DB Systel puts Deutsche Bahn on track for agile digital transformation

Every second, at every juncture across its vast rail network, data is being collected by one of Europe’s leading rail providers. But how can a company harness such huge amounts of data in order to actually improve their business? This was one of the challenges for Deutsche Bahn (DB) Group as they embarked on their digital transformation journey. Finding solutions fell on the shoulders of DB Systel, the 5,100 employee strong digital partner for all DB Group companies, to drive cultural change.

By putting trusted data at the heart of the organisation, DB Systel are enabling DB Group businesses to collaborate more easily and flexibly than before. Increased business agility and an emphasis on innovation ensures the network operates efficiently and that customers receive the best possible experience on every journey.

Claudia Plattner, Chief Information Officer (CIO), DB Systel explains, “We want everyone to connect and collaborate with one version of the truth. We have a single ‘data universe’ that allows all employees at DB Systel to explore their data securely, gain crucial insights, and make agile, informed decisions that drive change.”

Manual reporting is time consuming and would become a bottleneck to the company’s transformation, Claudia and her team turned to Tableau.

“We’re creating a new data culture,” says Karolina Schäfer, Product Owner for internal reporting, DB Systel. “People trust the data they are using. By sharing the insights, it sparks new questions and draws out new ideas that might otherwise have been missed.”

Tableau is scaling seamlessly to support users within both DB Systel and the DB Group. 600 employees in DB Systel and more than 5,000 across DB Group are now asking questions of data in Tableau. “It’s so intuitive. A new user can find insights that change the way they work within an hour, and these results mean its popularity is growing faster than we could have imagined. The adoption rate is doubling every three months,” says Dr. Marc Stanke, Enterprise Architect, DB Systel.

DB Group’s network of local train maintenance depots rely on Tableau to understand and exceed key performance indicators (KPIs) for example for maintenance schedules.

“Every Monday, the maintenance teams study the analysis, discussing how they can work together more closely to make local maintenance more efficient. This open collaboration supports having more trains available on the network to meet passenger demand, improving the customer experience,” says Tobias Wolf, Product Owner for Command Your Business Data, DB Systel.

Senior DB Group management use valuable insights for planning future strategy, covering everything from daily ticket revenues and service punctuality, to distances travelled by passengers, customer satisfaction metrics, and more. Likewise, more than 500 station managers are finding solutions that enhance operational excellence and the customer experience as a result. “Intuitive, interactive dashboards let employees explore the data themselves. Allowing teams to ask questions of data unlocks their curiosity and unleashes their creativity. Everyone has a stake in finding solutions” Tobias adds.

DB Systel shares IT service management insights across the DB Group so stakeholders can review technology performance. The rail freight organisation, for instance, automatically receives updates into the quality of IT service provided by DB Systel, including system performance and uptime. “This service team reporting used to absorb two days of a person’s time every month, now it takes just 15 minutes,” says Karolina. “We’re now able to use this time to focus on strategic projects.”

As the CIO for DB Systel, Claudia sees the impact Tableau is having across the Group every day. She comments, “When I meet with fellow CIOs in the DB Group, they’ll often ask me for an urgent KPI analysis. Suddenly, all the focus is on me. I stay relaxed. ‘Yes, of course we can do that’, I answer. We can analyse and investigate challenges there and then, meaning our discussion can move onto potential ideas and solutions faster.”