Case Study
Capturing opportunities for
digital change at Transport for London

Transport for London (TfL) is responsible for managing the transport system in London, including the London Underground, buses, taxis and TfL Rail. Talk Think Do helped TfL embrace digital transformation by streamlining its app-building programme.

The TfL Mobile Programme was established to encourage digital transformation within Transport for London. The aim was to help TfL identify new or existing areas of the business where mobile apps could improve efficiencies, enhance the working life of staff and deliver better customer experiences.
However, the success of the programme was hampered when a large backlog of opportunities developed – leaving the team unable to investigate and prioritise which ones should be pursued. The potential was there for widespread digital transformation, all that was needed was a little help to realise that potential.
As the work that TfL does and the transport systems they manage affect so many people in the Greater London area, the potential for improving people’s lives was enormous.

The backlog was caused because the programme was struggling to deliver applications that required integration with backend systems, and it was often blocked by existing IT governance processes.

Talk Think Do provided a solution architect to work within a discovery team at Transport for London. The job of the discovery team was to rapidly assess opportunities. To do this, we produced costed solution designs quickly and accurately, so that decision makers were fully informed.

If the discovery phase recommended a ‘build’ option, we then played a crucial role working alongside Microsoft Cloud Solution Architects to design the backend systems for the new mobile apps.

We also provided architectural assurance for suppliers providing iOS application development.

Throughout each new app build, we worked with IT enterprise architecture, security governance and IT change control to understand their concerns and deliver solutions that worked for all parties involved. This way, there would be no obstructions to getting these apps up and running for Transport for London staff and customers.

Talk Think Do helped to transform how the TfL Mobile Programme worked. We played a pivotal role in the discovery phase, streamlining processes from identifying opportunities to working out what building a new app would look like and cost. We then worked to build these new solutions.
TfL plays a vital role in managing the core transport infrastructure, systems and services of one the busiest cities in the world. Hundreds of thousands of businesses and millions of people rely on TfL every day. Digital transformation has the potential to improve not only the working lives of TfL staff, but everyone living in Greater London.
Talk Think Do’s work on this project helped TfL better realise the potential of mobile apps. In particular, Talk Think Do are proud to have helped design and build an app which functioned as a dial-a-ride system for people with disabilities and an app for an asset management system. Our expertise was fundamental in allowing the rapid deployment of these solutions.

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