Fjellinjen is responsible for operating toll stations in the Oslo region and collecting toll fees. They possess vast amounts of data of various types. Their ambition was to ensure that this data actually provided real insights and value for those who used it. Computas assisted in making this data accessible and generating interest in it throughout the entire company.

The team from Computas at Fjellinjen, consisting of engineers who built the data warehouse, also included user experience (UX) specialist Marte Rimer.

Aggregated and Presented Traffic Data

The initial focus of the team was to develop a tool for real-time visualization of traffic data flowing through Fjellinjen’s systems. This information consisted of numerical values and some text, serving as the first step in centralizing all data.

Given the potential volume of data, it is crucial for the organization and its employees to have a conscious understanding of which data should drive their actions. Therefore, Fjellinjen initiated a process to investigate the information needs of the owners of the various business areas. Computas collaborated closely with Fjellinjen’s responsible for developing the Power BI system.

Marte’s role was to foster the interest in data that Fjellinjen had as an ambition, combined with a well-designed interface that communicates quickly and effectively to users. She developed an overview of the data that the various business leaders possess and their needs, and then incorporated this into a design that is both informative and visually appealing.

“Our data specialists are skilled at collecting, quality assuring, and making data accessible. Their core expertise is not necessarily in user experience and visualization. The presentation itself, and how it is interpreted by users, often takes a back seat. It easily becomes a rather poor Excel graph, and not much more than that”, Marte explains.

Meaning Changed by Context

The ‘one-size-fits-all Excel spreadsheet’ mentality is often prevalent in many organizations. However, the numbers that intuitively make sense to a sales department do not necessarily convey the same meaning to an engineer or HR person.

“Internally, data should be as open as possible. Our ambition has been to foster interest in data across the organization. Perhaps someone in accounting or customer service will glance at traffic data and discover something new”, explains Stian Arnesen, traffic analyst at Fjellinjen.

Transferred Knowledge

The work of building the new visual platform for Fjellinjen has yielded positive results. Excel-style reports, which were largely circulated among the same people, are gradually disappearing in favor of the new solutions and visualizations that Computas has contributed to Fjellinjen. In their place, a unified system with traffic data, operational data, financial data, and more has been introduced, easily accessible internally.

“Our person in charge of Power BI has worked extensively with Marte and received guidance and direction. Both for the design and the basic ideas, as well as a lot of tips and tricks for creating new reports internally later. We have simply transferred some of her knowledge to us”, concludes Stian Arnesen from Fjellinjen.