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First milestone of the mobility platform developed by highQ goes into real operation at the beginning of 2023

Following a Europe-wide tender, highQ received the order this spring to implement a mobility platform for Stadtwerke Münster (SWMS). As part of the project, which runs until the end of 2023, the local car-sharing service “LOOPmünster” as well as the e-scooter and bicycle rental service of the provider TIER are to be integrated into the platform. In spring 2023, passengers will be able to use an app to identify any intermodal routes to their destination and book and pay for the corresponding means of transport directly in the app. The inclusion of further mobility service providers and services in this ambitious mobility project is also firmly planned for 2024.

The aim of the new multimodal platform is to encourage commuters to switch from cars to more environmentally friendly modes of transport. Driving with the environmental network should be as uncomplicated as possible. This is why the national check-in/check-out tariff “eezy. NRW” is included in the project package, which enables public transport use without any knowledge of tariffs and thus makes it much more comfortable – creating a completely new public transport “driving feeling”. The project is funded by the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Transport.

The first milestone of the new mobility platform based on the highQ MobilitySuite was delivered for approval testing by SWMS in November 2022. It includes the following functions:

• Information about public transport and LOOPMünster (public transport) in the app
• Integration of the CiCO system eezy. NRW
• Intermodal information on combinations of LOOPMünster and public transport in the app
• Combination of TIER and public transport
• Display of TIER scooters and bicycles, booking and payment in the app
• Choice of different means of payment
• Single sign-on: one-time registration and login

Now comprehensive release tests are the next joint project step, so that the system can be put into real operation in 2023. We are also continuing to work on the background system to make the employee view of the various mobility products and bookings even clearer and more user-friendly.

At InnoTrans 2022, highQ Computerlösungen presented innovative solutions for the networking of mobility live.

From 20 to 23 September 2022, highQ Computerlösungen GmbH presented its innovative applications for road users, mobility providers, associations, public utilities and transport companies at the world’s leading trade fair for transport technology InnoTrans in Berlin under the motto “The Future of Mobility – Experience Live”.

During numerous live lectures and with great support from our partners, the Bauhaus.MobilityLab and Stadtwerke Osnabrück, you could learn how you can become the market leader for mobility in your region with a mobility platform.

Among other things, our solutions for the mobility platform highQ MobilitySuite, the digital ticket counter Ticketoffice, revenue management, the gateway to the eTicketing IONgate and travel and duty planning with PlanB were presented. As pioneers of sustainable mobility, Stadtwerke Osnabrück presented how cities and rural districts together ensure smart mobility. Our research partner Bauhaus.MobilityLab showed its latest findings from the real-life laboratory in Erfurt's Brühl district for the development and testing of AI-based applications.

The interest was so great that the stand staff became scarce in the meantime. The two managing directors, Christian Disch and Thomas Hornig, are also very satisfied: “Besides our congress in June in Osnabrück, InnoTrans is another event highlight in 2022. We are enthusiastic about the interest in our solutions and have had many important and interesting discussions. This speaks for an eventful and successful trade fair and shows that our solutions meet the highest demands of the industry. ”

Another trade fair highlight for us and our guests was certainly the cocktail event on Wednesday afternoon at our highQ stand.

Congress in Osnabrück

highQ and Stadtwerke Osnabrück hosted the congress “The Future of Mobility – Experience Live”

The future of mobility was the focus of a two-day conference that took place on 2 and 3 June 2022 at the Alando Ballhaus in Osnabrück. The event was opened by the mayor of the city of Osnabrück Katharina Pötter, followed by a dedicated lecture by Anna Kebschull, County Councillor of the district of Osnabrück, on the integration of rural areas. Dr. Claas Beckord, Head of the Sustainable Urban Development Unit, then ranked the requirements for digitalization from the perspective of smart city development. Ulf Middelberg, as an eloquent opinion-maker for the mobility turnaround, presents an innovation impulse from the perspective of the Leipzig public transport companies. Before the lunch break, highQ held a presentation section, in which the highQ MobilitySuite as a platform for sustainable mobility solutions that conform to the common good, as well as the Zeitmiles Solution and the topic of highQ Social Mobility were part of the presentation.

In a panel discussion there was a lively debate on the subject of data protection vs. data treasure. Sascha Lobo gave a keynote address on “How the Net is Changing the World” about the importance of the digital world for the future of mobility. After a successful first day of the congress, moderated by Guido Cantz, the evening program took place in the Alando Palais.
There was also a lot of fun, as highQ also celebrated its 26th birthday – the day was rounded off with a comedy performance by Guido Cantz and the musical entertainment of the Rock`n ́Roll & Beat band „The KaiserBeats“.

The second day started with a presentation by Maik Blome, Head of Product Management and Digitalization at Stadtwerke Osnabrück AG, on the Osnabrück Mobility Portal and a stimulating contribution by Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer on the “temporal change” and the consequences for sustainable mobility.

The optimal integration of users was part of a panel discussion in which Christina Haspel (Head of the South Region of the Mittelstand 4. 0 Competence Center Usability, University of Media), Prof. Plank-Wiedenbeck (Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Bauhaus University Weimar), Werner Linnenbrink (Head of Mobility Services at Stadtwerke Osnabrück AG) and Dr. Katharina Peine as moderator discussed ways of achieving the best possible customer:internal benefits.

Afterwards, the participants were able to visit the partners and sponsors of the congress at different stations and get to know the application examples for cities as well as the employee portal and take a look at the background system. Experience live also meant that congress visitors had the opportunity to use the many services and offers already implemented in the greater Osnabrück area free of charge for five days.

highQ would like to thank its partners Stadtwerke Osnabrück AG, Fair City Partners, Bauhaus Mobility. Lab, ITS Germany e. V. , ZEITMEILEN AG and Prisma Solutions, as well as the team of Alando Osnabrück for their support.

city of the future

Making purchases via online trading platforms has permanently changed our habits. Never before has it been so convenient to order and pay for products from different suppliers via a single access point. In the future, it will be just as easy to use train, bus, car sharing and other public transportation services via a mobility platform developed by the IT company highQ Computerlösungen. Among the pioneers of this new, digitally networked mobility is the city of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany.

“If you want to get people out of their cars, you have to make them a really attractive offer”, observed Thomas Hornig, Managing Director of highQ. The mobility specialists at the 60-strong Freiburg-based IT company have been thinking for many years about how a change towards more environmentally friendly forms of transport can be achieved. Their pivotal approach is a digital mobility platform on which all of a city’s transport services are combined under one (software) roof. Following a one-time registration with the platform (single sign-on), transportation users can then book any intermodal travel chain directly via an associated smartphone app.

This concept, also called “seamless mobility” by transport experts, is intended to compensate for the comfort advantage of the private car. “This is a great opportunity for transport companies to reposition themselves as comprehensive mobility service providers”, Thomas Hornig pointed out. highQ develops the necessary software modules for this type of networked transport service, for example to enable cross-supplier billing for the various transport services provided.

Osnabrück leads the way

Among the pioneers in this field is Stadtwerke Osnabrück (SWO), which has been implementing a comprehensive digitisation programme for urban mobility services for three years now. Based on the highQ platform concept, the system has so far integrated municipal bus services, local car sharing and municipal parking garages, with lockable bicycle shelters set to follow soon. “Thanks to the modular system structure, we can add further offers at any time, such as rental pedelecs and e-cargobikes”, explained Maik Blome, marketing and sales manager for SWO’s mobility services. “Following a one-time registration, our customers then have access to all transportation offerings.”

A service that appears so simple for the end user required a considerable amount of effort before it could be achieved. In particular, heterogeneous IT inventory systems needed to be linked via adapted interfaces so that the flow of data between the various Osnabrück mobility providers could run smoothly. The implementation of the entire system was carried out under the leadership of highQ as general contractor. According to Maik Blome, this proved to be a good decision: “We always had one central contact person for any questions or problems.”

One swipe and off you go

The Osnabrück mobility platform is scheduled to go into full operation in the course of 2020. As well as being able to use all modes of transport across all providers, this includes a new type of ticket system. The check in/check out ticketing system makes bus travel much more convenient for occasional passengers. When boarding the bus, a swipe of the smartphone is all that is required – and that’s it. The system itself determines where you change and get off and automatically calculates the price for the distance covered. A further advantage for passengers is “best price” invoicing. All individual journeys completed within a certain period of time are retrospectively charged to a day or week ticket – meaning that customers always receive the cheapest ticket. “With this system, we in Osnabrück are a nationwide pioneer”, Maik Blome explained.

With its mobility platform, the city in Lower Saxony has also prepared the way for the digital future of local transportation. Maik Blome offered a foretaste of how things will be by 2030: “Public transport in Osnabrück will be networked, digital, electric and autonomous, providing passengers with a seamless, multimodal mobility chain from door to door.” In the future, this will include on-demand, non-timetabled services for the last mile. Blome summarised the city’s ambitious goal: “We aim to make public mobility in Osnabrück so easy and convenient that you will never miss your car again.”

Rewarding sensible mobility behaviour

Experience shows that it is difficult to persuade die-hard drivers to switch to public transport, even with the best offer. For this reason, highQ has developed an even more far-reaching strategy that includes private cars in the mobility mix in addition to the means of transport provided by the environmental alliance. The concept is to use highQ’s mytraQ app to provide commuters with individual travel recommendations based on current traffic data and the behaviour of other mytraQ users. If traffic is congested somewhere, the app suggests less congested alternative routes or recommends switching to public transport, car sharing or a combination of different modes of transport.

Anyone who follows the app’s advice is rewarded twice over. For a start, they reach their destination quickly and without stress. In addition, they are credited with “time mile”, which can later be exchanged for free journeys, free parking periods or shopping discounts. Research results confirm that this type of bonus system works. Provided that a conurbation has sufficient public transport, monetary or non-cash incentives can be used to steer individual mobility behaviour in the desired direction in terms of choice of transport mode, route and time of day. The concept has already been thoroughly tested in Stuttgart under the project name “moveBW” and will soon be put into live operation.

Apart from the road users themselves, the cities benefit too by evening out traffic flows in terms of time and space and distributing them more evenly over the existing infrastructure. However, commercial enterprises can also use “time miles” to motivate their employees to use bicycles more frequently or to form car pools, thereby improving the efficiency of parking space management and their environmental balance. As highQ Managing Director Thomas Hornig concluded: “In any case, it makes more sense to invest a comparatively small amount in intelligent mobility than to invest huge sums in additional roads or parking spaces.”