Keolis, which runs bus, coach, tram, metro, and rail services worldwide, is chanelling its digital action into two categories of solution: on the one hand, ‘connected mobility’ to facilitate daily journeys’; on the other, ‘professional’ to simplify and promote the use of public transport, and personalise passenger relations.
«It may appear quite obvious, but the fact that passengers want to travel easily is often overlooked by operators in their quest to gain them,» says Laurent Kocher, executive vp marketing, innovation & services, Keolis. In his view, there are three constituents to ‘travelling easily’:
- obtaining information
- purchasing a ticket without encountering difficulties
- offering a practical ticketing system, i.e. particularly with regards to validation
«Plus they expect to use their cell phone to do all three,» he adds.
Based on the above observations, Keolis has imagined an ‘integrated vision of connected mobility’, whereby every element in the travel chain is linked up. And this vision includes ‘connected objects’, i.e. the Internet of Things (IoT) – the exchange of data between physical objects by means of embedded electronics, software and sensors, and connectivity to deliver greater value and service.
All encompassing
Before delving into the details of this digital drive, Mr Kocher is keen to draw attention to the dual nature of the audience being targeted. «Traditionally when introducing new services, the spotlight is on ‘regular’ passengers, those who subscribe to monthly or annual travel passes,» he explains. «Yet understanding the so-called ‘passer by’ traveller segment is important too.» Especially for Keolis, given that the ‘passer by’ surprisingly represents 25% of all journeys made on the operator’s services, 50% of its revenue, and 75% of the same passenger making several journeys in a day.
And so to the offer itself…
‘Connected mobility’ solutions to facilitate daily journeys
‘This comprises a range of multi-device (smartphone/-watch, tablet, web) wide-scale solutions that can be adapted to the needs of individual cities, integrating a personalised journey planner and alert system, plus dynamic service timetables.’ All are are built on Navitia, a journey planner and passenger information application developed by Canal TP, the digital arm of Keolis.
An example of Navitia in action is the Transpole mobile app, launched in the French city of Lille in April 2015. Aimed to help deliver stress-free trips across the network and provide answers to every journey-related question at passengers’ fingertips, its key services are real-time schedules and traffic information, plus individualised journey planners. An extra is the special function baptised ‘autour de moi’ (‘around me’) – ‘Select your search radius and find the metro, tram, bus or V’lille bike sharing stop/station closest to you.’
Also in France, users of the U’GO mobile app in Strasbourg can both purchase and validate their transport tickets by phone, via Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
‘Professional’ solutions for communities of all sizes
Aware that medium-sized cities and towns (even smaller) often lack the necessary funding to invest in the kinds of applications described above, Keolis has the following alternatives up its sleeve:
- CRM application for large urban networks
A customer relation solution conceived so that large agglomerations can propose original offers and personalised services. Already adopted by seven communities, this Keolis CRM application was deployed in Lille and Lyon (France) in May 2015, with further cities to come
- shared ticketing system for medium-sized towns
So that every collectivités can benefit from a modern ticketing system that is easy to roll out and comes at a reasonable price, Keolis has come up with Keobill. Launched in Blois in January 2015, this contactless medium (travel passes and tickets) will henceforth be proposed to around 10 similar-sized cities by 2017.
Personalised on a network by network basis, part of the appeal of these ‘connected mobility’ and ‘professional’ solutions lies in their competitiveness, born out resource sharing based on new technologies (e.g. Saas, Cloud). A further point worth mentioning – there is no lock-in with the contractual model, i.e. the organising authority remains free to choose its preferred transport provider.
Opening up
In 2014 Keolis took the canny decision to open source the code for Navigia «Anyone, including start-ups, developers, and big companies can use the software as it stands, or adapt it according to their needs,» explains Guillaume Crouigneau, managing director, Canal TP, who sees the move not as a business model suicide, but as a win-win for all. «This will result in better services for passengers and Keolis will benefit too. We can subsequently incorporate any developments by external third parties to enhance our offer, the technical improvements, as so remain at the cutting edge.»
‘If your code is popular enough to attract outside contributions, you will have created a force multiplier that helps you get more work done faster and cheaper. More users means more use cases being explored which means more robust code.’
Source: ’5 Reasons Your Company Should Open Source More Code’
- The number five collective transport operator worldwide, Keolis operates trams, buses/trolley/shuttle/PRM, taxis, rail, and metro. Plus parking through its subsidiary EFFIA
- Groupe Keolis is present in 15 countries – Germany, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, US, France, India, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, U.K., and Sweden
- With a global workforce of 60,000, Keolis registered a turnover of €5.6 billion in 2014, compared to €5.1bn in 2013…
- … of which half was generated in France, and half generated through its international activities
Start up & away
To further boost its innovation drive, Keolis is also joining forces with up and coming companies specialised in the fields of mobility, open data, and the smart city. «As part of our desire to foster open and participative innovation, we have established partnerships with a number of different start-ups,» says Mr Kocher. To date, agreements have been inked with the following enterprises: Moovit, Citégreen, Bookbeo, Forcity, Tripndrive, and Open Data Soft.
Global brand in the making
Originally a federation of SMEs, Keolis is today owned 70% by French Railways (SNCF), 30% by the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ). «We are now in a phase of mutation and growth, with the objective of becoming a global brand,» says Jean-Pierre Farandou, president, Keolis, adding that there are several strands to the DNA of the group, of which safety and security are predominant. «Then there is our logic of ‘thinking like a passenger’,» he adds, «and desire to build partnerships with collectivités, so that together we can develop long-term mobility strategies for regions.»
Most recently, «the way ahead», as outlined by Mr Farandou, is the group’s focus on innovation and digital-based services, «Beyond public transport, we want to offer innovative services that are close to passengers and adapted to their regions,» he explains. «And by so doing, engineer a shift in the nature of travel time – from being ‘captive and passive’ to ‘unconstrained and engaged’».
Lesley Brown
DRIVERS & CHANGES
Another transport player that has taken digitisation to heart is Siemens. Speaking to the press in April 2015, Dr Jochen Eickholt, CEO of the company’s Mobility division, outlined the stakes at play…
«Despite not growing as strongly as elsewhere, overall the mobility market in Europe still remains extremely attractive. Yet we have to further position ourselves in relation to social trends such as urbanisation, population growth, the desire for low energy consumption solutions for transport, and the rise of our digital society.
«Going forward, digital solutions will represent one of the main drivers for growing public transport. They will also bring about changes to rail infrastructure in urban contexts. The roads and rail are merging and converging; they are becoming more intelligent, more connected.
«We will be focusing our business on availability – through intelligent systems; on throughput [capacity] – by anticipating the expansion of infrastructure, which in turn signifies a need to boost capacity through integrated resource management. Equally important are train control systems and digital interlockings.»