These are, of course, rhetorical questions. The rail industry demands effective governance, compliance, assurance and delivery wherever you may operate in its varied landscape, be it safety, operational, technical, environmental or business. However, it is tremendously difficult to drill down into a rail project, department or delivery unit to get the information you need to make decisions – and is very challenging to create the evidence in the first place – and that’s before you even think about linking everyone together in the chain. We also know that, on top of actually delivering your outputs efficiently and effectively, you must find ways to respond to the ever-changing needs of the industry and the competitive landscape.

Digital tools that enable data collection and automate processes are many and varied. It is highly likely that you have embarked on a digital transformation journey and are using tools to support you at a variety of levels within your organisation. Some will be delivering elements of what you need very well, some may be missing the mark (WhatsApp) and some may require you to radically change your processes to fit the model of data collection and use. Some might be failing to fly or have already been switched off, with staff on the ground reverting back to manual data collection, storage and transmission and the ever-present Excel spreadsheet – frustrating your attempts at gaining both the efficiency benefits and hard evidence needed to provide absolute confidence in your decision making, assurance and governance.

Despite your myriad of digital tools, however, it is highly unlikely that you have a seamless path from point-of-entry to point-of-use when it comes to data – leaving your documentation, evidence and reports potentially affected by human error. It is equally unlikely that you can’t get the best out of your digital real estate due to the pressures of day-to-day delivery, thus don’t realise the benefits that digital process improvement should provide (connect asset to BIM, design to QCS automation and real-time, data driven Dashboards).

So what can you do about this? You certainly don’t want to have to rip up what you have and start again, only to find the same problems and issues with the next system.

Despite your myriad of digital tools, however, it is highly unlikely that you have a seamless path from point-of-entry to point-of-use when it comes to data – leaving your documentation, evidence and reports potentially affected by human error. It is equally unlikely that you can’t get the best out of your digital real estate due to the pressures of day-to-day delivery, thus don’t realise the benefits that digital process improvement should provide (connect asset to BIM, design to QCS automation and real-time, data driven Dashboards).

So what can you do about this? You certainly don’t want to have to rip up what you have and start again, only to find the same problems and issues with the next system.

One answer is to consider eviFile – or to give it its full name, Evidence File. eviFile is a highly flexible digital process and data solution, combining data expertise, Power BI and a digital transformation support team to enable you to start your digital journey at the base of the pyramid, collecting digital evidence right at the point of entry.

By creating your eviFile digital standards that can be replicated across projects, you ensure consistent, replicable data and evidence collection from track – linking together your existing systems to enable a complete storage, access, dissemination and reporting process that can be tailored specifically to your requirements.

eviFile is a digital transformation and process automation enabler. It has been designed as a technology and service to unpick the key problems preventing you from getting the best from digital digitalisation and in the process, provide you with hard evidence to manage your projects, programmes, departments, business and industry to the highest levels of assurance. Proving compliance and demonstrating good governance should be the standard, with reporting tools that can be moulded to provide stage gate evidence, standards compliance statements, accurate Project-on-a-Page and hierarchical business reports, BIM information, health and safety files and compliant handback reports.

eviFile is effective at all levels of the organisation. It is equally useful as a corporate governance system as it is a project efficiency tool. It can be used to support the three levels of assurance, covering first line management control with features that support Route/project compliance monitoring, inspections and safety conversations, management reviews and advisory visits and self-assessment. It will enable second line corporate oversight with a system that delivers engineering verification, deep dive reviews and functional topic management and will afford the industry the ability to provide hard evidence efficiently to facilitate third line independent challenge and assurance. This will inevitably improve your position with respect to the Risk Maturity Model, RM3, and will make a competitive difference when bidding for the CP7 frameworks.

Whatever your digital challenges are, eviFile is in a position to support you and your digital strategy. The system can be as large or small as required and we will work with your people, systems and processes as they deliver your day-to-day work to enable automation in a way that just can’t be beaten for efficiency or effectiveness.

We will provide the necessary tools and support on the ground, in the site office and all the way to the boardroom, delivering risk-free, malleable tools and systems that can be tailored to enable digital transformation from whatever starting point you are at. EviFile is ready to supply the missing link in your digital transformation chain.