Conduent powers large US tolling authority with Oracle Database@Azure
Using OCI’s distributed cloud options, the E-Z Pass payment provider can pursue new business globally while meeting diverse regulatory requirements.
“Our clients depend on us to help streamline their business processes and end-user interactions, which makes transaction speed a top priority. With Oracle Database@Azure, we can simplify the management of our IT infrastructure and ensure the fastest possible access to Azure services and applications. This helps us deliver global solutions tailored to our customers’ requirements.”
Business challenges
Conduent processes nearly 13 million roadway tolling transactions every day, and billions of customer service interactions a year. The global provider of digital business solutions and services supports 6 of the 10 largest US toll systems, including ones in California, Florida, New Jersey, and New York, and its customer base includes more than 600 government and transportation agencies as well as Fortune 100 companies. Conduent’s customers have a broad range of regulatory and product requirements, and Conduent’s mix of public cloud and on-premises technology wasn’t keeping up.
To support one large US tolling customer, Conduent wanted to deliver faster transaction performance for tolling and payment processing. The toll operator had a Microsoft-based front-end application and back-end transaction processing running on Oracle Database in an on-premises data center. By using Oracle Database@Azure, Conduent could run the Microsoft application in the Azure cloud as the client preferred, while also running the Oracle Database on OCI inside Azure. The initiative shows how Conduent is using the flexibility of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s distributed cloud offerings to pursue new business opportunities.
Why Conduent chose Oracle
The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure distributed cloud options, including Oracle Database@Azure, Exadata Cloud@Customer, and OCI public cloud regions, help Conduent support new customers globally while meeting the broadest range of regulatory and client requirements, all with a single control plane for their data. This architecture gives Conduent the option to run its core Exadata workloads with high performance, availability, and security across clouds or in its own data center to help address clients’ differing compliance needs.
Conduent chose to migrate this key customer workload from a centralized on-premises deployment to Oracle Database@Azure. Because the service co-locates OCI services in Azure data centers, Conduent benefits from the critical capabilities of Exadata while developers get a consistent Azure experience. Conduent also could use both the Oracle and Microsoft licensing and discount programs, including Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC), while consuming Oracle services just as if they were part of Azure natively. In addition, the company also values the availability of Oracle Database@Azure across numerous regions around the world, which will support Conduent’s efforts to expand its transit solutions globally.
Using Oracle Database@Azure, Conduent doubled its application performance.
Results
Conduent has established a strong technology foundation to support its global growth goals. The company continues to win new business across US government and transportation agencies, and it is expanding in Europe and Australia, using its contactless payment solutions for train, bus, and light rail transit systems as well as vehicles.
With the recent new contract, for example, running its toll processing application on Oracle Database@Azure helps Conduent do real-time transaction processing that translates into a fast, reliable experience for the drivers that its tolling authority client serves. Database@Azure helped Conduent double the application performance compared with an on-premises deployment and improve system resiliency without impacting regulatory compliance. “The performance of Exadata Database Service on Oracle Database@Azure is amazing—better than anticipated,” says Brandon Smith, head of engineering and technology operations at Conduent. While Oracle Database powers the back end, on the front end, drivers can replenish their toll accounts in a Microsoft Dynamics 365 interface, which is also integrated with Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to execute and record the financial transactions. A redesigned website and updated mobile app using Microsoft technology also provide an improved customer experience.
Conduent’s cloud architecture also sets the business up to tap more AI and machine learning technologies in the future to boost innovation and new revenue streams. Conduent has a significant amount of valuable traffic pattern data from its years in business. By having this data available in Exadata Cloud@Customer and other distributed OCI environments, it makes the data more accessible and ready for clients’ potential AI and machine learning use cases. With Oracle, Conduent can bid future projects in a proactive way that tailors the architecture to best meet customer needs.
About the customer
Based in Florham Park, New Jersey, Conduent’s solutions and services create value by elevating customer experiences, increasing efficiencies, and reducing costs. Businesses depend on Conduent each day as their trusted partner to manage processes and end-user interactions.