Growth and economic success bring their own set of problems. A strong economy and industrial growth over the years have created a significant impact on the environment and businesses alike. These include:

1.  Ever increasing Carbon  Footprint
2.  Higher prices of fuel and dependency on foreign nations to meet our need for oil
3.  Traffic congestion – a silent killer of business profits

The significant increase in costs of maintaining personal transportation is forcing citizens to look at alternate modes of transport – not just for long distances but also for short distances. Personal modes of transportation become prohibitive with the increasing price of oil. When citizens move towards shared public transportation, they should be incentivized and offered the same type of rewards that the airline industry offers. This requires Governments to study the best practices in the airline industry and to seriously consider a Customer Loyalty and Relationship Management strategy for citizens using public modes of transportation.

To provide a healthy and comfortable life for its citizens, progressive Governments today are looking at ways to attract travelers to modes of transportation other than airlines / private transportation. For that it is important to recognize and reward such diligent citizens for their role in reducing the emission of green house gases.

How a Government’s view of Loyalty differs from that of an Airline
Loyalty programs are the most evolved in the airline domain. So it is worthwhile to understand the differences between an airline’s view of loyalty and that of a Government.

Airline loyalty is typically characterized by the airline providing miles/points for travel to its customers in turn adding liability to its balance sheet. For an airline, this future liability is a necessary evil that they have to put up with to manage its business today. These miles/points can then be redeemed by their loyalty program members either with the airline or at participating business partners.

Being not for profit entities, Governments have a different need from their loyalty programs. They are interested in increasing the use of alternate modes of transport by making them an attractive and integral part of the lives of their citizens. Progressive Governments realize that they will be successful in bringing about social reforms only if they do not look at it from a profitability angle. However, they would be interested in generating ancillary revenue to fuel projects of public interest.

Government Needs
Many Governments are becoming more and more progressive when it comes to bringing about reforms in Public Transportation. The immediate manifestation of this is the following:

• Consolidated public transport fare systems valid for all modes of public transport
• Roll out of a Smartcard based contactless electronic tickets

Such projects make it easier for citizens to use public transportation. Other than obviating the need to buy multiple tickets for multiple modes of public transport, they also; reduce queues at vending machines, do away with the need of picking the right fare, protect the environment by reducing paper waste and in turn save costs.

The grand vision behind all these initiatives includes the following:

• Increase use of Public Transportation
• Reduce traffic congestion on the roads

How IBS can help achieve this grand vision
Attracting and retaining citizens to its Public Transit System becomes key to achieving this grand vision. This can be achieved by rewarding citizens for their “loyalty” to such shared transportation. A possible form of reward could be RECs (renewable energy certificates) based on a “carbon offset”, which would be calculated by comparing the amount of CO2 that would have been produced, if the citizen would have used a car for travel vs. public transport. RECs can be traded and converted into money.

A comprehensive loyalty management platform is required to manage this.

iLoyal is a new-generation loyalty management platform built by IBS for the 21st century. iLoyal not only covers loyalty administration, but also fully integrates customer feedback management, campaign management, management information and analytics.  Energy Certificates can be configured within iLoyal and these can be made available to citizens who are part of the loyalty programs.

iLoyal Solution Benefits:
Business Agility:

• iLoyal empowers the Government’s Transportation Marketing Department to dynamically define different loyalty programs and reward mechanisms to meet the changing business environment

Enhanced Revenue & Profits:

• iLoyal equips the Government to earn significant revenue by selling “green points” to commercial establishments at a significantly marked-up rate and manage all the related accounting information. The businesses can then award these “green points” to citizens as a way of rewarding them for using any of the businesses products / services that they offer.

Manage Growth:

• iLoyal has been built to manage large numbers of transactions and has the flexibility to cater to today’s as well as future needs with little or no modifications.

IBS’ value proposition to Governments

• IBS has the experience of working with Government organizations on projects for social reforms especially in the transportation sector
• IBS has the consulting expertise to help Governments build and implement their strategy in the area of Transportation Loyalty
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership since iLoyal can be run on commodity hardware and uses new generation non-proprietary technology (Java)
• Phased implementation will reduce risks and aid in the evolution of the end-to-end business processes
• Cost-effective support from off-shore development centers

Conclusion
iLoyal from IBS, will help in putting Governments among an elite group of early adopters that are revolutionizing public transit. With iLoyal, Governments are well on their way to become hubs for technological and business innovation.