Paperless operations to maximize capabilities of rail mobile staff

Salif spoke about the benefits of the Digital Bag at the 8th International Railway Summit in New Delhi

Train drivers, conductors and maintenance technicians are at the heart of railway operations and ensure that passengers (and goods) are transported to their destination in the best conditions of safety and comfort.
They are mobile staff, but still obliged to go to their office to take with them information and papers they need to perform their missions. While it might be good to go to the office to meet colleagues and get fresh news about the company, it also can be perceived as a waste of time that prevents from focusing on core missions. Also, even after having passed by the office, while executing their mission, mobile staff might still miss recently updated guidelines to fully complete their operations. This is also a risk for seamless operations and passenger experience.

Now, let’s imagine a modern, light and user-friendly tool that mobile staff would always have with them and with which, anytime and anywhere they could:

• Consult technical and company manuals to acknowledge all required procedures in manuals
• Receive briefing wherever they are, to prepare their journeys
• Write and send back reports to inform about all events that occur

This vision is a reality with software solutions that enable the digitization of operational processes and, therefore, the removal of paper-based procedures. Immediate outcomes are accelerated data flows and enhanced operational efficiency.

In the aviation industry, for the past 10 years, pilots, cabin crew and mechanics are more and more equipped with mobile tablets and software that support them in the execution of their missions, from preparation to closure.

This major evolution in the way to operate flights generates major business benefits:

• Facilitate transmission of a safety culture since guidelines are more accessible
• Enhance the efficiency of operations: by receiving flight information in advance (or during a flight) on their tablets, crew can anticipate issues and make ad hoc decisions
• Make work conditions better for staff: no need to carry heavy bags
• Improve passenger experience: being always connected, staff can better inform customers

Challenges faced by rail operators are similar to those faced by aviation, so why would rail staff not be equipped with similar mobile solutions so they could benefit from digitized operational processes?

This is exactly what dgBirds offers, via the Digital Bag software solution that is composed of:

• A user-friendly mobile application that can be downloaded and used by mobile staff from iPads. “Documentation”, “Briefing” and “Reports” are the services available from this mobile application
• An administration platform, accessible via any Web browser and from which back office staff can organize, distribute and monitor all documentation to their remote colleagues

Documentation service: from an iPad, easy access to all documentation and manuals, anywhere, any time

As illustrated below, via innovative services, the Digital Bag can help rail staff better perform their missions, throughout their complete journey:

Digital Bag: supports rail staff over their journey

Watch this video to see how the Digital Bag concretely supports rail mobile staff: dgBirds Digital Bag for rail staff

About dgBirds:

dgBirds is a software company based in Paris and is a subsidiary of Air France.
Based on the experience of Air France pilots and cabin crew, dgBirds has developed and proposes a software solution that enables organizations to organise and distribute all the information that mobile staff require during their missions and that they can access from a mobile application.

This value proposition is addressed not only to the air transportation sector but to all transportation organizations that, by definition, have mobile staff who are, on a daily basis, in close relationship with passengers / customers and, as such, are key stakeholders to guarantee the quality of their experience.

contact@dgbirds.com
www.dgbirds.com

Category: Blog Digital Revolution Operations passenger rail Research and Innovation

Tags: dgBirds digital Digital Bag digitisation efficiency mobile staff operations safety

About the author

Since early 2019, Salif has been the Chief Commercial Officer of dgBirds.
Salif has 20 years of experience in technologies for transportation and, before his current role, he held various positions in Management Consulting (Atos) and Sales leadership (SITA: Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques).

Born in 1974, Salif is French and graduated from EM Normandie HEC Paris Business Schools.