Fintraffic Railway is on a data journey towards the most advanced rail traffic in the world

Shared insights and learning

The cooperation between Solita and Fintraffic Railway has continued for nearly twenty years. In addition to its broad and deep expertise in technology and data issues, Solita has accumulated considerable sector-specific expertise. The cooperation concerning data-driven solutions and capabilities started approximately three years ago.

How can the data perspective be integrated as part of an organisation’s culture? How should an organisation with effective data strategies operate? How can the utilisation of data and analytics be integrated seamlessly into how we think about business? These are some of the questions that Solita and Fintraffic Railway’s cooperation seeks to answer on their journey towards the most advanced rail traffic in the world.

“This is not a project, but rather a shared and comprehensive data journey towards a continuous improvement – we are developing some very different segments related to data. We also don’t have an endpoint in sight, as this continuous development work will carry on in the spirit of our partnership,” says Mikko Varjos, Solita’s Strategic Account Director, Transport.

Solita has been part of developing and providing insight for Fintraffic Railway’s data strategy, which the partners are putting into practice according to a jointly designed roadmap. What makes the partnership special is the comprehensive nature of the data cooperation. The cooperation covers everything from developing data warehousing to master data management, service design, and change management.

“We help our client to find insight and we learn together. We hope that in the future we’ll know a lot of things that we don’t know today,” says Mika Alatalo, Project Manager at Solita.

“Solita’s work is important for the development of the entire transport industry. The people at Solita are always looking at the big picture, and they understand that all traffic data must move seamlessly between the different operators. The data must also be of high quality,” says Timo Nieminen, Director of Business Development at Fintraffic Railway.

Starting from scratch and aiming for the top

The long-term goal is to develop the most advanced railway traffic in the world with data and analytics. However, the journey towards an increasingly data-driven organisation does not happen all at once. The smart utilisation of data and analytics aims to add value both in the short and long term.

“Our first goal was to make data available to people through modern data warehousing. We want decision-making at Fintraffic Railway to be based on data, so we are moving towards a more data-driven business,” says Fintraffic’s Smalin.

The cost-effective data warehousing solution developed for Fintraffic Railway collects data from a wide variety of sources. The smart combination of different data sources also produces significant added value from a business standpoint.

“Data operations seek to serve the needs of safety, punctuality and efficiency even better than before. We want the results of our work to be visible to all railway passengers by mitigating and reducing traffic disruptions and providing improvements in areas such as punctuality and predictive capabilities. Our goal at the national level is to also share and utilise data between different organisations in a more comprehensive and innovative way,” says Solita’s Varjos.

One of the most significant and challenging goals is seamlessly connecting how we think about data and business so that data-driven operations are no longer considered a separate function of an organisation, but rather part of new comprehensive and data-driven creative operations.