Congestion Management System

To address the growing problem of traffic congestion in London, the Mayor of London announced a path-breaking scheme.   It afforded a novel way of charging drivers in central London during business hours, for valuable and congested road space.   The client, the UK's leading professional and support services organisation, who were awarded the contract faced considerable challenges:   Designing business processes that were at once simple-to-operate, non-intrusive and easy-to-enforce Creating the technology infrastructure and applications to support these processes Delivering within tight timescales with considerable penalties for delay   The client chose Mastek to develop the software for the multi-channel customer interface and to integrate it with several other subsystems to provide a seamless process flow.   It was a highly complex solution posing the following technical challenges: Provision of multiple channels for customer interface such as internet, call centre and white-mail Integration of a number of subsystems such as imaging, document management, enforcement, financial accounting and bespoke application Interfacing with outside agency systems such as DVLA and credit card processing companies Performance requirements to cater for 250,000 vehicles passing through charging zone resulting in over 800,000 images per day and 100,000 people buying charges every day through various channels   Prototyping was used to evaluate competing technologies and the leading edge .NET framework was selected.   The Mastek team worked in close conjunction with the clients' business analysts in the business process design. Working in RAD (Rapid Application Development) mode, Mastek supported the refinement of processes during the development lifecycle.   During the course of the development, the idea of using mobile phone SMS' as a channel for payments emerged. This innovation gained widespread recognition when the service was launched.   The programme was an unprecedented success. Not only was it launched on schedule, the user-friendly and intuitive application design found ready acceptance among the user community in London.   Engagement Facts 40,000+ vehicles drive into congestion zone everyday Traffic reduced by 10-15% Traffic queues reduced by 20-30% Speed increased by 10-15% Innovative and Flexible payment process for drivers 1 million+ images (number plates) processed every day 100,000+ financial transactions every day 60,000+ calls received every day 600+ man months of development effort   Technology Facts Largest .NET deployment running over 30 months (24x7) "Best .NET Solutions Award 2003" by Microsoft Interface: ASP.NET Middleware: .NET/IIS Web Server Platform: Windows Server System Development: Visual Studio .NET top