Digital development enhances the daily lives of consumers. We examine two examples of how such processes are making life easier for the citizens of the Netherlands as organisations offer innovative capabilities for the FinTech space.
The Netherlands becomes first country to launch fully contactless public transport payments system nationwide
The Netherlands has recently completed the launch of a contactless transit payments system nationwide, simplifying access and allowing travellers to tap-in and tap-out with their debit card, credit card or digital wallet. All public transport across the country – including trains, buses, metros and trams – now accept OVpay, an open loop system consisting of upgraded infrastructure and innovative software that ensures frictionless journeys throughout the country and secure payments.
Mastercard played an essential role in the launch of OVpay, partnering with the joint public transport companies and Translink to support local banks with implementing mobility transaction processing rules. The company also ensured the necessary software updates and components were installed to move the country-wide innovations forward.
The simplified payments approach enhances navigation for transit users, which includes millions of residents in addition to visitors to the Netherlands. Not only is it possible to pay with a debit and credit card, riders can also pay with a smartphone or smartwatch on which the card is uploaded to a wallet.
With OVpay, tickets or public transport passes are no longer required, with the exception for those who have a subscription. This improved public transit service benefits everyday riders and tourists alike as it increases efficiency, helps to reduce congestion, addresses environmental concerns and increases liveability.
“We’re more than proud that we supported the Netherlands to be the first country in the world to make checking in with a debit and credit card in public transport nationally available. With this implementation, we make public transport more accessible to the wider public,” said Jan-Willlem van der Schoot, Country Manager, the Netherlands. “We see that many people faced hurdles when wanting to take public transport. From now on, no need to separately buy tickets or miss your train because the balance on your public transport card is too low. This has been an amazing team effort. So many people worked very hard on it during the last couple of years. It’s incredible to see how our efforts and those of our partners have made this happen.”
Open loop payment solutions are already accepted in metropolitan areas around the world, including London, New York City, Sydney and Milan, but has never been launched comprehensively nationwide before.
ABN AMRO finds smarter and faster digital customer experiences with NICE CXone
NICE has announced that ABN AMRO, a leading eurozone financial institution located in the Netherlands, has deployed NICE CXone to expand its digital capabilities across all touchpoints and provide a smarter, faster customer experience across the entire journey. Alongside reseller, Infosys, NICE helped ABN AMRO migrate from on-premise to cloud with CXone in a quick, easy and risk-free way, aiding the bank’s wider Digital Transformation ambitions.
ABN AMRO required an upgrade that would simplify its infrastructure and address customers’ new digital needs. With thousands of employees working across various campuses and remotely, ABN AMRO also needed a solution that was easy to configure, agile and had flexible capabilities that addressed the new hybrid working environment. Handling around 5 million calls annually, ABN AMRO integrated NICE’s unified platform, CXone, alongside attached solutions including CXone Workforce Management (WFM), CXone Audio Recording and CXone Personal Connection, so that it works harmoniously with existing third-party CRM and chatbot solutions.
ABN AMRO required a cloud-based solution with a complete set of capabilities that allowed it to expand CX further than the capabilities of its previous vendor. By understanding the customer’s business needs, NICE and Infosys were able to provide a fast deployment without disrupting day-to-day activities. NICE CXone enhances the experience using purpose-built AI to provide a smarter, faster service. In addition, CXone’s WFM capability simplifies workforce management activities by eliminating manual processes, proactively optimising intraday schedules and empowering agents and supervisors with automated workflows.
Looking forward, ABN AMRO is testing the use of social media by leveraging NICE CXone omnichannel chat capabilities to reach its customers more efficiently. Additionally, NICE CXone Personal Connection will be used to maximise agent utilisation with increased connection rates and to control third-party systems. NICE CXone Recording provides secure, full-featured interaction recording to satisfy contact centre compliance and quality assurance needs.
Wandana Jankie, Contract Owner and IT Lead Customer Interaction, ABN AMRO, said: “With NICE CXone we have a place where the remote customer journey is orchestrated and comes to life. It allowed us to expand our digital capabilities and provide our customers with a better experience. The integration with NICE, together with our implementation partner, Infosys, has been smooth with already 6,000 users migrated and I could not be happier with the results.”
“We are pleased to have provided ABN AMRO with infrastructure capable of meeting today’s digital customer expectations as well as the bank’s digital ambitions of tomorrow,” said Darren Rushworth, President, NICE International. “With our scalable, cloud native platform and suite of best-of-breed solutions, ABN AMRO will be able to increase omnichannel capabilities and meet its customers at any touchpoint.”