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Short Line Data Systems ROCS Update – February 2004
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings –
Well, we have been very busy here, with the installation at the POTB and the rollout of Version 8. Things have been going quite well, and POTB went live with the ROCS System on February 1. We have continued tweaking Version 8, and we’ll look at some of the small changes that have been made in the latest version, and some of the long term projects that we are starting to work on.
New Manual –
We are near completion of the latest revision of our User’s Guide. We take a different view on how a manual should be written, and our guide represents that. Our guide is written in a “How do I do this?” format, with lots of screen prints and step-by-step instructions. We also organize the sections in the same format as the program screens, so it is easy to find the section you are looking for. We are in the process of adding an indexed glossary of terms, so the user can look up a term, find what it is and does, and then find the page for the “how to” on the term.
If anyone is interested in seeing a copy of the manual, we would be happy to send you one as soon as it is completed.
New Tweaks to Version 8 –
Right now the ME, OCTR, and POTB are using Version 8, and we anticipate upgrading CLNA and MERR in the next few weeks. HRRC, SRNJ, and ADBF will follow shortly thereafter. We have added a few new things in the last month, and let’s take a look at them.
The first is the addition of an Information Only type of Advance Consist. The user can select the type of consist on the EDI screen, and then can create the consist is the same manner as a Yard Cut. We have also added some warning messages when a user creates an outbound bill to attempt to prevent unneeded errors that have been popping up with some users. The last tweak involves the crew work lists. We have added the load/empty status of each car on the list, and there is now an area for other information that might be important for the crew to know. The field is available in Customer Status for the user to fill in, and then the information will print on the Work Report.
Long Term Projects –
There are three projects that we have started to investigate as long term additions to the SDS product line. We are not sure of these will come to fruition, but we feel that it is necessary to keep everyone up to date on what our long term plans are.
One of the projects is a car repair billing package. We know that there are a number of other packages out there, but there might be some room for this as an addition to our package.
Next is some form of handheld system for the crews to use to enter their car placements, and reduce the amount of paper they have to carry each day. We have been looking at this for a while now, and there seems to be two major stumbling blocks: first, while handheld computer technology has been greatly improving, the cost is still high for something that is really going to be disposable (we all have an employee that will throw the thing into the first available body of water or rock when they get fed up with it), next, the software for the handhelds is still lacking a bit for what we would need to make the handheld system easy to use, but we are constantly reviewing what is available, and when something that suits our needs becomes available, we will proceed.
The last project is a customer BOL system for ROCS. What we are envisioning is a page on the SDS website for the customer to log into where they can create the bill, and send it to the user railroad via email. The user railroad would then transmit the BOL via EDI. With many of the Class 1 railroads trying to eliminate sending in BOLs via fax, this could become a required feature of the system.
We will keep you posted on our progress on these projects, and if anyone has suggestions for other projects, let us know.
Well, that’s all for now. We’ll see many of you for Railroad Day on the Hill in Washington on February 11, and next month we’ll give you a preview of what will be going on at the ASLRRA meeting in St Louis.
Stay warm,
Steven Friedland President
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