SageCircle is new since this post. You can find our blog on AR and the analysts at

http://www.SageCircle.wordpress.com

A post related to your vlog is “Why technology buyers use the IT industry analysts”

http://sagecircle.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/why-technology-buyers-use-the-it-industry-analysts/

Cheers, -carter j

I actually do have a fairly streamlined way of dealing with our suppliers - any of the 3rd party providers they use (whether Inovis or the competition) must have tested against our specs through our testing program (ironically, Inovis’s Compliance Link) before becoming “approved”.

This helps our suppliers - which are quite a few of those SMBs (Small to Medium Businesses) - aka Mom n Pop shops - choose the best solution for their needs - whether based on cost, options, simplicity, or whatever - and makes all of use happy.

But there is also a less “physical” infrastructure that needs to be considered to make rail - passenger or freight - more useful to the common man (and woman)…. of course, now tunes from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “STARLIGHT EXPRESS” are coursing through My head….

I currenly live in Southern California - a place KNOWN for major amounts of freeways, major amounts of truck traffic and two of the largest ports in the US, not to mention the world, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Years ago, they constructed a rail corridor (known as the Alameda Corridor) to alleviate some of the truck traffic on the 710 freeway (a major north/south conduit) and to bring more rail into the process as well.

On the passenger front, we’ve got the Metro Rail - commuter trains - and the MetroLink passenger rail system. They service many major areas and provide service to and from those areas for millions of commuters a day.

But here’s where both of these HUGE systems fail - in that the services offered are limited.

For the cargo - the trains pull from the port and head north to many DCs and warehouses in the “eastern” LA area - up by I-10 (for those familiar with the LA area). But what about all of the other industrial areas they pass by with other DCs and warehouses in Long Beach and other cities…? Nope - no stops.

For the passenger - the closest station isn’t all that close… or you have to go miles and miles out of your way to a station to catch another train to take you to another station to be able to finally catch a train to your destination… And the schedules - ha! Don’t even get Me started with those!

I had lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years - lived in the East Bay (Dublin) and worked in San Francisco, just off of Market Street. And every day - unless I missed My “last” train to the city, I rode BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to and from work. If I missed the “last train” that could get Me to work on time, I drove…. But it was often hard to miss that “last train” as the schedule was so … packed. There were trains along some routes every 5 minutes…. Ok, maybe 10. And when they got to a transfer point station - the trains on BOTH lines would hold for a few minutes, allowing you to go from a N/S line to an E/W line. And the stations were easy to get to.

Mind you, some of the LA area stations are also easy to get to, but the schedules!

Bob spoke of the “physical” hurdles - but one also must think of the other hurdles - such as schedulling, locations, and destinations….

The latest is that CN is planning to sue to allow the sale to go through.

Until we can figure out how to make the public and private sectors work together on this, it will be slow going.