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Historical Evolution of SISCOG
1982: The beginning
The initial ideas for founding SISCOG started to be discussed in 1982 while
João P. Martins and Ernesto Morgado were Ph.D. students of Artificial Intelligence at the State University
of New York at Buffalo. These ideas were influenced by the success of the first commercial expert systems.
1985: First steps
After completing their degree, Doctors João P. Martins and Ernesto Morgado decided to
create a company in Portugal to address applications of Artificial Intelligence techniques. Around this
time, SPERRY launched the Explorer LISP Machine and both companies started a joint venture, through
which SPERRY would sell the hardware and SISCOG would develop applications. The first result of this
joint venture was a series of seminars on Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems.
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1986: SISCOG is founded
Following the success of the early
seminars, SISCOG was officially founded in June 1986.
A two-day technical seminar that
was presented in October 1986 to technical personnel of
TAP/Air Portugal, LNETI and BNU which lead to the development
of two demonstration prototypes: one Crew Scheduling prototype
for TAP/Air Portugal, and a Cash Flow
Management prototype for BNU Bank (Banco Nacional Ultramarino). Together
with the development of the TAP prototype, SISCOG started the
development of a general crew-scheduling tool, CREWS.
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1988: Start of work on railway domain
In January 1988, SISCOG started the
development of a Crew Scheduling prototype for CP, the
Portuguese Railways. The development of this prototype ended
in December 1988 and was followed by the development of the
ESCALAS system from March 1989 to January 1991.
The Portuguese Railways (CP) operates all passenger and freight
trains in Portugal.
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1990-1992: ESPRIT Project CONSTRUCT
From December 1990 to May 1992, SISCOG was the main contractor of
CONSTRUCT (EP 5477), an ESPRIT II Project in the area of scheduling, in collaboration
with Renault (France) and the Free University of Brussels (Belgium). The goal of this
project was to study constructive tasks and to develop a general tool for the generation
of something that needs to be constructed out of pieces, for example, a layout, a
schedule, or a plan.
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1991: Start of work in crew management
In 1991, SISCOG developed DEPOSITOS, a crew management system for
the personnel of CP Portuguese Railways that complement ESCALAS.
In the same year, both CREWS and ESCALAS are ported from a specialised hardware platform
(LISP Machine) to a traditional hardware platform (UNIX-based workstations). SISCOG
started to stress the integration of Artificial Intelligence techniques with traditional
IT programs and databases.
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1992-1995: ESPRIT Project TRUTH
From June 1992 to October 1995,
SISCOG participated in the ESPRIT III project, TRUTH (EP 6463)
in the area of Re-Scheduling in collaboration with BMT (UK -
main contractor), IBERIA - Lineas Aereas of Espanha (Spain),
Pirelli SPA (Italy), SYSECA (France), and University of Leeds
(UK).
This project led to the development
of the DART system by SISCOG for IBERIA.
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1993: Start of work for Dutch Railways
In September 1993, SISCOG started
the development of a crew scheduling system for the Dutch
Railways. The Dutch Railways (NS) operates all passenger and freight trains
in The Netherlands.
This was an important milestone in the history of SISCOG:
it was the first time a contract was signed with an international client; it was
the first exportation of software from a Portuguese company; it was the first
time that the Dutch Railways outsourced software.
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1994-1995: Consolidation of CREWS
From January 1994 to December 1995,
SISCOG was involved in the project
"Prototipização de um Configurador de
Escalas", partially supported by the European Union
(STRIDE Program) and by the
"Agência de Inovação" a
Portuguese funding agency, The goal of this project was to produce generic
and re-usable models of resource planning in railway
companies).
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1995: G7 Meeting
A public recognition of SISCOG's
competence in the scheduling domain has been shown through a
special invitation to participate in the Conference and
Showcase on "The Information Society" that was held
on February 26 and 27, 1995 in Brussels, alongside the G7
Meeting, with the presence of U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, EU
Commission President Jacques Santer, and G7
Ministers.
The goal of the Showcase was to
show how more and more people around the world are benefiting
from new applications of technology, embracing business,
health care, leisure, education, transport, and domestic
environment. SISCOG was selected to be present, among 130
companies around the world. There were only four companies
from non-G7 countries and SISCOG was the only one in
the scheduling domain. SISCOG demonstrated an operation control
system that is capable of re-scheduling resources in an
airline, when unexpected situations arise.
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1995-1996: Study for the German Railways
From November 1995 to May 1996
SISCOG conducted an in-depth study for Deutsche Bahn AG
(German Railways) regarding the automation of planning crew
personnel.
During the study, Deutsche Bahn AG often mentioned how they were impressed with SISCOG's
systems and with the knowledge that SISCOG had about the railway
domain.
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1996: Dutch Railways deploys system
The system that SISCOG developed for the Dutch Railways underwent extensive
life-size tests, from mid 1996, and based on the results of those tests the management of NS placed
the system into limited production (shadow planning) in November 1996. Requests from planners, during
the shadow planning period, lead to architectural changes and additional functionality, which were
carried out in 1997 and early 1998. The system is expected to provide annual savings
with personnel in the range of Euro 4,000,000.
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1996-1999: ESPRIT Project CERACON
From September 1996 to October
1999, SISCOG participated in the ESPRIT IV Project CERACON (EP
22618) in the area of industrial scheduling in collaboration
with Siemens (Germany - main contractor), Lingl (Germany), TXT
(Italy), Trost (Austria), and BMT (UK).
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1997: A great year for SISCOG
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Innovative Application Award
In May 1997, SISCOG received the
1997 Innovative Application Award based on the crew planning
system that it developed for the Dutch Railways. The
"American Association for Artificial Intelligence"
is the largest and most prestigious AI society in the
world. It organises annual conferences since 1980. Since
1990, it selects the most impressive AI applications of the
previous year to receive the Innovative Application Award. The awarded applications
are selected based on their demonstrated business value and their technical innovation.
The awarded applications are selected based on clear evidence of the impact and value
that AI technology has in today's world.
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Starting of work for West Anglia Great Northern Railway
In September 1997, SISCOG started
the development of CREWS_WAGN, a system for long-term planning of the
drivers of WAGN (a UK passenger franchise train operator). This system was completed
and delivered to WAGN in October 1999.
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Upgrade of ESCALAS to the Portuguese Railways
In September 1997, work was
started to upgrade ESCALAS, the scheduling system of the Portuguese Railways (CP), in order to
incorporate some of the functionality available in CREWS_NS. This
work lead to the separation between the process of planning
duties and the process of planning rosters and was completed in 1999.
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SILICON Prize
In October 1997, SISCOG received
an Honour Mention in the SILICON prize, provided for the
best presentation, in the domain of Information Society
supported by the European Commission.
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CREWS from Unix to Windows NT
SISCOG ported CREWS from Unix to Windows NT.
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1998: Start of work for Norwegian State Railways
In January 1998, SISCOG signed a
contract with the Norwegian State Railways for the development
of a system for long and short-term planning, management, and
recording of the work performed. This contract was the result
of an international call for tenders.
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1998-2001: ESPRIT Project PACER
From September 1998 to June 2001, SISCOG participated in
ESPRIT Project PACER (EP 28903) in the area of scheduling and manufacturing in
collaboration with Pirelli (Italy - main contractor), CARADON (UK), ORSI (Italy),
EFESO (Italy), TXT (Italy), BMT (UK), and Pixelpark (Germany).
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1998: Dutch Railways starts full production with CREWS
In December 1998, the Dutch Railways started to use CREWS in full production.
This is a clear indication of the quality of SISCOG's software, since the
Dutch Railways, a company with very high standards, both in
terms of the quality of the railway operation and in terms of
software development, is willing to fully rely on SISCOG's system
for solving a very critical problem for their operation.
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1999-2000: Project on Quality Certification
In March 1999, SISCOG started an
official project on Quality Certification of the company. This project was completed in 2000.
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1999: "Agência de Inovação" project on Short-term planning
In March 1999, with the partial
support of "Agência de Inovação" (a Portuguese funding agency),
SISCOG started the development of the component of CREWS that handles
short-term planning (Short-term Scheduler).This project was completed in the end of 2000.
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1999: NS upgrades CREWS_NS
In November 1999, NS orders an
upgrade of CREWS_NS, porting the system from Unix to Windows NT.
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2000: Norwegian State Railways deploys system
The Norwegian State Railways (NSB) starts production of long-term
planning of drivers and guards with TPO and Short-term is
delivered.
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2000: SISCOG creates a new Logo
SISCOG decides to modernise its logo. The new design reflects the
harmony and integration of SISCOG products and of the relationship of the company
with its customers. The new logo keeps a reference to the old one, continuing to
represent an open spirit to new ideas, and the innovation and flexibility needed to
the development of knowledge-based systems.
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2000: Portuguese Railways deploys system
One business unit of the Portuguese Railways (CP) start
production with ESCALAS.
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2000: 1st CREWS User's Group Meeting
In September 28 and 29, SISCOG gathered in the old town of Sintra,
representatives of six European railway companies, for the 1st CREWS Users' Group Meeting.
This meeting gathered a total of 30 people, among users, guests, and people from SISCOG.
The following companies were present: Portuguese Railways (CP), Dutch Railways (NS), Norwegian
State Railways (NSB), and West Anglia Great Northern, WAGN (a UK train franchise operator). We
an opportunity also invited to participate in this meeting two other UK train operators. This
meeting was to share experiences, and to participate in discussions concerning several
aspects on how to increase the productivity of railway crew. The meeting ended with a
presentation on the future perspectives and research work from the Innovation Department of SISCOG.
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2000: SISCOG moves to a new office
In December, SISCOG moved to new premises. With 650
square meters, the new headquarters are located at the 3rd floor of a new building
in central Lisbon. With a nice view over one of Lisbon's main parks, it offers employees,
customers and visitor's outstanding working conditions. There are big meeting rooms, an
area for demonstrations, a training centre, and a car parking located underground.
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2000: ISO 9001:2000 Registration
In December, SISCOG was officially certified and registered
according to the International Standard ISO 9001:2000: SGS International
Certification Services issued the certification.
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2001: Start of work for Lisbon Underground
In July, the Lisbon Underground (Metropolitano de Lisboa) selected SISCOG
for the development of a pilot project for a long term planning system (duties and rosters).
The system will plan the work of about 200 drivers in two lines of the network, with 850
trains/day.
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2001: Start of work for Suburban Trains of Copenhagen
In September, SISCOG signed a
contract with the suburban trains of Copenhagen(DSB S-tog). This contract was the result of an
international call for tenders.
DSB S-tog operates the suburban S-train network of Copenhagen with about
1,100 trains/day.
The contract is for the development of a system to plan and manage train drivers.
The system contemplates all phases of the planning and management
cycle: long term planning (duties and rosters), allocation, short-term
planning, dispatching (real time operation), recording and reporting, and
crew communications.
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2001: Start of work for Finnish Railways
In December, the Finnish Railways (VR) signed a contract
with SISCOG as the result of the selection of SISCOG in an international
call for tender.
VR operates country wide in Finland all passenger and freight trains.
The system acquired by VR includes long-term planning and short-term
planning of about 2,000 drivers. Distributed by 14 bases all over the
country.
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2002: Delivery of Duty Scheduler and Roster Scheduler for Lisbon Underground pilot project
The components for the generation of duties and rosters for lines A and B
were delivered to the Metropolitano de Lisboa. As a result of the evaluation of the pilot project for line A,
Metropolitano de Lisboa was able to achieve a crew cost reduction of 5,6%.
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2002: DSB S-tog orders system for planning of local personnel
In March, DSB S-tog decided to use one of the options in the contract
signed in September 2001 and extend the contract initially signed just for drivers to
include the planning and management of several other types of personnel: ticket inspectors,
drivers doing shunting work, ticket office personnel, stations personnel, administrative
personnel, and workers in repair shops.
With this contract, SISCOG will be handling a new type of planning systems that are not based
on trips (timetable), but rather on the workload that is foreseen for certain periods of the
day and of the week.
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2002: Danish State Railways orders CREWS based system
In April, SISCOG and the DSB Group (Danish State Railways) signed a
contract for the development of a system for planning and management of guards in the
whole Denmark. This contract will have modules covering the following aspects:
long-term planning of duties, long-term planning of base rosters, assignment of personnel
to base rosters, short-term planning, communication functions, via internet, enabling
personnel to view their schedules and to request changes, real-time dispatching,
communications via SMS to tell personnel about last minute changes, recording the work
done and communication with payroll and staff systems.
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2002: BRISA orders system for planning tollbooth operators
In June, BRISA signed a contract with SISCOG for the development of a
project for long term and short term planning system of their operators.
BRISA,
Auto-estradas de Portugal S.A. was founded in 1972 with the aim of constructing,
maintaining and operating motorways and their respective service areas under a
concessions scheme of motorways via toll system.
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2002: 2nd CREWS User’s Group Meeting
In October 3-4, seven companies joined our team for the
CREWS User's Group Meeting, which took place in the charming little town of Cascais,
near Cabo da Roca, Europe's most western point. We had an overwhelming response from
our customers to our invitation, and we were able to have the presence of 23 persons
from the following companies: NS - Dutch Railways; NSB - Norwegian State Railways;
WAGN - West Anglia Great Northern Railway; DSB S-tog - Suburban trains from Copenhagen;
VR - Finnish Railways; DSB - Danish State Railways; and BRISA - Portuguese motorways.
The meeting's goal was to discuss several subjects related to CREWS functionality,
to SISCOG service and to customer experiences.
SISCOG presented new breakthroughs in the automatic mode of CREWS, and CREWS User's
took this opportunity to meet each other, share experiences, and relax and enjoy the
beautiful location of the hotel facing the sea. Among the presentations, we had
"Experience in project development", "Preparations for start of production and impact on production",
and "Influence of CREWS on working methods". The feedbacks we collected after the meeting
lead us to conclude that our goal was totally accomplished.
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2003: SISCOG receives IT Companies Award
In February SISCOG received the 2002 Information Technology
Companies Award, in the category of Internationalisation. This award was a joint
initiative of ANETIE (the National Association of Information Technology Companies),
ICEP Portugal - Investment, Trade and Tourism Office (a government agency created
in 1949 under the Ministry of Economy to promote Portugal's image internationally),
IAPMEI (the Small and Medium Companies and Investment Support Institute), POCTI
(the Operational Program for Science, Technology and Innovation), and the European
Fund for Regional Development.
The objective of this award is to recognise the best Portuguese companies during 2002,
in the following categories: Internationalisation, Innovation, and Efficiency.
SISCOG received the award in the category of Internationalisation.
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2003: SISCOG Meeting in Ericeira
In April took place the SISCOG's 2003 internal meeting at Ericeira
a fishing village 50 km northeast of Lisbon. Ericeira is famous for its beautiful
beaches, located where the high cliffs of the rocky coast meet the Atlantic Ocean.
SISCOG team took this day out of the office to analyse last year results and achievements,
to have a global perspective of the projects under development, to learn from other
colleague's experiences, to set goals for the future, and to award those "siscoguians"
who where considered excelent in the categories of Creativity, Team Spirit, Commitment,
Organization, and Quality.
Once again the personal environment was extremely positive, and when returning home,
everyone had the same feeling of having spent a very nice and useful day.
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2003: SISCOG wins Innovative Application Award
In August SISCOG received, for the second time, the
"Innovative Application Award" given by the American Association for Artificial
Intelligence (AAAI), for the crew planning and management system developed for
the Norwegian State Railways.
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2003: CREWS upgraded to cover work load profiles
In September, CREWS has been upgraded with capabilities to support
activities based on work load profiles.
The traditional application of CREWS has been to cover the work of crew members,
whose tasks are mainly based in trips - they move in space while performing the work.
In this new update, the amount of work to be covered is defined by a curve - a work
load profile - that connects points in a time scale, defining the amount of work
needed at each instant.
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2003: ISO 9001:2000 certification renewal
In December, SGS International Certification Services issued the renewal
of the certification according to the international standard ISO 9001:2000.
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2003: Finnish Railways deploys system
In September, the Finnish Railways (VR) starts production of long-term planning of
more than 2.000 drivers.
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2004: Norwegian Railways in production with short-term planning component
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2004: Visit to Norway
In February, SISCOG participated in the State Visit of the President of Portugal to
the Kingdom of Norway. SISCOG’s representative was received both by the Queen of Norway and by the Norwegian Prime Minister.
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2004: Final acceptance of Finnish Railways project
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2004: Final acceptance of BRISA project
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2004: SISCOG meeting in Azeitão
In December, SISCOG’s team spent one day at the Hotel Club d’Azeitão in Arrabida Natural Park.
This was an opportunity to gather people in an informal and relaxed environment, to make the balance of 2004 and discuss the plans for 2005.
In the afternoon, a workshop took place involving all the persons, allowing them to express opinions about several important themes:
code quality, productivity, communication, motivation and service provided to the internal client.
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2005: Visit to France
In April, SISCOG participated in the State Visit of the President of Portugal to France.
SISCOG’s representative was received by the French Prime Minister.
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2005: Finnish Railways signs new contract
In July, Finnish Railways (VR) activated an option of the previous contract,
for the development of a system for personnel planning (long-term and short-term) of the conductors and railway-yard personnel of VR.
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2005: London Underground signs multi-million euro deal
In July, as a result as a result of an international call for tenders, London Underground selected SISCOG
for the supply of a software system to plan the work of its 3.000 drivers.
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2005: Visit to Belgium
In October, SISCOG participated in the State Visit of the President of Portugal to the kingdom of Belgium.
SISCOG’s representative was received by the King and Queen of Belgium.
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2006: SISCOG becomes a "Portugal Certifiedbrand"
In March, SISCOG becomes a "Portugal Certifiedbrand".
This means an official recognition of the brand's importance, within the Portuguese Brands Project.
Read More
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2006: SISCOG's 20th anniversary
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2006: SISCOG nominated for 2006 Computerworld Honors Laureates
SISCOG was recognized as a Computerworld Honor Company,
and classified among the top 5 IT companies in the transportation domain.
Read More
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2006: SISCOG nominated member of COTEC Portugal network of innovative SME's
SISCOG was nominated member of the COTEC Portugal network of Innovative SME's.
Read More
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2006: DSB enters in full production with CREWS Short-term Scheduler
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2006: S-tog enters in full production with CREWS Short-term Scheduler
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