Digitalisation is going really strong on Russia’s railway network. RZD, as the national railway operator, substantially increases the share of containers that are processed paperless with the help of dedicated digital platforms. The company also implemented its own CRM system to improve customer service.

Russian Railways (RZD) launched the Intertran project in September 2019. It is aimed at introducing the electronic consignment notes for container transportation, especially for transit traffic from the Asia-Pacific countries including Japan and South Korea to Europe. There are some intermediate results of the mentioned project. The Far Eastern Railway, RZD’s branch in the region with the same name, increased the share of containers, which are processed digitally, from 9 per cent at the end of 2019 to 74 per cent in July 2020.

Positive trend

According to RZD, there is a strong positive trend in paperless processing during this year. More than 11,400 electronic freight documents have been issued by the Far Eastern Railway since the beginning of the year. As of today, July was the peak month in these terms when there were processed over 2,500 electronic waybills, which is almost equal to the results of the first quarter (over 2,200 electronic documents). The company explains such significant growth by demand among the customers for remote processing of freight documents due to the coronavirus pandemic.

CRM system

RZD Logistics, another subsidiary of Russian Railways, is also focused on digital solutions. It became the first company within the state-owned railway holding that recently implemented a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The solution allows the logistics provider to improve communication with the customers as many processes are automated.

By launching the new system, RZD Logistics made another step towards big data. Each customer has its own sort of online cabinet with data about deals, shipments, transport solutions and so on. All of this will be applied for developing new online services in the B2B segment. RZD Logistics is planning to integrate the CRM system with other internal systems of the railway holding.

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