Contactless LEGIC Technology Secures Austrian HYPO Bank

During renovation and extension work at HYPO state bank GANTNER also upgraded and modernised the bank’s LEGIC system.

The Hypo Vorarlberg Group’s headcount has more than doubled in the last ten years. No wonder the existing building was fit to burst. The main idea was to combine customer convenience and highest security levels. Contactless LEGIC technology offered many advantages.

Hypo’s head office building in Bregenz was in urgent need of renovation, so full-scale conversion and extension work was begun in April 2007. Head office floor space was increased by total of around 1,000 m�. The ambitious new construction plans concentrated on deploying the very latest environmentally-friendly building technologies as well as on the architect’s language and the inclusion of contemporary art.

GANTNER as Project Coordinator

After a three-month project planning phase during which GANTNER coordinated all the trades involved, from electricians through to door producers, the next challenge was to install the access control and time and attendance system which had to be integrated seamlessly into the existing technological landscape.

Besides HYPO in Bregenz, a total of almost 250 GANTNER time recording and access control terminals for more than 1,000 employees are in use at 31 other HYPO locations and subsidiaries in Austria; together they form an integrated LEGIC based system.

Thanks to perfect teamwork, this far from easy undertaking was successfully completed in a record time of around six weeks. The new building in Bregenz alone houses 550 staff and 5,000 access control operations must be performed every day. Organising all this requires 62 online and 40 offline terminals; time stamping takes place at one of eight time-registration terminals which were specially manufactured for HYPO as a stainless steel version.

High Security Requirements

The system in Bregenz on Lake Constance includes a few special features which cater specifically for the increased security requirements that are appropriate to a bank. The use of lifts and access to individual floors are strictly controlled, for example. An employee’s chip card must additionally be verified by means of a code in order to gain access to the banking area both from outside and from the offices.

The entire building is split into a total of 15 alarm areas which can be activated and deactivated via the access control or time registration terminals. GAT Building Overview software ensures that staff who are responsible for security have a complete overview of all events, door states and alarm situations. This software also allows various scenarios to be stored and triggered as appropriate.

LEGIC Moves Local Public Transport in City of Augsburg

Contactless customer card as electronic ticket on buses and trams of the city of Augsburg increases convenience and passenger control.

The KAROCARD is already successfully being used as an annual card in the public transport systems of the city of Augsburg. Further potential areas of use for the card are also now being considered – as an entry ticket for car parks, but also as an electronic payment method at petrol stations.

The possibility of combining various applications on a single card is based on the latest LEGIC advant technology from the Swiss LEGIC Identsystems Ltd.

Contactless Tickets

Working jointly with LEGIC, the consultancy Cosmo.ID and the general contractor multicard have designed a contactless chip card system for the Stadtwerke Augsburg, which will set the standards.

For the first time in Germany, on the basis of the multifunctional customer card of their own public services utility, the Stadtwerke have at the same time created the e-ticket for contactless tickets on public transport. Approx. 85’000 citizens of Augsburg are already using the cards today.

KAROCARD Management System

The LEGIC advant contactless basis technology comes from LEGIC Identsystems Ltd. Cosmo.ID was responsible for the system architecture and the project management, Multicard for the manufacture of cards for the various applications, the letter shop and the on site integration of the KAROCARD management system.

As a first step the “market partner” and “e-ticket” applications have been activated. Currently up to eight e-tickets can already be used on the KAROCARD, as this is required for example by the core application of the German VDV (Association of German Transportation Companies).

In addition a further 15 functions are available which can be released as needed – for example for access control, time and attendance, cashless payment or club memberships. The LEGIC cards can also be flexibly expanded in the future. In principle the LEGIC technology permits the combination of up to 127 applications of different types, sizes or from different suppliers on a single card.

All the data required is stored on the contactless LEGIC chip in the card. Lost or stolen cards can be blocked by the owner in a very short time, so misuse of tickets is ruled out. The Stadtwerke are also anticipating higher revenues through the combination of the customer card with the public transport e-ticket as well as the improved passenger control.

Lost cards can be deactivated immediately. The further utilisation, thus, is not possible any longer. The possibility to create a substituted card in a very short time is another additional service for customers.

“We wanted to create more efficient options for passenger control and increased convenience for our customers. The cooperation with LEGIC, Cosmo.ID and Multicard enabled us to work consistently towards a flexible and service-focused solution which will meet the requirements of our customers to a great extent,” says J�rgen Weidenbacher, project manager of Stadtwerke Augsburg Energie GmbH.

“The introduction of the new system landscape combined with the new CRM software has been accompanied by a marked optimisation of processes.” Dr Otto Eggimann, Vice President Sales and Business Development of LEGIC, is convinced of the innovative power of the solution: “Further uses of the KAROCARD are already under discussion in Augsburg, in the areas of car park use, as a stadium ticket or for instance at petrol stations. By choosing the LEGIC technology the Stadtwerke have already taken a decisive step towards the future and innovative services.”