valantic x ÖBB: In an interview about the tree register project

Hello Mr. Bock, thank you for joining us and taking the time to do this interview with me about the tree register project at ÖBB. Please start by introducing yourself.

My name is Stefan Bock. I work at ÖBB Infrastruktur AG. Until the end of February, I headed up the IT and Data Management team in the maintenance division and at the beginning of March I took over as head of Region East 1, which covers Vienna and parts of Lower Austria.

Thank you very much, Mr. Bock. Could you briefly explain the tree register project to our readers? What was this project about?

The tree register was about our obligation to inspect our trees in public areas twice a year, once when they are in leaf and once when they are bare. This requirement stems from incidents in Austria in the past, where falling branches during wind events caused injuries and even one fatality. It is therefore absolutely necessary to carry out these inspections reliably and to manage them effectively.

That sounds very exciting. What were the challenges in this sustainable project?

We became aware of IT security issues, which put us under enormous time pressure to have a new application available as quickly as possible before the start of the season, which is just beginning now.

Which solution did you choose?

In this case, we opted for SAP PM as the basis and for mobile processing for SAP Asset Manager. This decision was also influenced by our desire to standardize our system landscape and the fact that this solution is scalable for us, meaning that what we do today with trees, we will be able to do in the future with the same application for signals, switches and other assets in our portfolio.

What was the main objective that ÖBB Infrastructure set itself for this project?

The main goal was to provide a sustainable solution in a very very short period of time—the most important thing was that it had to be scalable. This means that what we are doing now should work in the same way for all other types of assets.

What challenges were you able to successfully overcome with valantic in the context of mobile processing for the Mobile Asset Manager?

We have truly succeeded in finding a way to remain standardized on the cloud side while also meeting the security requirements of a critical infrastructure operator.

Why did you choose valantic for this task?

We always apply the best bidder principle, which means that performance, experience and price were the deciding factors here. In the Europe-wide tender, valantic clearly stood out from the other bidders. That is why we chose them as our strategic implementation partner. A decisive factor in this decision was also their railway-specific expertise, which we deliberately include in tenders, especially in the IT sector, because industry knowledge usually makes project execution much more efficient.

What distinguishes us, valantic, in your eyes?

Definitely the combination of SAP expertise and railway-specific expertise. Not many service providers have that. It is definitely one of valantic’s unique selling points.

Yes, I can only say thank you for those words, Mr. Bock. What did you appreciate most about working with valantic?

Definitely valantic’s commitment. I think it was clear to everyone involved that the project was extremely tight in terms of the timeline. I have to say that I always saw the employees’ dedicated commitment to achieving the common goal. Ultimately, we succeeded in delivering the new application on time.

Can you briefly and concisely describe your collaboration with valantic in two words?

Reliable, trustworthy and really pleasantly short turnaround times, meaning efficient implementation.

Will you recommend valantic to others?

Yes, of course.

Thank you very much, Mr. Bock, for this insightful look into the exciting tree register project at ÖBB Infrastructure. We look forward to continuing our collaboration and to the many exciting tasks that we will tackle and implement together as the ÖBB-valantic team.