A leading software provider in the project controls sector has joined forces with Network Rail to transform scheduling management.
XER Schedule Toolkit is working closely with Network Rail’s Eastern Routes Capital Programmes Team to fundamentally reshape how schedules are managed, reviewed, and shared across the organisation.
The all-in-one toolkit is the industry leading planning software across a range of industries including rail and road, oil and gas, engineering and construction, energy and nuclear and aerospace and defence.
What began as a conversation with Network Rail about improving reporting, quickly evolved into a partnership that is already delivering major value and setting the benchmark for collaborative innovation in project controls.
Early in the collaboration process, it became clear that Network Rail’s existing Power BI dashboards were powerful – but keeping them up to date with live project data was time-consuming and prone to delays.
To address this, the XER Schedule Toolkit team began with a simple but effective solution: tailoring reporting outputs to match Network Rail’s exact needs. A bespoke data export was developed, aligned with the company’s key performance indicators, allowing project teams to update dashboards quickly and accurately without manual manipulation.
From there, the collaboration deepened, and together XER Schedule Toolkit and Network Rail moved beyond file-based reporting and have begun to introduce a fully API-driven integration with Network Rail’s internal data warehouse.
The way information was shared also needed to evolve. Previously, XER Schedule Toolkit offered project-by-project sharing – a practical model for individual planners, but limiting for a national infrastructure operator managing hundreds of concurrent projects.
XER Schedule Toolkit is working closely with Network Rail’s Eastern Routes Capital Programmes Team to fundamentally reshape how schedules are managed, reviewed, and shared across the organisation.
In response, the XER Schedule Toolkit team built the new enterprise-level Shared Folders system, allowing Network Rail to create structured folder hierarchies, group schedules by region, discipline or project type, and share access with entire teams in a single step.
This new way of working also created space for something many clients had asked for – a better way to manage schedule submissions from suppliers.
The new submission workflow was introduced to provide a secure feature that allows suppliers to upload their schedules directly to Network Rail, but, crucially, transfers ownership of the data once submitted. That means no more risk of data being deleted or withdrawn. It’s a small change with huge benefits for project assurance.
Another practical improvement came from Network Rail’s need to monitor schedule quality at scale. Previously, integrity checks had to be run one project at a time, or, if multiple projects were checked together, the results were combined into a single report – making it difficult to separate issues and track individual project quality.
Now, multiple projects can be checked in one go, with clear, separated results for each schedule, giving teams a faster, cleaner way to assess quality across an entire programme without losing detail.
XER Schedule Toolkit Digital Director, Chris Grosvenor, said:
“None of these features were imagined in a vacuum – they were built in direct response to conversations with Network Rail’s project controls teams. That’s how we like to work.
“We don’t expect our users to change their workflows to fit a rigid system. We change the system to fit them. This agility is what sets XER Schedule Toolkit apart. We’re not a black box – our users are part of the development process, and our roadmap reflects their real-world needs.
“Everything we’ve built for Network Rail – from streamlined reporting and API access to shared folders, supplier submissions, and smarter quality checks – is now available to all XER Schedule Toolkit users. That’s the power of building with, not for, your customers.
“As our partnership with Network Rail continues, we see XER Schedule Toolkit becoming more than a tool – it’s evolving into the backbone of project controls, not just for rail, but for any organisation that wants to manage schedules with transparency, accountability and confidence.”
Network Rail’s Portfolio Planning Specialist, Michael Drysdale, said:
“From our initial engagement with the XER Schedule Toolkit, we immediately recognised its potential to streamline schedule sharing across our project teams. It offered our programme managers a powerful means of interrogating and reviewing their programmes with greater efficiency and insight.
“We saw early on that its functionality would enhance assurance across our supply chain schedules, fostering stronger collaboration with supply chain partners and helping us drive improvements in programme quality. The ability to share schedules widely within project teams meant fostering a culture of shared responsibility – where all members are accountable for the quality, integrity and deliverability of our projects.
“That said, the out-of-the-box solution presented some challenges specific to Network Rail’s unique needs. Through proactive dialogue with Chris Grosvenor and the XER Schedule Toolkit team, we quickly moved from discussion to collaboration.
“Together, we’ve shaped a tailored solution that meets the demands of efficiently managing the extensive portfolio delivered by our Eastern Routes Capital Programmes Team – for the benefit of our passengers and freight users.”
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