CONTEXT & GOALS

NTV is the acronym for Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, the company that operates Italo, the country's first private high-speed rail operator.

Founded in 2006, NTV began passenger services in 2012 and quickly established itself as the first open-access private high-speed rail operator in Europe, challenging the state monopoly through innovation, design and service excellence.

The project aimed to improve the stability and performance of the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform, focusing on reducing manual interventions and ensuring reliable ticket validation processes. A key priority was to resolve system crashes and performance bottlenecks that risked compromising operations, especially during high-traffic events such as promotional Fridays.

The ultimate objective was to establish a robust and automated environment that could seamlessly handle load peaks, support real-time ticket processing and maintain operational continuity. By improving system resilience and automating workflow realignment, the project aimed to safeguard revenue and increase customer satisfaction across all traffic scenarios.​

IMPLEMENTED SOLUTIONS

• Prioritisation in Critical Situations Established: rapid identification and prioritisation of critical system tasks amidst operational chaos, providing immediate focus where it was most needed.
• Technical Innovation and Organisational Transformation: delivered not only fixes, but also assistance in changing the team's mindset, promoting shared responsibility and ownership of platform stability.
• Overcoming Ineffective Approaches: dispelled the myth that simply adding more resources would resolve systemic issues, advocating instead for structural and methodological improvements.
• Adoption of Advanced Methodologies: implemented a new methodology based on best-in-class APM monitoring solutions for distributed systems, achieving measurable performance improvements and greater transparency.
• Business Process Transformation: the engagement generated lasting impact, driving changes in internal procedures, incident ownership and platform accountability.
• Increased Growth Capacity: by resolving systemic inefficiencies, the team freed up time, budget and resources, enabling NTV to reinvest in new services and innovation initiatives.

CHALLENGES

• Unpredictable Platform Failures: the SOA platform was frequently unstable, crashing without warning and leaving operational teams struggling to restore services during business hours.
• Systematic Manual Procedures: each system failure required direct manual intervention to realign data flows, creating operational delays and increasing the risk of human error.
• Failed Ticket Validation = Revenue Loss: tickets sold online often could not be verified reliably, especially during high-volume periods. This not only caused revenue losses but also undermined customer confidence at the point of boarding.
• Traffic Spike Anomalies: the most critical failures occurred during promotional Fridays, precisely when the system needed to perform at its best. Sales processes ground to a halt, customer complaints increased, and internal teams were overwhelmed.

VICTORIES

• Recognition from All Departments: within just 6-12 months, the value of our technical team's work was recognised by NTV's commercial department, testament to the tangible business value and performance improvements delivered.
• Excellent Multi-disciplinary Team Coordination: K-Tech successfully led a mixed team of 10 internal resources alongside an Oracle specialist, coordinating delivery across technical, infrastructure, and operational layers.
• Enhanced Proactive Monitoring and Performance: demonstrated advanced expertise in Java Virtual Machine (JVM) optimisation and distributed systems monitoring through Application Performance Management (APM), applying industry best practices to improve platform performance, resilience, and transparency.
• Infrastructure Cost Optimisation: streamlined infrastructure utilisation through systematic performance optimisation and load balancing, achieving measurable cost savings without sacrificing reliability.
• New Corporate Benchmark: K-Tech's leadership and results established a new performance standard within NTV. The success of this project led to renewed client confidence with invitations to provide consultancy on strategic initiatives beyond the initial scope.