HSQE (Health, Safety, Quality and Environment) is of course very important to a railway business. The sheer number of passenger and public interactions with a breadth of infrastructure: stations, lines, crossings and trains make it complex.
The Chiltern Railway Company Limited had a legacy spreadsheet system that was developed by a member of staff who had subsequently moved on. This is not unusual but imagine being the new manager of this reporting. It was complex, intricate and required lots of maintenance to make it work. In fact, one person’s time for one week a month, just managing this spreadsheet!
Clearly this was inefficient, ineffective and harboured risks. Recognising this the senior management team turned to Vensis for help. They recognised that something this complex needed specialised, professional support.
The project started with an onsite consultation to ensure that the movement of data and connections to business need was understood. The short-term plan was to replace the unsupported spreadsheet with a temporary replacement in which Chiltern had confidence. Reports were redesigned to look clean and professional reports which were published automatically as PDFs.
Once the short-term problem was addressed, Vensis moved on to centralise the data in a SQL Server database system with user friendly interfaces.
As the possibilities became clear, further analysis was added at the request of the client. Their previous reporting was limited by their understanding of Excel, with professional support these barriers were gone.
Crucially, what was once taking a week, now took about an hour!
The feedback from the first issue of the new report was, “…the unanimous verdict was that you have produced an extremely professional, easy-to-read and useful document in an excellent format” [feedback from the Executive Team]. Chris Burchell (Managing Director, UK Trains) said that “it is among the best presented safety data that he has come across.”
Liane Tobin, HSQE Performance Manager, added, “Matt (MD, Vensis) grasped what we were looking for very quickly, made suggestions on what we could do using our data to improve our report and pulled together a piece of work that surpassed our expectations. We are delighted with the results.” Liane’s appreciation was further demonstrated by her sending brownies to the Vensis office, appreciated by us all, thanks Liane!
Vensis is unique in that we bring together Business Consultancy and technical knowhow to ensure that the solutions we build add genuine value to our clients. Vensis has provided solutions to manufacturing, supply chain, telecoms, defence, banking, engineering, services, local government, education and more in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Russia and across Europe. Engaging Vensis means you are supported by a team of professionals who will exceed your expectation.