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Short Line Data Systems Inc. ROCS Update – April 2003
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings
I hope that everyone has thawed out from the winter, and I must first apologize for the lateness of this update, but as you will see, I have my reasons.
The Housatonic has cut over from IRCS to ROCS. Unfortunately, the cutover was not as smooth as we had hoped for. Why? There were a number of reasons, and probably the biggest one was communication. For the most part, there were no major functional problems with the system, but what happened were problems caused by differences in how each railroad runs their operation. As I have mentioned many times before, ROCS is customized to the user’s specification, and in the HRRC’s case, what I had perceived as their needs was different than what was really needed. Most of these differences would have come out during the parallel systems test period, but somehow the message wasn’t sent, and the message wasn’t received.
The outcome? A customer that was very unhappy, and a very confused supplier. I have just returned from two days of spending time with the customer, and I believe that we have gotten the system customized to the point where the operating personnel are a lot more comfortable, and they have made suggestions for further improvements to the system.
We will also be making changes to the amount of time we will be spending with the customer prior to the final cutover in the future, to allow for more face to face communication with the people who will be using the system, and a better setup of the system. There will always be bumps in the road, but if we can make them a little smoother or get rid of some of them, then everyone benefits. Our goal at SDS is to make running your railroad easier, and in some places we are still learning the best way to do this.
Now let’s look ahead. Version 6 is complete, and will be installed at the SRNJ and ADBF soon. The LCS car hire system is working well, and we will be adding some automatic reclaim functions soon. Another addition will be a new report similar to the crew work list, but instead of being organized by customer, it will be organized by track.
We are finalizing our plans for the ASLRRA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, and we will have new brochures, demos, pens and hoppers (you just have to stop by our booth to see and get one of these). We will also have a drawing for a fabulous prize (I would tell you what it is, but we haven’t made the final decision yet).
Well, this is a short update, but with the new version finished and the install we have had to devote our resources to the customer, and let new developments wait for next month.
Have a good month,
Steven Friedland President |
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