Mentz GmbH

Cloud software

As a software provider for public transport related solutions, MENTZ provides applications into cloud based environments. These are used by public sector organisations such as Local Transport Authorities, Public Transport Executives, County and City Councils to plan their timetables and provide Journey Planner information for their users.

Features

  • Integration, dissemination of public transport data within defined rule set
  • Web based integration and normalisation of public transport related data
  • Plot public transport related data on map
  • Report on data issues in available public transport data
  • Journey Planner web interface for contact centres (TICC at TfL)
  • Provide support services online and track issues
  • Journey Planner API and routing engine for public transport data
  • Configure and patch applications with new versions
  • Central web application to report on Journey Planner usage, issued
  • Use OpenStreetMap and other GIS for public transport data visualisation

Benefits

  • Scale Journey Planner system up and down depending on load.
  • Use multiple instances for production, staging and development.
  • Use flexible cloud configuration management and replication functions.
  • Provide failover recovery for important instances and functions.
  • Replicate environments when required and in case of failures.

Pricing

£250,000 a unit

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at hosseini@mentz.net. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

9 5 6 9 0 1 3 2 8 2 2 9 2 5 0

Contact

Mentz GmbH Nahid Hosseini
Telephone: 0049 89 41868 134
Email: hosseini@mentz.net

Service scope

Software add-on or extension
No
Cloud deployment model
Private cloud
Service constraints
Product IPRs belong to MENTZ. Product licenses for application are issued together with Support and Maintenance services to buyers.
System requirements
  • Windows
  • Oracle
  • Postgres

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
1) Response time depends on agreed SLA
E.g.
Prio 1, Response 1 hr, Fix 2 dys
Prio 2, Response 4 hrs, Fix 5 dys
Prio 3, Response 24 hrs, Fix 10 dys
Prio 4, Response 5 dys, as per estimate
2) yes (an online support facility is available)
2b) None or don’t know
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
None or don’t know
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support
No
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
MENTZ provides support services for all licenses products including the large systems DIVA and EFA (Journey Planner).

For both service levels do exist.

EFA
Prio 1, Response 1 hr, Fix 2 dys
Prio 2, Response 4 hrs, Fix 5 dys
Prio 3, Response 24 hrs, Fix 10 dys
Prio 4, Response 5dys, as per estimate

DIVA (data management - not public facing)
Prio 1, Response 5 hrs, Fix 5 dys
Prio 2, Response 1 dy, Fix 10 dys
Prio 3, Response 7 dys, Fix 20 dys
Prio 4, Response 7 dys, as per estimate

MENTZ provides technical application support as well as account management.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
MENTZ provides system implementation and support services. The implementation phase includes onsite training with comprehensive system documentation. After system launch onsite or online training is provided with new functionality or applications being available. The ducomentation is updated accordingly. We work with very close relationship with the buyers, this is a key success factor.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
Data can easily be downloaded (in standard formats) and deleted across all systems. On request MENTZ provides backup services.
End-of-contract process
Any data is downloaded and deleted from all. Machines are terminated and deleted on buyers request. This service is included if no special requirements do apply, e.g. copy to mediums which are not included to contract.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Supported browsers
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
Application to install
Yes
Compatible operating systems
Windows
Designed for use on mobile devices
No
Service interface
Yes
User support accessibility
None or don’t know
Description of service interface
Not specifically accessible, Journey Planner is a API driven application
Accessibility standards
None or don’t know
Description of accessibility
Not specifically accessible, Journey Planner is a API driven application
Accessibility testing
XML / JSON API of Journey Planner is accessible via internet does not require testing with assistive technology
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
Plan door-to-door journeys and displays results in tabular and map form.
Accessible features are supported by the API to allow step-free journey calculations on a national level (UK).
Dynamic, realtime information is integrated - such as events being published by transport operators - which influence the journey result.
Optimisation criteria such as Quickest Journey / Least Interchanges / Least walking is available:
Multimodal journey options are available, such as bike sharing or car sharing.
Fares data is made available with journey plans.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
PDF
API sandbox or test environment
Yes
Customisation available
Yes
Description of customisation
API for Journey Planner is highly configurable and relies on a business logic which can be setup once but frequently changed when new requirements emerge. This is done in tight coordination between MENTZ and the buyer. Fundamantal parameters can be changed in a web user interface during run time.

Scaling

Independence of resources
Application server cluster is redundant and scalable horizontally. MENTZ solution auto-scales in the cloud depending on demand.

Analytics

Service usage metrics
Yes
Metrics types
System usage such as
- Imported data / who, when, what
- Exported data / who, when, what
- Manually maintained data / who, when, what
- Number of Journey Planner requests
- TOP requests
- TOP locations
- Hourly / Daily / Monthly / Yearls requests
- Request matrix (from - to)
- Accessible options
- Calculation times
Reporting types
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Not a reseller

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Conforms to BS7858:2019
Government security clearance
None

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Supplier-defined controls
Penetration testing frequency
Never
Protecting data at rest
Other
Other data at rest protection approach
Not available or not applicable
Data sanitisation process
No
Equipment disposal approach
A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

Data export approach
The solution provides a web interface where all data can be exported in following formats
- NaPTAN
- TransXChange
- NeTex
- VDV452
- TRIAS / Open Journey Planner
- SIRI
- Excel
- CSV
Data export formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data export formats
  • NaPTAN
  • TransXChange
  • NeTex
  • VDV452/453/454
  • TRIAS / Open Journey Planner
  • SIRI
Data import formats
  • CSV
  • Other
Other data import formats
  • Excel
  • NaPTAN
  • TransXChange
  • NeTex
  • VDV452

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
Other
Other protection between networks
Not available or not applicable
Data protection within supplier network
Other
Other protection within supplier network
Not available or not applicable

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Availability is defined in tight coordination with the buyer. The MENTZ applications are designed to provide 100% availability. However, availability is also driven by the underlying cloud environment. The MENTZ solution is scalable and can also be mirrored to secondary hosting sites. Hence the applications can run on multiple instances in redundand mode, which guarantees availabilities of up to 100%.

SLA EFA (Journey Planner):
Prio 1, Response 1 hr, Fix 2 dys
Prio 2, Response 4 hrs, Fix 5 dys
Prio 3, Response 24 hrs, Fix 10 dys
Prio 4, Response 5dys, as per estimate

SLA DIVA (data management - not public facing)
Prio 1, Response 5 hrs, Fix 5 dys
Prio 2, Response 1 dy, Fix 10 dys
Prio 3, Response 7 dys, Fix 20 dys
Prio 4, Response 7 dys, as per estimate
Approach to resilience
The MENTZ Journey Planner solution is setup on redundant instances with the same applications and data. A load balancer guarantees an even load distribution across all instances. In case one instance fails, the remaining instances take over the load. A certain spare room capacity shall be included in the solution design or auto-scaling is introduced to ensure the demand can be served.
Outage reporting
Dedicated monitoring applications report on outages via dashboards and messaging to system operators. An optional 24x7 support can be granted to pro-actively monitor the system and react on failures.

Identity and authentication

User authentication needed
Yes
User authentication
Username or password
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
The MENTZ systems provide two main streams:
1) DIVA - data management - where a concrete user access and roles management is integral part and which is setup together with the buyer
2) EFA - journey planner - where APIs are accessed and a API gateway is required to protect access
Access restriction testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Management access authentication
Username or password

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
No
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
No
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
No
Cyber essentials plus
No
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
ISO 9001:2015

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
No
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
Other
Other security governance standards
Governance defined in MENTZ QM following ISO standard (ISO 9001:2015).
Information security policies and processes
In our applications we ensure that the latest patches and security advices are taken into account.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
In case new versions of applications or changed configuration is to be released, this is deployed on development and staging instances for testing excercises before these are released to production.
All our processes (including configuration and change management) are well-defined in our quality management system following ISO 9001:2015.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
MENTZ uses COTS products for all customers. Before new versions are released they are tested on functionality and vulnerability (on request) by internal test teams and the customer via UAT.
All our processes (including vulnerability management) are well-defined in our quality management system following ISO 9001:2015.
Protective monitoring type
Supplier-defined controls
Protective monitoring approach
Dedicated monitoring applications report on compromises. Response times are defined in the SLAs, e.g. for Journey Planner
Prio 1, Response 1 hr, Fix 2 dys
Prio 2, Response 4 hrs, Fix 5 dys
Prio 3, Response 24 hrs, Fix 10 dys
Prio 4, Response 5dys, as per estimate

All our processes (including protective monitoring) are well-defined in our quality management system following ISO 9001:2015.
Incident management type
Supplier-defined controls
Incident management approach
The process to manage incidents is handled by our technical support team in accordance to our quality management system following ISO 9001:2015.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

Connection to public sector networks
Yes
Connected networks
Other
Other public sector networks
  • HTTP
  • RDP

Social Value

Wellbeing

Wellbeing

MENTZ supports staff wellbeing, healthiness and physical training to a high extent: flexible working times, flexible employment opportunities for working parents, sabbaticals, ergonomic office equipment, organic coffee, juice and fruits, free accident insurance, excursions, sports activities (skiing weekend, weekly running groups, hiking trip, discounted gym membership, cycle to work scheme), restaurant vouchers, financial support in cases of emergency. To improve staff wellbeing we encourage sporting activities. Company excursions include, skiing weekend, running groups, annual hiking trip,, discounted gym membership, health insurance, cycle to work scheme, or dicounts in form of food coupons, sabbatical with salary sacrifice. MENTZ offers financial support in cases of emergency. MENTZ offers flexible employment opportunities for working parents.

Pricing

Price
£250,000 a unit
Discount for educational organisations
No
Free trial available
No

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at hosseini@mentz.net. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.