Your journey: step-by-step
How S3 Passenger elevates your business from day one
The implementation and migration of a new reservation system is complex. Over the past two decades we have successfully implemented our core product S3 Passenger for 40 operators across the globe. These range from start-ups to leading (national) operators. As you scroll you will see the entire implementation journey as you experience it.
Orientation
Your journey to the complete integration with S3 Passenger starts with the orientation phase. We want to understand the key drivers: both from a business and IT perspective. With our decades of experience, we can help define a value case to transition to, and optimally utilise, a new solution.
Discovery
During the discovery phase of implementing S3 Passenger, we introduce you to the product capabilities and analyse your requirements to define the target architecture, configuration, and migration strategy. Our consultants conduct interactive workshops to configure your business in S3 Passenger in a dedicated customer environment. This initial configuration serves as a foundation for your initial go live and all future releases.
Design and delivery
During the design & delivery phase we assist you in configuring the S3 Passenger reference model for your passenger self-service system. Integration of S3 Passenger into your IT landscape is typically managed by the selected system integrator, with support from our consultants within S3 Passenger APIs.
Testing
Testing and quality assurance play a crucial role throughout the implementation and operational phases of S3 Passenger. Various tests are conducted to validate the overall quality and coverage, including automated test scripts executed by our engineers. We provide support to clients during testing activities, assisting with S3 Passenger configuration validation, and end-to-end functional integration tests within their IT ecosystem.
Migration
Migration, or cut-over, to a new passenger self-service system, is a complex and crucial step for a smooth transition. The challenge lies in maintaining a single source of truth for train occupancy, emphasising the significance of data quality and integrity in running your business effectively.
Drawing from our experience, we’ve developed proven methodologies to advise operators on complex migrations to S3 Passenger. Regardless of the chosen migration scenario, we have the expertise to assist both operators and system integrators with planning, preparations, and execution.
Run
Continued assistance for operational success
After a successful migration, this is where it really begins; running your business in S3 Passenger. While you will have developed the required skills and capabilities internally, we will continue to support in a dedicated hyper-care period with our consultants, complemented with our dedicated client-centric teams, to support operational excellence with S3 Passenger as PSS.
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Fueling improvement and innovation
Fuelling improvement and innovation
S3 Passenger evolves continuously, with an average of over 400 new product features introduced each year. These features are part of S3 Passenger’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, and we own their intellectual property rights. These features and improvements can be categorised into three main areas:
1. Operator Feedback
Suggested or brought up by operators like yourself, features are continuously influenced by evolving business needs and feedback provided by operators that use S3 Passenger.
2. Implementation Projects
During implementation projects, new features are often identified to meet specific business requirements of operators who have recently signed their contract to begin using S3 Passenger.
3. New Ideas
We proactively identify and invest in new ideas, incorporating them into the product to enhance its capabilities.
This multi-faceted approach ensures that S3 Passenger remains at the forefront of innovation, catering to the evolving needs of operators and ensuring continuous improvement of the product.
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Influence the evolution of S3 Passenger yourself
The USM allows operators like yourself to suggest new features privately. These suggestions are discussed with the S3 product management team, and if agreed upon, a generic product feature is linked to the operator’s suggestion.
The USM process includes a voting system where operators allocate story points as votes, and development is planned based on sufficient votes. This process ensures the protection of S3 Passenger’s generic usability while allowing operators to influence its evolution in a fair and collaborative manner.
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Seamless updates and compatibility
Seamless updates – always
S3 Passenger facilitates continuous deployment. This allows for seamless updates of the software suite to various environments, including production, without any downtime in usage. Prior to deployment, we rigorously test new versions on the product level to ensure reliability. Each release guarantees backward compatibility at the API and functionality levels, safeguarding existing integrations from disruptions caused by software changes.
Always up-to-date
In cases where backward compatibility is not feasible, we commit to introducing entirely new versions of affected APIs while preserving the previous versions still in use. Detailed release notes are provided in the S3 Passenger wiki, accessible online through Confluence. The wiki outlines new features, bug fixes, and highlights any impacts on APIs, user interfaces, or configuration parameters that influence the behaviour of the software.
The best version – guaranteed
Sqills follows a “latest greatest” approach for S3 Passenger, continuously updating the main software version with the latest functional changes, bug fixes and technical improvements. This approach ensures that all introduced functionality is backward compatible, preventing any disruption to ongoing operations.
For instance, when addressing a bug for an operator, the latest version of S3 Passenger may also introduce additional product features. This process is carefully designed to ensure that the introduction of new features never poses any harm to the system’s ongoing operation. We prioritise continuous updates and avoid maintaining older versions solely for patch releases.
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Reliable support and strong partnerships
A true partnership
We maintain strong partnerships with operators in the S3 Passenger community, prioritising long-term relationships with our customers. Direct communication between our service delivery manager, customer-centric teams, and the operator’s service management organisation ensures continuous engagement. Regular account management meetings, conducted in person, facilitate discussions on progress, service delivery, future plans, and how we can support the operator’s objectives.
Quality at its core
Recognising the mission-critical nature of our SaaS solution, we have invested significantly in quality across our core activities. We have implemented a robust management system, obtained relevant certifications, and established a comprehensive set of incident management processes and procedures with generic service levels. These measures demonstrate our commitment to providing reliable support and upholding the highest standards in serving all S3 Passenger customers.
Cases
Choosing the right solution for your business is crucial. We're proud of the fact that S3 Passenger has consistently delivered positive results for all our clients.
But don't just take our word for it. We believe in letting our customers do the talking. Find out how S3 Passenger has worked for other operators.
Get in touch with us
Convinced about S3 Passenger? Contact us for a demo or to discuss your needs as a transport operator. We're eager to hear about your challenges with legacy systems or your plans for a new operation.
