New York City's MTA is the world's largest transit system,
transporting 2.5 billion people every year via road, rail, air, and
water. More than 800,000 cars pass through its bridges and tunnels
every day
"The system allows us to reduce errors and increase revenues over time. It solves so
many issues, both at the scene and in our business processes. The backlog is
cleared. There is less time spent trying to decipher handwritten notes because those
familiar with the accident are recording the incident details directly into the system."
-- Carolyn Ortega, Chief of Enterprise Applications, MTA- Forbes Magazine ”New York MTA Mobile, Cloud Push No Accident”
MTA found a solution to its business needs with a modernization
project using a unique, patented solution to run the system as a
REST service from a mobilized user interface without the need to
redevelop the existing production system. In a matter of days, the
solution, called AuraPlayer, transformed the Oracle Forms
application to seamlessly connect with Oracle's Mobile Cloud
Service (MCS). Using the AuraPlayer solution, allowed MTA to
enable the Forms to mobile in days without redevelopment, saving
the MTA months of development cost and risk. These AuraPlayer
services were “plugged-into” MCS to allow for scalability,
monitoring, analytics as well as full offline sync capabilities.
The solution provides MTA the best of both worlds; an offline, robust mobile solution to report
accidents in the field, and the ability to leverage their existing on-premise Oracle Forms system. The
new system runs on mobile devices and allows trained inspectors to enter information from the
field where the incident information is readily available, with the data flowing into the back-office
Oracle system. The application supports voice recognition, converts handwriting to text, and
captures pictures of the scene via the mobile devices’ camera. Transcription is no longer required
and traveling back to the site, after the fact, to capture information that wasn't collected the first
time was eliminated. In addition, the mobilized system can work offline, such as deep within
tunnels, without disruption.
Business Benefits
Accident reporting causing delays at the crash site
Hand written reports leading to inaccurate data
Accumulated backlog of reports caused overtime costs for data entry
Streamline collision reporting process for safety, traffic and revenue implications
Challenge
The NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority was looking for a way to
improve the efficiency of their collision reporting system.
Historically, accidents were recorded on paper forms on location
then manually entered in a desktop Oracle Forms system. This
process was inefficient, time consuming, and vulnerable to human
erro
The procedure was also costly, in lost paper reports and many
man-hours in trying to decipher incident reports written under
stressful conditions on location. MTA sought a solution that would
allow them to record accidents on location, however, finding this
solution was challenging due to poor connectivity in tunnels and
bridges. In addition, they were not looking to enter into a lengthy,
costly and risky redevelopment project of their existing Oracle
Forms back-office system
ROI
Improved data accuracy & timeliness – reports entered on location
Mobilized legacy system with minimal time & risk
Enriched data gathering – including photos, voice notations
Safer for officers – less time at the scene of the accident, scene cleared in minutes not hours
Increased revenues - resulting from accurate recording of summons
Lowered operational costs – reduced overtime hours for data entry
Results
The MTA saved millions of dollars by releasing the mobilized version of its existing Oracle Forms
application in only a matter of months. In addition to extending the life and usefulness of the legacy
application, the new mobilized application collects and reports information much faster and with
greater accuracy. The organization has removed reporting backlogs, reduced incident reporting
errors, and increased revenues by cutting down on the time it takes to complete the inspection and
reporting process. With the AuraPlayer deployment, MTA now has a scalable digital transformation
environment to support future IT development projects.
AuraPlayer brings a new level of agility and mobility to back-office systems including Oracle Forms, EBS, PeopleSoft and JDE with low-risk, a flexible and automated solution without redevelopment.