Who?
Eurostar is the high-speed train operator linking the UK to France, Belgium and the Netherlands through the Channel Tunnel. It carries thousands of passengers to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Lille, Disneyland® Paris and more every day.
The challenge
Since its launch in 1994, Eurostar has carried over 150 million passengers, changing the way people travel between the UK and the continent. However, in 2017, Eurostar recognised the need to step away from the older reservation solution to adopt a more flexible, modern platform that would support future business need. Their ‘Horizon’ programme was established to overhaul these legacy systems, drive improvements in customer experience and unlock cost savings, but faced a number of challenges including:
- Supplier selection
- Complex technology transition planning
- Ensure the switch-over of mission critical systems without impacting ticket sales.
Moorhouse was chosen to assist Eurostar throughout this multi-year endeavour, commencing with supplier due diligence, before providing the Eurostar board with programme delivery assurance.
How did we help?
Reporting to the Eurostar CIO, CEO and Board, the Moorhouse team initially provided a thorough and comprehensive review of the selected software supplier for Horizon. This included detailed assessment of the supplier’s solution development and maintenance capabilities, principal solution architecture design and integration capabilities for connection into the Eurostar distribution platform.
The review considered supplier scale and capability to deliver and assessment of commercial and contractual terms. In addition, our team offered guidance in the setup of transformation programmes to guide Horizon planning. Key areas of risk and concern were highlighted as part of this report, along with recommendations for mitigating actions.
Outcomes
To begin, our reporting and guidance to the board helped the Horizon Programme conclude successful supplier contracting. Once the Horizon transformation programme commenced in 2019, we provided a series of recurring delivery assurance reviews that included:
- Programme and project delivery
- Governance
- Change management
- Supplier management
- Assessment of technical work streams for architecture design
- Messaging architecture
- Integration with back-office systems and external channels
- Web and mobile architecture design
- SaaS service integration.
In addition, the Moorhouse team has also provided specialist technical consulting advice to complement the assurance reviews. This included topics such as agile development techniques, frameworks for change management and test strategy development and planning. A quarterly report and presentation to the board was given, highlighting risks and recommended remediation actions.
Since Horizon went live to all customers, agents and staff, a merger programme between Eurostar and the French-Belgian high-speed train operator, Thalys, has taken place. The Eurostar Horizon platform is now the single solution for both rail services.
You delivered everything you promised. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of understanding you showed, not only of the programme and technology, but also the transport distribution marketplace, supply chain and their business drivers.”
Laurent Bellan, CIO, Eurostar
We’re always here to help
