks to provide cash payments options,
or networks where they've really had a need
to eliminate all cash on board.
- Wow, it's amazing to hear because you know,
transit is certainly evolving,
and it's so great to see that Vix is empowering passengers
with different payment options.
I can still remember, every time we crossed the bridge
with my mom when I was a little girl,
you know, putting the cash in.
And you think, "Oh, technology should get rid of all this,"
but it's cool that you've still got options in place
that if you wanna pay with cash, you really can.
- Absolutely. - Paul, to round up
this interview, what do the next couple of years
look like for Vix?
- Yeah, so Vix has a digital roadmap in place
to really enable us to better serve ridership
across the globe.
Vix is really rising up to the challenge
to keep supporting how cities are evolving.
And so Vix's core fare collection platform, Pulse,
which we covered before, really provides that foundation
for future innovations and product development.
So future benefits enabled by the cloud specifically,
includes data analytics, where there's a lot of future value
and utility in the data we collect in our data lake.
Meaningful data is one of the biggest assets
companies have these days.
Then there's API, so each customer
have different systems to integrate us.
The front office and mobile technology experience evolves.
And then there's open architecture.
You know, being cloud-based means it's easier for Vix
to just make all the solutions we sell, talk to each other
and enable the same thing for the customers.
And then lastly, you know, future developments.
Like facial recognition, UWB Bluetooth,
and Beacon's biometrics may play a big role
in identifying passengers in the future.
And this is how the cloud enable us
to better prepare for all of these.
- Paul, thank you so much for coming on the show.
I always find it so interesting
speaking to different customers and hearing
about how you utilize AWS Cloud, so thanks so much.
And if anyone has any questions, please pop them
in the comment section below, and we'll get back to you.
Thank you so much. - Thank you very much.
Thank you.