Wabtec Global Services: News

Wabtec Global Services News:WGS 2^nd Annual CRB User’s Conference - A Success!


	Wabtec Global Services recently hosted their second annual Car Repair Billing (CRB) User’s conference in Calgary, Alberta. Over 30 customers, potential clients and WGS employees participated in making the three day event a success. The session included a comprehensive system review with relation to WGS’ product roadmap, training on critical application components, a best practices discussion and information showing how tying CRB to EOT Tracking and Wabtec Managed Inventory (WMI) can provide additional customer benefits. Feedback from the event was positive. “It was exciting to hear about the new functions that are available such as the automated invoice generation feature,” the Belt Railway of Chicago’s Hugh Simon stated. “At last year’s conference, the group asked if it would be possible to create invoices as a batch job. Now that it is a reality, it will save me time daily.” Many customers enjoyed the opportunity to meet industry peers and discover how they utilize CRB functions at their organizations. Potential clients obtained first hand accounts of the CRB implementation process, how the product is used and the benefits its users receive. The event remains integral to WGS’ continuous improvement efforts. “By obtaining the valuable input of customers who utilize our system and other industry personnel, we identify and prioritize development needs,” said WGS’ Business Solutions Director, Dan Weiler. WGS’ Car Repair Billing solution is used by the majority of North America’s largest railroads, as well as many large regional and shortline railroads. Designed to eliminate billing errors, CRB optimizes the labor intensive process of recording and invoicing repairs. With CRB, maintenance personnel use a wireless, handheld device to record inspection and repair work conducted on freight cars and submit the information to a central network server. The repair information is then validated in real time for completeness and compliance with Association of American Railroad (AAR) specifications. Additionally, maintenance staff can retrieve car repair history information, access work orders and print orders from the field to a network printer. Built in prompts, required fields and specified drop down lists simplify decision-making to ensure that repair information is entered correctly the first time. Per the suggestions of attendees, the next CRB User’s Conference will take place in May 2006 and will feature information on using CRB in conjunction with WGS’ Wabtec Managed Inventory and EOT Tracking solutions. The location for the ’06 conference will be determined at a later date.