How VRP helped enable digital transformation for the new Eurostar

Imagine two giants of the rail industry are set to merge by a set date. How do you bring together the data of 15 million passengers, and seamlessly consolidate their separate Sales, Service and Marketing Clouds – all in time for the immovable programme deadline and without a single customer complaint? 

That was the challenge our customer, Eurostar, faced. In this article, you can find out about the part VRP Consulting played in enabling their transformation. 

Eurostar and Thalys have become one

In the biggest news in Europe’s transport sector, two huge international rail operators, Eurostar and Thalys, merged in 2023. Launched to customers on 1st October, 2023, the new Eurostar brought with it a new website, mobile app and loyalty program – the first publicly-visible results of the merger between Eurostar and Thalys. Eurostar also launched a new advertising campaign, live across Europe from 16th November onward.

In a statement to the media, Gweldoline Cazenave, CEO of Eurostar, said the following: “Today, with our teams and for our customers, we are writing a new page in the history of high-speed rail travel in Europe. With Eurostar, our customers will have Europe at their fingertips. Our ambition is clear: more Europe for a unique and sustainable travel experience.”

The new Eurostar comprises one single rail network connecting France, Belgium, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, with a fleet of 51 trains. But what part did VRP play in the digital side of this business transformation into a new brand? 

Two rail giants, two technology systems to be unified

Along with the corporate merger and new branding, the new Eurostar would also need to merge the two organizations’ different technology ecosystems and different business processes. In this case, that meant the consolidation of two very mature Salesforce Sales, Service and Marketing Cloud orgs, including process harmonization, integration and data migration of millions of records. This created a new, improved and unified technology foundation that would allow the two rail giants to operate as the new, transformed Eurostar brand.

Eurostar engaged VRP Consulting to assist with this technology and delivery challenge. VRP not only provided the technical multi-cloud know-how and people, but also provided leadership in programme shaping, strategic engagement and course-corrective, action-oriented recommendations – all supported by agile multi-stream project delivery. The programme needed to be completed in time for the new Eurostar’s public launch to customers, coinciding with the France Rugby World Cup 2023 – a key time for rail travel. This required a great deal of collaborative work to be done to meet that deadline. By taking a partnership approach, the Eurostar, Thalys and VRP teams in multiple countries worked as one, sharing common goals and rising to the challenge. 

We’re very pleased to say that we succeeded in helping Eurostar transform and launch on time, ready for their huge customer base. If you would like to learn more about our work, you can read the full case study here.

A few words from our great client

Laurent Bellan, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Eurostar said: “Working alongside VRP, we embarked on a transformative journey to enhance our Salesforce capabilities used by many of our teams across the Eurostar business. We were able to merge our key Service Centre and Sales processes on a common Salesforce platform.”

“The successful launch of the DELTA programme saw Eurostar reach a significant milestone in its digital transformation journey. Thanks to the support of VRP’s technical expertise, Eurostar is able to provide a unified customer experience for our contact centre customers.”

Huge thanks to the VRP team who made it happen

Everyone at VRP Consulting is thrilled to see our work with Eurostar come to fruition, and glad we were able to help this amazing client achieve their goals. We’re incredibly proud and grateful to the great team who worked on this vast programme of work.

Richard Sharp, VRP Global Director of Transformation, Consulting & Delivery, expressed this: “Thank you for your incredible skill, effort and dedication on this 18-month programme. It is without doubt one of our most complex engagements, with huge pressure to hit an immovable deadline to meet Eurostar board and shareholder announcements to the market about the merger and rebrand. There are 15 million Eurostar passengers out there across Europe experiencing seamless service and interactions because of your brilliant efforts.”

Do you need help with a similar digital transformation challenge?

Organizations everywhere face the need to bring together disparate technology systems following mergers and acquisitions (M&A). If you’re embarking on a business transformation like this, we want to help. With the work for Eurostar that we’ve described here, as well as for others including multinational manufacturer Saint-Gobain, VRP has deep experience in this technically demanding and highly specialized area.

We would be glad to explore your needs, timeline and all the other factors crucial in making your systems merger the success it needs to be. Get in touch with us today, and we’ll find the best route for the journey ahead. 

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About the Author

VRP Consulting

VRP is a global full-service Salesforce consulting, outsourcing and managed services partner, delivering across the entire Salesforce platform. As a Product Development Outsourcing (PDO) Expert (1 of 9 globally), a Salesforce.org Impact Partner, a Tableau Partner, a Mulesoft Partner and Partner Innovation Award winner in 2020, 2022 and 2023, we have the scale and expertise to deliver innovative solutions to customers of all sizes, locations and industries.