RATP Smart Systems deploys agile methods to 230 employees in 9 months with Atlassian Cloud solutions

Bring Agility and modern tools to be more competitive

Present in 10 countries, 120 transport networks, and with over 200 employees, RATP Smart Systems specializes in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and mobility-enhancement services. The company builds and operates ticketing systems (2,000+ systems created), passenger information (12 million contactless validation transactions daily), and Fleet Management systems that encourage modal shift to public transport and durable modes. Fueled by a passion for innovation, RATP Smart Systems’ mission is to move forward a little more each day towards tomorrow’s mobility, smoother and simpler.

For that purpose, two of the latest strong focuses for the company are Data and Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Because MaaS is considered the key to ITS evolution, many actors are heavily investing in this area, resulting in increasing competition. Combined this with ever-changing and accelerating customer needs, how do you keep pace with the evolving market? How can you effectively respond and adapt to change?

RATP Smart Systems had been using on-premise products (like the Redmine issue-tracking tool) for several years, but the tools required a continuous and significant investment in maintenance, while the organization was quite static in terms of delivery capabilities. Eventually, this led to frustration and popular demand to change to a new tool.

As a global leader in Intelligent Transport Systems, RATP Smart Systems couldn’t afford to take two or three years to develop new products with limited iterations upon release. That’s why they decided to drive a massive change-management operation by implementing Atlassian tools and embracing Agile methods.

Implement Agile methods and tools over 5 locations and for 230 employees 

Choosing the Atlassian Suite as the seed of their Agile transformation was an easy choice for RATP Smart Systems. RATP Group was already using Jira, and a large consensus arose quickly around the tool. Following a promising Proof of Concept with Valiantys and a tender exercise, RATP Smart Systems decided to implement Atlassian tools on Cloud with Valiantys as the implementation partner. Why Cloud and not on-premise? Some benefits quickly made the difference for RATP Smart Systems:

• Versions always up to date
• Per-user invoicing with no commitment
• Eliminated the need for cumbersome maintenance, saving resources and time
• Flexibility for the company to keep growing and move faster

At the very beginning of the project, Valiantys advised RATP Smart Systems to chose the Cloud because it’s the right choice for the future. And Atlassian’s strategic move (with the end of sale for Server products in 2022) shows that RATP Smart Systems took the right move at the right time, thanks to Valiantys. RATP Smart Systems now expects to immediately leverage several new features first exclusive to the Cloud.

Iterative approach and Intensive training strategy

The technical implementation of this project was quite easy for Valiantys; the real challenge was to efficiently drive change management. That’s why the effort has been focused on scoping workshops and training. The ways Jira could support the implementation of Agile at Scale practices was extremely important for RATP Smart Systems. And it worked even better than expected, thanks to an open-minded spirit and agile project management:

• RATP Smart Systems first started alone to organize workshops to scope their use of Atlassian tools. But they quickly realized a lack of efficiency and maturity on Jira
• After selecting Valiantys, a new series of 33 scoping workshops was organized to deeply understand the tool and better express RSS’ need, and redefine processes
• At the same time, Agile coaches came to assist in implementing Agile best practices
• A strong focus on training closed the project, with a major point to drive change within the company, especially towards non-tech audiences

The most challenging part of the project was carrying it out during a lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic, which was a pathbreaking situation that didn’t really slow down the project, in the client’s opinion. The combination of tool expertise from Valiantys, the mastery of Agile practices brought by the coaches, and the proactive stakeholders enabled a successful deployment in just 9 months, without losing the vision of the project and the support of the employees, despite the unusual context.

Viral Adoption, Freed Collaboration

• Successful implementation of Jira, Jira Service Management, Confluence, and 9 Marketplace apps
• 230 employees trained in 9 months with strong adoption of the Atlassian tools and Redmine being definitely switched off
• 84 Jira projects, 8 Jira Service Management portals, and 100+ Confluence spaces created
• Fully autonomous teams, even if the IT department is still there to support and ensure consistency

What’s next

After successfully driving change and adoption of new Agile methods and tools, the IT Department’s focus is now on integrating Jira data into business dashboards for better business management at the executive level.