On the operational side, Groenewoud underlined that reality rarely matches the plan. Planning is less a static timetable and more “continuous re-planning” across multiple constrained resources: paths, locomotives, wagons, driver duties and repositioning. A disruption on one axis quickly cascades across the rest. Back-office systems face different pressures. Here the litmus test is throughput with a lean team. Feature completeness and ease of use matter most, while a brief outage is inconvenient rather than catastrophic.

Single-wagon load: the toughest digital puzzle

Not all freight is equal from a software perspective. Block trains on simple A–B lanes are well served by many vendors. The difficulty rises sharply with single wagonload (SWL). Few tools tackle this well, Groenewoud noted, describing it as a genuinely complex multi-resource puzzle. The business challenge compounds the technical one: SWL flows are often less profitable, yet shippers expect providers to handle both block and SWL traffic. Operators that cherry-pick only the straightforward work risk losing the entire account.

Why non-functionals now outrank features

Compared with 20 years ago, Groenewoud argued that non-functional requirements — reliability, performance, scalability and especially cyber security — are now “more dominant than the functional requirements”. Generative coding assistants can spin up basic business applications quickly, but turning them into mission-critical systems remains hard because the craft lies in meeting those non-functionals at scale. “A generative ‘programmer on your shoulder’ can build features. It cannot, by itself, deliver the non-functional part,” he said.

AI’s role: three stages of impact

Ab Ovo is already experimenting with voice-to-process tooling that converts spoken descriptions of workflows into business process models and starter applications. The company is working to embed safeguards for security, scalability and performance from the outset, and to align outputs with “green software” principles.
Energy, data centres and ‘green software’

As AI scales, energy use in data centres will grow. Policymakers are likely to constrain capacity in some locations, making software efficiency a strategic concern. Groenewoud advocates for “green software principles” and notes that language choice at runtime matters: carefully engineered low-level implementations can reduce consumption in production environments. “You’d better make sure mission-critical applications are extremely efficient for using less space in a data centre,” he said.

People, knowledge and the adoption curve

Despite the hype, AI will not replace locomotives, wagons or cargo. Value will accrue around the surrounding processes, where the business case remains decisive. A near-term priority is knowledge retention as experienced staff retire. Here AI can act as a persistent memory layer for procedures, constraints and best practice, shortening analysis cycles for new routes or customers and reducing reliance on large external consulting teams.

Bottom line

For rail freight operators, the software brief is crystallising. Keep trains moving through robust, cyber-secure platforms engineered for reliability and performance. Use AI to compress cycle times, predict needs and simplify interfaces — but don’t mistake fast feature generation for mission-critical resilience. And build with energy efficiency in mind, because scarcity in the data centre could soon be a competitive factor.

We all focus on using IT to reduce waste and, or mileage but never think about the environmental cost of IT in itself. Introducing himself and his company Groenewoud said: “Ab Ovo strives for energy-efficient software and reduced CO2 impact. To reach these goals, Ab Ovo is working with three platforms: the Eco Logic Platform, the DELMIA Quintiq Platform and the SAS Viya Platform”

Eco Logic Platform

The groundbreaking Eco Logic Platform is used to digitize any operational process, from ERP to mission critical systems to run your operations. What is unique about this platform as Groenewoud explained: “it is the first Green Coding Platform measuring and reducing continuously the energy consumption of all executed processes. This platform is designed to reduce the CO2 impact of IT throughout the complete lifecycle of the software. From fast development to continuous deployment.”

DELMIA Quintiq Platform

Ab Ovo leverages the DELMIA Quintiq Platform to optimize the most complex planning and scheduling across all operational resources within many industries. The goal is to increase utilization and efficiency and minimize waste. Within the RailFreight industry, this is done primarily by optimizing trains, locomotives, railcars, yards and the entire workforce supporting running the trains.

SAS Viya Platform

As Groenewoud continues the SAS Viya Platform is used by Ab Ovo to assist their customers to adhere to the increasing reporting guidelines on sustainability in general.

Partnership with Gysev Cargo

The path forward to become truly sustainable lies in forging partnerships across the entire chain of operations. This is a priority of Ab Ovo, Groenewoud emphasized. Following his remarks Mr. Zoltan Zentai of Gysev Cargo joined the stage to explain the benefits of Gysev’s partnership with Ab Ovo on their sustainability journey and mentioned that through Ab Ovo’s Eco Logic Software Platform, they not only use their resources more efficiently, but their IT solutions are also more sustainable.

“We are in the midst of a strategic organizational shift,” Marijus Jankauskas, operational efficiency manager at LTG Cargo explains, “This is a deliberate phase where we’re investing in people to catalyse unprecedented advancements in process efficiency and service reliability.” One key outcome of this change process has been centralisation of operations to a single operational centre. Whereas LTG Cargo previously had separate regional planning processes, a new national centre is now responsible for all cargo planning for two weeks ahead as well as managing any daily delays or disruptions.

LTG Cargo implemented Ab Ovo’s Rail Cargo Planning

To handle the increased flow of data, LTG Cargo has implemented Rail Cargo Planning (RCP), an integrated resource planning system developed by global planning and optimisation solution provider Ab Ovo. The first contacts with Ab Ovo were made in 2018 and their rail expertise and guidance were pivotal for the design of the business model used in the operation centre. LTG awarded the system contract to Ab Ovo in 2020 after a successfully conducted EU tender. The solution from Ab Ovo was delivered over a 1.5-year implementation and change management project with configuration of the solution and training of the LTG Cargo staff. Having seen early benefits from the RCP system, thanks to the ability to plan and allocate resources more effectively and with short notice, LTG has since placed the system at the core of several key planning processes.

“We are transforming our planning and order management processes, and Ab Ovo’s Rail Cargo Planning system plays a role in the planning aspect,” Jankauskas notes, “The system has proven its worth already in the early phase in 2022 where the rail market experienced huge changes demanding fast adaptations in the planning. This aligns with LTG Cargo’s broader strategy of serving as a regional transportation backbone and focusing on creating value for our customers.” Built on the DELMIA Quintiq supply chain planning and optimization (SCP&O) platform from Dassault Systèmes, the RCP system offers decision support, activity as well as KPI-based planning, real-time solvers, and scenario management.

“RCP is a solution that uses real-time and historical data as input from management systems such as order management, fleet management, time schedules, or other relevant data sources,” Håkan Franzén, Managing Director, Ab Ovo Nordic, explains. “With predictive analytics and rail-specific algorithms, the solution presents planners with the optimum and most efficient use of valuable resources, whether these are people, rolling stock or other assets. It is hugely important that the planners always are in control and our Rail Cargo Planning solution gives them precisely this – with all needed data in real-time, intuitive user interface and fully transparent AI.”

LTG’s digitisation journey

For LTG Cargo, systems such as RCP are all part of a longer-term digitization journey designed to deliver greater automation and efficiency. “We look at it from a perspective of Business Process Automation,” Jankauskas comments, “We are heavily invested in this as a strategic technology – digitization is the first step, optimization the second step and full automation is the final one. It is an iterative process with no shortcuts as cutting out any steps would only lead to inefficiency.”

In 2021, LTG announced a multi-billion euro investment for the modernization and development of the Lithuanian railway network in connection with the Rail Baltica project, which includes electrification of key segments of track. This is set to drive an increased roll-out of new electric locomotives, for which LTG Cargo invested 100 million euros over the summer. While this may bring some challenges it also provides a range of opportunities for cargo planning as this infrastructure will give access to a new level of detail on movements.

Noting that LTG Cargo already has substantial plans for new rolling stock investment, Jankauskas adds that “RCP plays a pivotal role in shaping the scale of our rolling stock investments, thanks specifically to the data and the process visibility/transparency it provides. Digitisation further enriches this with a wealth of often-undervalued metadata, which is invaluable for business process automation and even product development,”, Jankauskas concludes.

“This, in turn, improved the efficiency of assets and human resources across our traction activities by 1-3 per cent, and when you multiply this up, it is a significant impact on our 1,568,250 train kilometres and 6,6 million euros traction cost per year.”

Quick benefits, fewer challenges

Before implementing this system, the team from GYSEV CARGO faced several rail-specific challenges, however, such as establishing connections to unique railcar databases and managing a heterogeneous data environment, as well as struggling with a lack of developer capacity and experience in managing rail-specific software projects in Hungary.

“Ab Ovo helped us with their experience and knowledge on many aspects of the project: rail specific experience and BC knowledge, very effective agile methods, experience on process digitalisation and digital transformation change management in the organisation,” Zentai tells RailFreight.com.

With the system in place, the teams quickly saw benefits, with the new tools providing around 2,000-3,000 wagon and train-specific data points every 24 hours and allowing for improved management of around 40-50 trains.

Zentai adds that the development of an integrated data management and communication tool, known as the Train Request Portal (TRP), further streamlined operations, avoiding the need for “hundreds of e-mails circulating between the clients and the internal departments of GYSEV CARGO”, while integrated data on consignments, such us wagon data, data of goods, and partner also helped allocate resources.

“Before Ab Ovo’s system, order data management was manual and fragmented across multiple databases. With the new system, we’ve integrated this data into one database, reducing labour and costs. It simplifies data import and even supports OCR scanning of paper-based railway bills, optimising our processes,” Zentai says.

More optimisation in the future

Despite the numerous benefits already delivered by this digital transformation, both partners see this as only the start of a journey, with continuous refinement and improvement now a part of daily practices. GYSEV CARGO is already looking to the future with plans for more BI solutions to support management decision-making processes, route optimisations, and train path planning.

“These days, we are continuously analysing our costs, particularly around train path and traction costs”, Zentai explains. “Whereas before the implementation, we just didn’t have the data to model or optimise.”

“Better monitoring tools will enable us to get transport data in advance and to further improve our operational resources and planning. Further down the line, we aim to integrate these tools with our interactive customer portal, offering clients a wider range of decision-making alternatives and transport scheduling scenarios.”

Also read:

• Labour shortage? Digitalisation is the answer, says DB Cargo

• Software as a service makes digitalisation for everyone

• ‘Digitalisation can help dealing with mega challenges of today’

Ab Ovo

She was appointed two years ago to scrutinise the way DB Cargo operations were carried out. Operations needed to become more efficient, as there were simply not enough people to carry out the work. “I realised that if I wanted to carry out this task, we needed to digitalise some of these procedures.”

Van-Brenk turned to Ab Ovo, a digital solution provider for the rail industry. “The company looked over the shoulder during operational procedures, to see what could be done more efficiently. They came up with several solutions, such as the digital damage reports that we are now rolling out. We are now running a pilot with a handheld, rather than having to make a phone call reciting wagon numbers and other information that can easily be
miscommunicated.”

Other gadgets

The handheld is only one example of a system that Ab Ovo helped to implement for DB Cargo. The operator is now also using a customer portal called Link2Rail for ordering, tracking and tracing, invoices, consignment notes, wagon status etc. It is using the wagon information message (WIM) to transmit this information, and it is using the interface Paloma.

A main advantage of Ab Ovo is that it is not just any digital solution provider, but one that is specialised in the logistics industry. Its customers are often rail companies, so it understands the challenges of the industry, and the opportunities.

‘Hey, this is my job’

One of these challenges is the mental shift that needs to be made, as the industry is typically old-fashioned. This mental shift does not come naturally, van-Brenck narrates. “When you tell people that their job can now be done digitally, they are reluctant to say ‘hey, this is my job’. They are used to doing this their way, but if you think about it, this digital solution is making their job easier. Rather than having to make a phone call in the rain with a written
paper at hand that is getting wet, they now only need their handheld.”

With digitalisation, DB Cargo has made many processes paperless. But people are keen to look at paperwork as a classification of how much work they have, says van-Brenck. “When there is a pile of paperwork on their desk, they feel that they have a lot of work. When this paperwork is not there, they feel that they don’t have work. But this is an outdated conception. We do not need paperwork nowadays; a lot can be digitalised. Once we started
omitting paperwork, our customers also realised that they do not need it, and they are now
doing things paperless too.”

Better job classification

These are examples of work that can be done more efficiently, but is this taking away the human aspect? Not directly, as van Brenk explains. It is a bit more complicated than that. “What I am trying to achieve is that the responsibilities that fall within a certain function group become more simplified. Now, due to the labour shortage, we have piled up tasks to belong to a certain function. The downside of this is that there is no clear career path for
that function.

By digitalising and thereby standardising working methods, we create space within function groups. We have already slashed the workload of the internal workforce by half. The responsibilities are now more clear. They are the ones that prepare a perfect train journey for the train driver. They manage the local terminal processes. Their job is clear, and so is their career path. We can tell these people how they can grow within their function, and therefore keep them longer.”

Just in time

This change in putting people to work has come just in time for the company. “We simply could not find the people for the job anymore. We currently have thirteen vacancies. We used to be 130 people, and we are now 120. In three to five years, we would have been way beyond the formation requirement, and we would need to cancel trains”, van Brenk explains.

“We have a structural shortage of labour, and it is not just us. We have the benefit of being a large company, with a board that finally approved our new approach. But there are also smaller companies that are less flexible.”
Nevertheless, van Brenk considers these circumstances as an opportunity, which has brought DB Cargo the Netherlands many positive developments. “The company has become less traditional. We are not there yet, but we have made some nice strides. I am proud to see that people like to stay with our company now”, she concludes, but she quickly adds: “We can always use more staff.”

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This is one of the reasons Gysev Cargo reached out to an international IT firm, explains Zoltan Zentai, Director Operation Support at Gysev Cargo. “In Hungary, IT firms are not so much focused on the rail industry, because the demand was only limited. Ab Ovo has the logistics industry expertise, especially the rail freight industry. It understands the process, from contract to end-customer delivery. This is very convenient.

Digital from contract to customer

Gysev Cargo started its digitalisation process a few years ago. The Rail Cargo System (RCS) supports all elements of the transportation process; local service traffic, contracts, orders, production planning, execution and financial settlement. “Before, we used many different systems for these processes, now it is one integrated system”.

“This results in more efficient use of assets”, continues Zentai. “For example, we may think that we have a shortage of locomotives. But we cannot conclude this without analysing the data. RCS tells us exactly where the locomotive is and what the planning is for this locomotive. We see the gaps in usage and can optimise the usage of it.”

Return on investments

This efficiency gain can deliver a return of investment of hundreds of thousands, he explains. Similarly, cost savings can be achieved with better control over the invoicing. “For example, due to poor control over invoicing a railway company can lose a lot of money. This would result in a loss of income of 1 to 1,5 percent per year.

“The investment in digitalisation is quite costly; but the return on investment is obvious. In three to five years, we will have gained back these investments. Together with Ab Ovo, we will continue to improve on business processes and related IT”, says Zentai.

The next step

This next step would be to invest in better monitoring tools, so that managers within the company can make better, short-term decisions.” The Hungarian rail freight provider also wants a customer portal, where customers can track their shipment from A to Z. This will all be done within the next two years.

“Rail used to be a special world, in many cases with outdated regulations, old routines and processes, and no modern thinking. But this is about to change”, said Zentai. Zentai will also speak at the RailFreight on Tour summit Hungary about the digitalisation process of his company. This event is taking place on 19 and 20 October in Debrecen, and tickets are still available here.

No longer exclusive

This development is no longer exclusive to the larger railway undertakings or companies, he believes. Also smaller companies are accepting the need to digitise their business. And this is a good thing because that makes it possible to exchange information with a much larger share of the market.

“There are several levels of integration, but it starts with the (bilateral) timely exchange of data and continuous updates to reflect the inevitable changes that will affect the whole transport chain. The next levels are in expanding the integration from bilateral to all partners and in processing the data ‘over the transport chain’, which will add control and insights, decision support on resources, capacity, and solving issues in an optimal way and on a higher level”, he writes.

Exchange of information

Electronic exchange of data does not come automatically, he continues. “TAF TSI has already existed for nearly twenty years, but it is picking up now. More and more messages are exchanged through the digital system and TAF TSI could be an accelerator for further digitisation because it is at the core of the rail business processes.”

A new initiative is the electronic Freight Transport Information (eFTI). “The idea is that all transport that is carried out is reported, and finally collected in Integrated and interoperable information systems (accessed as one large electronic system). In this way, we have a much better picture of what moves through Europe, and this information can be used to adjust the transport chain. The messages will be exchanged through the digital system, rather than through paperwork. The more companies are involved, the more transparent the information becomes. And then we all have equal access to the same quality of information.”

Another example Kleijweg mentions is the electronic consignment note and ‘paperless driving’ processes, the replacement of the paperwork that is required to come along with each consignment. The functional and technical requirements were already finalised around 2010. The IT platform to enable the electronic consignment note is in place. Yet, the market is only starting to pick up on the possibility now.

Financially available

One of the reasons that digitalisation is making headways is that it is financially more available than it used to be. There are different price models. In the past, acquiring an IT solution required upfront investment. Nowadays, it is possible to pay per user, profit, train, or container.

Also, the software is becoming a service, he explains. “Companies still do not always understand what they need to do, what is coming for them. But the good thing is that you can outsource everything. It is no longer needed to have a server or administrator to digitise a business. You can unburden yourself.”

Green Cargo is a Swedish rail freight company known to be a digital industry leader. It is, among others, working with Ab Ovo, an IT firm facilitating the rail freight industry. When asked how one could better understand the digital transformation rail companies are going through, Ab Ovo pointed in the direction of Green Cargo. “They have some really exciting cutting edge projects going on.”

Monstrous IT system

Had we asked this question two years ago, the answer would have been entirely different, Paas starts off. He entered the company in 2019, after hesitating if he wanted to take the challenge at all. The company was everything but digitally transformed. “In fact, it has a number of highly complex and outdated IT systems in place.”

“The company had 140-150 applications, but none of them were properly maintained. None of the systems were in good shape, and above all, the capacity to invest in the IT systems, in terms of money or human resources, was not there. There was a general belief that the companies’ mainframe and SAP system must be replaced, which Paas disagreed with.”

Everything changed

Everything has changed in the last two years, he continues. “If you would have given the digital transformation a rate, the company would have been at zero two years ago. Today, we are making enormous progress in digitizing core processes, where I would say we are between level 5 to 6 on a scale of 10.

“We are 100 per cent digital when it comes to the foundational capabilities required to drive a sustainable digital transformation. I would rate Green Cargo’s digital capabilities at level 9, based on external feedback.”

What have they done?

The first thing the company did, was building a digital foundation in the cloud, with the emphasis on foundation. Because, as Paas explains, digitalisation is more than just moving things into the cloud. “If you do this right, you can really accelerate digitalisation and start to innovate at the core of the business.”

“Building the digital infrastructure in the cloud provides us with greater autonomy and independence building the future. We are running and integrating multi-cloud platforms that are highly reusable, simple to use and cost effective. We are now able to build any application, integration or analytics capability we want. We can do this cheaper, better, faster and more sustainable than any partner could do for us.”

Digitising the business

With those capabilities in place, Green Cargo started to digitise at the core of the business. With that, Paas refers to the in-house developed customer portal, hybrid apps, intelligent analytics, predictive analysis and the implementation of a European strategy.

“For example, we had a problem with heat generation in the brakes of the trains. We developed an application where we could determine the heat of the brakes with sensors, and build a solution to inform the train driver if action was required.”

Green Cargo and Ab Ovo intersect at the core of the business concerning the planning of our most critical resources: train drivers and locomotives. The processes are managed based on the DELMIA Quintiq platform. This is an application where the complex timetable of both sources is combined.”

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Mindshift

Although Ab Ovo and Green Cargo have been partners for years, most of the digital developments have taken place in the last two years. With this shift in strategy, the Green Cargo team was open to all the possibilities, instead of thinking that all this could not be done. It was a cultural change, a mind shift, narrates Paas.

“It is all about getting things done, rather than trying to plan every detail and trying to be perfect. We started off with what we had, build up confidence, made many changes rapidly and bit by bit we were able to accelerate. We have become a highly effective development organisation that is rapidly evolving.

“We hired junior and senior developers and completed the teams with consultants. We now have 3 agile teams and may soon establish a fourth team. We are now at the point that we potentially could sell our integration platform as a product to others, but will continue to focus on our mission to return Green Cargo to profitability.”

Just do it

According to Paas, a lot of European railway companies are willing to invest in digital solutions, but we have not seen any other player doing something similar with these technologies. “But if you build a digital infrastructure first, there are no limits to how far you can go as the technologies and platforms will bring unlimited innovation capabilities to further accelerate and drive the digital transformation.”

“When we started our transformation, we did not have answers to all our questions. From a leadership point of you, I had a sense of urgency to transform IT to better support the business transformation. We just went ahead with it, and it brought us where we are today. In the end, it is all about the right people, trust in the team, trust in yourself, some bold decisions and a bit of luck.”

Everything from Vilnius

The new system will substitute working practices, which until now, are carried out manually and on paper. With the new system, the entire planning of long-haul freight traffic and required resources will be carried out from the renewed LTG Cargo Carriage Planning Centre in Vilnius.

“We are particularly proud of this partnership with LTG Cargo, which is a major player in its region. We are impressed by the way LTG Cargo executes with precision on its data-driven strategy and we are honored to have been selected to contribute to their transformation journey as an esteemed digital partner to LTG Cargo”, said Edwin Hageman, CEO of the Ab Ovo group.

5-year period

The cooperation with Ab Ovo has been planned for a five-year period with a possibility to extend it for two more years. The contract, which is valued at 6.4 million euros, delivers Ab Ovo’s managed SaaS solution for rail freight operators based on the DELMIA Quintiq platform from Dassault Systémes. It involves software and hardware, license lease, maintenance and support as well as configuration, integration creation, installation and training services as a complete turn-key solution for LTG Cargo.

LTG Cargo is currently implementing more than fifty digital transformation and robotic process automation (RPA) initiatives, by which they seek to improve efficiency of activities and increase the company’s competitiveness. Mobile apps and digital analytics tools are created for that purpose. The Ab Ovo solution is part of this continuous initiative to transform the organisation.