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Can you describe to me in a couple of sentences what Innovative Scheduling does? We develop decision support systems, that is, intelligent information systems that help companies move shipments more economically on a transportation network. Our systems are web-based interactive systems that empower transportation managers to make better decisions in their day-to-day planning and scheduling activities. What modes of transportation does Innovative Scheduling deal with? We deal with all modes of transportation. Decision problems in each area are very similar – they all involve moving goods over a network in the most cost-efficient manner while honoring service commitments. We have done a considerable amount of work in railroads and are now starting to work in other transportation sectors. In the past two years, we have undertaken projects in multi-modal transportation, trucking, barge-lines, and shipping lines. The similarities in decision problems enable us to easily adapt our systems from one domain to another. How much does your software cost? We offer flexible pricing on a case-by-case basis depending upon the project scope and value created. We have several pricing models that are all geared towards minimizing your risk and creating a significant return on your investment. Just as you can buy or lease a vehicle, we offer several pricing options for licensing our software. Can you customize your software to meet our specific needs? Yes. Most of our projects require customization of our existing software products, or building new products using the components we have built previously. We would like you to think of us like a custom home builder who has several spec homes ready to be occupied or modified to meet your unique needs; who has some home designs ready to be built after it has been customized for you; or who can work with you to create a home design that meets your specific requirements. Can we see demos of your decision support systems? Do you have any trial version of the software which we can use for a limited time? We can give you a demonstration of our decision support system on the web, but we do not have trial versions of our software because it is not designed for mass consumption. Our software is designed for a specific application, is customized for each client, and needs some data preparation before it can be used properly. How can we work with your company? We can work with you in a variety of ways: We can do fixed-price projects where we determine the business requirements, give you the budget estimate, and, upon your approval, develop the software. We also engage in partnerships where our team becomes an extension of your team. We bring to you decades of modeling and optimization expertise, and jointly developing a software product for your internal use. You can also outsource a specific business function to us. We will build the software product, maintain it, and provide the necessary services. How does your company differs from a typical IT company? We do not only build simple IT systems or transaction-processing systems. We build systems that are intelligent systems and empower managers and executives to take better decisions. Using our systems, they can do more work in less time, use less manpower resources, and reduce operating costs. How does your company differs from other companies that offer optimization solutions? Our team includes world-renowned academicians and award-winning researchers. We bring the latest optimization and computer science techniques to the practice. Through decades of research and development and consulting experience, we have learned what it takes to make optimization work in practice. This experience has given us a very high success rate in our projects. Do you perform consulting activities? Yes, we do. We use our computer and mathematical models, and decision support systems in consulting engagements. We use models to perform quantitative analysis of various alternatives and give guidance to executives in their strategic or planning decisions. Can optimization help my business? We have observed that most large corporations can benefit from optimization, but not every optimization problem needs advanced optimization modeling. The decision problem has to be sufficiently complex to the point where it cannot be solved manually. There has to be ample value creation so you can justify your investment, either as a one time creation or recurring value creation. Finally, there must be reasonably good-quality data available to support optimization modeling. If you have a decision problem that meets these three criteria, you are ready for optimization. If we are interested in your products and services, then what should we do? Here is the process we recommend: Send an email message to to express your interest. We will contact you within one business day. We will arrange a teleconference or a web meeting to learn of your business needs, give you a presentation about the company, a possible demonstration of related software products, and outline a plan for us to work with you. If we already have a software product that meets your needs, we can do a pilot study to demonstrate to you the potential benefits of using this product. If we do not have a software product that meets your needs, we will describe to you what we do, how we will do, what will be our timelines and budget, so that you can take an informed decision. What data would we need to get started? You need to have a good understanding of your business need, though we will help you in clarifying and refining it further. You need to have the data to meet that business need, and you should be serious about solving that business problem. How long does it take to do a pilot study and how much does it cost? Depending upon the complexity of the project, it typically takes six months to one year. For very large projects, we propose a progressive development and deployment. We design the complete system but develop it in stages. The first phase is deployed between six months to one year so you can begin seeing a return on your investment, and use part of the benefit created to continue building further phases to make the project self-sustaining. How long does it take to develop a decision support system? Depending upon the complexity of the project, it typically takes from six months to one year. For very large projects, we propose a progressive development and deployment. We design the complete system but develop it in stages, where the first phase is deployed between six months to one year and start creating value for you so that you can invest part of the benefit created in building further phases and make this project self-sustaining. How can you measure the return-on-investment and when would we start seeing it? In our decision support systems, we add a module to monitor the operating costs. As our systems reduce operating costs, we measure the difference. We can price our software so that the payment is tied to the value created and you get the promised return. You will start seeing the return on your investment as soon as the system goes into production. What is the qualification of the team that will work on our project? The team that will work on your project will have three skill sets: transportation and scheduling, optimization, and programming. All members of the team will have advanced degrees (M.S. or Ph. D.) in business management, optimization, or computer science. They will also have the experience of working on similar projects for other companies. The project will be managed by one of the people listed here. The software is installed on our computers or you host it on your servers? We do both. We can install our software on your company’s servers, or we can host it on our company’s servers. We will help you decide which is best depending on the specific project and client. Do you have documentation of your success with other clients and the savings your software or services have created for their operations? Yes, we have written testimonials from our clients describing what we did for them, how successful we were in meeting project objectives, and what value we created for them. We will be happy to share these testimonials with you. You can find the list of our past projects here.