The guest of our third interview is John-Peter Veldkamp, who is a Manager in Mobility Solutions, Payments & Innovation at Ximedes BV. Ximedes develops software solutions for Banks, FinTechs, and the Mobility sector. Their focus is on transactions, ticketing, payments, and reconciliation. Having implemented the TOMP-API for numerous clients, John-Peter was eager to share his insights with us.
Welcome, John-Peter, and thank you very much for taking part in this interview. To start, we would like to know when and how you first heard about the TOMP-API?
Me personally and Ximedes as a company have been involved right from the start of TOMP. At the time, we were part of a Horizon 2020 project called MaaS4EU. The purpose of this EU-funded project was to determine how an interoperable, multimodal and cross-border MaaS solution could work. The Dutch Ministry was very interested in the process and outcomes of this project, which has also served as a source of ‘inspiration’ and input for the nine MaaS pilots that have been initiated by the Dutch Ministry.
Being familiar with TOMP since the early days, we can imagine that you have used the API for numerous implementations?
For GVB, Amsterdam’s public transport operator, Ximedes has developed a barcode back-office: TapConnect. TapConnect generates barcodes, which can be used as a travel-right. This solution then also was used by ARRIVA. In their case, we have implemented TOMP in a Dutch-German cross-border project called EasyConnect. Also, TapConnect’s TOMP implementation is used in a MaaS solution by the province of Zeeland in order to provide mixed modalities (taxi, bike, and public transport) to tourists.
Did you face any challenges during these implementation journeys?
For us, implementing the TOMP-API specifically for public transport was the most challenging part. At that time, three years ago, TOMP was not designed for public transport. It took us a while to understand that, but we got a lot of support from the TOMP Working Group, which really helped us. It was great to see that the Working Group took our ideas and challenges into consideration and, more importantly, implemented them in a generic way and in a timely manner.
Based on your experience, which best practices can you share with the TOMP community?
Start small. The TOMP-API is quite broad and it caters for many aspects and different roles. So I recommend reading the entire documentation well, to understand the different roles and responsibilities, and to run through the different flows. And only after having done that, decide on which role your implementation will be playing. Even then, start with just a few endpoints and grow as you go.
Is there a way in which the TOMP-API Working Group can further contribute to the development of your activities?
You should know that our role is maybe a bit different than other organizations that make use of the TOMP-API. Our customers, mostly Mobility Service Providers like public transport operators, would ask us to implement a certain API. This was also the case with TOMP. Now that we have implemented TOMP, we can better help and advise our customers regarding the benefits of TOMP.
This being said, I do not have any suggestions for improvement: both the documentation and support by the Working Group are good, and that is the most important for us.
If resources were unlimited, what would you wish for your industry and how can TOMP contribute to this objective?
I would wish (and hope) that we will see more standardized, non-proprietary solutions. The times are over that our customers accept a vendor lock-in. Open architecture and open standards are the way forward. It is more about cooperating, being active and partnering in an ecosystem, and less about competing. This is exactly what the TOMP-API has achieved.
Thank you very much, John-Peter, for having shared your insights with us!
Haarlem / Ghent, 30.04.2024
This interview was made possible with the support of the Interreg North Sea Region Programme and the Province of Oost-Vlaanderen (Belgium) as part of the Interreg ShareDiMobiHub project.
