You asked, we listened: introducing a new era for data reporting in rail
Graham Cooper, Head of Product & Marketing, talks about the all-new RailSmart Insights
In the rail industry, where drivers are operating trains heavily laden with precious cargo – be that passengers or goods – there’s no room for error.
But when there are hundreds, if not thousands of drivers running trains across the network at any one time, how can rail operators be sure they’re all well-rested and up to date with their competency assessments, or have read their safety critical documents and communication updates?
For rail COOs and those overseeing the smooth operations inside passenger and freight operating companies, the overarching goal is to maintain a skilled, capable and informed workforce who can deliver their customers’ goods on time or get passengers to their destination safely.
To achieve this, they need comprehensive data that presents a clear picture to support meaningful decision making – whether that relates to driver fatigue levels, or the number of incidents caused by leaves on the track or signal failures which have resulted in delays on the network.
However, if critical data is presented separately, management is left with no option but to painstakingly piece together information from multiple sources and systems in order to see a complete operational picture to make informed decisions.
A fresh look at data reporting for rail
Data-driven decision making is the key to continuous improvement, and we echo that sentiment when it comes to our rail analytics software.
RailSmart Insights was originally developed with our data experts based on customer experience and feedback. Our customers told us about the type of information they really needed to make strategic decisions about their operations and how they wanted to see it joined up.
Having listened to their frustrations concerning how they struggle to collect and analyse data today, we thought we could help.
A personalised approach
Rail operators have shared goals around safety and efficiency, but they run their operations in a way that’s unique to them. They have varying priorities, projects and pain points, so access to their data should reflect this.
With RailSmart Insights, operators no longer have to waste time wading through data or connecting data from different places to view useful information, because the updated software can draw data from a wide range of sources to offer a personalised and comprehensive overview of their teams and their organisation.
The data you want, when you want it, how you want it
Every 24 hours, the platform pulls essential data from across the entire suite of RailSmart products – not only RailSmart EDS as previously. It can even be configured to import data from other TOC or FOC software, such as HR information systems, to combine data in a single place.
Senior staff can then cherry pick the aspects of data they actually need, and display them on an interactive dashboard.
Displaying hand-picked data visually allows rail staff to see patterns and stories emerging – quickly giving them an insight into the status of their drivers, other staff and their operations more widely. This is much less achievable when staff have to gather and then decipher data that’s stored in different places and different formats.
So, for example, if you’re a COO looking to meet operational goals when it comes to creating and analysing driver risk profiles, RailSmart Insights can collate a driver’s competency measures onto one dashboard and combine it with data from other sources.
This might include the incident logging software, document communications platform and HR information system, making it easier to build a complete picture of an employee’s skills and risk profile.
This crucial feature of the new software means that where there’s heightened risk, it’s clearly highlighted.
Previously, if a driver’s competency management record contained one major incident, two minor incidents, a meeting with HR and a missed safety assessment, this information would have been stored in separate files and formats. The developing risk around this individual could easily have been missed.
RailSmart Insights brings all this data together, allowing operators to create a single driver overview dashboard. With the key information right in front of them, operators can more clearly see where there’s a developing problem that needs to be addressed, or when there is potential to intervene prior to an incident occurring. This is real data driven decision making.
Moving the industry forwards
RailSmart Insights is supporting the evolution of the rail industry with a new approach to data. The software is personalised and interactive, and can be configured to display a visual daily snapshot of employee competency, numbers of incidents, safety critical communications and other metrics to give a full picture of the operational status for passenger and freight operators.
For busy rail staff and COOs, RailSmart Insights takes the guess work – and the leg work – out of extracting the data needed to make informed decisions, allowing operators to concentrate on keeping their drivers and passengers safe, and the network running smoothly.
If you would like to find out what RailSmart Insights can do for your organisation, please click here.
To see RailSmarts Insights in action, book a demo and get a hands-on product demonstration from our team.
