AMCON.ABO
Manage all types of tickets for your subscribers centrally and clearly – with AMCON.ABO
With AMCON.ABO, both subscriptions and customer data, customer relationships, as well as customer applications/contracts can be centrally managed. This gives transport companies the ability to accompany passengers from early childhood through to senior age within a central customer database. The system supports student transportation, job tickets, and general public subscriptions. Contract billing and receivables/dunning management are also integrated into the AMCON.ABO solution.
The AMCON.ABO product package essentially consists of the “Customer Management” module for managing customer master data and subscription contracts and the “Billing” module for processing contract billing. Additionally, AMCON.ABO includes portals for schools, school cost sponsors and companies, allowing the management of students and employees alike.
Customer Management
The customer is at the center of customer management. It offers a wide range of options for managing payers (e.g., school authorities), organizations (e.g., schools or companies), customers (e.g., students or employees), their contracts (subscriptions), and associated fare media (e.g., VDV-KA eTickets on chip cards, Motics barcodes, UIC barcodes, VDV-KA barcodes, paper tickets, ID-based AMCON eTickets).
Master data management
Subscription configuration
Document Generator
Master data Management
Customer management includes master data management, where—as the name implies—the master data of all customers is maintained and managed. Customer data can be entered directly by a caseworker in the backend system. Importing customer data is also possible, e.g., in CSV format. As a third option, customers can register themselves via a self-service portal and independently manage their personal information. Through this portal, customers can also apply for and manage their subscriptions. This self-service functionality helps streamline processes and significantly reduces the workload for transport companies. At the same time, end users avoid lengthy paper-based procedures and personal visits to service centers, with the ability to view and update their data online at any time. The available customer data can be interlinked in various ways—for example, to represent family relationships or to connect companies with their employees. Customer management also takes into account the relationships between customer, application/contract, and card (medium).
A customer might be a private individual purchasing a subscription. The customer can be the actual user (subscriber) of a card or simply the contract holder and payer—for example, when one spouse applies for a subscription on behalf of the other. Linking these relationships significantly simplifies subscription management.
Subscription Configuration
Another cornerstone of customer management is subscription configuration. Through this central interface, all subscriptions—with all their specific features—can be configured flexibly. This allows us to tailor the product to the needs of any transport company. Within the subscription configuration, for example, the applicable fare type can be defined, the billing method specified, and the output format of the travel documents determined.
In addition, the subscription configuration allows for the allocation of subscription costs. This means it can be specified which party covers which portion of a subscription’s cost. With this flexibility, AMCON.ABO can support a wide variety of requirements and subscription types.
The subscription configuration also enables the setup of the online ordering process. Transport companies retain full control over which subscriptions are available for purchase in the webshop and which data the end customer must provide during the application process.
Complementing the subscription configuration is the application workflow designer, which controls how individual subscriptions—or groups of subscriptions (e.g., all student tickets)—are processed. It can be used to define whether, for example, a credit check should take place or whether a school, company, or cost bearer must first approve a subscription.
New workflows can be easily created using the visual editor, existing workflows can be modified, or simply viewed in order to understand and optimize the work process.
Document Generator
AMCON.ABO also includes an integrated document generator. This feature allows transport companies to customize their customer communication and maintain their correspondence independently. It also enables the automated dispatch of form letters to customers.
Billing
The “Billing” module is used for invoicing contracts (subscriptions) and shifts (sales data).
The billing process—regardless of whether contracts or shifts are being billed—follows the same two-step procedure
In the first step, the so-called booking run, all unbooked contract or shift data for a selected billing period is processed and posted to the appropriate accounts in the sub-ledger.
In the billing run, the second step of the billing process, invoices and billing documents are generated. These can be viewed, printed, or automatically sent via email directly from the billing module. Just like with the document generator, the layout of the documents can be freely configured based on a default template.
The generated invoices can be paid in various ways. AMCON.ACCOUNTING supports the payment methods “Cash”, “EC card”, “Direct debit”, and “Bank transfer”.
Subscriptions that are completed directly by the customer in the webshop can also be billed via a payment service provider.
For direct debit collections via SEPA, multiple bank accounts can be stored. This enables automatic collection of different revenue types into separate bank accounts—for example, student subscription payments can be separated from general public subscriptions. AMCON.ABO always uses the latest SEPA version and includes an integrated bank routing number directory.
It is also possible to import bank statement files. The system checks the End-to-End ID assigned during the direct debit process to allow for automatic assignment of return debits.
Missed or failed payments are a common issue in subscription handling for transport companies. AMCON.ABO includes a receivables management feature that adapts to the company’s internal processes.
Receivables management consists of three components:
Dunning levels
Restrictions that define when a dunning level is triggered
Actions that are executed when transitioning to another dunning level
These three components can be easily and flexibly configured in the backend system to meet the specific requirements of the transport company.
School Transport Cost Bearer Portal
The SWKT Portal is a web-based platform designed for schools (organizations) and their respective school authorities or funding bodies (cost bearers). Through this portal, schools or school authorities have access to their students and their master data, can submit change requests, and use various functions to manage the students’ tickets or subscriptions.
For example, contract-related actions such as requesting a new customer card or a replacement card, as well as pausing or cancelling a contract, can be initiated directly from the portal.
Job-Ticket Portal
In addition to the SWKT Portal, AMCON.ABO also offers a Job Ticket Portal. Companies can use this portal to manage their employees, maintain employee master data, and apply for new subscriptions or cancel existing ones.
Advantages
Manage a customer from their student ticket through to their senior subscription using a single customer record
Supports all common registration methods—paper-based, list-based, or web-based
Linking of data records enables the creation of family or corporate accounts
Management of private customers, large accounts, and students alike
Customer data is made available electronically for further processing
Ticket issuance can be tailored: individual print, mass personalized, in person, by letter, or in batches
Ticket output via VDV or UIC barcodes for apps is supported
Real-time data exchange between the portals and the backend system
