At Oaklin, we help leaders in the transport industry to shape and deliver responses to complex problems across people, process and technology, deploying small teams to work closely with you, and make transformative change happen at pace.
The UK transport industry is evolving, due to shifts in behaviour, government funding adjustments, and modernisation efforts. Oaklin aims to be at the forefront of this change, ensuring that innovation remains central to our transport projects.
What we do
Oaklin have worked with Network Rail, National Highways, British Airways and a number of partners across the transport industry with a focus on four key outputs:
Oaklin also has a deep understanding of the strict standards and procedures required for our partners, particularly for operational environments where lifesaving rules apply.
Check out our perspectives on how and why innovation is critical for driving change in the transport sector here.
Outside of our work with clients in the sector, we are committed to expanding our knowledge of transport and becoming leaders in the industry. We have demonstrated this through our publication of thought leadership pieces (available below) weighing in on critical issues to the transport sector, such as the role of innovation in delivering Connected Places, AI's role in improving efficiency, and analysing public policy impacts.
As part of our commitment to the rail sector, we are proud to have entered our second year as Premium Members of Rail Forum, actively engaging with other Rail Forum members up and down the rail supply chain.
At Oaklin, we provide the expertise, experience and good judgement that our clients require to change at scale. We deliver change for our clients that enables them to flourish, focusing on positive outcomes through innovation, hard work, and deep industry knowledge. Start the conversation around your transformation journey today by contacting us.
Catapult defines a Connected Place as one where infrastructure, systems, and the local economy work seamlessly to improve quality of life. But with the Government pursuing cost-cutting measures, could innovation be the key in making Connected Places a reality?
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At Oaklin we always like a challenge, so we wanted to test ourselves and see what ideas we could come up with regarding customer experience in the rail sector. We therefore harnessed some of our energy by hosting an open-door session to share experiences and spark ideas on the rail industry using Design Thinking methods.
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At Oaklin, we recognise the challenges an ever-evolving technology landscape brings to the transport sector. Integrating modern technologies whilst maintaining consistent travel experiences can be extremely challenging. It calls for thorough decision-making and innovative project management.
Find out moreEvery person that Oaklin has provided to work with Network Rail has added so much value and they always get up to speed really quickly. It’s also nice to see that the Oaklin team support each other - we don't see that with all consultancies, and I think that also has a big impact on their success.
Head of End-User Compute, Network Rail
Oaklin provided commercial advisory services to deliver a new workplace service capability for 40k users.
The legacy contract for Service Desk and user support had not been tendered for 8 years.
Oaklin looked to exploit Network Rail’s recent investments in a new service desk, CMDB(s) data centres and a new laptop deployment programme. This provided an opportunity to reconsider the service outcomes and drive for a better user experience at a far lower cost.
Oaklin ran thorough requirements gathering and market engagement to develop the tender to provide simple business services with a unit priced commercial model. The market engagement demonstrated new approaches and 20 service areas to improve Network Rail’s dated delivery models.
The tender result was a far better service level for users with experience-based measures and a significant OPEX saving of over £30m over the five-year contract term.
The client had a backlog of ServiceNow enhancements which had been raised by service users. Network Rail did not have a dedicated business analyst role to review the enhancements, prioritise and build out sufficient detail to support development. New functionality was identified as part of the backlog which required the support of a Project Manager.
The business analyst assigned 62% of the enhancements in the backlog for development, complete with user stories and detailed requirements, an improvement on the original 28%. Requirements for the 3 in-flight projects were documented and shared, and next steps detailed for the client to continue. A comprehensive handover was completed, including a detailed set of recommendations, and prioritised list of enhancements.
NR were struggling to ensure device returns when its employees leave the organisation, with only 22% of laptops and 28% of mobiles being returned via the official process. Over the previous 6-years, 14,500 laptops had not been returned, at a cost of almost £15m. Oaklin was approached by NR to address these issues.
Through workshops and data analysis, Oaklin defined the as-is state of device returns and employed user journey mapping to identify the pain points. This provided clarity to the issues and enabled a series of process, policy and technological changes to be considered to address them.
Through the proposed centralisation and process changes up to £30m savings over 5 years were identified, as well as further benefits in reducing environmental waste and the leaver’s security access risk.
With increasing costs and a service that had not been tendered for in nearly 10 years, Oaklin provided commercial advisory expertise for the procurement of a £60m multi-year mobile connectivity and services provider.
Oaklin advised across the full sourcing lifecycle including:
The tender activity resulted in committed annual savings of £1.5m OPEX, improved pricing controls within the contract and improvements to service management and asset management capabilities.
The best thing about Oaklin is their dynamic engagement, speed to mobilise programmes and understand the issues and risks involved. Their speedy and thorough analysis which thinks both through and round NR problem statements leads to a quicker and more fruitful engagement than the transactional approach we often see from other similar providers.
Head of Commercial Services, Network Rail
Danny is an Oaklin Partner who has over 25 years’ consulting experience gained working with a variety of UK and international companies on large-scale business transformation programmes, as well as smaller-scale strategy and effectiveness initiatives. He is an experienced leader, able to engage, coach and motivate geographically diverse teams, embedding change through tailored upskilling and mentoring. Over the past 8 years, Danny’s focus has been developing our transport footprint, covering commercial airlines, road and rail.
Alex is an Oaklin Associate Partner with over 26 years’ consulting experience including 15 years leading transformation projects across transport, telecoms, utilities and the public sector. He is well versed in leading large systems integration programmes as well as complex procurements. Alex co-leads Oaklin’s Commercial Advisory capability and has led numerous successful procurements for clients in the transport sector, delivering significant CAPEX and OPEX savings whilst transforming existing services into modern capabilities.
