Our ‘continuous pursuit’ to improve the service you receive
For RSSB’s Chief Digital Officer, Joshua Fisher, transformation is a journey—one we can all embark on together.
Our goal is to integrate digital technology into all areas of our organisation. And by leveraging data and technological advancements, we can continuously improve how we deliver RSSB’s core purpose.
Joshua Fisher, our Chief Digital Officer, explains why we’re transforming in this way. He also details how our efforts are already benefiting customers.
Joshua Fisher Chief Digital Officer, RSSB
Your background is in management consultancy. What was it that attracted you to rail?
It’s truer to say I fell into rail, but I remain in the industry because I love being part of a purpose-driven organisation like RSSB. The work we do has real meaning. We develop solutions that enable the industry to advance.
I’m a techie at heart, so I like building things. At RSSB, we’re incredibly fortunate to have rail experts, who have a deep understanding of the challenges our members face, rubbing shoulders with digital engineers, who can build solutions tailored to the exact needs of our customers.
RSSB has a strong focus on ‘digital transformation’. What does this mean for us?
As technology advances, there are opportunities to use data in new ways and create innovations that improve what we offer our customers and how we deliver. With this in mind, our journey is never complete. It’s a continuous pursuit to improve for our customers.
By adopting this ‘customer-first’ principal, we’re keeping them at the forefront of why and what we do so that everything focuses on maximising the benefits they receive.
We want to set the industry benchmark for customer experience by demonstrating that we truly understand our customers’ needs. We’ll do this by delivering a tailored service that feels like ‘RSSB can predict what I’d find useful next’.
We’re exploiting industry data in new ways with intelligent digital solutions and predictive models that support safer, healthier, more efficient, and more sustainable decisions.
We’re no longer limited to trend analysis, reporting to industry ‘what’s already happened’. Instead, we’re creating powerful decision support tools that help our customers make better decisions for tomorrow.
We’re challenging the norm and finding better ways to deliver to our customers. We’re doing this through greater automation and by applying artificial intelligence (AI) in meaningful ways to redistribute time to support quality customer engagement and accelerate the development of things they care about.
How has RSSB evolved since you joined?
From the outset, we’ve emphasised bringing the entire organisation along on the journey. And we’ve found that the best way to introduce new technology is to encourage curiosity and provide our people with the opportunity to experiment.
For example, our ‘digital bootcamp’ training programme has successfully sparked inspiration and equipped our people with the confidence to learn through doing. Our organisation is now full of technologists that can interrogate and visualise data, automate their own processes, and make use of generative AI during their day to day.
We’ve also established a confident digital capability. We’re able to generate new ideas, test them with rapid prototypes to understand their viability and value to industry, and develop high-quality digital solutions. It’s wonderful to see the speed at which we can convert new ideas into improved customer offerings.
Thanks, Joshua. Finally, what’s your parting message for our rail leader readers?
Let’s embark on this journey together. As an industry, we’re all looking to new technologies to see what opportunities they bring, and we’re coming across a range of common considerations and challenges.
We believe we can play a role in helping our members accelerate their own transformation by sharing our learnings and what has worked for us. So, I’d welcome members to join our digital bootcamp series and collaborate in the development of digital skills.
Also, during the summer, we’ll be sharing a digital podcast series where we’ll discuss our digital transformation, including the challenges we’ve conquered along the way. It will consider future opportunities alongside the practicalities of the ‘here and now’, and it will include guest speakers from within and outside rail to seek opportunities to learn from other industries.
I look forward to continuing our digital transformation journey in partnership with, and for, our customers.
Learn more about our commitments in the technology space. Check out our 2025–26 Annual Business Plan.
Let’s go ❯
