Abellio ScotRail
Abellio ScotRail was in need of a mobile electronic point of sale solution and back-office stock management system supporting onboard retail across its entire fleet.
The company wanted to drive sales performance, improve product mix and broaden scope to develop promotions. High-Speed services in particular required transition from a trolley-based service to a fully stocked retail area, with limited turnaround time at stations where stocks could be replenished.
The ability to support stock, ordering and warehouse operations was also crucial, with all stock and logistics being managed in-house.
Prerequisites were that the handheld terminals should be PCI DSS certified, and be capable of processing all payment types including contactless and mobile wallet. Offline and online capability needed to support sales in any location at any time even when no network was available.
The system
ECR implemented the RailPoS solution running on the Go2 all in one handheld terminals, along with the comprehensive back office and reporting suite. The project began, as with all ECR projects, with discovery phase workshops designed to fully understand how to shape RailPoS to the client’s individual operations, and which would form the final specification briefed to ECR’s development team.
Today, Abellio Scotrail passengers can make purchases onboard using the widest variety of payment types, for the entire product range, with secure, fast and reliable processing regardless of connectivity.
Devices are lightweight all-in-ones with a single charging point, require no Bluetooth connectivity or pairing, and are easy to carry for long shifts on board moving trains. They can be mounted on trolleys as required and are small enough to stow away discretely when not in use whilst robust in use and resilient for the harsh onboard environment with high numbers of users.
The system ensures that the client can manage all operations from product management and pricing levels (managing prices, promotions, variations – e.g. different pricing & availability in standard vs. first class if required), VAT, discounts, vouchers etc. The system gives the client complete flexibility over shaping the system, screen displays, user management and permissions…
All data is delivered real time wherever connectivity allows, with a permissions-based head office system giving users tailored information by user profile.
The Flexmonster reporting suite gives access to vast amounts of data that can be reported on in many varied formats, exported and used for data mining.
Outcomes
The client is now able to offer passengers their choice of payment types on board supporting onboard sales (with the option to introduce the at seat ordering app should this service be required).
Wastage is reduced and cash management controlled using the system, and orders placed efficiently and accurately from onboard. The stock management functionality delivers data to the warehouse ensuring that stocks are replenished and top off orders placed, reducing waste and increasing profitability.
Crews can easily consult scheduled journeys for their shift and all activity is attributed to the individual crew member.
Head office users have a real time, accurate view of all activity on the ground, and around the clock.