On December 15, IBA put into production the Information Analysis System to Manage Cargo Railway Transportation (IAS MCRT) at Belarusian Railway.

In cooperation with Belarusian Railway, IBA developed a concept and prototype of the Information Analysis System to Support Management Decisions on Cargo Transportation at Belarusian Railway (BR). The joint project to implement the system was launched in late 2002. The new system was required to increase the profitability of cargo transportation, the final goal being to create an integrated information system at Belarusian Railway.

Having replaced a legacy cargo transportation management system produced in the USSR, the new system became the main management system for processing information from railway station about the transportation process.

The new system is intended for information support of management decisions to enhance work efficiency, raise the volume and quality of service, and reduce transportation costs. The system allows for generating information documents to answer the inquiries of railway employees using internet technologies and for conducting comparative data analysis.

IAS MCRT includes the following subsystems that function asynchronously:

• Router of Incoming Messages processes incoming messages from subscribers of Belarusian Railway, forwards the messages to the corresponding subsystems of the system, and provides feedback
• Online Outline of Cargo Transportation (OOCT) consists of an online database and a suite that controls, processes, and distributes the incoming information in the database and calculates performance indicators
• Historical Outline of Cargo Transportation (HOCT) includes a historical database and a software suite of layout, calculation, and aggregation of data received from the HOCT
• Software Suite of Data Transfer implements a multi stream data transfer between online and historical outlines of cargo transportation (OOCT and HOCT)
• Data Warehouse consists of a database and a software to calculate performance indicators and implement data aggregation
• A subsystem of Standard Normative and Reference Information is intended for a centralized storage of corporate normative information, for maintaining and updating the information
• A subsystem of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) consists of a database and a software suite to generate and calculate key indicators of Belarusian Railway performance including daily reports and a software to generate standard reports approved by the statistics service of Belarusian Railway. The output solutions are created using Business Objects tools.
• A subsystem of Technical Regulation (TR) of Belarusian railway is intended for creation of monthly norms and plans, means of maintaining and update, and means of transfer of the planned values to the KPI subsystem
• Efficiency Analysis System (EAS) of Belarusian Railway allows for carrying out a comprehensive detailed analysis of the performance indicators of every service and for tracking the interaction between different indicators, dynamics of their changes, as well as the contribution of every department of Belarusian railway to the final indicator value. The suite has a powerful tool for visualization of information and is used for planning meetings in the BR administration. The primary data source for the EAS database is the data of TR and KPI subsystems.

All IAS MCRT applications have a similar intuitive and easy-to-use interface that simplifies the work of the BR employees and their training.

Implementation of the corporate IAS MCRT allowed for streamlining a large number of business processes of the customer including management of cargo and passenger transportation, generation of daily status reports on the work of stations and offices, registration of car maintenance and car rental operations, and planning of shipments.

The Information Analysis System to Support Management Decisions on Cargo Transportation implemented by IBA at Belarusian Railway is a unique project in Belarus considering the scale of automation, territorial distribution, and amount of work.