CASE STUDY. Trapeze Group (UK) Ltd.

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY Trapeze Group (UK) Ltd

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS #1 ABOUT THE CLIENT #2 OUR ROLE #3 EFFECTS OF OUR COOPERATION #4 BUSINESS PROBLEM THAT WE SOLVED #5 CHALLENGES #6 WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT? #7 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

3 ABOUT THE CLIENT Trapeze Group is a provider of software solutions used for public transport, including taxi and private hire fleet management. Trapeze Group is an international transportation software company with over 2,500 customers worldwide. Their main business is to deliver the best technology, systems and services, in order to automate the multitude of tasks in transportation services. Their solutions consider the full 360 degrees of their Client s operations. The integrated approach provides a complete enterprise solution connecting the back office, operations and information centers with vehicles, as well as on-street and on-road equipment. Trapeze Group is a subsidiary of Volaris Group, which is mainly focused on acquiring, strengthening and growing vertical market technology companies enabling them to be clear leaders within their focused industry. 3

4 OUR ROLE Our cooperation with Auriga Taxi Systems Ltd (later acquired by Trapeze Group UK) started in 2009 and resulted in many interesting projects. We have developed a number of server, web and mobile applications for Trapeze s Auriga Dispatch System, which manages private hire and taxi fleets. We work closely with the Client and often visit each other, since regular communication and receiving constant feedback are very important for both sides. It is safe to say that we are being trusted and treated as a partner. This is manifested, among others, by the fact that we are given a lot of freedom in the case of technological solutions. On a daily basis our cooperation is based on agile methodologies. Trapeze gives us their demand and we constantly try to improve their software, adding necessary functionalities. 4

5 EFFECTS OF OUR COOPERATION The most tangible effect of our cooperation is EVO SOLUTIONS an internal desktop app written in Java, used mainly to manage tens of thousands of jobs every day, like the process of ordering a taxi, scheduling, and staff asset management. How does it work in practice? To put it simply, the taxi company gets a booking, which is then sent to the most efficient vehicle for the job to be completed, satisfying the end customer s needs. There are many interesting business rules such as dispatching optimisation based on zones and point-based math algorithms or various loyalty benefits for regular customers. This allows Trapeze customers to utilise the system exactly the way they need, making the system more attractive to them. We have updated the maps, so that they display more detailed, up-to-date information. This allows telephonists to view and track vehicles on their own screen, giving them the ability to provide better back on the phone service to their customers. Improving the appearance of maps contributed significantly to increasing usability, especially with the possibility to manually dispatch a job to a vehicle from the enquiry screen. I think the team cooperation has to be the strongest plus point for Future Processing. Both teams we work with communicate well with my team based in the UK, are open to offering suggestions of improvements with functionality and technology stacks. Our mobile department worked for Trapeze Group as well. Read more about mobile apps that we ve done! Dave Rose, Operations Manager 5

6 BUSINESS PROBLEM THAT WE SOLVED Our main goal was to ensure that Trapeze can continue to offer a competitive product that is used by the biggest taxi companies in the country, making passengers lives easier. Thanks to updating their software and adding new functionalities, we wanted to make it possible, to among others, optimise route planning and reach the passengers faster. This will reduce time and money, previously spent on driving additional miles. Adding and developing new components will allow greater optimisation, bringing Trapeze more satisfied Clients. 6

7 CHALLENGES Managing a fleet of taxis of that size, where office efficiency is critical, was very challenging for us. Keeping drivers happy, providing passengers with excellent service or managing office staff were essential operational tasks that we kept in mind. The core software in the Auriga Dispatch System was written in Enterprise JavaBeans 2.1. It was challenging to add new functionalities and to test, since tests had to be done manually. A long-term challenge we are currently working on is organising databases to enable Trapeze to migrate Clients from Oracle to MSSQL to reduce licence costs. 7

8 WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? What we have learnt is of course domain knowledge. This was a very valuable lesson for us, since knowing that the fleet behaves differently at different times during the year (e.g. Halloween, Holiday time etc.) showed us how important it is that during these peaks the software remains responsive. Being at the Client s offices we had a training that showed us how the software really works. However, the most valuable lesson was visiting one of Trapeze s end Clients, where we talked to real users and saw how the software is used on a daily basis. Thanks to this, we could learn from the inside and had a wider perception of users real needs. We have also seen the reports presenting bounce rate of calls, which again focused our attention on how important it is for the software to be responsive, since the passengers can change their mind if waiting time is too long. 8

9 PLANS FOR THE FUTURE Our role in the future will be to further develop and streamline Trapeze s applications, so that they are easier to use and more competitive. Additionally, we would like to move the solution into the Cloud, which may be a great breakthrough for Trapeze, when it comes to fleet management, bringing them more possibilities for growth. Trapeze also wants their devices to use Android, so our role will be to rewrite them. In future, if we were to outsource then I would definitely consider Future Processing when making this decision. Dave Rose, Operations Manager In addition implementing new features will ease the life of office workers, making their day-to-day job more effective and customer-oriented. PRIMARY TECHNOLOGIES USED: ffjava ffswing fforacle 9i ffmssql ffspring Framework ffjboss 4 ffopen Street Maps ffgoogle Guava ffjunit ffliquibase ffant ffmaven ffios ffandroid 9

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