Customer focus and a strong affinity for change are two of the keys to success in the process we call Digital Transformation. They also happen to be the same things our client Frauscher stands for.
Frauscher makes it easier for system integrators and railway operators to obtain the information they need to run, monitor, and protect their trains and operational networks. Main lines, urban and mass transit, or industrial transport: The company’s wheel sensors, wheel detection systems, and axle counters are essential components of various applications ensuring their safe and reliable functioning.
To many, however, the connection between something as hardware-based as railways and digitalization may sound improbable, which is why we need to step back and better explain what Frauscher does and how they embraced the concept of digitalization.
In the words of Frauscher’s CDO, Melanie Kleinpötzl, whom we interviewed for this article:
We thought that we could not do everything on our own. On the one hand, we did not have the staff numbers or the experience, and on the other, thus far, we do not have all the required skills in-house. We also see that, with a partner like Cloudflight, we can bring highly valuable and relevant experience to the company. Cloudflight has done similar projects in comparable areas, and we can learn a lot from this, while also avoiding mistakes and building up the knowledge in-house.
Melanie Kleinpötzl
Chief Digital Officer & Head of Innovation, Frauscher Sensortechnik GmbH
Wheel sensors and axle counters
Frauscher is one of the world leaders in the production of wheel sensors and axle counters.
To those unfamiliar with railway jargon, an axle counter is a system used in railway signaling to detect the clear or occupied status of a track section between two points. The system generally consists of a wheel sensor (one for each end of the section) and an evaluation unit for counting the axles of the train both into and out of the section. Axle counters are used, for example, to prevent two trains from occupying the same track section at the same time.
In summary, Frauscher is in the business of train operations, with a strong focus on safety and innovation, making the daily tasks of rail operators faster, smoother, and more efficient. And as we already tackled in our firefighting story, there is always room for Digitalization when it comes to safety, data, and process optimization.
On this topic, this is what Melanie Kleinpötzl had to say:
Yes, it is undiscussable that safety fundamentally underpins all our considerations. Additionally, reliability is very important to the end consumer (for people taking the train to move from A to B) and Digitalization undoubtedly plays an important role here. Practical considerations such as getting a better ETA of the train, or the ability to book tickets online contribute to the smoothness of the railway system overall, which is vitally important since the railway is without a doubt, one of the most sustainable ways to move, both now and in the future.
Melanie Kleinpötzl
Chief Digital Officer & Head of Innovation, Frauscher Sensortechnik GmbH
The Cloud is the limit
Frauscher’s solutions are fixated on physical premises. As it often happens in this case, several issues stemmed from a lack of stability to performance issues and a less-than-optimal update process.
Considering the massive amounts of data that Frauscher sensors produce, we decided to do what is best for speed, efficiency, and reliability: If they wanted to make the most out of their data, both for their current business and for developing further opportunities in the future, Frauscher had to go Cloud Native.
The Cloud Native paradigm shift started with the software infrastructure and soon encompassed both diagnostic services and sensors.
New ways of working
As remarked in our study “Cloud Native 2022 – Much more than just technology”, a Cloud Native transformation is not just about migrating and adapting the software to the Cloud. A successful transformation is also, and perhaps mostly, about adopting a way of working and making decisions that allow the entire enterprise to exploit the full potential of the Cloud. When done properly, this will result in a great ROI for the company and more benefits to its users.
Frauscher, a pioneering company since its inception 30 years ago, understood this quite well and allowed us to introduce the Cloudflight way of working: In a nutshell, it is about creating software safely and cleanly, reducing costs, and optimizing processes.
Our colleagues were even able to upgrade the process pipeline for requirements and feature release: The overall result is an agile way of working that will pay dividends for Frauscher in the upcoming years, as things in every sector shift more and more towards software and customer-oriented value creation.
We asked Ms. Kleinpötzl why Frauscher chose Cloudflight as a Digitalization partner:
We thought that we could not do everything on our own. On the one hand, we did not have the staff numbers or the experience, and on the other, thus far, we do not have all the required skills in-house. We also see that, with a partner like Cloudflight, we can bring highly valuable and relevant experience to the company. Cloudflight has done similar projects in comparable areas, and we can learn a lot from this, while also avoiding mistakes and building up the knowledge in-house.
Melanie Kleinpötzl
Chief Digital Officer & Head of Innovation, Frauscher Sensortechnik GmbH
Shifting our focus again to Frauscher, we also asked Ms. Kleinpötzl what the advantages for the company are now that it went Cloud Native. Here is her answer:
Availability is a huge topic, as is the access to the system: In the railway industry, it is very hard to get access to the systems, the data and to obtain the possibility of working together with the customers on key topics such as troubleshooting – although it is possible with an on-premise solution, it requires substantial effort as you have to go on-site, and such assistance costs time and money.
Melanie Kleinpötzl
Chief Digital Officer & Head of Innovation, Frauscher Sensortechnik GmbH
Looking ahead
Frauscher is yet another successful example of Digital Transformation impacting industries that many thought would be impossible to disrupt.
In their case, a Cloud Native Transformation means more value delivered to their clients, more insights they can gather from their data, and, perhaps, new business models to come shortly.
For us, this is another step towards bringing Digitalization into new industries – a step that we will follow up by attending September’s InnoTrans industry fair, once again supporting Frauscher and advancing in our quest of making a digital difference across various industries.
With regards to our interview with Frauscher’s Chief Digital Officer, we closed it by asking her how she felt about the company’s digital future, and how the company will present itself at InnoTrans:
In the future, all our solutions will be increasingly connected and interlinked, representing a large shift from the previous paradigm where our solutions were often presented as standalone entities. The combination of these interconnections, together with the power of the Cloud, will give us new applications that, in some cases, we cannot even think about as possible yet. [At InnoTrans] we will present ourselves as a solution provider for customers in the Railway industry. Digital products will be a main part of the future: We will present our new solution – Frauscher Insights – there to try to show our customers the potential of fusing many different systems, alongside the possibilities associated with using the Cloud. We want to show the potential of our future developments.
Melanie Kleinpötzl
Chief Digital Officer & Head of Innovation, Frauscher Sensortechnik GmbH