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GIV-IT Software Solutions
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Home >> Customer Stories
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Customer Stories
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Israel Railways
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Israel Railways Operated an Advanced IT and Process Management Solution for Synchronized Track and Infrastructure Maintenance & Operations Management – A Solution Developed by GIV Solutions.
The solution designed and implemented by GIV Solutions enables Israel Railways to conduct ongoing infrastructure maintenance while ensuring a high level of safety for passengers and maintenance personnel.
Israel Railways recently completed implementing an IT Solution, as an integral part of the rail and infrastructure maintenance management system. The system was designed and implemented by GIV Solutions, one of today’s leading companies in information technology and operations consulting for transportation and infrastructure organizations. The computer-based solution improves the safety of maintenance personnel while servicing the tracks as well as Israel Railways’ overall safety management. In addition, the solution has fundamentally decreased delays in routine train schedules when maintenance is required.
Today, the managers who need to conduct track maintenance enter their requests into the central system which analyzes the request details, including: location, time, work force, resources needed and the impact on train-line operation.
The system enables operation's managers an improved planning and scheduling of the track for maintenance purposes. Further more, the process realizes sharing information and coordinating with the various operations departments involved.
This planning, service and coordination procedure strengthens both passenger and onsite maintenance workers safety.
Jehoshua Fuhrmann, Israel Railways Chief Information Officer, highlights, “This IT solution—installed, system-wide, throughout the railway’s technical and engineering divisions—is an additional layer in the maintenance and equipment management system that GIV Solutions implemented and assimilated into our operations. The system constitutes an important component in integrating and synchronizing Israel Railways’ maintenance and operations processes. The system, which supports Israel Railways’ infrastructure and communications division as well as the operations and information division, is based on the organization’s enterprise asset management (EAM) system. As an integral part of the solution, the system integrates information from various data sources and conducts sophisticated business intelligence (BI) analyses. From a maintenance perspective, this solution places Israel Railways at the forefront of infrastructure and transportation companies worldwide.”
Moshe Amsalem, Israel Railways Traffic Division Manager, highlights, “When opertion's contol recieves requests for maintenance work or repairs, it is important to use a well structured process to exclusively reserve the track for maintenance. Until GIV's IT solution was implemented to manage maintenance requests, the track reservation authorizations were submitted using manual, non-computerized methods, such as: faxes, letters, and verbal, non-documented requests.”
Meir Givon, GIV Solutions CEO, emphasizes, “In the past, the core organizational and operational processes and the information that supported them were isolated from maintenance management and infrastructure work planning. Today, we see a trend of transition to intelligent and efficient information use by applying IT solutions that integrate infrastructure operations and its maintenance processes. I am pleased that Israel Railways is progressing with commitment and decisiveness to implement these types of industry-leading solutions."
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Derech Eretz Highways Management Corporation
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Enterprise Asset Management System
for Road Maintenance and Event Management
GIV Solutions Successfully Directed the Enterprise Asset Management System Implementation for Israel’s Highway 6.
Mr. Ur Omry, Derech Eretz Highways Management Corporation's Chief Officer, IT and Engineering Systems: "GIV with their skills and analytic approach to the unique problem, succeeded in a very hard challenge, that others failed to overcome, delivering to us a solution which is unique for the Israeli market: a comprehensive, high quality, effective road infrastructure management and maintenance solution, wonderfully integrated with road events and traffic management, with powerful BI tools for all the involved managers. We really received a good solution".
The system for managing maintenance and event activities for Derech Eretz Highways Management Corporation (the operator of Highway 6) was successfully implemented in March, 2005 — meeting the impressive goals set for the project. Highway 6 is the first toll road and the most progressive highway in Israel, using some of the most advanced methods and technologies in the world.
The project's objectives—to manage, operate and maintain the highway infrastructure—integrated civil engineering infrastructure and complex electronic systems, and provided tools for supporting their maintenance and operations, as well as for managing their lifecycle and events.
The GIV Solutions team that directed the effort was engaged to advise how to tailor the system to the organization, to define the work processes necessary for supporting the system, and to help the user assimilate the system and new processes.
The work plan was tailored to the client’s needs—to a relatively new, yet flexible, staff who is responsible for maintaining and controlling the extensive infrastructure.
GIV’s experience with comparable projects in similar organizations was a tremendous advantage in executing the project. GIV staff included Meir Givon, the strategic consultant who architected the overall solution and directed the project, and Yaron Rapoport along with Yair Cohen, the system analysts and implementation leaders.
Meir Givon, GIV Solutions CEO and Project Director described the complexity and the innovativeness of the project. “The major challenge was to integrate between the operational components, including managing highway events with operations and maintenance. "
“First and foremost, as a service provider, Derech Eretz Operator is responsible for managing the road infrastructure. I was very satisfied that we succeeded in raising the highway’s control and maintenance to a significant high level. We were able to achieve this by providing alternative ways of presenting information related to ‘the world of highway and traffic management’—applying the information technology’s virtual dimensionality to an organization with a linear infrastructure.”
Mr. Givon added that "the project met its defined goals as a result of an excellent partnership with the client—the client’s contribution, openness to changes and creative problem-solving. The Maintenance and the Control Room Departments knew how to effectively define goals, determine requirements and make decisions."
Mr. Givon summarized that "from a business perspective, above and beyond the service improvement from the implementation, Derech Eretz Highways profited from financial savings. These benefits were achieved quickly, at a relatively low cost."
Yaron Rapoport, GIV Solutions' Technologies & Software Manager and senior project implementer, added: "The system also has a business intelligence component that automatically integrates, calculates and analyzes the data defined in the system, to extract and provide important management information to the users and management.”
Ur Omry, Derech Eretz Operator's Chief Officer, IT and Engineering Systems, praised the project and the team members, saying: "The system that Derech Eretz procured was not designed specifically for road management application, but rather for general EAM/CMMS application. This created major challenges in its implementation, since a highway is a "continuous entity", and a lot of creative solutions are needed for getting the desired functionality.
GIV’s team dealt extensively with the uniqueness of the challenge, and as experts in this field, they were able to create solutions within the application that worked for the highway. The GIV team accomplished their goal very efficiently in a short timeframe.
The GIV team expanded the solution based on the EAM platform beyond the preliminary requirements and expectations, succeeding where previous attempt failed: management of all the Road operations events in a comprehensive and effective way, integrating it with the infrastructure and maintenance management, presenting the organization with an excellent business solution for its unique business processes and needs. Car accidents, road closures and SLA for road control vehicles are just a few examples managed.
Mr. Omry added: "The implementation of the system was preceded by intensive work, preparation of massive amounts of data, building logic and links between different equipment parts, and setting up the base and training. All these were made possible by the hard work of our maintenance staff, the control room personnel, and of course, the GIV Solutions consulting team under the direction of Meir Givon. We have been very pleased with the implementation of the system, which by now has been operational for over a year. I want to highlight the professional work done by GIV Solutions, directed by Meir Givon, and the important fact that it was a pleasure working with them.”
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The Jewish Agency
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IT Road Map and Strategic ERP Consulting
After mapping The Jewish Agency’s systems, GIV Solutions recommended strategic integration of the agency’s management and operation systems into the agency's ERP platform. These recommendations, which were presented to The Jewish Agency’s management, were accepted in full and approved for implementation.
Mr. Dov Yahav, The Jewish Agency’s CIO and CEO of its data processing subsidiary, said: “This project demonstrated the added value provided by the high-level team led by Meir Givon, the CEO of GIV. In a short period of time, they completed the strategic consulting for the organization, with far-reaching importance for the future IT road map.”
The Jewish Agency is responsible for Diaspora relations and with the immigration of Jews to Israel. It operates approximately 60 different information systems.
The GIV team headed by Meir Givon mapped and analyzed the Agency’s computer systems – each one individually and as a whole – while examining, comparing, and mapping the links between them. At the same time, they took into account the organization’s goals and management’s strategy.
The map was the basis for examining the suitability of existing systems for ERP functionality and for recommendation to merge them with the ERP system, either through integration, or as independent systems.
In the plan, IT was identified as a strategic initiative for achieving the Agency’s goals. The plan details, among other things, budget estimates and a risk assessment.
The results of the project were presented and adopted by the LLN (data processing subsidiary), the Agency’s Executive Committee and the Telecommunications Committee of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors (an international forum). As a result, a budget was passed for two activities: building a human resource management system and a customer relationship management system for the agency.
Meir Givon, GIV Solutions CEO and Project Manager, describes the project as both intense and fascinating:
“Our activity was the basis for completing the second half of the IT master plan coordinated by Ernst & Young, and for constructing a functional work plan and a more detailed analysis of the planned systems.
We assisted in building a strategic plan for The Jewish Agency, conceptualizing the agency as an organization that provides essential services for the aliyah (immigration) process and for community Jewish Zionist education. We helped crystallize the view of the variety of activities carried out by the agency vis-à-vis various JAFI departments and subsidiaries, not as isolated and unconnected, without input by the participants in these activities, but rather as client-centered, with a variety of proffered programs, including data collection about the activities in which the clients participated or were interested.
Similarly, we identified many systems each of which dealt only partially with human resources. While examining the practicability of ERP, we defined a perspective and implementation principles for creating a global human resource system that would deal with the multiple HR views that were distributed throughout the various systems.
In conducting the work, we delineated a new mapping methodology, which enabled us, together with the client, to find, clarify, and underline the key decision-making parameters for the future handling of dozens of the agency’s systems. At the same time, we defined a solution approach and recommendations which gained broad support and full acceptance from the LLN, the executives of the agency under the leadership of the agency’s CEO, and from the telecommunications committee of The Jewish Agency’s Board of Directors, a senior international forum with leading representatives from Israel, the US, and other countries.”
Dov Yahav, The Jewish Agency CIO and CEO of its data processing subsidiary, praised the professional quality of the work and the effort:
“This project demonstrated the added value provided by the high-level team led by Meir Givon, the CEO of GIV. In a short period of time, they completed the strategic consulting for the organization, with far-reaching importance for the future IT road map.
The project involved mapping the spectrum of systems, meeting with the agency’s IT personnel, reading specification documents, and more.
As mentioned, this project involved defining a strategic plan for IT. We needed to gather all the information about the existing systems, and to synchronize all the agency authorities and decision makers.
As part of the work, it was necessary to place existing systems within the organizational framework – and to decide which of them would be included in the ERP system and later in CRM.
There were many constraints – a challenging timetable and a strict budget – which GIV met in an exemplary manner through intensive, round-the-clock work.
They definitely showed that for them a commitment is a commitment, and validated their good reputation and proven experience through their work. They met each and every deadline and stayed within the project’s budget, without compromising in any way the professional results they achieved.
GIV’s staff, under the leadership of Meir Givon, cooperated outstandingly with our staff and with other consultants working on complementary programs. They earned great admiration from the agency’s IT personnel who worked with them.
I am sure that in the future we will continue to use GIV’s good services in the area of strategic IT. GIV’s leading staff will shortly prepare a statement of work for our HR system.”
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Israel Railways
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Maintenance and Asset Management System Implementation
The Manager of Israel Railways’ Information Technology Department: "The project completely met its goals and timeline, an accomplishment that is very rare for IT projects".
GIV Solutions recently implemented the Israel Railways’ infrastructure maintenance management system, an important solution for the company’s Infrastructure Department. The project, which was a big success by all measures, was done within a strict timeline and to the complete satisfaction of the Infrastructure Department and Israel Railways executives. The implementation included installation, training and operation of the comprehensive maintenance management system.
Below are excerpts from Israel Railways managers’ praise of the implementation.
The former Vice President and Manager of the Infrastructure Department commended everyone who was involved in the project. He defined the system as a very important management and control tool for servicing and maintaining the infrastructure—the Infrastructure Department’s most important tool to support its accelerated growth.
The Manager of Israel Railways’ Information Technology Department commented that the project completely met its goals and timeline, an accomplishment that is very rare for IT projects. He added, “Over the past several years, Israel Railways has grown according to every measure, increasing performance (such as number of passengers, number of trains, kilometers of track, and kilometers traveled). To support the expanded performance, there is a marked growth in infrastructure, and managing infrastructure components becomes more and more complex. The system was implemented to manage infrastructure, maintenance, malfunctions, human resource requirements, and integration of technical documentation and diagrams. The program was needed to help Israel Railways expand output and infrastructure, even if resources grew only at a moderate pace or did not grow at all. The system’s return on the investment was guaranteed within a short time period, and therefore, within the several months that have passed since the implementation, the system has already proven its value by improving departmental control and process efficiency.”
In the National Track Maintenance Manager’s opinion, “The system helps improve track maintenance audit and control, and therefore, provides the ability to predict and plan maintenance activities.”
According to the National Operations Center Manager, “The system created a common language between the workers and various maintenance bodies within the department. The system improves the ability to track and assess work.”
The project, which took five man-years, included building a uniform database that included all the track infrastructure and rolling stock managed by the Israel Railways’ Infrastructure Division. In addition to being a foundation for the infrastructure, the database also included all the infrastructure’s technical documentation, regular maintenance schedule, required part replacements (according to the monthly work plans), and resource (human and parts) planning. The system created a common work language, using standard, shared terminology: work orders and work status. This common language enabled more effective partnerships between different maintenance-related departments.
Meir Givon, GIV Solutions CEO and Project Director describes, “The project included Israel Railways’ entire infrastructure throughout the country, in dozens of locations. There are about 100 workers using the system, which manages the activities of hundreds of maintenance workers and contractors. The project team built important integration between the maintenance system and other complementary systems. The project was a challenge from both timeframe and professional perspectives. I am very proud that our team successfully completed all its goals and helped Israel Railways meet its timeframes.” Meir added, “Because Israel Railways is a unique entity in the Israeli market from a technological and organizational perspective it was necessary to develop unique, creative solutions. Within the large scope of the project, this was accomplished by identifying the organization’s distinct requirements, ‘cracking the code’ of the problem, and defining innovative solutions for each issue facing this type of infrastructure organization.
“The project staff developed customized interfaces specifically designed to track infrastructure and support business intelligence for on-condition maintenance for scheduling diagnostics, as well as ranking and prioritization for maintenance program decision-making based on importance and benefit. With the comprehensive IT-based management system, Israel Railways received tools for management, follow-up analysis, tracking, and control for the entire lifecycle of the infrastructure system. These tools enable Israel Railways to maintain and improve the level of service for passengers and internal organizations served by the Infrastructure Department. In parallel, further planned accelerated development projects will be conducted in the coming years.”
Ronen Danziger from GIV, the Engineering Project Manager added, “An important component in the project success and in implementing the system within the allotted time is that we quickly analyzed the routine work conducted by the users and learned the technical track-related language within a very short timeframe. Essentially, we opened the door to success and created a healthy, team-oriented work environment. We placed a strong emphasis on training and system assimilation, without simply rushing to ‘put a checkmark’ to say these phases were complete. We focused all the attention on this essential, decisive project phase. We believed and invested in assimilation resources, and refined the processes until the workflow was smooth and correct—a step that was very dependent upon the client. We got periodic feedback from the users on our performance. To our delight, the key individuals within the department quickly understood the need for the system given the growth in track distance and maintenance workload, as well as the need to work in multiple centers with a variety of individuals and a range of responsibilities—factors that increased the need for teamwork. This understanding helped build a common goal that contributed a great deal to meeting project objectives.”
The complete project was managed and conducted by GIV Solutions as the sole contractor, using the Israel Railways dsIT communications framework.
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