While companies race to streamline operations and communicate with customers and business partners on a standard platform, many are still stranded with outdated communication networks. As a result, core business processes and critical information are locked up in legacy applications that predate Internet-era integration.

 "These companies are stuck with traditional IT infrastructures," notes Ron Grevink, market manager, Verastream, WRQ, a Seattle-based software solutions developer. "The question is how do you open up this antiquated infrastructure to integrate information with web-based interfaces?"

 This question is especially relevant in Britain's rail freight industry, given the glacial-like progress carriers have made toward implementing innovative communication technologies. But change is on the horizon. Less expensive and more flexible integration tools are thawing resistance to IT investment and once seemingly impassible infrastructure gaps are now manageable.

 Moreover, urban congestion, escalating fuel costs, and increasing road tolls are pushing more freight to rail. In return for this new business, shippers are demanding better customer service from their rail partners.

 Infrastructure disconnects were the crux of the problem confronting Freightliner, a London-based intermodal company, when one of its customers requested better container visibility earlier this year. The sheer size of Freightliner's business added to the challenge. The carrier operates more than 70 trains daily across a network of eight privately owned and leased terminals. As the second-largest railroad operating in Britain, transporting 600,000 maritime containers a year, Freightliner also operates a fleet of trucks to provide local collection and delivery from railhead.

 

 

 

Staying the Course with Verastream  

 WRQ's Verastream software allows companies to generate web pages automatically from legacy functions, using existing business logic and data, without rewriting host code.

 In Freightliner's case, WRQ Verastream Host Integrator retrieves container status information from the mainframe application in a non-intrusive way. WRQ Integration Broker then extracts the data, packages it into an EDI message, and sends e-mail alerts to customers at predefined intervals.

 "It allows us to quickly integrate legacy systems without altering or moving the data and logic, providing a quick time to market," says Thompson.

 Aside from providing better visibility and communication for Freightliner's customers  --  and helping the carrier transition to the web, cut costs, and tap the potential of its legacy systems  --  Verastream is flexible and scalable. For a company with immediate short-term concerns, but an unclear long-term strategy, flexibility was a necessary component.

 "WRQ offers reusable components and services," says Grevink. "You may have a challenge to meet today, but what about tomorrow? What happens if your business changes  --  do you look for another vendor?"

 With Verastream, users can create a high level of reusability so that they can build a flexible environment that can respond to changing needs. "This allows businesses such as Freightliner to start with a small investment and grow it as needed," says Grevink.

 "For rail tracking, Verastream's infrastructure and signalling provides location details on trains as they pass relevant points," says Thompson. "So a train's location is reported approximately every 10 to 15 minutes."

 These are the current tracking requirements, but it's not hard to imagine that these parameters will change  --  to a point when, ideally, there won't be any parameters.

 

Visibility Gives Competitive Edge    

 Until now, economies of scale made shipping via truck more efficient than rail in Britain. "Journey distance is shorter in the UK," notes Thompson, "Many routes are too short to make rail transportation economical." But congestion and higher fuel expenditures are mitigating these efficiencies and carriers that offer complete container movement visibility will be at an advantage.

 The visibility Verastream creates "provides us with a competitive advantage over many road haulers that are unable to provide these services currently," notes Thompson.

 With its current EDI-generated e-mail alerts, Freightliner has only tipped the iceberg in fulfilling a complete web-based interface. "We believe shipment status requirements should be web-based to allow self service by our customers," Thompson says.

Grevink shares similar optimism. "Nothing stops Freightliner, at the moment, from changing the way it provides information  --  for instance, via a web-based platform," he observes.

 Judging from recent history, Freightliner will likely pull out all the stops to better serve its customers' needs.