container reservations: managing domestic shipping

The Challenge

Pacer Stacktrain, one of the largest container-transport shippers in the United States, needed an application for making and tracking train container reservations for their intermodal (mostly trucking) customers.The system would enable a more cost-effective way to optimize the utilization of containers, provide visibility into reservation status, provide a way to manage and change reservations, and allow comprehensive internal reporting capabilities.

The Solution

Simplexity developed a web-based, ASP.Net, SQL-driven application that consisted of interaction interfaces for making, updating, monitoring, and reporting on all gate reservation activities. It uses a relational database to store gate reservation information, and external system interfaces to communicate reservations with key railroad partners. The user interface design was key to the success of the project as it ensured acceptance of the applicaation with minimal re-training and support.

Lessons Learned

A partial application already existed for this purpose. Assumptions were made about what features of the existing application could be 'ported' to the new version. In some cases, the features that seemed simple to port were not.

Always put requirements and changes in writing, not only to track successful implementations, but to make sure both client and developers are in synch on how the application will work when it is done.

It can be very difficult to create and manage test environments for complex applications. Adequate time and budget needs to be allocated for that purpose.

Be careful about deploying too many authentication points for applications; ensure existing authentication infrastructures are adequately evaluated before creating new ones. The need to deploy a new application or upgrade an existing one can drive development of a single sign-on infrastructure. As the number of web applications used by your organization increases, having a single place for web users to log in becomes increasingly important.

For more information about how Simplexity can help you today, please email or call Eric Hughes at 510/763.4488.

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