Stockholm Subway
About SL/Connex
SL, The Stockholm Local Transport Authority, has awarded Connex AB a 10 year contract to operate the Stockholm subway system. SL wanted to better serve personnel with crucial information relevant to their location, job function, tasks to be performed, and the time of day.
Challenge
Using less sophisticated information channels and manually performing tasks in the work-field can cause numerous challenges, including:
- Difficulty in obtaining up to the minute information regarding traffic information
- Lack of area specific information such as maps and directions that can easily be delivered to customers
- Difficulty in creating new employee services and tools to improve customer service
- Less efficiency in the management of facilities and trains and in optimizing additional operational processed such as ticket sales and validation which would greatly benefit both staff and customers
It is these issues that make the improvement in performance by Connex when using the Appear IQ Platform an excellent example of the benefits of seamless communication to staff, customers, and management.
Solution
Through the deployment of the Appear IQ Platform, the objectives of SL/Connex were to:
- Improve customer service through better informed and well connected employees.
- Increase station personnel safety through silent alerts and positioning information
- Improve the availability on the platform of disruption information
- Increase personnel efficiency by improving the availability in the field of professional application such as disruption information, maintenance issues, etc.
Appear IQ was appointed to deliver a centrally managed platform in subway deployments, turning wireless devices into sophisticated application toolboxes. The platform understands who you are, where you are and what device you are using among other important “context-aware” information.
The ability to access real time, context-aware services provided by the Appear Context Engine allows employees across the board at SL/Connex to outperform the competition. For example, customer service staff are automatically pushed information pertaining to disturbances in the service, sales and ticket control, and customer surveys; maintenance crews obtain to-do lists, manage their facilities, and are continuously updated on track and train maintenance; and safety and security personnel can trigger and respond to alarms directly on their handheld devices, send instant messages or communicate by voice with each other, and access video feeds of surveillance cameras in the immediate area.
Return on Investment
Appear IQ has had a durable impact on customer service and employee efficiency, while keeping IT costs under control, and generated a return on investment in less than a year. More specifically, a successfully computerized mobile workforce was implemented after less than 6 hours of training, demonstrating how simple and efficient it is to fully adopt the technology and use it effectively.
As a result, employees are more satisfied and effective as they are able to access mission critical information allowing them to respond to customer requests more efficiently and accurately. This translates into significant savings for SL and Connex:
- More than 30 minutes saved per employee, per day on complex questions
- 1,600,000 more possible customer interactions per year for 300 employees
- A drop in the cost of operating the mobile workforce solution (TCO)
- Marked improvement in customer satisfaction levels
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