Budapest, March 30, 2010 – At the 18th Hungarian Innovation Grand Prix, the country's most high ranking innovation prize, Hedz Hungary Ltd. was awarded the Special Prize for the "iziSHOP mTicket and eTicket electronic transport ticket" services that it developed.

The country's most high ranking innovation prizes, the Hungarian Innovation Grand Prix, were awarded for the 18th time. The 18 member jury panel announced winners in 8 catagories, chosen from an unusually high number of competitiors. The Innovation Special Prize for the most successful new business in 2009 was awarded to Hedz Hungary Ltd. for its development of the iziSHOP mTicket and eTicket leading-edge electronic ticket systems. Dr. Sándor Fejes, managing director of Hedz Ltd, got the award in the Upper Chamber of the National Parliament from Dr. János Pakucs, the honorary president of the Innovation Society, and István Varga, the Minister of National Development and Economy.

The iziSHOP electronic ticket system allows travellers to purchase transport tickets or passes without having to stand in long lines at ticket offices. Tickets can be purchase via mobile telephone or the internet and then showed for ticket checks on the screen of their mobile telephone. The system was first introduced last February in Pécs, with the cooperation of the local transit operator, offering a truly paper-free ticket service, supported by the iziSHOP mTicket technology. The basis of the system is unique in Europe, allowing local and foreign users to purchase services on their mobile telephone through iziSHOP's web shop, independent of the mobile telephone service provider. Payments are made by bank card and supported by iziSHOP's banking partner, CIB Bank.

The primary innovation in the iziSHOP ticket system, which previously won the Délmagyarország Innovation Prestige Award and the Innomax Prize, is that mobile internet technologies and central data processing are uniquely combined to create a uniform electronic ticket platform. As an extention of the iziSHOP mTicket service, iziSHOP eTicket allows tickets to be purchased, not only by mobile telephone and internet, but also at traditional ticket offices, and in addition to being shown on telephone screens, they can also be coded into the classic transport cards, or already existing identification cards (such as student's cards or address cards), or even in bar codes printed on paper. iziSHOP's eTicket service could allow for an already existing identification card to function as a monthly transit pass in one city, a daily pass in another city and as the train ticket for the trip between the two cities. In comparison with the classical transport card, which is not wide-spreadly in Hungary, this new electronic ticket system provides a much faster and more wide-spread, easily accessible ticket system for all generations at a fraction of the cost of installing traditional transport card systems.

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.