Information Analysis System to Manage Railway Cargo Transportation
Industry
Railway
Customer
Belarusian Railway, an organization of more than 200 legal entities located in different regions of the Republic of Belarus.
Project Background
Cooperation between IBA and Belarusian Railway (BR) began in 1993 when BR management made a decision to start a step–by–step modification of its cargo transportation management system. Initially, the system was ported from local ES computers to an IBM mainframe platform (S/360). Afterwards, IBA performed migration from S/360 to S/370 and S/390, and created an environment to develop applications using advanced information technologies.
In cooperation with Belarusian Railway, IBA developed a concept and prototype of the Information Analysis System to Manage Railway Cargo Transportation at Belarusian Railway. The joint project to implement the system was launched in late 2002.
Project Overview
The Information Analysis System to Manage Railway Cargo Transportation is designed to manage all technological processes at BR. The new system should replace a legacy cargo transportation management system produced in the USSR.
The legacy system was developed in Assembler and used unique, non–standard databases. Moreover, the system was slow and resource–consuming. Each database query involved complementary software development. In addition, the new owners of the legacy system in Russia announced that they will cease to support in 2008.
The task was to migrate the legacy system to an up–to–date database using standard visualization tools that enable report generation. The new system was required to increase the profitability of cargo transportation, the final goal being to integrate the Information Analysis System to Manage Railway Cargo Transportation with the Unified Finance and Resource Management System that is currently implemented by a joint IBA–BR team. As a result, BR management will be able to optimize its operations both in terms of functional and financial performance.
Project Execution
The implementation of the large–scale system was divided into stages, allowing BR employees to perceive additional benefits after the completion of each stage. IBA worked at the customer site to understand better the end user needs, address quickly the issues that emerge and ensure close cooperation with the client team.
At the planning and design stage, IBA conducted an in–depth analysis of initial customer requirements and of the customer knowledge domain, defined basic entities, and created a business process model. At the development stage, IBA provided the client with access to the project test system. Consequently, the client was able to monitor and control the development process, as well as train its employees, while IBA was able to understand end user problems and respond promptly to requirement changes.
The new reporting system was built using Business Objects, and therefore the end user was able to create reports depending on his or her specific needs without any assistance from programmers.
Environment
Operation systems: OS\390, Windows XP, Windows 2003 server
Databases: IBM DB2 v8
Web servers: IBM Web Sphere 6
Software: ERWin 7.2; Rational Rose Enterprise 2003; Rational Requisite Pro; Rational SoDA, Java 1.4, RAD 6.0, MQ Series, C++.
Project Results
The Information Analysis System to Manage Railway Cargo Transportation is implemented on schedule and within budget. The completed system parts include:
- A subsystem of standard normative and reference information. The subsystem provides information to all subsystems and applications, and directly to employees of Belarusian Railway in a real–time mode.
- An operating subsystem that allows the client to control and monitor the current status of the railway and all of its objects, and to exchange electronic messages between participants of the transportation process.
- A data warehouse that contains the entire historical information about the BR functioning, generates various reports and plans, outputs statistic data, and builds forecasts.
The IBA–developed subsystems streamlined a large number of business processes of the client, including management of cargo and passenger transportation, generation of daily status reports, registration of car maintenance and car rental operations, and planning of shipments. IBA automated workflow at the client's enterprises. The end user can access the system via web browser and tailor the company's information field to suit his or her needs. The slow and rigidly formatted reporting system was replaced with a flexible and convenient one.
After the implementation of the remaining subprojects, the new Information Analysis System to Manage Railway Cargo Transportation will completely replace the legacy system.
Valeriy Shubadyorov, Vice President of Belarusian Railway, said: “On behalf of the Belarusian Railway, I would like to thank IBA for assistance in the automation of business processes at our organization. We look forward to continued and fruitful cooperation with IBA”.
