Transforming Industry

38 39 GOVERNMENT A data-powered train service Established in 1926, National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB) operates 3,672 passenger trains daily, serving 554 stations. To provide better customer service and safety to its annual ridership of 253.4 million passengers, while addressing the imminent opening of its market to competition, SNCB wanted to move IT resources to the cloud and digitize its operations. Government-owned SNCB is currently the sole passenger rail operator within Belgium, but that will change in 2023 when the market opens up to competition, which will drive a greater need for efficiency, agility, and an innovative company culture. The threat is not only from other rail companies, but also from technology companies that might offer competing products. Having already adopted a cloud- first strategy for IT, SNCB chose Microsoft Azure as its platform for the digitization initiative. “We appreciate the flexibility, stability, and ease of use of Azure and the synergy it has with Microsoft 365,” says Guido Lemeire, Chief Information Officer, SNCB. The level of security offered by Azure was another drawcard for the rail operator, which experiences frequent hacking attacks as a highly visible public entity. Working with Microsoft and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the organization committed to moving the majority of its 750 applications to Azure and developing services that provide passengers with more accurate information and make work easier and more efficient for employees. New, cloud-based applications for tablets and smart devices were included in the implementation to make daily operations easier and more efficient. SNCB’s Chief Information Security Officer Tim Groenwals explains: “We start every new business IT project by asking whether a cloud solution is available. If not, we develop it ourselves in the cloud. We’re also migrating as many existing ” Drivers now spend 75% less time before shifts updating vital safety information” applications as possible from on-premises datacenters to the cloud.” In the past, SNCB customers expressed dissatisfaction with the inconsistency of information about trains and schedules across different channels. To remedy this problem, the implementation team created a solution which consolidates these back-end systems into a single, integrated system running in Azure, providing effortless scalability. As a result of the cloud migration and the introduction of new systems such as eDrive and Linda, which automate much of the data related to journeys, drivers now spend 75% less time before shifts updating vital safety information. SNCB developers have also gained agility that allows them to roll out major application releases more frequently. In addition, SNCB is more environmentally friendly, after eliminating paper-based processes. “We appreciate the flexibility, stability, and ease of use of Azure and the synergy it has with Microsoft 365,” says Lemeire. Read the full case study >