Deutsche Bahn manages Climate Protection Portfolio with Dynamics 365 Project Operations to contribute to transport and climate change

Improving infrastructure for the benefit of the environment

Deutsche Bahn rail infrastructure is designing the transportation networks of the future. The company is the second-largest transport company in the world and owns and operates railway systems throughout Germany. Deutsche Bahn's rail infrastructure comprises a network of around 33,000 kilometers of track and 5,400 transport stations. This puts Deutsche Bahn at the forefront of European rail infrastructure operators for passenger and freight transport.

Shifting more traffic to rail is a top priority for Germany’s climate initiatives. Through Germany’s 2030 Climate Action Program, the country is investing in the modernization and expansion of the Deutsche Bahn railway infrastructure. The organization’s “Strong Rail” strategy centers on creating more robust, powerful, and modern infrastructure, with climate action as an integral component. “We’ve received €11 billion from the government to foster projects related to reducing CO2 and furthering overall climate goals in Germany,” says Florian Buschhardt, Expert Integrated Program Planning and Control for the Climate Protection Portfolio. 

The Climate Protection Portfolio includes programs and measures to ensure that climate targets are met in the transport sector. In addition, the provision of the 11 billion euros results in formal half-yearly reporting requirements for the documentation of the use of funds and, as a result, a high requirement for transparency in the use of funds. Due to the complexity, scale, and variability of each project, Deutsche Bahn needed a more robust way to organize, analyze, and visualize data, as well as manage project key performance indicators (KPIs), report on progress, and fully map investment lines.

Initiate and steer infrastructure projects with accuracy 

For the climate turnaround, significantly higher investments will be made in the existing rail infrastructure as well as in new construction and expansion in the coming years to achieve the goals of the coalition agreement--in particular, the doubling of passenger numbers by 2030. “Due to the time limit of the Climate Protection Portfolio, the projects must be initiated quickly. Therefore, we need to track event-related key figures to support us in this,” says Buschhardt.

This includes tracking and reporting data related to the provision of resources, construction progress and dependencies during ongoing operations, as well as projects focused on creating additional short- and medium-term capacity in the existing rail network. Deutsche Bahn was struggling with its data organization, which was housed in different systems and often had to be prepared in separate, segregated spreadsheets. The manual process was error-prone, and Deutsche Bahn was looking for a more centralized, streamlined program and project mapping tool.

The organization found a solution with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations. Implemented with the help of Microsoft Cloud Partner Program member proMX, portfolio managers at Deutsche Bahn now have access to comprehensive program, project, and financial resource planning, as well as KPI management and extensive data analysis. Microsoft Power BI adds detailed, transparent reporting capabilities, while Azure Maps adds a layer of mapping visuals and location data to help envision a project’s future. “With Dynamics 365, we have an integrated approach that allows us to identify and manage program progress, resources, and benefits, in addition to cash flows. The insights gained enable us to take a targeted procedure to realizing the Climate Protection Portfolio,” says Udo Becker, Head of Climate Protection Portfolio.

The modular, iterative structure of Microsoft products helps the organization configure new solutions with its existing tech stack. Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Apps, and Power BI seamlessly integrate with the current digital workplace, which is based on Microsoft Teams and Outlook, and has a familiar look and feel. 

With this technology infrastructure in place, the team can map investment lines and track projects with ease, using dynamic KPI visualizations, Gantt-project representations, and more. The control of KPIs has been completely relocated to Power BI, which means that users have access to all information in one system. “I can get all the data that I need for my job in one place; I don’t have to check different Excel sheets or other systems,” says Jens Wilhelm, Expert Program Control for the Climate Protection Portfolio. “Dynamics makes it much easier for us to work with data, manage our projects, and get a better overview on progress.” 

Mapping the future of railways

With the high number of transport projects in motion across Germany, full visibility of each project is essential. This allows the team to coordinate and bundle measures and projects in terms of time, even in the early planning stages for construction operations. It also supports the coordination of content and mapping of construction projects financed from different investment programs. The combination of Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Power BI, and Azure Maps provides the team with a technical foundation for future-ready operations. 

“Dynamics 365 gives me a quick and comprehensive overview of project progress—in addition, I can see the assignments of projects to corridors and construction-related dependencies on the map,” says Björn Renker, Expert Program Control for the Climate Protection Program. With a comprehensive reporting dashboard, Deutsche Bahn can view funding sources and allocations, prioritize programs, and better allocate resources across projects. With increased transparency, project managers can report on how funding is being used, and if the organization needs to shift funds or adjust timelines, the centralized project management capabilities make adapting to changes simple. 

Power BI helps the team find and share meaningful insights across the organization, while Azure Maps makes the data come to life. Through Power Automate Flows, data import processes are now fully automated, saving time and resources; similarly, geospatial maps are displayed directly on the data set. By combining the geographic representation with information from the Dynamics 365 system, Deutsche Bahn can correlate geographic locations with temporal flows, enabling quick visual identification of disruptions in operations. This leads to more efficiency and faster resolution of potential issues, helping Deutsche Bahn stay on track for its target project completion dates. 

Building the green transportation transformation 

Looking ahead, Deutsche Bahn plans to further expand the use of Dynamics 365 Project Operations for adjacent and related programs, as well as to make its operations more intelligent with the help of AI. The organization plans to make the Power BI and Azure Maps tools available to other colleagues to take full advantage of the integrated data platform and expand reporting for external stakeholders. “As a next step, we will be adding infrastructure measures outside of the Climate Protection Portfolio on a pilot basis in Dynamics 365 to create additional capacity in the existing route network,” says Becker. 

Microsoft tools and platforms enable Deutsche Bahn to track milestones more accurately, increase transparency, and ensure the success of its programs—especially those related to the green transportation transition.

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