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LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORTATION

146 EMPLOYEES

BENEFITS

• Improved competitive

advantage with an innovative,

cost-effective IoT offering

• Achieved greater reliability

and improved support with

open source solutions

• Gained revenue opportuni-

ties by adding a SaaS model

that can help the company

add new customers

SOFTWARE AND SERVICES

Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®

Red Hat JBoss® Fuse

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise

Application Platform

Red Hat Consulting

Genfare has been a leader in transit payment solutions since 1880, when it developed the first

mechanical farebox for public transportation systems. But as the fare-collection industry has

moved rapidly to digitization, Genfare realized it needed to transition from a hardware company

to a software company. To achieve this, the company needed to replace its fare-collection solu-

tion with a multitenant hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering and take full advantage of

Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Genfare partnered with Red Hat to accomplish these goals.

With help from Red Hat Consulting, the company deployed a new platform based on Red Hat

solutions. As a result, Genfare gained new revenue opportunities, as well as improved reliability

and support for its offerings.

HEADQUARTERS

“Innovation is when you take an idea, cultivate it, and make the world a better

place. Genfare and Red Hat were able to take an idea and create a world that is better for

riders across the US and Canada.”

DARREN DICKSON

PRESIDENT, GENFARE

Elk Grove Village, Illinois

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

GENFARE QUICKLY EVOLVES FROM HARDWARE TO SOFTWARE WITH RED HAT

2redhat.com CUSTOMER CASE STUDY Genfare quickly evolves from hardware to software with Red Hat

KEEPING PACE WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

Genfare has been a leader in transit payment solutions since 1880, when it developed the first

mechanical farebox for public transportation systems. But its legacy back-end systems have

not kept up as the equipment has evolved, and Genfare wanted to offer new solutions transit

agencies are seeking — such as more robust reporting, incorporation of new features integrated

with the backend, mobile payments, and real-time analytics. “We had come to be viewed as an

old-school hardware manufacturer,” said Darren Dickson, president of Genfare. “We needed to

change our image in the industry and transition from a device-centric organization to a software-

centric organization. We wanted transit agencies to view us as a technology partner instead of a

hardware manufacturer.”

Another challenge Genfare faced was fulfilling a broad range of needs for customers of all sizes.

Small and mid-sized transit agencies often adopt new technology gradually due to budget con-

straints compared to larger operators. Genfare wanted to help them cost-effectively provide compet-

itive payment options — from smart cards to ticketing on mobile devices.

“As cities grow, people need to be able to go from their houses to work without sitting in traffic for an

hour and a half. If public transportation doesn’t keep pace with digitization, the amount of conges-

tion that will happen will be overwhelming,” said Dickson. “Without companies like Genfare helping

public transportation keep pace, the industry will not be able to survive in the long term.”

DEPLOYING A MODERN FARE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

To meet shifting industry demands, Genfare developed Genfare Link, a cloud-based platform for fare

management that takes advantage of Internet of Things technology by supporting a wide variety of

fare media — including smart cards, magnetic stripe tickets, and smartphones. This solution also lets

agencies manage fare collection, customer service, inventory, and equipment for multiple modes of

transportation through a web-based interface.

To create Genfare Link, Genfare turned to Red Hat Consulting to gain the extensive experience it

needed to quickly, efficiently launch its new IoT solution. Red Hat consultants quickly helped the

company select and integrate products. In addition, Red Hat consultants supplied best practices,

frameworks, and delivery approaches, working closely with Genfare’s delivery teams throughout the

implementation process.

Genfare Link is built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat JBoss Fuse, and Red Hat JBoss Enterprise

Application Platform. All central data-processing functions reside in a virtual private cloud hosted by

Amazon Web Services (AWS), allowing Genfare to gain the many benefits of not having to set up and

maintain its own datacenters.

With JBoss Fuse, Genfare can take full advantage of IoT technology. The lightweight, flexible inte-

gration platform conducts real-time monitoring, in addition to collecting data from remote devices

and fareboxes and sending it to a central cloud platform. JBoss Enterprise Application Platform lets

Genfare quickly develop and deploy applications. Both are based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a plat-

form that provides a stable yet flexible foundation.

“With our Red Hat platform, we now have

the reliability and high availability we need to handle our

increasing volume of transactions. We also

have the ability to scale out to serve many

different customers. It’s a comprehensive, end-to-end solution.”

TIM GIOMETTI

DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING, GENFARE

3redhat.com CUSTOMER CASE STUDY Genfare quickly evolves from hardware to software with Red Hat

In addition, Red Hat Consulting designed, implemented, and integrated infrastructure, middleware,

and production support systems, based on a multiregion AWS architecture. Using best practices,

tools, and techniques, Red Hat consultants designed an easy-to-maintain, scalable, and highly

repeatable cloud platform that serves as a foundation for Genfare’s future growth.

“By partnering with Red Hat, all of the tools and resources were immediately available to Genfare

to begin the development of the project,” said Tim Giometti, director of engineering at Genfare.

“This saved us valuable upfront time and eliminated the need for our proof of concept stage in the

development process. With Red Hat’s experience in the deployment of the AWS framework, our IT

infrastructure was created at an accelerated rate.”

The new platform not only meets Genfare’s current needs, but also provides the flexibility

and scalability to meet constantly evolving needs in the future. In addition, Red Hat Consulting

provided training to help Genfare’s IT teams successfully manage the new platform and its related

Red Hat technology.

“We were trying to solve how to efficiently and effectively allow multiple payment options to exist in

the marketplace and how to create an environment for future technologies that aren’t even possible

yet,” said Dickson. “So Red Hat, from an architecture and design perspective, has helped us take the

approach of an architecture that will allow us to plug in these technologies whenever they exist.”

GAINING A FAST TRACK TO SUCCESS

INNOVATIVE IMPROVEMENTS

Today, Genfare technicians have to service fareboxes manually and update software on-site. Working

with Red Hat, Genfare created a management solution that quickly pushes software updates to fare-

boxes via the cloud. Web-based tools let transportation agencies easily configure and manage their

systems independently. The solution also includes intuitive dashboards that provide transit agencies

with real-time data on ridership, revenue, and maintenance status. In addition, the system is compli-

ant with the industry’s Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Genfare’s hardware — including equipment on buses and trains and ticket vending machines on

sidewalks — is now connected via a modern IoT infrastructure. Communication between fareboxes,

point-of-sale systems, ticket vending machines, and back-end systems is provided by a set of

common services.

“The field device communication and coordination embodies our approach to the Internet of Things

within the transit industry, providing our customers an invaluable real-time view into the state of

their transit system,” said Dickson.

The new solution lets Genfare not only provide improved services to customers, but also provide

services faster to more customers.

4redhat.com CUSTOMER CASE STUDY Genfare quickly evolves from hardware to software with Red Hat

“Using the Red Hat platform, the high level of system availability and reliability being demanded by

our clients can be met versus the traditional model used in the industry,” said Giometti. “The level of

transaction volume was also becoming an increasingly difficult area to manage, and the scalability

and flexibility of this new approach allows for a comprehensive beginning-to-end solution.”

BETTER SUPPORT — FOR GENFARE AND ITS CUSTOMERS

A key to Genfare’s success is its long-term hardware support. Genfare provides the parts and support

needed to keep customers’ equipment running — even for hardware platforms developed more than a

decade ago. With Genfare Link, the company can deliver this same level of service to users of its new

software solutions, helping Genfare provide back-end support for new and enhanced capabilities.

Using open source solutions from Red Hat, Genfare can take advantage of reliable software that

is supported by both Red Hat and the open source community. The open source code included in

Red Hat products is thoroughly vetted and debugged by the open source community, resulting in

greater stability and fewer issues. By building its offerings using enterprise-ready open source

software from Red Hat, Genfare can pass this stability on to its customers.

NEW REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES

Using its new highly flexible, reproducible multitenant platform, Genfare can rapidly provision and

scale environments — for example, reshaping infrastructure quickly for branded customer demos.

New agencies can be added faster using a structured onboarding process.

The modular design of Genfare Link lets the company provide capabilities that meet each transit

agency’s needs, from agencies operating complex systems with thousands of vehicles to small,

regional providers with a fleet of few dozen. Genfare Link’s modular architecture also lets the

company offer more flexible, feature-based subscription options, as well as new pricing structures

tailored to the needs of customers of all sizes.

“We’re providing a customizable, easy-to-access, full-featured fare-collection solution,” said

Dickson. “We’re making modern technology affordable to transit providers with widely diverse

needs and resources.”

By helping customers reduce their IT support, on-premise hosting, and operational costs, the

platform gives Genfare an advantage over its competitors. And by offering Genfare Link as a

managed SaaS solution, the company not only can introduce new modules and components that

are immediately available for sales teams to offer to customers, but also has gained a new revenue

model and business strategy.

“With the help of Red Hat, we’ve developed a cloud offering that transforms not only our business

from equipment-based to SaaS-based but allows us to give our industry something new,” said Dickson.

Copyright © 2016 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, and JBoss are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

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CONTINUING ON A ROAD OF INNOVATION

For almost a century and a half, Genfare has delivered industry-leading hardware. Now, the

company can lead the industry in software as well. With the Genfare Link platform, the company can

supply software solutions to the transportation market. And the platform helps Genfare’s customers

reduce costs and maintenance while supporting multiple payment options for riders.

“We’re able to provide a better level of expertise and service on a smaller budget for our transit cus-

tomers,” said Dickson. “And their riders are able to take advantage of world-class transit technologies.”

Genfare has incorporated the agile delivery approach used by Red Hat Consulting into its other

in-house development projects as well. “Red Hat helped us incorporate an agile software delivery

approach to this product, allowing us to slowly build up our entire platform versus one piece at a

time,” said Giometti. “Using Red Hat Consulting and their technology, we were able to quickly

react, almost real-time, to issues discovered. This broke us away from the typical batch and queue

methodology to a lean approach in software development. Our release cycles accelerated while our

defect rates went down at the same time.”

With support and products from Red Hat, Genfare has changed its industry. “Innovation is when

you take an idea, cultivate it, and make the world a better place,” said Dickson. “Genfare and Red Hat

were able to take an idea and create a world that is better for riders across the US and Canada.”

ABOUT GENFARE

Genfare provides smart fare solutions to transit agencies throughout North America. It specializes

in solutions that allow for manageable updates and expansions, making the transition to new operat-

ing systems, hardware, and fare media quicker and easier. Genfare currently processes more than 3

billion transactions annually.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY Genfare quickly evolves from hardware to software with Red Hat