The Challenge
From consulting on plans for a high-speed railway to forecasting the impacts of changes to an airport, Jacobs rely on accurate data in every aspect of their transport planning. Unfortunately, their traditional data collection methods were proving laborious, time-consuming, subjective, and when all was said and done, miles from complete.

The Solution
O2 introduced Jacobs to Smart Steps, giving them access to rich anonymised data from over 24.5 million O2 mobile customers. This would enable Jacobs to tap into ever-growing streams of real-time and historical data (dating back to 2013) on over 100 million daily journeys, and learn all there was to know about when, how and where people travel.

As Stephen Rutherford, Jacob’s Managing Director for Transport Planning, said, “Mobile data really excites me. It’s developing fast. Most of what we do is demand forecasting, and data is at the heart of this process.” 

Results
According to Jacob’s Head of Digital Solution, Darren Martin, “We're able to devise schemes using the arguments and knowledge O2 Smart Steps gives us, to advise clients on exactly which schemes they should go forward with (on both the supply side and the demand side) to make cities a better place to live.”

And they can do it all faster than ever. On projects that once took 16 months to complete, they’re now saving an average of four months.

Related links:
Our Smart Steps service
O2’s mobile networks