Case Studies

It’s difficult to ascertain accurately and cost-effectively how many people are on a bus at any one time, their origin and destination. Using Artificial Intelligence, we were able to gather data that enabled a bus company to optimise its route management and improve the customer experience.

Often, start ups and scale ups have a fantastic operational core, but lack the detailed understanding of the technology stack that they will require for the future. At this stage, they rarely have the funds for a full time CIO or IT Director and a few days or weeks of an experienced one is sufficient.

A potential buyer for a large corporation will expect an ambitious, yet realistic, digital strategy. They will also expect a certain level of maturity in the IT operation. A successful implementation depends on a realistic and detailed carveout plan.

The transition from start up to scale up and, ultimately, to corporation is not simple. It requires to understand the corporate client well, and what their expectations are. 

This project came from the need to remove cash from buses. If small stores and cafés in towns and cities could offer  contactless micro-payments, why could we not do this on our buses? Initially, I called it “Perimeter Payments.

The feedback from passengers was clear: they wanted a mobile app that would give them real-time information and fast journey planning. We didn’t want to disappoint.

OnTrack Retail was a great way of resolving a customer problem, while creating in-house digital capability.  We would also have a product that could be sold to third parties under licence.

In 2018 the demand for Tap On, Tap Off EMV contactless payments on buses was growing. We needed to replicate the customer experience of the London Underground passenger in buses. But achieving this had its own set of challenges.

Train Operating Company franchise is not an easy job. You only get a few weeks to plan the integration, and 6 hours to complete the very complex carveout of systems and IT processes. so everybody benefits.

I’ve always had a vision of a world with no tickets. At the end of the day, passengers don’t pay for a ticket, they pay for the ride. A train or bus ticket is only an inconvenient way to proof their authority to travel.

ITSO smartcards revolutionised train travel for season ticket holders, but those who travelled less frequently weren’t so lucky. With the keyGo smartcard we changed all that, turning a complex transaction into an attractive proposition that increased passenger journeys

Retail Smartcards for travel have been in use in the UK since the launch of the Oyster card in 2003. By 2014, Go-Ahead’s smartcard, The Key, was already well-established, but I knew it had potential to significantly transform the customer experience.