The Comments & Observationsof a Few Long-time Users
previous user QueryCalc next user
Richard Viehdorfer |
When we're speaking on the telephone and you ask me if I'm in
QueryCalc, I have to laugh. I live in QueryCalc. It's rare that I
don't have at least one PC window open with QueryCalc. Usually, it's two
or three.
Managing information is our strength in the System Transportation
Department here at Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation. We recognize that
efficiency and productivity are essential if we expect to survive in our
increasingly competitive world. These aren't the good ole' days
(if there ever was such a thing). But because of QueryCalc, we are
improving our productivity and getting closer to the efficiencies that we
need via our access to the extremely detailed information that we can
produce about our fleet's maintenance and repair activities.
It's difficult to describe how pleased we are with QueryCalc and the
HP3000. Perhaps the simplest thing to say is that when we attend
meetings with our fleet manager counterparts from other organizations,
we are among the few that have access to data. Yet some of these
organizations are huge by comparison and run large machines with large
data processing staffs.
In contrast, we've been able to run our 957 with essentially no data
processing staff for many years now. The one person we do have in data
processing is primarily responsible for the network. Otherwise, the
HP3000 just continues to run without us having to pay much attention to
it. And QueryCalc has proven to be just as reliable. It seems to always
be available.
That level of reliability is important. As one of the transportation
managers at Niagara Mohawk, we try to manage our fleet of 4800 vehicles
(which are spread across New York State) with the same focus on cost and
productivity that you would expect from companies such as J.B. Hunt,
FedEx, or Hertz. Although our fleet isn't nearly as large as these
companies, I believe that we have been able to get similar results. When
we have been graded by independent consultants through benchmarking
studies, we recently have always finished in the top few – if not first.
Although none of us are data processing types (and don't want to be),
there is nothing major league about understanding the databases – if
you understand your business. But we simply couldn't be getting the kind
of information we are without QueryCalc. And that's not just a
statement relative to the HP3000. I've seen the contortions that other
people are going through on other systems to get just a small part of
the data we can easily get in just a few minutes.
Since I've been with Niagara Mohawk, the System Transportation
Information has always been on an HP3000, beginning initially with a
Series 58 and now, years later, on a 957. The point is that our access
to data has always been limited only by the tools we have selected for
report writing, and QueryCalc has transformed our usage of the HP3000.
As for QueryCalc, the skill level that you attain by putting forth a
little initiative is somewhere between finesse and showing off.
 |
previous user QueryCalc next user