Case Study - State Rail AuthorityCase Study: State Rail Authority - PDF Version ProfileState Rail Authority provides passenger rail transport throughout New South Wales through its CityRail and CountryLink services and is responsible for the safe operation, crewing and maintenance of passenger trains, stations and rail infrastructure. IndustryPublic transport Business Intelligence Requirements
SolutionSPF Plus powered by TM1 OLAP server Benefits
Tangible BenefitsWhen State Rail Authority (SRA) Corporate Finance Division was tasked to identify opportunities to significantly improve their board reporting processes and systems, they chose SPF Plus powered by TM1. Ans Hamid (Manager Financial Services) explains: "I’ve worked with a number of applications over the years and it always amazes me how much time, resources and money organisations invest in planning, analysis and reporting systems. We were able to implement a complete Business Performance Management system – (SPF Plus), in effectively 6 weeks, using in-house staff and existing hardware. Our only additional capital cost was the software licenses." "We were able to cut the month end reporting process by half, and this improvement was significantly attributable to the intuitive nature and inbuilt functionality of SPF Plus." "Furthermore, we not only achieved important time savings but we’ve been able to provide quality and relevant information in real time. User-acceptance has been overwhelming." Business ScenarioWith revenues of around $1.9 billion and more than $5 billion in assets, the business has vast amounts of capital invested in rolling stock, stations and rail infrastructure which literally drives their revenue. Not surprisingly, SRA have large complex systems managing their assets and daily operations. Ans says: "In order to achieve our ambitious reporting objectives, multiple layers of management need to see how the business is performing. They require the ability to review KPI’s, reports etc, then drill down to underlying data. We also need to collect and make available insightful commentary on the numbers within a very short time frame". In summary a highly collaborative process needs to be managed in a systematic way to achieve extremely tight reporting deadlines. Visibility of key numbers is required at all responsibility te Rail Authority - board reporting online levels so that commentary providing more insight into the numbers can be added, consolidated and immediately reviewed. "SPF Plus provides us with both high-level dashboard type reporting on our capital assets and dynamic drill-through to further analysis and detail on demand," Ans explains. Business Solution:In May 2003, three leading business intelligence products were evaluated by SRA. SRA performed a comprehensive evaluation process where they carried out a proof of concept as a trial for each product’s capabilities. When the different products were compared against the total evaluation criteria, SRA found that the SPF Plus suite of products had the best fit. SPF Plus was purchased and installed in the first week of June 2003, stakeholders signed off on their requirements by mid June, and all reports were developed as per specifications by early July, with test reports and sign off by the end of July. SRA went live with SPF Plus in the first week of August – just two months after they made the decision to go with SPF Plus. The monthly reporting cycle consists of two phases. The first phase comprises the preparation and distribution of various financial reports and metrics for each division. With SPF Plus, all reports for each of 900 cost centers are now available within one day of month end. These are available on demand via the web and managers have the ability to drill down into the level of detail they require at the time. "Previously we printed thousands of reports. We call this new approach pull-reporting, which, through the web, is fast, cost effective and we feel we’re doing our bit for the environment!" said Alain Olivier (Financial Analyst). The second phase of the cycle requires the various managers to comment on the results at each level, and then divisional managers review and add to these comments. Previously this required the comments to be e-mailed to a central point, consolidated, redistributed and commented on again involving significant amounts of extra effort (with no ability to monitor progress centrally). With SPF Plus, managers can now enter their comments directly into the database through the web. These comments are then automatically consolidated and are immediately available for review. The progress is able to be monitored centrally using the SPF Plus Workflow module and has achieved huge time and resource savings. "The reporting performance improvements have resulted in the divisional financial reports being produced in a more timely manner for the review of respective divisional management." Keith Rushbrook (Manager Corporate Finance). Other Requirements Included:
Future Plans:SRA are trialing a "ticketing reporting system", which is to be deployed in October 2003. Ticketing KPI’s will be reported via SPF Plus, providing stationmasters with the ability for online access to each line’s performance and metrics. The ticketing data includes time and length of travel, type of ticket etc, which is supplied by turnstiles. Alain explains: "We collect and store daily turnstile data and currently have over 2.5 years history available for our analysis. This works out that we are currently modeling about 60 million records." With this data, the "ticketing model" can analyse commuters’ travel patterns from point of departure to destination. "Being able to focus on the right numbers and seeing the big picture assists us with many important planning decisions. It is essential for scheduling, especially around major events" said Ans. "SPF Plus adds a whole new realm of capability, and is awesome in terms of its quantity and speed of processing." Chris Mentor (Financial Analyst).
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