As passenger volume on the UK rail system grows at around six percent annually, and is expected to double over the next 25 years, railway lines brace for increased congestion. Railway operators such as Abellio know they need to distinguish themselves through innovations that drive efficiency if they are to manage traffic and win bids.

Mobile devices are a critical part of the vision. Station staff can easily improve the customer experience and swing into motion if a passenger’s smartcard doesn’t scan, or if a passenger has a question. Safety improves when workers use phones to communicate about unattended packages and dangerous objects on tracks. And repairs are easier when engineering staff can locate schematics faster.

Railway operations in London, Birmingham, and Scotland had previously provided employees mobile devices to help them more connected and productive. But the small railway IT teams were spending too much effort deploying and maintaining the fleet of devices, even as many users decided not to use the devices.

IT morale suffered. Traditional deployment required numerous manual steps to configure and enroll devices, especially because each user role required a different configuration. Once the devices were out in the field, IT issues multiplied. Sometimes users didn’t update their devices, other times they would download a new operating system prematurely and break access to apps. This inconsistency kept IT teams busy and created the potential for operational issues. One example: A train driver without a functional phone couldn’t move the train.

Away from IT and out in the field, Abellio’s mobile empowerment strategy ran into additional issues.

Most railway employees work remotely, and industry turnover is high. So, if an employee needed a new device or had a device that required repair, they often had to wait long periods of time. Without a functioning device, there was the potential for communication issues leading to problems and delays.
User adoption was low, with hundreds of phones not deployed or used. Existing IT tools offered little visibility on the devices and device usage. Abellio wanted to maximize use and minimize the potential loss of assets and company data.
“The mobile arena was of particular importance to improve the customer experience and make sure our frontline staff and our colleagues have the tools to do their job,” says Himesh Patel, head of IT at Abellio Greater Anglia. “One of the biggest challenges we had was that we’re a relatively small team and obviously with a small IT team, it’s very difficult to manage a big mobile estate.”

The franchises wanted to reap the rewards of operational efficiency and minimize the effort to deploy, manage, and support the tablets and smartphones at scale. Railway IT teams, meanwhile, wanted to focus on other initiatives.