SWIN BUR . NE. INF10009 INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS Tutorial: Managing IS Infrastructure and Outsourcing A.Closing Case Study 6.2 Myki: an integrated travel card for Victoria (Baltzan, Lynch, Fisher 2015) myki: an integrated travel card for Victoria MARIE VAN DER KLOOSTER, FORMERLY OF DEAKIN UNIVERSITY UPDATED BY DR JULIE FISHER, MONASH UNIVERSITY Closing Case Study 6.2 The myki system was designed to allow public transport travellers in regional and metropolitan Victoria, Australia, to pay for their travel using a rechargeable myki card. This could be used at Melbourne's 216 railway stations, on trams and on buses. The card replaced all the ticketing options previously available on Victorian public transport, including paper and magnetic-strip tickets. myki cards contain a microprocessor that allows users to pay for travel and recharge their cards while communicating user details back to centralised back- office systems. Kamco (Keane Australia Micro-payment Consortium) won the $494 million contract to build and operate the myki system in 2005 and have it operating by 2007. The parent corporation of Kamco, Keane International Inc, is a software engineering, application maintenance, program management and consulting services company that had extensive experience in overseeing and project-managing transport and technology companies to produce integrated systems, and had implemented similar systems in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, the Netherlands and the US. Kamco supervised four technology and infrastructure companies and their subcontractors, and provided the back-end financial system. The Kamco companies provided the terminal management system and fare collection equipment; communication systems installation and maintenance; automated fare collection systems; and smart cards and related card-fulfilment systems. Kamco's project management of the myki system required oversight of four companies and attention to a range of different problems and unique challenges. Some of these problems were described as 'technical gremlins', while other problems involved inadequate resources and slow resolution of software problems. The myki system functions over long distances, far from centralised support services and in sometimes rough and dusty environments, while communicating user information to centralised servers. It has been designed from the ground up, and its specifications make it one of the most sophisticated smart card systems planned. Other problems related to the unique Melbourne trams. Trams are essentially large heavy steel boxes powered by electricity and operating in urban canyons of tall buildings. Any of these factors can cause the myki wireless signals to drop out of connection with central servers during operation. Melbourne's transport system also functions on zones, passengers being charged according to how far they travel, so myki had to be designed to manage this. Governance, project management and effective financial controls were identified by the Victorian Government as areas causing delays in the development and implementation of the system In comparison, Hong Kong has a widely admired smart card system for public transport users and the highest rate of public transport use in the world. Public transport travellers there use the Octopus smart electronic money card in place of conventional tickets. Hong Kong is 1095 sq km in size with