New Mobile Resource Management Solution by Appear and Qnamic Improves Rail Operators Operational Efficiency

Train punctuality increases as rail workers are now able to receive
shift information on their iPhone or Android devices and efficiently communicate changes with train planners.

Stockholm and Hägendorf – 14 December 2011 – Appear, a provider of mobile enterprise application platforms and Qnamic, the leading provider of planning software for the transport industry, announced today a commercial and technical partnership to offer a mobile resource management communication solution to rail operators.

Appear and Qnamic are developing RailOpt Anywhere, a best-of-breed mobile solution that makes it possible for train planners to efficiently distribute duty plans and exchange information with field personnel such as train drivers, onboard personnel and cleaning staff.

The solution allows rail operators to save costs by efficiently interacting with their workers wherever they are in the field. Train drivers and conductors do not need to wait for the completion of their shift to log into the system from a desktop and can report travel delays or shift completions directly from their smartphone while onboard the train. Cleaning teams working on the train preparation in the yards can provide real-time information on the rolling stock status and availability.

With better collaborative planning in place, rail operators can base their resource planning on accurate real-time data, thereby improving the punctuality of their trains while reducing their operating costs.

Marc Schaffert, COO Qnamic, explains: “Rail workers are increasingly equipped with smartphones and should be able to use them to communicate with train planners efficiently. However, existing resource planning systems have been poorly integrated with mobile devices, which are still primarily used for voice communication. Our deep knowledge of the resource planning allows us to efficiently mobilize key data such as duty plans, vacation requests or delay reporting.”

Xavier Aubry, CEO Appear, adds: “The technical challenge was to provide a powerful iPhone or Android app that delivers the power of the Qnamic back-end to the fingertips of the mobile users. The RailOpt Anywhere smartphone app delivers true business functionality related to core resource management processes, unlike many apps that are merely pared-down websites disguised as apps. This translates into high usability for the rail workers and real cost savings for rail operators.”

Rail operators can enter the beta program for RailOpt Anywhere by registering interest before Jan 31st, 2012 at railopt@appearnetworks.com.

About Appear:
Appear is a mobile software specialist with expertise in context-aware application infrastructure, enterprise mobile solutions and consumer location-based services. Appear’s flagship product, Appear IQ, is a mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP) used to mobilize field service applications. Appear IQ focuses on cost savings and customer service improvements by optimizing mobile workflows and making business critical mobile applications available to employees in real time on their mobile devices. Leading organizations such as MTR Stockholm Subway and Netherlands Railway have chosen the Appear IQ platform due to its compelling ROI, its proven reliability/adaptability in large scale deployments, and the possibility to extend its reach to consumer applications. Appear pioneered the field of context-aware software ten years ago. Our vision is to leverage user context in order to ensure mobile users have exactly the information they need, when and where they need it. Appear is constantly innovating around areas such as human-machine interfaces, machine-to-machine communication, context-aware computing and cross-platform mobile infrastructure, in order to deliver a software infrastructure able to support the next generation of smart devices and smart objects. More information is available at www.appearnetworks.com

About Qnamic:
Qnamic Inc. is the leading provider of planning software for the transport industry. Worldwide, their software solution RailOpt is the only planning- and production-solution that considers various types of resources simultaneously over the entire production chain, with all company and state laws and regulations embedded within the system. The software has proven itself at known European companies in the transportation market such as BLS AG (Switzerland), Südostbahn (Switzerland), SJ (Sweden), CFL (Luxemburg), Crossrail (Belgium) and MEV (Switzerland). More information is available at www.qnamic.com

Mia Falgard,
Appear Networks
Kista Science Tower
SE16451 Kista, Sweden
+46709559356
mia.falgard@appearnetworks.com

This release was published on openPR.