Toll collecting isn’t quite what it used to be. Gone are the days where you would throw change into a bucket. Now everything is digital and those who collect tolls face new challenges.

For David Sullivan (pictured, right), chief executive officer of Elizabeth River Crossings OpCo LLC, his organization knew that it needed to modernize its legacy toll system, specifically its data centers. The organization finances, delivers, operates and maintains the Elizabeth River Tunnels Project in Virginia.

“In our location in the Southeast corner of Virginia, we’re very vulnerable to tropical storms and tidal flooding,” Sullivan said. “All of our tolling infrastructure is exposed.”

Sullivan, and Todd Carey (pictured, left), global cloud leader of the AWS Business Group at Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., spoke with Natalie Erlich, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the 2021 Global Public Sector Partner Awards. They discussed challenges with legacy toll operations, as well as legacy technology itself, and how cloud technology can help. (* Disclosure below.)

Finding the solution

With motorists using the tunnels on a daily basis, ERC faces the challenge of being able to collect tolls digitally.

For Sullivan and ERC, the solution was utilizing Amazon Web Services with the help of Cognizant. ERC began to pursue a cloud strategy with the idea of lifting everything out of its current environment and moving it to AWS. The effort was pulled it off in about three months, according to Sullivan.

“We never missed a beat. We did it over a three-day holiday weekend, but from a business transaction standpoint, it all flowed,” he said.

The move paid off for ERC. Costs were lowered, availability was increased, and customer service agents were better able to do their job, leading to lower call times and better customer satisfaction.

Cognizant’s customer-first approach helps guide it when working with organizations like ERC, especially when it comes to the cloud, according to Carey. This allows Cognizant to provide purpose-built solutions that align to the customer.

“As we expect our tolling solution to really grow, we’re keeping it cloud native, we’re keeping it modular in nature and integrated,” Carey said. “For example, our toll customers can use their own roadside solutions or handpick some of the small back-office modules that they want to use.”

Thanks to Cognizant’s work with ERC, it received the “Most Customer Obsessed Mission-Based Win- State and Local Government” award during the AWS Public Sector 2021 Awards.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the 2021 Global Public Sector Partner Awards. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for 2021 Global Public Sector Partner Awards. Neither Amazon Web Services Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Photo: SiliconANGLE