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Platforms for IT Change

Platforms for IT Change

The rail industry never stands still, and Virgin Rail’s IT chief Francis Jellings knows that goes for the IT infrastructure as much as the rolling stock

The pace of change shows no sign of letting up either. Virgin Trains has migrated to the Microsoft Office 2007 application suite, replacing a combination of Lotus and Access 97 applications. In recognition of the importance of the remote offices at stations around the county and to reverse the trend of disparity, Jellings introduced the new applications to them first.

Jellings' own team consists of four managers who are divided by key operating areas: communications systems such as ticketing machines; operational systems for on-train services and managing the fleet of trains and its crew; service supplier relationships; and general systems for financial, business and human resources systems. Atos Origin and Capgemini are Virgin Trains' two most important outsource service suppliers, with both companies having a strong heritage in the rail sector; Atos Origin supplies a crew planning system.

SAP departing

Virgin Trains is moving away from an SAP financial platform, "It was overkill," Jellings explains. The company has opted for a financial procurement system from UK company COA Solutions, which Jellings said will automate procurement processes and go live across the company in September. "I know SAP from my manufacturing roots. SAP does a lot more than it is needed for, but they were invited to tender for the contract," he says.

When making a significant change to the business and its applications, Jellings always has the project managed by someone from outside the IT department and places an IT project manager alongside them. This way the department that will use the application owns the project to install it. "You go out and find out what the company wants and then you choose a solution that is right for the business."

Last summer Virgin Trains lost the Cross Country Penzance-to-Aberdeen franchise to European transport company Arriva. As with any change in business operating models, Jellings' team had to adapt to losing Cross Country. "When we lost Cross Country we took the opportunity to reorganize into one floor as a business and it has improved communications. As for IT, you have to build systems that you may have to hand over to someone else," he says. Jellings had to hand over two members of staff in the transaction. "People realize that you transfer with the business, but the process went smoothly." Virgin Trains lost four to five months in the development of new finance systems as a result of the change and lost two people.

Virgin is now under pressure to retain its west coast mainline franchise, which provides rail connections between London Euston and Birmingham, Manchester, Preston, Glasgow and the Lake District. The current franchise is due to run out in 2012 and the company is keen to retain it. Jellings said that the Department for Transport insists that new franchise tenders include smart card ticketing technology in their bid, a technological development that he and his team are currently working on. Self-printing of tickets by customers and issuing tickets straight to mobile phones are also being assessed. "All of this is geared towards the customer."

Switching to VHF

Rail travel is also enjoying renewed interest from travellers bored of driving or concerned by the carbon footprint of short--haul flights. Virgin Trains is currently -pursuing a program dubbed VHF (Virgin High Frequency), which aims to provide three trains an hour connecting London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. To ensure train frequency increases, Jellings has conducted a program of technological enhancements including replacing the wide area network with an IP-based network, and a new planning application is being developed to integrate crew and train planning systems.

Jellings is relaxed and clearly enjoys being part of the rail sector as it re-models itself for the climatic, logistical and economic challenges of the next decade. The challenge can't be underestimated; as any CIO who travels up and down the country knows, the nation's rail network has improved dramatically in the last decade. But as Jellings walked CIO magazine back to Birmingham New Street, we arrived to witness trains from Virgin and the other rail operators that use New Street facing delays. The division of the rail network and the under-funding of rail as a core element of the UK's infrastructure prior to privatization still throw up challenges to the train operators and their staff looking to deliver a service comparable with the rest of Europe.

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Tags outsourcingenterprise resource planningNetworkingcorporate issuespersonnelindustry verticalstransportation

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