"Informatica Feroviara"
a New Company on the Romanian Scenery

After 35 years…
The railway IT activity has begun in Romania in 1967, through the foundation, on July 1, of the Electronic Mechanized Calculation Center of the Ministry of the Railways.
On April 1, 1971, the Electronic Calculation Center is taken over by the Ministry of Transports and Telecommunications, under the name of Electronic Calculation Center, its status remaining the same up to 1990.
In 1974, there are set up eight Electronic Calculation offices, one for each rail region, and an Electronic Calculation Office of CFR Department.
On February 20, 1990, the Electronic Calculation Center of MTTc is taken over by the Department of the Railways, after one year is named the Information and Electronic Calculation Center of SNCFR.
Pursuant to the reorganization of SNCFR, since October 1, 1998, is taken over by the new set up company CFR SA, under the name of IT Center.
The company Informatica Feroviara SA is set up and operates as a stock trade company, with juridical personality, since November 1, 2002 and has the status of a branch of CFR SA, which is sole shareholder.

… a new youth
According to its status, SC Informatica Feroviara SA has as activity object the production of programs, the implementation and the exploitation of the IT applications for the railway transport, and for the third parties. It is also in charge with the technical management and the methodological coordination of the IT activity within the infrastructure company, especially with regard to the management of the rail region agencies taking care of the railway IT.
SC Informatica Feroviara SA has in its structure the following compartments, divided in two categories: functional - the management, the strategy, the economical analysis and costs, human resources and administration, and production - exploitation, hardware maintenance, the achievement and the implementation of the IT applications.
In SC IF SA subordination also operate eight territorial railways IT agencies, one for every rail region: Bucharest, Craiova, Timisoara, Brasov, Iasi, Galati and Constanta.
Informatica Feroviara SA represents CFR SA in the specific IT issues within the international bodies where the infrastructure company is member.
The activity unfolded today by the railway IT specialists, after 35 years since the formation of the first specialists in this field, could be characterized in two words: professionalism and experience.
During this interval of time, in the activity of this team have been recorded special progresses, which have marked important steps forward on the modernization process of the Romanian railway system. The stages of this evolution consign:
- the exploitation and the administration services for the INTEL equipment;
- the services aiming the exploitation and the maintenance of the data transmission networks, for reduced, medium and high speeds;
- the professional services of HELP DESK, which provide the monitoring of the systems, networks and the administration of the applications through the Central Management System;
- project for the implementation and the IT administration from the railway units that the rail regions are in charge with.

"It's only up to us…"

Interview with Mrs. Dorina Mironescu, the general manager of Informatica Feroviara SA

R.J.: When has the company Informatica Feroviara been set up and which is its new status and which is its activity object?
D.M.: The company practically operates since November 1, 2002. Its registration at the Commerce Registry has been performed on October 30, 2002, but we can say that it was set up as a dependent trade company since November 1: the personnel had already been transferred and everyone has started to work.
Our activity object is, generically speaking, the production of the IT programs. This means that we achieve IT systems and applications for various clients of the Railways, everything that implies designing and using the computer networks, architecture of the systems and applications, training of the users and the maintenance of all the elements and of the necessary equipment. All these products that we achieve we name complete IT services. Practically, the activity is divided in two: production - namely the achievement of the above-mentioned products - and services - meaning the maintenance of the respective products that the clients are already exploiting. Yet, besides all these, we still have various correlated activities: consultancy, training, and participation in internal and international projects and even users of the projects.
R.J.: Is there any difference between what the IT Center has been previously, as part (sub-unit) of a big company, CFR SA, and this new trade company?
D.M.: From the proposed activity point of view - the production and service supply - nothing has been changed. We will perform the same things, for the same clients - all the companies, or the branches of the Romanian railway system.
What we are hoping to achieve is a new fundamental change in the way of working and, I hope, in the quality of the results. As Trade Company, I would like to establish a very clear relationship with our client, of course, to present an improvement of our services with regard to the clients requirements, what they are expecting for the money they are paying.
This makes viable our wish to maintain our good fame that we have gained in the transport branch and to set up a brand, a name and an IT market, generally.
We would like to implement a few new elements, avoiding to be satisfied only with a few simple contracts for service provision or for products supply, and we would like to work based on new modern concepts of management, paying an increased attention to the quality control of the services and of the products that we are supplying to our clients and to their representatives. Everything we will perform will clearly emphasize the client. Concretely, this means that every contract that we will conclude will be accompanied by an agreement of the level of services, besides the other usual agreements for the licensing which are enforced in the IT sector. Therefore, our contracts with the clients will not be only simple trade contracts, they will include measure and control elements, which will demonstrate the level of our experience in time.
R.J.: Which is the activity plan for the current year of the Informatica Feroviara SA company?
D.M. For year 2003 we have two main goals: the first one would be, normally, to continue the exploitation of the IT systems and of the applications that are operating for the Railways for 30 years. Do not understand that it is the same as 30 years ago! And the second - to finalize the implementation of IRIS project, stipulated to be ended the current year. We will mobilize ourselves to finish up to the end of the year 2003 its implementation on the entire railway network, therefore, the technology is in a permanent changing process. Anyway, in point of IT, everything is evolving very fast and if we do not implement it fast it would be as if we are starting it once again from the beginning. It is very difficult to patch up old things with new ones…
Still during the current year we have taken over, pursuant to the annulment of SMF, the financial management part for the railway system from a project financed by a PHARE project; therefore we have a great responsibility role. I also hope to succeed the extension of the ticketing system on the network. We have finished our job, but we have understood that there are still financial issues.
R.J.: In point of the perspective plans, and I do not mean the near future, what do you intend to do with this company, which do you stipulate to be its position on the Romanian market?
D.M.: As trade company, currently Informatica Feroviara SA is one of the few profile companies in the country. The company takes advantage of a complex structure (central and territorial) characterized by stability and unity. Moreover, the serious technical experience of the people that are forming our team and the important material resources that we are in our ownership represent doubtless advantages on the market.
In order to raise the level of the exigencies imposed to a company that wants to have prestige - as we have the ambition to become - we still have a lot to do, especially with regard to the public relations, marketing activity and the contracting sector. But I can assure you that we have started off willing to maintain on the same line, even in the conditions we have mentioned above. And, of course, to permanently increase our prestige and our importance on the Romanian IT profile market.
R.J.: In order to stand out on the market you need teams of very experienced specialists. I know you already have very well -trained people and that you are concerned with their constant training…
D.M.: Our employees have always attended all the courses they needed in order to have thorough expertise, and we can not say that a specialist who was willing to know more has been bored in this department. This situation will not be changed in the future either. As much as, lately, all the fields evolve so fast, not only in IT field and our country in its attempt to align to the European standards, for the integration in EU. In these conditions, we will surely continue to train our people, first of all trying hard to provide all the documentation that they need, being more easy than sending them to the courses. Our company, handling the railway IT, has a great advantage: to find a wide and rich range of information on the Internet and it costs only the subscription fee.
We would like to make available to our specialists the standards and the procedures meant to help them in their work and to get as much information as they can. The reality is that for the former IT Center and the former IT offices, not being able to be our own clients, we did not create IT systems, being as the shoemaker that has nothing to wear on his feet. We would like now to get rid of this handicap. Then, we would like to create an Intranet in order to enhance the communication between the departments. We would also propose to tune up an electronic training system, as the E-training concept, which has already started to operate in Romania, between schools and at intergovernmental level. I hope that we slowly adopting the E-commerce too, and E-auctions, maybe we will "catch" something. Anyway, we are willing to be included in the group of serious companies.
R.J.: For the time being the railway companies are your only clients …
D.M.: Indeed, for the time being we have not other clients because the current resources do not allow anything else. Certainly, who hears that we have 500 employees would say that they are too many, but they are all engaged only in the activity specific to the railways that we are presently developing: about 80% of them cover the effective exploitation part. In fact, we perform the exploitation, the administration and the maintenance for the entire railway IT network.
If there will be any other demands - and there are great chances in this respect, because we are already dealing with Europe and America about IRIS and people are coming to ask when we are going to finish it and when we will be able to export it -, there could be necessary "to make room" for other possible clients, case that will imply the dislocation of the resources in such a manner that we are not going to affect in any way the productions that are in development stage. What we are also lacking is a marketing department. We would also like that in maximum three years to obtain the audit.
R.J.: How is developing the territorial activity of the company?
D.M.: Our territorial agencies continue their activity as before. The CFR way of thinking in the moment when it was set up our branch has been very clear: the IT has a lot to do here, at the center, as well as in the territory. Further on, the IT agencies will have, mainly, the role of implementing the projects, but also the task of training the users, of installing the programs and everything that represents the support for the users and the administration of the local IT services. It is clear that they remain very important links of our company: without the agencies I do not think there could be unfolded everything we have accomplished until now.
R.J.: What can you tell us about the similar companies from other countries and about the collaboration with the international railway IT organizations?
D.M.: Presently, almost every railway in Europe has externalized the IT services and, moreover, they have divided them on profiles: for passengers, for freight etc. The French still maintain them within their specialized departments; the Spanish do the same. Yet at the Germans, the organization is operating as a holding. The Italians have been the first while performing the first privatizations in this field. Therefore, generally, on European plan the companies on railway IT profile are externalized, and we have complied with this orientation.
For us, the externalization is very good, because we are serving all the railway companies, and we are performing the best that, as an independent trade company, based on contracts, having clear responsibilities.
From the point of view of international affairs that we have, I should specify the fact that we have represented CFR SA - and I hope that we will also do it from now on - in the IT Committee of the International Union of the Railways (UIC). We are also participating to various international projects still through UIC.
We also have two specialists joining the European Association for the Railway Interoperability (AEIF): one, in the thelematic commission (IT and telecommunications, data transitions), and the other, in the commission for the coordination of all the sub-commissions aiming the elaboration of the technical specification of interoperability. And as far as I can tell we have managed very well. Concomitantly, we are members of the Organization for the Railways Collaboration OCCF), and the Balkans subgroup of UIC we are even the coordinators of the working group on IT issues.
R.J.: Do you have any collaboration with the neighbor railways?
D.M.: Obviously, we do - and even very good - with all the neighbor railway administrations. Recently, I can say that we have succeeded, right after the conference at UIC held the last year in Brasov, through the IT Agency from Timisoara to tune up an information exchange system - concretely, for train notification - between us and the Hungarians, at Curtici custom, that we are also extending to the other frontier points with Hungary. We have set up a similar system with the Bulgarians, through Giurgiu, and I hope to make the same in relationship with Yugoslavia.
With Moldova Republic we are not so good, because, coming from CSI, they have adopted another IT technology. They have demanded to achieve interfaces for the ticketing system, because they would like to be able to make reservations on our internal routes… but we enter here in problems that concern several passengers companies.
We are intending that very, very soon to also connect to the data transmission network of the European railways in order to be able to communicate better. Anyway, we are already electronically transmitting data for the freight and passengers shippers and for their external partners. In fact, we own the database including the international standardization elements, which are appearing all the time, and now, with the IRIS and with the ticketing we are hoping to develop ourselves. The Turkish, the Greeks, and even the French have shown their interest in purchasing some parts of the two projects. But everything will be clearer when they will be operational on the network.
We will probably attend the new international auctions, we are going to sell consultancy, expertise, and to create the programs, maybe: of course, in the limit of the resources we have available. Which we are hoping to extend, because we are intending to collaborate with profile faculties. At least we will try. I would say that we have plenty of chances. It's only up to us: how fast we are able to move and how professional we can prove to be.

Has been consigned by Silvia Mirea