A few exmaples of how HOPS might be used in different circumstances, in order of increasing involvement.

Case Study 1:

A very simply deployment of HOPS. The subscriber railway uses HOPS for centralising the storage of documentation such as timetables and operating notices and staff have access to these via a single generic user account. This is an excellent starting position for any railway considering adopting HOPS.

Case Study 2:

The sections for managing competence are used, and output is used amonst the railway management only, or printed to paper or PDF for manual distribution to staff. The staff themselves will never use HOPS. The subscriber railway generates profiles for all its staff in HOPS as 'offline', the staff do not have individual user accounts.

Case Study 3:

The section for managing rostering is used, and the staff share a single generic user account to view their rostering information. The subscriber railway generates profiles for all its staff in HOPS as 'offline', the staff do not have individual user accounts.

Case Study 4a:

The section for managing rostering is used, and the staff use their own user account to view their rostering information. The staff do not input their availability on HOPS and rosters are constructed based on the railway's own availability system/policy. The subscriber railway generates profiles for all its staff in HOPS and they all have user accounts.

Case Study 4b:

The section for managing rostering is used, and the staff use their own user account to input their availability and view their rostering information. The subscriber railway generates profiles for all its staff in HOPS and they all have user accounts.

Case Study 4c:

The sections for managing competence and rostering are used, and the staff use their own user account to input their availability and view their rostering information. The roster clerks in the various departments use the functions in HOPS to automatically assign the turns in the most economical way, based on the competence records and the availability records. The subscriber railway generates profiles for all its staff in HOPS and they all have user accounts.

Case Study 5:

The subscriber railway uses the sections for managing timetables and operating days. Staff log in with either individual user accounts or a generic user account to view and download the operating information such as timetables and special notices.

Notes

The functions in HOPS can be mixed and matched in any order required by a railway's individual specification.