SIEMENS RAIL
CASE STUDY
OVERVIEW
Siemens Rail is one of the world’s most recognised brands that delivers trains, maintenance and signalling to the £6.5bn Thameslink Programme.
Traditionally Siemens Rail had stored the laptops they used to carry out daily duties in a cupboard, but the management team realised their recording processes could be improved. Due to the sensitive data stored upon essential devices, they also wanted to improve the way essential equipment updated and accessed by staff.
Seeking an asset management solution to meet their requirements, Siemens Rail approached iLockerz to implement systems at the Three Bridges Depots, Crawley and the Hornsey Train Care Facility in Harringay.
CHALLENGES
Siemens Rail identified that the key issues impacting the efficient use of and the security of the laptops were the time-consuming manual processes of checking laptops in and out through the outdated paper methods. The inability to remotely update devices or provide them with power when they were locked away and not in use meant that devices were often insufficiently charged or inoperable when required for use.
Manually sign-in, sign-out processes would see laptops sometimes being signed out without a paper record, and devices often went missing so would not be available for use at all. With no effective audit trail in place time would be wasted on management, negatively impacting efficiency as well as the team’s ability to deliver their service to the Thameslink.
In addition, ensuring the data stored on devices is current requires regular updates and members of the IT team would regularly have to collate the laptops to manually update, leaving devices out of action during such processes.
SOLUTION
Siemens Rail were seeking a solution that would ensure all laptops were secure yet easily accessible, without the hassle of manually signing them in and out whilst reducing time spent maintaining and updating them.
Following discussions at the Facilities Show in London, the iLockerz team worked closely with the Siemens Rail teams in the UK and in Germany to understand the common challenges they faced managing their assets.
Installations of intelligent locker systems followed at the two main Thames Link depots, allowing authorised users to access a laptop by swiping their Siemens ID badge over the card reader on the front of the locker system.
Stored within secure locker compartments boasting discreet built-in charging facilities, the laptops can now be securely stored and charged between uses. In addition to the hard-wired charger, a Cat5 cable also allows devices to be updated using WOL (wake over LAN) whilst they are not in use - making the whole process of updating devices simpler to free up resources for the Siemens Technical and IT departments.
Alongside the secure hardware, a special hardened software build was also created to offer complete security for the devices being stored and managed within the iLockerz systems.
With each member of staff having their own unique PIN code, the system’s software records who has accessed the system, what compartment they have accessed and what time it was opened.
Kevin Maxey, Site Manager at Siemens Rail, said, “The system automatically provides an up-to-date audit trail of who has what asset which makes it a lot easier to track and locate each individual laptop.”
RESULTS
The implementation of an iLockerz intelligent locker system gives administrators at Siemens Rail complete control over who can access laptops kept onsite, whilst also being able to see all transactions through an automatic audit report which is emailed daily or viewable via the in-built web software.
Maxey adds: “After doing a comparison of other locker solutions companies, iLockerz came out on top. As soon as the system was installed and ready to use, it improved time management and staff organisation. I am very pleased with the service I have received from Ryan and the team - it has been and still is an excellent experience and I will definitely be recommending them to other businesses”.
Enabling laptops to be updated remotely with the simple to use iLockerz system allows operatives at Siemens Rail to work more efficiently, boosting productivity whilst helping them to work more effectively.
