eVa Mostar: Digitalizing Tourist Vehicle Access and Creating Better Mobility Data

The challenge

Mostar is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's most visited destinations, receiving a significant number of organized tourist groups and international visitors throughout the year.

A considerable part of this traffic arrives by tourist buses.

Managing these arrivals is not simply a question of collecting a fee. Each arrival represents operational information that can be valuable to the city: when a tourist vehicle entered the system, where it came from, which registration plate was used, which access right was issued and through which sales channel the transaction was completed.

When these processes depend on manual records or disconnected systems, much of that information remains fragmented.

The challenge was therefore broader than digitalizing the purchase of a vignette.

The objective was to establish a digital process through which tourist vehicle visits could be registered, processed, verified and analyzed within a single information system.

From regulation to a digital process

Projects of this type cannot be solved by software alone.

The first step was translating regulatory requirements and existing operational procedures into a process that could function digitally.

ITO approached the project by connecting several layers that are often treated separately:

legal framework → operational process → vehicle identification → software → payment → verification → reporting

This was important because a digital vignette is more than proof that a transaction has taken place.

Behind every issued vignette is structured information about a vehicle, its registration plate, validity period, applicable tariff, payment and sales channel.

By connecting these elements within one system, an administrative process becomes a source of structured operational data.

The solution

ITO designed and implemented eVa, a centralized platform for managing digital vignettes and tourist vehicle access.

One of the fundamental architectural decisions was to eliminate dependency on a physical vignette.

Instead, the vehicle's registration plate becomes the primary identifier of the digital access right.

Once a vignette is issued, the relationship between the vehicle, transaction and vignette validity exists within the Central Information System.

There is nothing that needs to be physically distributed or attached to the vehicle.

At the same time, authorized personnel and integrated systems can verify vignette validity directly against centrally available information.

Central Information System as the core

At the center of eVa is the Central Information System (CIS).

Rather than creating separate applications and datasets for sales, administration, verification and reporting, these channels operate around a common transactional core.

The CIS manages:

• digital vignettes and their validity
• tourist vehicle information
• registration plates
• tariff models and pricing rules
• users, roles and permissions
• partners and sales points
• transactions and payment information
• system configuration
• operational reporting
• statistical and analytical data

This architecture provides a single source of truth for the entire platform.

Regardless of how a vignette is issued, the resulting information becomes part of the same central dataset and follows the same business and validation rules.

Turning tourist arrivals into structured data

One of the most important outcomes of the project is the creation of a structured digital record of tourist vehicle visits.

Before digitalization, information generated through such processes can easily remain distributed across payment records, individual sales locations, paper documentation or operational reports.

With eVa, every processed tourist vehicle contributes to a centralized dataset.

Over time, this provides a much clearer picture of tourism-related vehicle activity.

The system can support analysis of information such as the number of recorded visits, periods of increased activity, vehicle origin, vignette types, sales channels and other operational indicators.

For a tourism-intensive city such as Mostar, this creates value that extends beyond the original administrative process.

The platform becomes an additional source of mobility and tourism intelligence.

Multi-channel sales without fragmented information

Tourism services need to remain accessible to visitors while also supporting organizations and partners operating in the field.

eVa therefore supports multiple sales channels.

Digital vignettes can be issued through online services as well as through authorized partner channels.

Regardless of where the transaction originates, the same central business rules are applied and the information is recorded within the Central Information System.

This means that expanding the sales network does not create additional information silos.

New partners and sales points can be introduced while vehicle identification, validity management, transactions and reporting remain centralized.

Digital payments as part of the process

Payment is integrated directly into the digital workflow.

Once a transaction is successfully completed, it can be associated with the corresponding vehicle, vignette and sales channel.

This provides a traceable digital transaction history and simplifies operational and financial reconciliation.

The digitalization of the process has also contributed to significant revenue generation from the tourist vehicle access model, demonstrating that a well-designed digital service can simultaneously improve administrative efficiency and support sustainable financing of local infrastructure.

However, the broader value of the platform lies in the fact that financial transactions no longer exist separately from operational data.

They become part of a complete digital record of the service.

Verification through vehicle registration plates

Removing physical vignettes required a reliable digital mechanism for verification.

Because each vignette is associated with a vehicle registration plate, authorized personnel can check its validity directly against the Central Information System.

The same architecture provides the foundation for integration with License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology.

A registration plate detected by an external LPR system can be used to query the relevant information within eVa and determine whether the corresponding digital access right exists.

This creates opportunities for increasingly automated verification processes.

Importantly, eVa is designed to remain hardware-vendor independent. The business logic remains within the central platform, while cameras and other field equipment function as integrated data sources.

Integration-first architecture

Public-sector information systems rarely operate in isolation.

eVa was therefore designed as an integration-ready platform rather than a closed application.

External systems can communicate with the platform through defined interfaces while the Central Information System remains responsible for core business rules and data consistency.

Depending on the implementation, this architecture can support integrations with payment service providers, LPR systems, fiscal systems, external registries, partner applications, reporting platforms and other municipal or government systems.

This separation between the central business logic and external infrastructure is important for long-term sustainability.

New technologies and service providers can be introduced without redesigning the core platform.

Operational impact

The Mostar implementation transformed a specific administrative and payment process into a centralized digital service.

Tourist vehicle visits processed through eVa now generate structured records that can be searched, verified, reported and analyzed.

This provides the operator with improved visibility into tourism-related vehicle activity and establishes a more reliable foundation for planning and decision-making.

At the same time, the system has enabled:

• centralized records of tourist vehicle visits
• digital identification through registration plates
• consistent application of business and tariff rules
• multiple digital and partner sales channels
• integrated payment processing
• faster verification of vignette validity
• improved transaction traceability
• real-time operational reporting
• creation of historical data for future analysis

The result is therefore not simply a digital replacement for a physical vignette.

It is a new source of structured information about an important segment of tourism and mobility in Mostar.

From records to better planning

Once reliable historical data exists, its value increases over time.

Patterns in tourist vehicle arrivals can provide useful input for future decisions concerning traffic organization, bus access zones, tourist infrastructure, peak periods and other mobility measures.

This is an important distinction between simple process automation and digital transformation.

Process automation makes an existing task faster.

Digital transformation also creates information that previously did not exist in a structured and immediately usable form.

In the case of eVa, every digital transaction simultaneously becomes part of a broader operational dataset.

Building beyond the original use case

Although eVa in Mostar was developed around a clearly defined digital vignette process, the underlying architecture is not limited to a single service.

At its core, the platform manages the relationship:

vehicle → access right → location → validity → tariff → payment → verification

The same model can be applied to other mobility scenarios.

Depending on the regulatory environment, it can provide a foundation for tourist vehicle access management, controlled city zones, bus access schemes, temporary vehicle permits, environmental zones or other forms of mobility-related charging and authorization.

These do not necessarily need to become separate information systems.

They can be implemented as different business models operating on a common digital platform.

Engineering takeaway

The most important engineering lesson from eVa is that digitalizing a vignette is not about replacing a physical sticker with an online payment form.

The real challenge is creating a trusted digital relationship between a physical vehicle, an access right and a transaction.

Once the registration plate becomes the common identifier, previously separated processes can operate around the same data model.

Sales generate records.

Payments become traceable transactions.

Verification becomes digital.

And individual tourist vehicle arrivals become structured data that can later support analysis and planning.

This reflects a broader principle that ITO applies to public-sector digital transformation:

the greatest value is often not in digitalizing the document itself, but in digitalizing the data and processes behind it.

Trust principles applied

Systems combining vehicle information, payments and public-sector processes require clearly defined responsibilities and traceable system activity.

The eVa architecture therefore applies several principles used across ITO public-sector solutions.

Centralized business rules ensure that different sales and verification channels operate according to the same logic.

Role-based access separates administrative, partner and operational responsibilities.

Transaction traceability connects the relevant vehicle, vignette, transaction and sales channel.

Integration boundaries separate external equipment and services from the platform's core business logic.

Vendor independence reduces long-term dependency on individual hardware and technology providers.

Structured historical data enables reporting and future analysis without relying on disconnected operational records.

Together, these principles help ensure that the platform remains manageable as services, integrations and operational requirements evolve.

From a digital vignette to mobility intelligence

The Mostar project started with a clearly defined operational requirement.

Its long-term value is broader.

By connecting tourist vehicles, registration plates, access rights, transactions, partner channels and verification within one platform, the project created a structured digital record of a part of Mostar's tourism activity that can now be managed and analyzed systematically.

The implementation also demonstrated that digitalization can improve administrative efficiency while contributing to significant revenue generation, without making financial performance the primary purpose of the technology.

For ITO, eVa demonstrates an approach we apply across public-sector projects:

understand the regulation, redesign the process, establish trusted data and build technology around it.

Because once a process starts producing reliable data, it stops being only a digital service.

It becomes digital infrastructure.