
- #Netcontrol 4ru1t1a driver
- #Netcontrol 4ru1t1a software
- #Netcontrol 4ru1t1a code
- #Netcontrol 4ru1t1a Pc
- #Netcontrol 4ru1t1a plus
"I think it will be our biggest emerging lever point," Tennison says. It also can help differentiate UP's IT unit in the talent recruitment arena. If what's developed turns out to be a technology UP can market, there's potential for royalty income.
#Netcontrol 4ru1t1a software
The advantages to designing, developing and engineering hardware and software in-house? It can reduce IT unit costs. "It just makes sense for us to do some of it ourselves." "There are only maybe 35 to 40 railroads in the world that are in the space we're in, and not a lot of venture money is going to be directed toward it," he says. One reason: the rail industry's relatively small number of big players. But at UP, the in-house engineering group also "builds stuff from the ground up," Tennison says. Not that the IT group doesn't purchase off-the-shelf software and other technology it does. "About half of them are doing design and development," Tennison says.

#Netcontrol 4ru1t1a code
Meanwhile, an applications development team of about 1,000 is responsible for all of UP's software systems, from writing code to fixing bugs to managing an SAP system.

A dozen employees handle administrative functions and project management. A research and development unit includes 55 electrical, mechanical and computer science engineers. The systems engineering unit - "We call them the 'plumbing' group they keep all the 'plumbing' wired up," Tennison says - comprises between 150 and 200. About 200 employees serve in the UP data center, in positions ranging from computer console operators to "help desk" staffers.
#Netcontrol 4ru1t1a Pc
UP's IT department comprises about 2,000 people, including more than 1,300 employees and more than 600 contractors.Ībout 400 work in the telecommunications unit, which is responsible for maintenance and support of towers, radio repair, the private branch exchange system, all local area and wide area networks, and PC configuration and installations. The information technology department at a glance
#Netcontrol 4ru1t1a plus
"Our entire spend for IT is roughly $300 million a year, plus or minus 10 percent," he says. We've changed that."Īs SVP/CIO, Tennison is responsible for organizing and managing the development, implementation and operation of the Class I's information and telecommunications technology. "We weren't aggressively pursuing the edge any longer. "When I came onboard, I observed that UP was a market leader in many ways, and had been a technology leader, but that had sort of stagnated," Tennison says. In 2001, he was named UP's VP of IT and chief technology officer. It's a view Tennison has championed since he came to UP in 1992 from American Airlines Inc., where he'd been responsible for the Knowledge Systems organization.īy 1998, Tennison had risen to the position of president/CEO of Nexterna, a UP technology subsidiary that develops applications and hardware solutions for the mobile asset marketplace. "From the top of the Union Pacific organization on down, we have a consistent view of what it means to drive increasingly better and better performance." "A lot of what we're working on is related to operational improvement, safety and asset efficiency," Tennison says. They know they have a role to play in helping to connect the strategic dots, and improve the bottom line, at UP. They also demonstrated what they believe it takes to straddle that leading edge. In interviews and PowerPoint presentations, IT teamers traced the evolutionary path they're mapping.

Key projects include implementing a new transportation management system, pushing the detection and derailment prevention envelopes, and employing video-game simulation technology to train and retain today's workers - and possibly pique the interest of tomorrow's. In late April, I visited with Tennison and several members of his growing IT team at UP headquarters in Omaha, Neb., to discuss current initiatives and challenges.

#Netcontrol 4ru1t1a driver
But it's what Tennison and his team are trying to do with that technology - and how other railroad departments and customers ultimately use and benefit from it - that makes IT the driver of "next" at UP. Accordingly, there's "technology in every corner, every curve" of North America's largest freight railroad, another phrase that's part of the information technology (IT) vernacular at UP. The information technology aim at Union Pacific Railroad is to be leading edge, not bleeding edge, as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Lynden Tennison often says.
