Bespoke Projects
ARRAKIS has been designed to allow for the easy addition of new capabilities and functionality. In computing terminology, it is extensible.
ARRAKIS services sit above ARRAKIS Big Data – a combination of over a decade of data about incidents and messaging, along with real time information (e.g. disruption, movement data, crowding levels, etc) which is constantly being captured.
ARRAKIS MicroServices process data and transform it, with the ARRAKIS Portal and ARRAKIS App providing visualisation, and allow for the manual capture of additional information. MicroServices can also provide or consume raw data. Thus, interfacing to different systems, providing any of the messaging capabilities to third party systems, or adding new data visualisation in line with client requirements are all supported.
Whether it’s integrating links to other TOC services, configuring ARRAKIS CX notifications to provide bespoke disruption alerts for customers, adding new messaging capabilities for use by Network Rail’s IMS system, or interfacing with third party train management services, ARRAKIS can evolve and adapt to meet your future needs.
Capacity Checker
Transport for Wales
Working with the Welsh Government, Transport for Wales (TfW) and technology partners – including WiFi providers, the TfW web agency Network Rail, RDG and others – Nexus Alpha have developed the services that provide the content and the Capacity Checker that TfW have made available to their customers.
The objective of this service is not to provide customers with details about how full a service is right now (something the customer can see when they arrive at a station anyway), but rather to provide customers with an idea of how full the service is likely to be, so that they can plan their journeys to avoid busier times.
The service Nexus Alpha provides captures and stores all counts from all suitably equipped trains on an on-going basis, and makes the data searchable against any TfW service on any day of the week. The end result is a system that can make use of any Wifi counting services available on trains, and a number of cross-industry data sets to allow customers to plan their journeys, avoiding services which are more likely to be busy, or over crowded, based on a green/amber/red traffic light system.
Behind the scenes, the raw data captured can be used in many different ways both in real time, and historically including for revenue forecasts, managing disruption and future service planning. You can view the service HERE.
Incident Management Project
Messaging Gateway
The nationwide network of Tyrell IO systems, in both TOC Controls and Network Rail Controls (which are often co-located), ensure messaging consistency across the UK rail industry - with the ability for TOCs to share the very latest updates on route disruption with their customers based on the very latest prioritised plans and associated milestones issued by Network Rail.
Nexus Alpha was selected by Network Rail to provide extended messaging gateway services to include additional features, including:
Two-way email with cross-referenced acknowledgement from the recipient.
Voice messaging, with the option selected (via the phone keypad) being fed back for cross referencing against the original message – one example use case identified was for jobs to be accepted, or rejected based on user availability.
Two-way SMS with the option for the recipient to acknowledge the message, allowing any management system to match message and response.
Targeted Message Groups
East Midlands Railway
Nexus Alpha had previously implemented a one-off service for EMR which allowed messages to be filtered by a one-off job category, as well as by service route. This was implemented on the forerunner to ARRAKIS, called TyrellCheck.
Working with EMR on ARRAKIS, this concept has now been expanded on both the ARRAKIS Dashboard and the ARRAKIS App, so that as well as visible filters which can be selected or de-selected, any number of additional filter groups can be added which are only visible to staff who are members of those groups.
This prevents information overload, ensuring targeted messaging not only by time range, messages type and the location of incident (either station or route) but also now by job role.
