Budapest, February 17, 2010 – With the intent of starting a new tradition, Invitel has awarded its first Innovation Prize to Hedz Hungary Ltd's iziSHOP mTicket and eTicket leading-edge electronic transport ticket system.

Innovation-oriented Invitel awarded its first Innomax Award this year. The jury had a difficult time choosing the best amongst the dozens of candidates in the various company-size based categories (5-19 employees, 20-69 employees and 70-250 employees). The new Innovation Prize in the small company category was awarded to Hedz Hungary Ltd., which also won Délmagyarország Business Innovation Prestige Award in December 2009, for the iziSHOP mTicket and eTicket system, which offer a new generation of electronic transport tickets.

The award ceremony was held on February 10th at the Palace of the Arts in Budapest. The jury, which was made up of well-known businessmen, chose companies in each category whose innovations are essentially unmatched by the competition. In the case of the winning Hedz Hungary Ltd, the jury particularly liked the user-friendly aspects of the iziSHOP eTicket electronic ticket system, which allow travellers to purchase tickets or passes quickly, easily, anywhere and at any time with their mobile telephones.

The iziSHOP mTicket system, developed by Hedz Ltd., was the country's first mobile telephone-based ticket purchasing service, which began functioning a year ago in Pécs. Today the Pécs Transit System, in cooperation with iziSHOP, offers two types of time-based tickets and three different types of passes, which can be purchased, using a bank card, either by mobile phone or online. CIB Bank is iziSHOP's banking partner. For ticket control, the passanger must show the image on the telephone screen, which is a colourful, graphic version of the ticket. When a ticket or pass is no longer valid, the image becomes grey and has a red line across it. The country's leading mobile telephone ticket purchasing service extends the purchasing options of electronic tickets through the iziSHOP eTicket system. Using the unique combination of central data storage of the bank card-based systems and mobile internet technologies, iziSHOP eTicket is also capable of utilizing traditional transport cards, bar coded papers, or identification cards (such as student cards or address cards) as electronic transport tickets. The tickets and passes can be purchased at traditional ticket sellers, at ticket machines, on the internet or by mobile telephone, thus guaranteeing appropriate customer service for all travellers.

Hedz Hungary Ltd. – www.hedz.hu
Hedz Ltd is a software technology company specializing in unique mobile payment and mobile banking applications. Hedz offers public utilities, banks and other service providers with solutions to help increase efficiency through the development of mobile telephone-based electronic channels. The company’s main products include the HMB mobile banking system developed for banks, a highly secure authentication system iziSEC, a full-range of billing and payment services (EBPP) for public utilities through moBill (www.mo-bill.hu), as well as a service which is one of a kind in Europe, developed for transportation and entertainment applications, allowing bank card payments via mobile telephone, iziSHOP (www.izishop.hu).

CIB Bank - www.cib.hu
CIB Bank is a member of Italy’s largest banking group, Intesa Sanpaolo. In its 30 years of service, it has developed from an exclusively corporate bank to becoming Hungary’s second largest commercial bank, providing complete commercial and investment services to corporations, governmental agencies, companies and private clients. CIB is not only a bank, but a banking group, which includes a leading leasing company and successful investment enterprises. CIB Bank considers the development and support of innovative solutions to be of prime importance, thus are pleased to be Hedz Hungary Ltd.’s financial partner.