Vodafone and IBM to provide new tech to National Express

Tech giants Vodafone and IBM have signed an eight-year deal to equip National Express coaches with cloud and digital services to improve safety. Vodafone Business and IBM joined forces in January to offer customers access to technologies for integrating multiple clouds. Debbie O’Shea, group chief information officer for National Express, says: “This partnership enables us to move to a cloud environment giving us a future-proofed platform with increased flexibility that will better support our business.”
September 4, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Tech giants 813 Vodafone and 62 IBM have signed an eight-year deal to equip 1002 National Express coaches with cloud and digital services to improve safety.

Vodafone Business and IBM joined forces in January to offer customers access to technologies for integrating multiple clouds.

Debbie O’Shea, group chief information officer for National Express, says: “This partnership enables us to move to a cloud environment giving us a future-proofed platform with increased flexibility that will better support our business.”

The venture will modernise National Express’ IT estate by moving to IBM Cloud and implementing a hybrid cloud strategy, allowing the company to manage multiple clouds in different locations. Additional security and risk management will be added to protect the transport operator’s technology infrastructure.

Vodafone says this activity will enable National Express to develop flexible payment options and always-connected vehicles.

Looking ahead, the venture will give the bus firm access to other cloud services and technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things, edge computing and analytics.

Related Content

  • Harnessing the power of smart technology
    June 28, 2018
    Keeping the public safe in a changing world requires smart thinking and sensible deployment of technology. Peter Jones of Hitachi Europe examines some available options From human threats, such as terrorism, to digital threats like hacking, the growing sophistication of crime is posing serious challenges to public safety. At the same time, mass urbanisation threatens to exacerbate these problems as there are more people to keep safe. According to a new whitepaper from Hitachi and Frost & Sullivan, Public
    Read More
  • Suppliers reshape to provide tolling and traffic management expertise
    August 2, 2013
    Jason Barnes examines the trend towards single source supply of complete tolling and traffic management solutions with some senior tolling industry figures. Only a few years back, the major tolling system suppliers were aggressively positioning themselves as one-stop shops for tolling solutions and operations. No sooner has that little flurry of innovation settled than another trend has emerged – tolling companies wanting to become major ITS suppliers as well. Various tolling company seniors have in recent
    Read More
  • Trafficware: Digitised transport tech ‘is the new asphalt’
    April 16, 2019

    Trafficware provides the tech to manage intersections all over the world. Colin Sowman asks CEO Jon Newhard about the ‘questions behind the questions’

    Last year, Trafficware CEO Jon Newhard negotiated the company’s acquisition by Cubic Corporation and now serves as general manager of Trafficware within Cubic’s Transportation Systems business unit.

    Read More
  • US favours express buses are for intercity travel
    November 26, 2013
    David Crawford records an upsurge in ground travel. Express buses are powering ahead of air and rail as the US’ most-favoured form of intercity travel and major operators are investing in passenger-attracting and retaining technologies. At the same time ‘kayak’-style price comparison websites are emerging to widen rider choice. Modelled on airline industry search engines that find cheap flight deals by comparing carriers’ offers, these new websites aim to fill the same gap for a ground-travel equivalent
    Read More

Highlighted Content