Digital relaunch with individual solution

The mountain of “2132 possibilities” is located on Lucerne’s doorstep: hiking, climbing, biking, concerts, enjoyment,  stories… Pilatus is a popular destination for tourists from home and abroad.

PILATUS-BAHNEN AG has now launched a new group reservation system that seamlessly integrates arrival and excursions to ensure the perfect mountain experience. Train journeys with the panorama gondola, aerial cableway and cogwheel railway as well as reservations for recreational facilities and wheelchair bookings can be planned and coordinated directly. This was especially important since visitor numbers have been rising steadily in recent years.

The system designed by bbv enables new forms of digital collaboration between various departments, such as customer service, point of sale, operations controllers or accounting. It therefore helps to ensure an optimum customer experience. Many formerly analogue processes have been adapted and are now being handled digitally. In addition, all information and transactions are bundled and displayed in real time. This has resulted in significant time savings and improved efficiency in daily operations and made everyday life noticeably easier.

Both current and future-proof technologies (incl. .NET and Angular) were used when replacing the technically outdated reservation system. The web application was enhanced by a new user-friendly interface with an attractive design. The decision in favour of an individual development was ideal in order to integrate specific applications and processes for different user groups.

From 0 to 100 in just 5 months

The new system was live after just five months. It was then expanded, supplemented and optimised with further functions in two-week sprints. All project employees at PILATUS-BAHNEN were involved in every review. This meant that changes could be discussed directly and implemented in the next sprint.

Fabienne Zemp, Project Manager, PILATUS-BAHNEN AG

“The cross-border collaboration really impressed me. We can now manage our group travel offering much more efficiently with speed, transparency and an eye to the future.

The project organisation was one of the key reasons for the success of the project. In addition to the product owner at PILATUS-BAHNEN, bbv Greece had a proxy product owner who collaborated directly with the team in Thessaloniki. This ensured short lines of communication and quality assurance locally. Use of Azure DevOps also helped to ensure smooth collaboration in the cross-organisational project team.

Real-time data for enhanced service

Information about the capacity and utilisation of the panorama gondola, aerial cableway and cogwheel railway as well as the tourist attractions (e.g. Pilatus Seilpark (Ropepark) or Dragon Glider) is available in real time in the new reservation system. Reservations or changes to travel groups can be booked directly and viewed by all users.

In addition, the system is readied for the future in order to attract new guests with other tourist organisations and market the offer more attractively.

Photos (c) PILATUS-BAHNEN AG

Project insights

• Digitalisation: Digitalised processes and real-time information make it significantly easier for the team at PILATUS-BAHNEN to plan and coordinate group travel.

• Individual solution: The focus on individual software to implement the specific processes and requirements paid off. The solution was live in five months and was developed on time and within budget.

• Expertise: The collaboration with the bbv team in Greece was efficient and transparent. Goals, priorities and requirements could be refined on an ongoing basis.

• Collaboration: The individual collaboration model brought together the know-how and experience of all project members in one strong team.

Our services in the project

The PDF version of the PILATUS-BAHNEN AG Success Story can be found here.