Information Delivery

The change in data management

at
Network Rail
David M Walker
Data Management & Warehousing

Oracle OpenWorld- 6th September 2004

 Network Rail Background

Ÿ! Took
Took over
over the
the management
management of
of the
the rail
rail infrastructure
infrastructure from
from
Railtrack in October 2002
Ÿ! Responsible for the management and safety of the rail
infrastructure
–! 21,000 miles of track
–! 40,000 bridges and structures
–! 2,500 station etc.
Ÿ! Highly visible to public and political perception which makes
timely information a key component of the enterprise
 New Strategy & Vision

Ÿ! Network Rail replaced existing Railtrack IT function with a new

department called ‘Information Management’ (NRIM)
Ÿ! Emphasis placed on the development of reliable information and
key performance indicators
–! Top down pressure for KPIs from the Executive and external bodies
such as the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA)
–! Bottom up pressure for managers and staff to have the right
information available in a timely fashion
–! NRIM strategy team determined the strategic toolset
Ÿ! In general Oracle based with other specialist tools
Ÿ! Network Rail means radical change to the organisation structure
–! Toolset and build must be affordable, survive change and be robust
 The tools we have

Ÿ! Strategy says solutions will be Oracle based

Ÿ! Database technology based around Oracle 9i moving
to Oracle 10g
Ÿ! ERP solution is Oracle eBusiness Suite
Ÿ! Information Delivery uses:
–! Oracle Balanced Scorecard for KPIs
–! Oracle Discoverer for analytical reporting
–! Oracle Report for standard reporting
–! Oracle Warehouse Builder to move the data around
Ÿ! Presentation and integration uses Oracle Portal
 First Steps

Ÿ! Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) mandated

certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Ÿ! Quick Win – Web based delivery using Oracle
Balanced Scorecard of the SRA KPIs
Ÿ! Eight weeks to develop and deploy
Ÿ! Data collected via Microsoft Excel as no
consistent automated solution available
 Success breeds success

Ÿ! Executive Scorecard leads business managers to

require scorecards for their own areas
–! Area Maintenance
Ÿ!Condition of track
Ÿ!Plant Management
Ÿ!Inspection Regimes
–! Financial Management of Projects
Ÿ!On time – to budget
Ÿ!Forecast vs Actuals
Ÿ!Safety Indexes on projects
 Getting the data

Ÿ! Balanced Scorecards fed from multiple

sources
–! Excel import for manual data
–! Directly from operational systems via Oracle
Warehouse Builder (OWB)
–! From Data Warehouses via Oracle Warehouse
Builder
–! Data capture via portal (more on this later)
KPIs sliced and diced
 Making data more accessible

Ÿ! Concept of Literal Staging Areas

–! Taking data from legacy systems such as mainframes and
storing it in an Oracle database
Ÿ! Oracle Warehouse Builder gets data overnight i.e. the
data is not fed real time
Ÿ! Use Oracle Discoverer to allow ad hoc end user reporting
Ÿ! Makes data more freely available
Ÿ! Reduced cost of producing reports
Ÿ! Helps analysis of where the truth lies
Ÿ! Web based deployment using Oracle Discoverer Plus
Ÿ! Avallino analysis of data quality
Discoverer LSA Reports
 Portal Deployment

Ÿ! All this new data can not be hidden on systems

Ÿ! Need a framework to deploy applications and
information
Ÿ! Oracle Portal used to provide front end integration
–! Single entry point and single sign-on
–! Role based access
Ÿ!‘Applications I need to do my job’ concept
–! Integrates applications at the front end
–! Standardised look and feel
 Portal Applications

Ÿ! Growing number of small portal applications

Ÿ! Replace existing MS Access and MS Excel
methods with web based applications
Ÿ! Relatively quick and cheap to deploy
Ÿ! Change the quality of the data by introducing
validation and centralisation
–! Author & Publish concepts
 Consolidating Data

Ÿ! Three areas for Data Warehouses

–! Maintenance (Asset Data Warehouse)
Ÿ!The maintenance and management of track,
signals, etc
–! Operations (Train Data Warehouse)
Ÿ!The planning and running of trains including
timetabling, punctuality and management of
delays
–! Business Services
Ÿ!The management of money, projects, HR etc.
 The Yellow Train Story

Ÿ! New ‘yellow trains’ travel around the network

collecting measurement data on track quality
Ÿ! The data is sent to the Engineering Support
Centre or ESC in Derby who load it via
Oracle Warehouse Builder into the ‘Asset
Data Warehouse’
Ÿ! Data is then available via the portal
Ÿ! Reference data, e.g. track type is managed
via a portal application
The Yellow Train
 The team and approach

Ÿ! About 20 people based around the UK

Ÿ! Composition
–! Network Rail staff
–! Domain Specialists
–! Oracle Consultants
Ÿ! 18 months of work and only now reaching 20 people
(4 people initially)
Ÿ! High degree of Rapid Application Development (RAD)
approach and interaction with the business
 The future

Ÿ! More of the same

Ÿ! Spread the technology, tools and techniques
out to an ever wide audience
Ÿ! Upgrading tools to latest versions to take
advantage of new features
Ÿ! Not specifically looking for any new products