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Short Line Data Systems Inc. ROCSTM Update July 2008 Website: www.sdsrocs.com Greetings: Summer is in full swing with the end of the July Fourth weekend, and we have been quite busy with travel, upgrades, and new features for our customers. We have started the upgrade process for our users to Version 11 of ROCS, with TCB and KXHR being the first two recipients. We also have an update on the RCH car hire changeover, and some personnel news. So, without further adieu, let’s get on with the update. NS Short Line Meeting We attended the Seventh Annual NS Short Line Meeting last week, and hat’s off to Rob Robinson, Bob Gentzel, and the rest of the Short Line Marketing staff on a first class event. The presentations were on point and informative, and with the wide spread of topics everyone came away with something. We did not have a booth at the trade show (which we look forward to returning to next year), but we did meet with a number of you about our products, and we look forward to doing business with you in the future. Version 11 We made a quick trip down to Texas a couple of weeks ago to upgrade the Texas Central Business Lines to Version 11, and in the process of doing the upgrade we found some new processes that will be applied to the release copy of V11 that greatly speed up processing of data. This “discovery” came after a discussion at lunch that started out with “You know, it would be really nice if…” and after digging a bit deeper, found an issue that the customer had been living with, but not saying anything about because it wasn’t paralyzing him. Interestingly, when these processes were applied to a different customer’s system, the response was extremely positive because they were having similar issues but again it wasn’t really slowing them down in the big picture of things. The moral of this story? Keep us posted about issues, whether they are big or small, because with a small change on our part we may be able to make your life a lot easier. We are working our way through all of the ROCS users with the upgrade. The next railroad up is the EEC at the end of this week. Following that will be CLNA, HRRC, and SGLR, though not necessarily in that order. RCH Car Hire As many of you heard late last month, the implementation of the Railroad Clearing House (RCH) car hire payments was postponed from its original May 08 car hire month start. The latest news that we have from Railinc is that the system will be implemented with the July 08 car hire month, which means that the reports will be processed in September 08. If you still haven’t signed up for the RCH, please call Warren Alvis at Railinc (919)651-5001 to get going on the paperwork. If you are not a participant in RCH and have to pay car hire, it could cost you an additional $10 per car to do the settlements on paper.
And Then There Were Three Many of you met Paul Landrio (yes, Gary’s kid) at the ASLRRA Eastern Region meeting in Burlington last year, when we gave him a “try-out” in front of the toughest crowd we know. Well, while Paul passed the test, we were unable to put him to work last year, so he went back to college (where he will stay). We had a need for some help this summer, and Paul had some free time, so we are happy to announce that Paul will be working for us doing some of the V11 upgrades, and we will probably put him on a couple of the long standing projects that we haven’t had time to finish. We are also in the process of looking for a more permanent technical person, so if you know someone that is looking for a challenge and knows Microsoft Access, please have them contact Susan O’Connor at soconnor@sdsrocs.com . And I Have More SDS Time on My Hands With everything that is going on, I have made the decision to make Wednesdays during July and August SDS office days. The plan is to cover more of the non-critical changes to the products on these days, leaving the evenings open for any additional customer services that may be needed. This is in addition to the work that gets done on the weekends, which matches up with down times at a lot of your properties, and will allow me to cover more ground with less interruptions and pressure on Holly. We will look at the schedule in September to decide how this will continue, as the schedule tends to get a little full in September and October. Well, that is all for now. On a personal note, it was announced in Roanoke that Bob Gentzel of NS will be retiring at the end of the summer, and his retirement will be a huge loss to NS and the entire short line industry. He has been both a resource and sounding board for me in both of my roles with SDS and the M&E, and I wish him well. Stay safe, Steven Friedland President P.S. – Happy Birthday Pam. You don’t look at day over 38.
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