Digital innovations in ticket sales

As a state-owned railway company, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) stands for reliability, tradition, and innovation. As a central institution connecting everyone in Switzerland, SBB is also constantly pushing ahead with the digitalization of its own company.

Since 2020, Telekom MMS has been supporting SBB's Ticketing Mobility Services division in the development and optimization of existing and new ticketing solutions, among other things.

• Digitization of the ticketing system across the entire value chain
• More efficient processes thanks to the “Digital Factory” collaboration model based on SAFe
• Improved customer satisfaction and strengthening of the SBB's image

The Ticketing Mobility Services division forms the backbone of SBB's ticket sales systems and covers all important sales channels – from counter sales and web shops to mobile applications.

In order to continuously improve its ticketing systems and further develop its digital business model, SBB brought the digital experts from Telekom MMS on board. One of the agile teams' tasks was to create a uniform interface for international passenger transport and integrate it into end customer touchpoints such as mobile applications and web shops.

Since 2020, Telekom has been providing MMS to the SBB Managed Capacity Teams as a “digital factory” in order to jointly develop digital products. This framework also gives rise to solutions that cover the entire life cycle of a ticket: from connection search and reservation to sales and after-sales services such as refunds or changes.

By introducing and coordinating various international ticket solutions, the smooth exchange of data and information between different platforms and applications is made possible.

One focus is on the stability and security of IT systems, a basic prerequisite for processing financial transactions. All payment flows are reliably orchestrated – from the customer's first transaction to the transfer of accounting data to the back-office systems.

In addition, Telekom MMS supports the further development and maintenance of the front ends for SBB's most important sales channels: the web shop, the ticket counter application, and the sbb.ch website. The range of tasks includes the implementation of new features, UI/UX optimizations, and bug fixing.

As an experienced digital experience service provider, Telekom MMS provides flexible teams with comprehensive expertise – exactly when they are needed.

The sales systems developed by the DevOps teams enable the sale of several million train tickets per week. A key milestone in this process was the creation of a uniform interface that enables ticket sales across all sales channels, both nationally and internationally. With the launch of the mobile channel, the integrated sales system is now fully digitized and future-proof.

The partnership between SBB and Telekom MMS has not only enabled innovative, powerful solutions. The project teams at the “Digital Factory” work together without the traditional division of roles between customer and service provider. Decisions are made jointly, and the expertise of all those involved contributes equally to the success of the project. This leads to a strong team spirit. Regular face-to-face meetings complement the virtual collaboration and create a basis of trust.

This approach pays off in the long term - faster processes, reduced costs, and a modern digital infrastructure. In this way, SBB not only strengthens its image and customer service, but also secures its position as a leading transport company in Europe.

The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) is a special-purpose public limited company based in Bern. Its public services include passenger transport and rail infrastructure. Every day, it transports over 1.39 million passengers and 170,000 tons of freight to their destinations. Its 35,500 employees are passionate about serving their customers, ensuring they arrive safely, on time, and in a climate-friendly manner.