Recap: MaaS Conference Vienna

Getting wherever you are going has never been easier. Besides calling a cab, or relying on public transport, one can now choose to rail an Uber, rent an electric scooter, or use a car-sharing service. In sync with such development, the consultancy company accilium, the management school Business Circle, and the journalist and entrepreneur Christian Clerici organized the first Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Conference in Vienna.

On November 25-26, experts invited by accilium and Business Circle gathered at a historical building at Karlsplatz: the former headquarters of the Austrian Transport Office, the organization responsible for creating the ticketing system used in Austria's railroads. There, they talked about mobility trends, collaborations between long-established brands and newcomers, and the roles of the private and public sector in the evolving urban space. Among the presenters and panelists attending the conference were Alexandra Reinagl, from Wiener Linien, Augustin Friedel, from Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Julia Girardi-Hoog, from Wiener Wohnen, Mario Eibl, from Gleam, Markus Frantz, from ÖBB, Markus Spickermann, from Volvo Cars Mobility, Martin Essl, from Uber, Martin Waldbauer, from TAXI 31300, Martin Russ, from Austriatech, Oliver Schmerald, from ÖAMTC, Sampo Hietanen, from Maas global LTD talking about whim, and our IXOPAY expert Adam Vissing.

IXOPAY's Keynote

Adam posed a question to the audience: what is seamless experience in the context of mobility and electronic payment industries? An abundance of apps doesn't equal convenience. If the mobility service provider forces you to pay with a credit card or fails to connect with the e-wallet of your preference, it ruins the experience.

What Is a Seamless Experience in Mobility?

Seamless payment experience is paramount for convenience. By implementing a payment orchestration platform like IXOPAY, urban mobility companies can turn on a myriad of payment methods. Does a user want to pay with direct debit? It is fine. Another prefers to use Apple Pay? Of course, it is possible. What about other ways? If they aren't part of IXOPAY's extensive adapters list, we can implement a new payment method in as short of a time as two weeks.

IXOPAY offers urban mobility businesses the chance to bundle multiple transactions, using Transaction Pooling, and store preferred payment method data in a PCI-certified vault. Additionally, the payment routing engine in our platform helps our clients reduce expenses with fees from acquiring banks and financial institutions in 15%.

More than convenience

Making sure users get where they want to go using the transport and the payment method of their choice is about more things than convenience and process optimization. In densely populated cities, where traffic jams steal up to 4.5 days from each citizen every year, players in the mobility industry have the power and the responsibility to influence traffic planning.

On this note, Wiener Wohnen speaker Julia took the stage at MaaS to share her success story with mobility centers in the Viennese district Simmering. A traditional worker's neighborhood, Simmering was chosen as a lab to understand citizens' preferences in regards to commuting. Julia highlighted the importance of learning from different user groups, adapting software and implementing gamification as a means to promote alternative ways to complete short journeys in urban areas.

Julia’s story echoed the way Sampo rolled out his app whim in Helsinki, Finnland. He and his team sat down with locals and traced in a map the transportation methods they used on different occasions. The exercise showed that people weren’t happy with having to wait for a rental car after getting off a train. Also, that people chose different ways to cover similar distances – taxis, bikes, on foot – depending on when the journey happened and the activity they would engage once arriving at the destination.

The conversations taking place at MaaS energized and strengthened our belief in productive partnerships between fintech and companies in both established and emerging verticals.

Curious about how other verticals use payment management platforms? Read the success story of our client Delivery Hero, the business behind food delivery brands foodora, mjam, and HungerStation here.

About IXOPAY

IXOPAY is a Payments Orchestration Platform enabling independent, flexible and global payment processing. As a highly scalable and PCI-DSS certified “Fintech Enabler”, IXOPAY fulfills the needs of large merchants as well as those of “White Label” clients: Payment Service Providers (PSPs), Acquirers and Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs). The modern, easily extendable architecture offers smart transaction routing & cascading, state-of-the-art risk & fraud management, fully automated reconciliation and settlements processing, comprehensive reporting as well as plugin-based integration of Acquirers, Payment Service Providers and Alternative Payment Methods (APMs).

IXOPAY is part of the IXOLIT Group, founded in Vienna, Austria in 2001. With local entities in Austria and the USA, IXOLIT supports national and international customers across various industry verticals. The owner-led and -financed company has grown from 2 to more than 65 employees and is focussed on building innovative solutions for eCommerce.

Please find more information about IXOPAY here.

About accilium

accilium is a consultancy platform, which thrives to deliver exceptional services towards all relevant partners in the mobility ecosystem. With more than 30 years of experience in the automotive industry, professionals at accilium swear by the motto that nothing is built to last unless it is built to evolve. accilium focuses on projects in the areas of urban mobility, pervasive digitization, electric utilities, and customer experience. 

Please find more information about accilium here.

About Business Circle

Founded in 1994, Business Circle offers courses and organizes events in various areas, including finance, communication, law, construction, health, and digitalization. A team of 45 people answers for planning, organization, and execution of 36 different yearly forums and in-house activities.

Please find more information about Business Circle here.

About Christian Clerici and New Moto Group

One of the most famous moderators in German-speaking television, Christian Clerici turned a new page with MaaS Conference and reaffirmed his interest in the mobility industry. His newly founded company New Moto Group plans to bring to the market an “alternative mobility subscription” in 2020.