As anyone who works in rail will tell you, there’s no other industry quite like it.
The railway is essential to our economy, it creates jobs, helps businesses thrive and brings people together.
There are few industries with such a passionate workforce. Rail organisations are staffed and run by people who love trains and are always thinking about how they can deliver better for passengers, businesses and the country as a whole.
Having powered the industrial revolution, rail is now in the midst of a digital revolution.
Rail operators, infrastructure companies and rail supply chain businesses are increasingly using digital solutions to make the railway safer and more efficient, and as a supplier of rail solutions, we want to make sure we’re providing what the industry needs.
The best way we can do this is by talking – and listening to you.
Join us for Lunch and Learn
This is the thinking behind our Lunch and Learn sessions, where we invite people from across the industry to come into our offices and talk to our team. Recent guests have included directors from TOCs and FOCs, and representatives from industry bodies and unions.
It’s a friendly and informal event where guest speakers have the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with us, and to let us know what challenges they are facing so we can think about how we can help.
One of our recent guest speakers was Stuart Heaton, Managing Director of our partner Learn Live/Rail Safe Friendly who talked to us about the brilliant work his organisation does to improve rail safety awareness in schools.
Meanwhile our team gets to learn about what’s happening in the sector, and to see the difference their work is making to organisations in rail.
As the name suggests, everyone learns from each other, and we put on a pretty decent lunch too.
Invite us to your site
There’s nothing like seeing a rail business in action to help us understand the strategic objectives they need to address. It’s incredibly valuable to visit our customers and partners and to spend a morning seeing life on their side of the tracks.
When we visited Alstom recently, we had an enlightening day seeing how our competency management system helps their team overcome some of the day-to-day challenges they encounter, and exploring ways we can continue improving processes.
Likewise, a visit to LNER’s simulator suite in London gave our customer support team an insight into how complex it is to drive a train, especially when having to negotiate extreme weather, hazards on the line and obstructions – in this case an AI simulated cow.
Take part in a user group
As these examples show, people from the industry are generous with their expertise and keen to share ideas, and that’s why our user groups have become such a useful forum. Customers have the opportunity to gather to discuss industry problems and highlight possible solutions.
At the annual user group for our competency management system, RailSmart EDS, one of our customers explained how practical it would be if assessors could quickly set up groups of competency criteria to assess staff in real-time situations. For example, how a train crew manages when a journey is disrupted by hot weather or flooding.
Everyone agreed this was a good idea which would make their assessments more efficient and quicker to manage, so we’re adding a new Criteria Groups feature to our product suite.
Similarly, in our customer information user group, customers described how useful it would be to carry out analytics based on the dynamic route maps we develop, so they can gain more insight into their passengers’ needs.
When customers talk to each other, it sparks some very creative ideas about how rail solutions could evolve.
Share your expertise
Collaboration very often leads to innovation, and the conversations we have with people in rail help us understand the wider context of what the industry needs and why.
Industry bodies and trade associations have a wealth of knowledge, and our close links with organisations such as the Rail Forum and the Rail Freight Group help us see the big picture and recognise the commercial context in which customers use our solutions.
As the sector continues to navigate a mix of technological, political and social changes, positive relationships across the industry will become even more important.
In the rail industry, where everyone is working towards the same goal of a safe, reliable and efficient railway, the more people come together and plan for the future, the better.
Be a guest speaker at one of our Lunch and Learn sessions, get in touch.
Learn more about the RailSmart platform of digital solutions.
