SPX Genfare is a leader in providing customized fare solutions to transit agencies of all sizes throughout North America. As a leader in fare collection systems for more than three decades, the company focuses on delivering solutions that are secure, reliable and highly flexible.
Genfare is working to bring the latest innovations in fare control and management to public transportation carriers and their transit customers. Genfare integrated systems encompass the latest in electronic validating fare boxes, smart card and mobile payment options, ticket vending and point of sale card distribution systems, all managed by sophisticated local and web based data processing systems.
Kim Green, president of SPX Genfare, explains how the company is bringing new fare control and management technologies to market to enhance municipal transportation systems.
What are some of the key trends and customer needs that are helping to drive demand for your solutions?
Several factors are driving demand. First and foremost is technology. Genfare has a long history in the fare collection business and is well known in the transit industry. Today’s technology developments are driving our customers (municipal transit systems) to demand better, faster and more convenient methods for their passengers to pay their fares. Fare media is no longer just cash. Our fare payment solutions now must include magnetic swipe cards, chip smart card, mobile phone payment options, as well as credit/debit purchases along with near field communication (NFC).
A second driver is the need for detailed passenger and revenue data within the transit agency. The IT infrastructure and communication advances that are now available are driving Genfare product development and creating new fare collections solutions. For example, fare collection systems were once a more simple operations and maintenance concern. Today’s customers are much more sophisticated buyers and their concerns have expanded to include IT infrastructure, security and compliance and a strong desire for agencies to be able to communicate on an open platform. These changes have impacted our business model and how we look at the future. We are in the final stages of developing a hosted solution for our backend data collection and reporting system called Genfare Link. This solution will allow agencies to pick and choose what modules they need to build a configurable fare collection system to meet their needs all via a web-based solution.
Genfare Link combined with our full line of fare collection products will create a new solution and robust upgrade path for existing Genfare clients. Genfare is building the foundation needed to bring us to another level within our transit business.
What are some of the more innovative products / solutions you’ve introduced in recent years?
There are several new systems and products we have introduced that are in difference phases of development.
- Fast Fare & Fast Fare-e: This suite of products includes the Fast Fare, which is a new, fully featured fare box that accepts mobile payment, smart cards and more traditional forms of payment like magnetics and cash. The Fast Fare-e offers all of the benefits of a farebox with the exception of cash. This versatile unit can be placed nearly anywhere and accepts mobile payment, smart cards and magnetics.
- Genfare Link: Our new robust back end data collection and reporting system will initially feature: Admin, eFare and Reporting and soon be followed by inventory management, fare management, asset management, real time monitoring, invoicing and so much more.
- e-Fare: Our smart card driven web-based platform that has been designed for three audiences: the transit rider, the agency partner (such as a university or business partner) and the administrative backend for agency customer service and IT. The Rider portion, allows riders to buy passes online, register them for added privileges such as a monthly auto-load feature, the ability to store multiple cards within an account and report a card lost or stolen with a simple click. The agency partner site is a great way to reduce the transit workload by establishing a website that allows partners to manage their own rider base, storing and assigning cards as needed.
- Point of Sale Systems: Both the Retail Point of Sale and Agency Point of Sale devices can be placed in an agency story or partner location to encode fare media, process payment and distribute electronic media immediately.
What are some of the things that set SPX Genfare solutions apart from the competition?
Genfare has a wealth of expertise and experience in developing fare collection solutions. Our team has more cumulative fare collection experience than any of our competitors. Our ability to understand our customers’ businesses and configure solutions that work today and provide them with expandability of our software and hardware in the future helps set us apart from others in the industry. Genfare has a proven, 30-year tradition of keeping fare collection secure, reliable and accurate. We keep our clients securely moving forward.
What do your employees get most excited about and what’s special about them?
The Genfare team is fortunate to have a diverse group of employees. Some have been with us for more than 30 years; others for less time, but with varied backgrounds that add to our technical savvy. The most exciting thing among all employees is the interaction between our long-term experienced workforce and our next generation employees. We are able to leverage the tremendous knowledge and experience with new and versatile technical platforms which make it easier for all employees to better understand the business and develop cutting-edge products and services for our clients. All of this adds to our ability to improve our client solutions.
What kinds of skills / talents do employees in your business need today to succeed?
The Genfare team has a range of talents and expertise in the fare collection business. Most recently, we have greatly expanded our engineering group to better address the rapidly changing technologies and business requirements of our clients. New technology and more sophisticated buyers require more technical sales, marketing and program teams to support our continued sales and service efforts. And, of course, our manufacturing and operations team is constantly updating and enhancing our internal processes to ensure that we use the most modern and efficient methods to produce our equipment and systems. We have become a much more client-centric business which has allowed us to change our business model from what was once just a hardware manufacturer to a system supplier that provides total client solutions. We have also made an investment in the way we service our clients to enable better customer support responsiveness and after sales support.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing the industry you serve?
The transit industry continues to undergo significant change. Our customers are now “mobility managers” – not just “bus companies.” What was once an operations- and maintenance-driven business has begun to embrace new technology and is becoming a much more service- and data-driven business. SPX Genfare is changing with them and will continue to meet their ever-changing requirements with new and innovative solutions to their fare collection needs.
