MTR Stockholm Wins “Communications and Mobility” European IT Excellence Award 2011 for the Stockholm Subway Mobile Workforce Project

Context-aware mobile solution developed by Logica and Appear improves employee efficiency and enhances customer service in the Stockholm Subway

London and Stockholm – February 22, 2011 – IT Europa, the leading European IT publisher and market intelligence organisation, recently announced the winners of the European IT Excellence Awards 2011, the pan-European awards event for IT and Telecoms channels. Amidst fierce competition from 31 countries, the mobile workforce project implemented by MTR Stockholm won the “Communications and Mobility” award.

MTR Stockholm deployed in summer 2010 a mobile solution for customer-facing staff working on the platforms. The solution is based on Appear IQ Transport Edition, a context-aware mobile application platform developed by Appear and maintained by Logica, focusing on the requirements of passenger transport operators.

Appear IQ Transport Edition plays a crucial role in improving operations and customer service at MTR Stockholm. Customer service assistants are always up to date when answering passenger questions, as real-time traffic disruption information is pushed to their devices. With the tasking application, station managers can easily create and allocate tasks to the closest available staff, ensuring for example that disabled passengers are promptly assisted. Using the fault report application, employees can take pictures to report technical issues or graffiti and notify maintenance teams.

Kimmo Piri, Stations Director of MTR Stockholm AB, explains: “The mobile workforce project has played a key role in supporting MTR Stockholm’s business objectives of driving passenger uptake, increasing customer satisfaction, maintaining a cleaner rail system and maximizing operational efficiency”.

The IT Excellence Awards are the only pan-European awards which recognise the crucial role that Independent Software Vendors and Solution Providers play together in the delivery of real world solutions.

GBS Bindra, Global Innovation Director, Logica comments: “This new award demonstrates the customer value created by Logica and Appear with the deployment of innovative mobile solutions. With Appear IQ, we see tremendous potential in helping organisations to save costs, develop new business and revenue models as well as enhance the overall customer experience.”

Appear is the 2009 winner of Logica’s Global Innovation Venture Partner Programme. Logica and Appear have developed a mobility innovation framework for a number of industries, where customers can participate in technology and business workshops to develop their own mobility strategy and roadmap.

About Appear:
Appear is the leading provider of context-aware software infrastructure designed to power the next generation of mobile applications and services. Using situational information (context), the AppearIQ suite of products transforms ordinary wireless data networks into rich multimedia channels that deliver information, voice, video and messages to mobile computer users. By collecting and sharing context, Appear’s solutions eliminate information overload and ensure users have exactly the information they need, when and where they need it. Industry leaders in transportation, retail, telecommunications and government use AppearIQ. Appear has an extensive partner network including industry leaders Logica, Motorola, Cisco, Thales, Orange Business Services and SITA in order to deliver innovative, end-to-end wireless and mobile solutions. The company is privately held and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and with offices across Europe. More information is available at www.appearnetworks.com

About Logica:
Logica is a leading IT and business services company, employing 40,000 people. It provides business consulting, systems integration, and IT and business process outsourcing services. Logica works closely with its customers to release their potential - enabling change that increases their efficiency, accelerates growth and manages risk. It applies its deep industry knowledge, technical excellence and global delivery expertise to help its customers build leadership positions in their markets. Logica is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) (LSE: LOG; Euronext: LOG). More information is available at www.logica.com

About MTR Stockholm:
MTR Stockholm is responsible for the running, planning and maintenance of the Stockholm underground train system for a minimum of eight years, under contract from SL. MTR Stockholm, which employs approx. 3,000 members of staff, is a subsidiary of MTR Europe in London and is part of the MTR Corporation, based in Hong Kong. MTR Corporation is a leading public transport company, which also runs consulting operations in Asia, Australia and the Middle East and Europe. MTR Stockholm took over the operations of the Stockholm underground train system on 2 November 2009. More information available at www.mtrstockholm.se

Mia Falgard, PR Manager
Appear Networks
Kista Science Tower
SE-164 51 Kista, Sweden
+46 709 559 356
mia.falgard@appearnetworks.com

This release was published on openPR.