Problem:

Over the last several years, most railroads have acquired technical debt in their operations. The difficult problem now is how to catch up without breaking the bank while also ensuring future success of operations and upgrades.

Solution:

PSTechServices™ from PS Technology is a consultive arm of this more than 30-year-old rail tech company. Offering both auditing, consultive and planning services, PSTechServices helps railroads avoid common upgrade dangers while creating a clear path forward.

Leapfrog, or incremental Improvements?

One of the first questions PST helps answer is whether it's smarter to start with a clean slate or find a way to incrementally enhance existing solutions. Part of the auditing process is to help railroads clearly understand if their real goal is a discreet system upgrade or a broader railroad improvement. In pursuing their digital transformation program, railroads can unwittingly set up independent delivery teams decoupled from business, operations, and IT. Sometimes they also tend to focus too much on a region, failing to appreciate and incorporate the nuances of wider enterprise-level complexities.

For example, recently a railroad, acquired additional operations which all had their own way of doing business. After an audit and review of future business goals, the decision was made to consolidate all data and transfer it to cloud services instead of incremental improvement. This new "data lake" accomplished several business goals. First, it harmonized all data for use in multiple systems. Sometimes this is referred to as a single source of truth. This enabled the railroad to better ensure consistency across their network and locations.

Secondly, it allowed for a lift-and-shift of existing applications to web platforms. Doing this improved upgrade uniformity and security for their operations while providing for consistent and timely updates.

Finally, it made a subtle but very important shift of tech CapEx into OpEx. Financially, this is more easily managed and allows for continuous improvement, preventing slow obsolescence requiring major CapEx exercises in the future.

Making it Easy to Operate More Intelligently

The previous example also had some parallel benefits from those changes. With data being harmonized and accessible, deeper business understanding was possible. This wealth of information, both historic and current, is allowing analysis and business improvement on a level that was simply not possible before, driving down costs and preventing revenue leakage.

The Other Truth

Your railroad may have things under control and simply need short-term experts in both rail and legacy systems. That's the other side or PSTechServices: workers who understand the nuances of rail business plus the coding and maintenance of legacy systems.

Have a rail technology challenge? Let’s talk.