What's New in GoldSTAR - Spring 2021

Our GoldSTAR product is constantly evolving. 

From minor bug fixes and cosmetic enhancements to the introduction of new modules and updates to accommodate changes in operating systems or best practice, our developers are continuously improving the system.  Here is a selection of some of the more significant additions that have been made over the last few months, which any of our existing customers can benefit from. Minor enhancements and bug fixes are included in the maintenance or rental prices for supported customers, and new modules can be added at standard prices.

Interface with Sagos ANPR system

A new module is now available to allow information about car park season tickets  bought in a ticket office to be passed to Sagoss.  Only monthly or longer season tickets are supported at the moment. Up to three vehicle registration numbers can be recorded for each customer,  along with the location reference of the car park for which their season ticket is valid. Details of any subsequent No Further Use refund will also be passed across, ensuring that the ANPR system recognises whether a vehicle is authorised to use the car park, that your car park revenue stream is protected, and that paying customers are not accidentally fined.  Although currently enabled only for GoldSTAR Mobile App, this interface could be introduced for your other TOMs and TVMs, subject to the third party supplier providing the required information with the sales or post sale transaction. 

Dual limits on refund authorisations

At the start of lockdown, most TOCs were faced with an unprecedented demand for refunds on season tickets  which, combined with some customers delaying their claims, resulted in requests to remove the restrictions on how long after its expiry date a ticket could be refunded. This change was rapidly rolled out across our customers,  and then a further enhancement was made to allow a distinction to be drawn between different levels of users. This means that you can now continue to prevent ticket office users  processing a refund on a ticket a certain period after its expiry, but allow customer service personnel to carry out the refund - even when they are using the same ticket issuing system to process the refund. Already available for Fujitsu TOMs, Foundation and ORM's WebTIS, work is scheduled to allow these two levels to be utilised in remaining interfaces.

More options for Advanced Searching

We've added options to allow searching by first name / initial, email address, ANPR reference and phone number to the Advanced Search, as well as vehicle registration number, making it easier to find the customer you're looking for, particularly in customer service centres or when looking for customers with car park tickets.

Enhanced database downloads for Mobile Devices

Enhancements have been made to the GSM app to allow initial database downloads to be split into smaller files for transmission over the network.  This allows the download to recommence in the event of an interruption (for example by network dropping out) without having to redown load the whole database again. This will improve the installation experiance for large data downloads to stations where bandwidth is low, limited or unreliable. 

Change to encryption methods in GSM to support Android 10+

With Android 10, Google removed the ability to access certain device information programmatically. We have updated the app to ensure that security is just as strong, but no longer relies on the operating system to provide uniquely identifying information. 

Railcards

This enhancement gives you the ability to record railcard details, such as expiry date, against a customer and means that staff who have access to GoldSTAR can verify a customer's entitlement - even if the customer has forgotten their railcard. 

Interfacing with TicketKeeper's Avocet devices

A new module has been created to allow data to be transferred between TicketKeeper's Avocet device controller and GoldSTAR, supporting retail sales and post-sales activity on Avocet devices.  Still in the latest stages of development, we will be releasing this to the first customer in the coming weeks. This module operates in a similar way to interfaces with other TISes, to allow real-time exchange of data - the TIS will request customer and ticket details, and pass back to GoldSTAR information on the transaction carried out. However, in an enhancement beyond that used up to now, the Avocet device will also be able to read, add and update notepad information for a customer. 

If you would like more information about these enhancements, pricing where applicable, or to see whether they are suitable to apply to your environment, please contact our support team or your account manager.