Megadyne Information Systems

Houston

In April 1998, Megadyne was selected by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) to provide METRO's Computerized Telephone Information System (CTIS). The CTIS is intended to enhance METRO bus ridership by the disbursement of consistent, timely, and accurate bus route and schedule information. The CTIS includes a computerized Trip Planning System, to allow METRO patrons to obtain a wide variety of detailed travel information, and an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to allow calling patrons access to travel information through the use of their telephone keypad. These two major CTIS components will be implemented using Megadyne's PARIS® and PARISpeak® software products. METRO serves the public transit needs of the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas, a region with a population of more than 2.7 million. METRO operates a fleet of 1300 buses over a network of more than 75 routes. The PARIS® implementation for METRO provides a client-server architecture running on Windows NT platforms and uses Oracle as the database management system. Map support is provided using MapObjects and ArcView from ESRI. The system is accessed by trained call center information agents using PC terminals and by the general public through Internet access. PARISpeak® is also implemented on a Windows NT platform and supports 24 lines using Dialogic voice cards.