The Configuration Management tool will allow the operators of the system to configure the AFC Business. On the other hand, the Transaction Processing component will process all transactions generated at Front Office level and store them at a safe (centralized) location, ready for further processing by other Back Office processes: Card Management, Reporting & Driver Accounting.
The AFC Front Office
The Front Office is the distributed IT environment, which is required to support the AFC business processes in the field (on vehicles, at Sales Points, …).
The core components at the Front Office side are the Business Applications running on all the devices located in the field. They will receive all their configuration data, via the Middleware, from the Back Office. The transactions they generate during operations will be sent, also via the Middleware, to the Transaction Processing component located at the Back Office.
Configuration Management
The component where everything starts is called the Configuration Management component which is located at the Back Office level. The purpose of this component is to allow the AFC operator to configure the AFC Business rules: LTS products, Fare Rules, Sales Rules, Device
Behavior, …
Once a new or updated set of configuration data is available, it need to be distributed to the AFC devices located at Front Office level. This distribution of data will happen by the using the Middleware services and the Depot services. A distributed set of configuration data will become active at the Front Office on a predefined date & time as defined by the Operator.
Transaction Processing
The Transaction Processing component, located at Back Office level, will be responsible for transaction collection, transaction validation and basic fraud detection.
After a transaction is processed it will be stored at a centralized safe location, from where it can be used by other Back Office processes (e.g. Reporting, Card Management, …).
Card Management
This component will allow an operator to manage & consult the status of payment cards used within the system. Using this component, one can lookup the current status and history of a payment card used within the AFC System, and if required the status can be changed (e.g. change the status of a payment card when it is stolen to prevent further usage).
Reporting Services
The Reporting Services can be used to generate all kind of reports based on the centralized database that contains all collected transactions from the Front Office. Standard & frequently used reports will be predefined, but also an operator can define ad-hoc reports.
This service will be based upon an Off The Shelf (OTS) reporting tool that need to allow an operator to define in an easy way new kind of reports.
Driver Accounting
Bus operators will use this component to control the incoming flow of money from their drivers. This component will allow bus operators to check if the amount of incoming money from a driver corresponds with the sales transactions registered, by the device located on the bus, during the shifts the driver was active.
Also functionality’s will be available to manage differences in the balance of these amounts (e.g. if a driver has handed over less money than the amount registered during sale activities).
Configuration Area’s
Configuration Management needs to allow an AFC operator to manage and maintain all required AFC configuration parameters. If we talk about AFC configuration, we can make a distinction between different configuration areas:
