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The business requirement
National Express required handheld ticketing software connecting route and fare information, a built-in printer and a portable card terminal for mobile ticket sales.
Development and integration
Impact used C# on Windows CE handhelds, with Bluetooth card-terminal communication and docking-based data transfer. Multi-operator use, refunds and shift summaries connected front-line sales to a recorded reconciliation process. The hardware and operating system are historical.
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Original project detail
Software Development for National Express Ticketing System.
This software development project provided a portable solution to improve bus ticket sales both at the terminal and on-board.
The ticketing system was written in C# with the deployment on to a Casio IT-3100 mobile printer/handheld touchscreen, running Windows CE. The ticket printer then interfaced via Bluetooth to a portable credit card machine.
Bus routes and appropriate rates can be pre-loaded and changed via a docking system. The operator selects the current route via a drop down list which pre-loads the relevant ticket options and fares. Sales can then be taken with cash and via card due to the handheld printer talking to a portable credit card machine.
Multiple travellers can be combined into one sale and one ticket.
Multiple operators can use the unit by logging in and the full audit trail and data collected is downloaded when the unit is docked,for analysis and reporting. At the end of each shift the operator can print a summary which details ticket sales, refunds, plus totals of cash and card transactions.
The code used multi threading to simultaneously update the displays and communicate to the credit card machine.
