A Unique Collaboration On Equal Terms: ILI and Railnova

Beyond technology and deliverables, it is the human dimension of the partnership that sets it apart. What has grown between Railnova and ILI Digital over time is not just a working relationship, it is a genuine collaboration built on mutual respect and shared ambition.

But what else defines this collaboration between ILI and Railnova?

Railnova: From Retrofit Specialist to Digitalization Partner for Rail Vehicles

Railnova is today one of the defining companies in the digital transformation of rail transport. For 15 years, the company has been working to better connect railway fleets and make data actionable, led by CEO Meike van’t Hoen, who is guiding Railnova through an important growth phase.

What began as a retrofit approach has evolved into a comprehensive system that digitally integrates both older and more modern fleets. Today, more than 3,500 rail vehicles are connected via Railnova’s technology.  Together with ILI Digital, Railnova now collaborates both technologically and strategically to drive this transformation forward.

Two Layers, One Goal: Making Data Usable Where It’s Needed

To better understand the collaboration and what both sides (ILI & Railnova) bring to the table, it is worth taking a closer look at how Railnova’s concept works, and what makes their approach to rail digitalization distinctly their own. 

Railnova’s technology is built on two areas:

• OT on the train: Hardware inside the vehicle collects and processes data locally. Railnova develops and manufactures these devices in-house.
• IT in the cloud: Operators can onboard assets, roll out updates, and define rules that are executed directly on edge devices.

This generates insights right at the vehicle, faster and more cost-efficiently than purely cloud-based processing. The portfolio includes two core products:

• Rail Genius: an analytics platform for fleet managers and engineers
• Rail Fleet: a digital maintenance workflow aligned with ECM3 standards, covering all defined process and mandatory steps

The Use Case: More Digitalization, Less Paper

Railnova began by digitizing previously inaccessible data. Today, that transformation also includes replacing manual workflows. In production, Railnova already applies AI in targeted ways, such as:

• AI-driven visual inspection of soldered boards
• Internal AI tools within software stacks
• Customer-specific features like AI classification of unstructured error messages

AI helps with pre-classification, merging similar messages, and identifying potential root causes. Railnova’s approach is not to deploy AI everywhere, but where it genuinely makes technical sense.

ILI Digital as a Holistic Partner for AI and Digitalization Projects

The collaboration between Railnova and ILI Digital grew organically from an already established foundation of trust.

A key aspect of this collaboration is Railnova’s strong, independent brand positioning.

ILI contributes to anchoring this positioning clearly and consistently in external communications as well, ensuring Railnova is perceived as a vendor-neutral brand.

Three Shared Core Streams

Since 2025, the cooperation has evolved operationally, now running across three parallel streams:

1. Data Science & AI
   • Anomaly detection
   • MVPs for automation
   • Building LLMOps structures: ILI experts work closely alongside Railnova’s teams.
2. Product Development (embedded in the team)
   • A Team at ILI develop directly within Railnova’s software team
   • Joint sprints are underway
   • Goal: bringing features to production readiness

What Makes the Partnership Special According to Railnova

Meike van’t Hoen describes working with ILI Digital as:

• Collaborative
• Professional
• Human
• Challenging in the best sense
• Time zones barely factor in and processes are built so that the distance is hardly felt.

“ILI Digital is not a classic software house, they are a holistic partner. The on-site visits, like the Leadership Team Event, really show how high-quality and committed their work is.” – Meike van’t Hoen, CEO Railnova

Looking Ahead on this collaboration: A Shared Path

The partnership between Railnova and ILI Digital bridges two worlds:

• Deep rail expertise
• Modern AI and product competency

As an innovation partner, ILI Digital sits at a crossroads: we understand the challenges on both sides of the market. And that’s exactly what makes the difference.

Because truly modern entrepreneurship is defined by communication that is both, intelligent and impactful.

While much has already been built, Meike van’t Hoen emphasizes: “the most exciting part is still just ahead of them.”

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