When the implementation of the messenger began
In 2020, JSC Russian Railways launched a large-scale project to introduce a corporate messenger. Initially, one of the key goals of implementing eXpress in Russian Railways was to replace Western messengers, such as WhatsApp* and Telegram. The holding was looking for a solution that would allow employees to communicate both within the company and with external partners and contractors.
JSC Russian Railways is a key backbone enterprise and operator of the infrastructure of the Russian railway network. An important criterion for a corporation is the information security of the corporate communications platform.
What tasks were set
The new messenger was supposed to offer the same features as the usual public messengers. Employees need to open the app and start chatting, not study miles of manuals. The company was looking for a closed platform that allows you to quickly and securely share information 24 hours a day.
What we found in eXpress:
- Clear interface and familiar features - chats, voice messages, file sharing, audio videoconferencing.< /li>
- Enterprise class security (on-premise deployment, data transfer protection, crypto container, access policies, etc.).
- Independence from foreign solutions exposed to the risks of data blocking and interception.
- Prompt mobile communication for "field" and remote employees who are out of the office.
Comfort for users and security for the company
eXpress is available on both mobile devices (iOS or Android) and desktop. With the help of the corporate directory, a quick search for employees by name, login, domain, company or position is carried out. Tags also allow you to efficiently organize your workspace. All together positively affects the convenience of communication between employees and with customers.
The main advantage of eXpress for the customer is the safety of transmitted data. Correspondence remains in the internal corporate circuit - on the company's servers, which are located in the Main Computing Center of Russian Railways. This is the difference from public messengers, where all data is transferred to external servers, which, as a rule, are located on the territory of other states and are not controlled by the company.
In eXpress, Russian Railways employees communicate not only within the company, but also with external users outside the corporate contour (for example, contractors). For such cases, eXpress has an enhanced privacy mode that provides for automatic deletion of files and recordings, detection of screenshot attempts and screen recording, prohibition of copying, forwarding, saving.
Project results
According to the holding's Main Computing Center, over 114,000 Russian Railways employees use the platform. The number of eXpress users has grown more than 14 times since 2020. In the future, growth to 250,000 users is expected.
Today, the corporate platform of JSC Russian Railways solves a variety of communication, organizational, and technological problems. In particular, the platform is successfully used to develop the first professional social network for railway workers – a network of information channels under the general name "ViKo/OPER NEWS". The project is aimed at promptly informing users of the corporation about the capabilities of the implemented AI system "Virtual Consultant" (ViKo), as well as about planned work, changes, and new capabilities of information systems. The corporate platform's video conferencing service is used for pre-shift briefings.
Finally, the platform's capabilities allow for the automation of numerous highly specialized processes performed by railway specialists. For example, Russian Railways is developing a digital assistant for responding to infrastructure emergencies on the road using eXpress.
