IANR Adopts Comply365 Digital Rulebooks
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
Iowa Northern photo
Class III Iowa Northern Railway (IANR) has contracted with Comply365, a provider of enterprise SaaS (software as a service) and mobile solutions for content management and document distribution, to transform its operation to digital rulebooks and forms “to increase efficiency, enhance safety, and save paper and printing costs,” the company said.
IANR conductors and engineers “will soon leave heavy bags of paper documentation behind, replacing them with the Comply365 mobile app on tablets that will deliver the rulebooks, bulletins, special instructions and other mission-critical documents that each crew member needs, straight to their fingertips,” Comply365 noted. “They will be able to quickly find operational content by searching for and filtering only relevant information, while adding personal annotations, bookmarks and highlights to their documents, which will be retained across revisions. The railroad will be able to ensure crews have the most up-to-date content with automatic revision control, and it will be able to break down compliance status in different views for insights to improve compliance.”
Iowa Northern will also capture data from crew members using Comply365’s electronic forms, which can kick off workflows and support data-driven decisions.
“We were looking for a better way to manage our operational content and compliance to ensure our crews have the most up-to-date information. Comply365 stood out with their success in digitizing the rail industry,” said IANR Assistant General Manager Mark Vaughn. “We look forward to benefitting from a more efficient operation with targeted distribution to our crews.”
“We are happy to welcome Iowa Northern Railway to Comply365’s rail community, which continues to grow and diversify as rail operators across the industry see the benefits of sharing operational content both within their railroad and across partner railroads,” Comply365 CEO Tom Samuel said. “We are excited to help Iowa Northern shed paper and transform their business to increase operational safety and efficiency.”
Comply365’s rail division includes several Class I, II, and III freight customers, as well as passenger and commuter rail operators. “Digital transformation has improved rail safety by simplifying the authoring, distributing and compliance of all content associated with operating practices,” the company said. “In addition to targeted content distribution, data captured in the field from electronic forms is contributing to greater efficiencies. Digital transformation has also introduced the automation of training programs to ensure new levels of safety.
Based in Waterloo, Iowa, IANR serves industries throughout North Central Iowa to Cedar Rapids, providing first- and last-mile service and connecting Iowa’s manufacturing and agricultural communities with access to all Class I railroads and the entire North American rail network.
