ABC

One of Mexico's most important buslines

www.abc.com.mx

Autobuses de la Baja California (ABC) is one of Mexico’s largest passenger bus company dominating over the Baja California peninsula region and other areas south the US border. It serves an extense set of routes and possesses a large fleet of buses ranging from economic and touristic units to executive services. Dating back to the early 1960s, ABC holds extensive knowledge of its territory, passengers and dynamics. For this reason ABC decided to move towards the digital age when information became not only problematic but even impossible to handle.  

The core problem

A multi-factor problematic

ABC turned out to be a very old-fashioned company, still using paper for almost every operation & intelligence repo. Almost every worker at ABC worked under high pressure and with limited and slow tools, and clients would often find themselves stuck in long lines for non-existent bus rides. 

My first encounter yielded a much greater understanding of what their problem was: they needed to completely reengineer their business logic and adopt new and best practices. 

ABC's former operation

• Routes: Some routes spanned more than 28 hours of travel, and were mostly specified using spreadsheets. No sync. methods had been implemented 

• Buses: Logistics were also planned using spreadsheets which in turn would be shared across employees either via e-mail or via USB sticks. 

• POS: Replicated information across the sales system and the sales info registration system which were managed through a not-always-syncing service represented huge losses for this still-profitable company. Saleswomen would usually miss handle money and even steal tickets since no control could be exerted on them. The old POS would need to connect to different services which would not always respond. Sales would take from 3 to 7 minutes, the worst case scenario being a mythical 15 minute sale in a remote, poorly connected location. 

The solution

Design process

We wanted to give ABC every technological capacity available so that they could harness the power of their information they processed. I understood that this project would be a long-term relationship and set forth the grounds to deliver a fitting solution. This is how I organized the first 3 large sprints:

1. Operations & Logistics

2. POS 1 (sales)

3. POS 2 (reports & management)

I chose to produce a fully interactive Axure prototype so that we could test features with different employee sets. I chose all core interactions from the start so that ABC’s employees could easily identify conceptually-compatible actions across the platform.

Traditional design-thinking methodologies were used, but distance between HQ and ABC’s central hub made us transition to long distance testing, click heatmapping & even eye tracking for certain experiments.

The POS was designed & tested during a 1 week design sprint in ABC’s central hub. The Axure prototype allowed us all to input real data into the proto-POS and then test it with real users and employees. Final modifications were provided through the use of Optimal Workshop software.

I devised a Design System for ABC which could be reused and retooled every time a new screen or feature was created. 

ABC's current operation

• Routes: The new system allowed any and all alterations to waiting times or stops to be made in real time so that users and salespersons alike are aware of such changes.

• Buses: The system automatizes all logistics regarding bus status, employee payments and audits.

• POS: The system allowed all data to be collected by a single platform, effectively allowing administrative personnel to manage salesforce and the complete dynamics of local and internet sales. Terminal locking, access privilege settings, real time ticket price modification, ticket robbery prevention and complete control over money movements were also included. Sales now take an avg. max. o 1 minute.

Technologies

• Ruby on Rails - Chosen language for the administrative-side of ABC. Initially chosen due to its simplicity (internal IT departments were to become maintainers of the system)

• SailsJS + Websockets for asynchronous requests handling & realtime seat/ticket purchasing. 

• Migration from their highly unresponsive old data management system. ABC originally had a proprietary data management system with deep & obscure connections to all ends of their old system. Migrating a live production system from this system to our own proved to be quite the challenge. 

Other developments

Continuous design and development

ABC chose to continue working on their business redefinition and digitalization. I designed more features allowing automatization of other aspects of the platform (e.g. bus reassignment) and helped them during their descentalization process (promoted by State policies). More than 7 sprints have been conducted, allowing us to better understand the needs of their users. ABC is now more focused on serving their passengers than on trying to control their own internal workings. 

Things that ere recently worked on include:

• POS connected to their webpage

• Multi-brand POS & admin. system (a sort of internal White label)

• Tax & exchange rate management

• Mobile POS

• Possible route expansion

• Sync. between online and offline terminals

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