Key Objective: To provide an easy way to enable people to access the most relevant discounted rail travel, upload their details, pay online and then pass over the data to a third-party for the physical production and distribution of Railcards – or a digital equivalent.
“The Quiet-Storm team completely understand what we do and how we work. They are a very grounded, realistic value add, human company, which make them great to work with.“
Their recommendations take us forwards, and make our propositions better, without having to waste time on fancy irrelevant ideas. The team are consistent, and we don’t see the resource exhausting high churn, high knowledge loss of many other suppliers.“
“In terms of issue handling, they are fast, sensible, and successful.”
Matthew Burrough, Head of Digital at Rail Delivery Group
The Rail Delivery Group or RDG (previously the Association of Train Operating Companies), is the British rail industry membership body. It’s owned by its members, who are: Network Rail, the nationalised owner of the rail infrastructure. The train operating companies that provide passenger services. The freight operating companies.
Issues: With multiple suppliers of differing technical capability, managing a variety of Railcard ecommerce websites, ATOC (Now RDG) were unable to get a supplier to understand their product portfolio. Combined with limited internal resources, their marketing team also struggled to get a technically capable provider with the vision to stretch their goals. This meant without a common framework across all the Railcard sites, they could not rationalise suppliers or achieve the economies of scale.
Introductory Project 2005: ATOC needed to optimise their ‘Travel Trade’ site, this was a password protected portal site which provided information to those who had gained the ATOC Travel Trade qualification – so they could book executive rail travel. The Travel Trade accreditation process was a loss-making venture, as the cost in putting people on the course, and invigilating the exam, was not covered by the fee. This was compounded by the fact people on the course needed to be in London for two days, incurring travel and accommodation costs. These additional costs to the businesses employing individuals sitting the course, plus the loss of an employee for two days, were the rational for the course fee not covering the delivery costs incurred by ATOC.
Resolution: Quiet Storm developed a new site, with an online learning section and a secure online exam – which dynamically randomised the content, with multiple choice answers. The exam duration was timed, and the site automatically assessed the individual, awarding them a pass or presenting the opportunity to retake. This new qualification process gained traction as participants could take part from their place of work, and payment was taken online. From a loss-making activity, it was cost negative inside 10 months and profitable from then until the day it was retired in 2018
This initial contract surpassed the expectations of the marketing team, as we had presented and delivered a solution beyond the scope, but within the budget. This then led to a migration of all other Railcard specific sites (x17 in total) the majority of which, are ecommerce. They have a variety of integration requirements, some bespoke, some through an API. This includes the Disabled Persons Railcard, which needs to conform to the highest online accessibility standards. Working with Quiet Storm has provided the organisation with economy of scale, as their support, hosting and ongoing development is all managed by a single supplier.