Systematizing innovation at a state-owned railway company

Thriving in a changing industry

Following the digital revolution, the need to manage and exceed customer expectations has emerged as a critical success factor in the railway industry. This became even more critical after different sectors, including freight transportation and train bookings for both international and regional trips, in a state-owned railway company’s country were opened to private business. To compete effectively under these new circumstances, the organization, which had been a monopoly for the majority of its existence, now needed to evolve. 

In order to deliver on this need to evolve and innovate faster than emerging competitors, the business partnered with Capgemini, which responded by harnessing Design Office, its structured innovation framework. Design Office was utilized to connect the company’s existing knowledge with the skills, resources, and technologies already present in the wider Capgemini ecosystem, which generates ideas from the bottom-up and then subjects them to a rigorous evaluation process. 

Competing with ideas: a structured approach to innovation

Over a two-year period beginning in 2018, the innovation program spearheaded by Capgemini resulted in a host of fresh ideas, minimum viable products (MVPs), and new projects. In implementing Design Office, the partners worked with the organization to stimulate and inspire ideas throughout its application landscape using a bottom-up approach within individual project teams and a top-down approach through Capgemini’s innovation network. Capgemini then helped the company nurture ideas with the highest potential value to grow and transformed them into officially launched projects. 

Overall, Design Office enabled Capgemini to help the partner propose 98 ideas, evaluate 45 proof of concepts (POCs), and officially launch 21 projects. Among these projects were a fresh prototype for an improved vending machine and an application to help deaf and hard-of-hearing passengers get information onboard trains. 

Additionally, Capgemini built a social media monitoring application that provides real-time updates related to issues or delays for particular trains. Initial trials demonstrated that such monitoring actually provides more up-to-date information on what is happening throughout the organization’s train network. This enabled the client to share the latest information with passengers, as well as respond faster to any issues. Capgemini also helped the business to address some of the long-term effects on customer behavior and rail travel stemming from the pandemic. 

Overall, Capgemini’s Design Office has given the organization a clear pathway to create industry leading innovations. As a result of this, they’ve attained the following benefits: 

• Improved customer experience and satisfaction, reduced costs, and boosted revenues 
• A forecasted additional ten million Euro in ticket sales with a new vending machine model 
• 50,000 work hours saved annually with a new application for on-site agents 
• Addressed a previously under-served segment and helped improve the client’s image as a caring brand with an application for the deaf and hard of hearing 
• Improved the image of the client’s IT team by positioning them as a trustworthy partner that could understand and impact business goals. 

The road ahead with ADMnext 

As the organization will face increased private competition in the years ahead, it intends to continue working with Capgemini to leverage Design Office and further improve its competitiveness by increasing the conversion rate of ideas into innovation. Over the next two to five years, with Design Office, the partners will steadily ramp up the number of ideas and prototypes generated. 

Additionally, Capgemini will also be working towards developing a closer connection between IT and business in order to direct innovation to the business’ most critical goals. A host of new ideas are in the prototype stage right now and the partners look forward to building upon these concepts and making an even bigger impact on the business in the coming years. Thanks to Design Office, the organization has a trusted pathway for creating future innovation and is looking forward to developing and rolling out more new ideas with Capgemini in the coming years.