TAMS upgrade goes unnoticed,
but effort not unappreciated

ITD’s Division of Highways and Enterprise Technology Services are celebrating a successful launch of a TAMS upgrade to version 7.4. The software upgrade was uneventful, which is actually a very good thing when it comes to technology projects.

TAMS stands for Transportation Asset Management System. It’s an enterprise computer system that tracks life cycles and expenses for ITD equipment, road maintenance projects and operations, creates timesheets for operations employees, and maintains all of ITD’s data on pavement. The update from version 7.0 to 7.4 went live Monday, April 20.

“This upgrade was a key milestone in an ongoing project that started more than two years ago,” explained Highway Data Engineer Mark Snyder. “The project team took this project seriously, pulled together, and got the work done that made this such a raging success that nobody noticed.”

For any type of technology upgrade, a lack of complaints or concerns afterward is a sign of a smooth transition. The TAMS 7.4 project team is comprised of 21 people. What’s also impressive, is that the team completed the TAMS update during Idaho’s stay-at-home order, while many ITD employees were working remotely.

TAMS 7.4 users will find several new benefits to the system.

“Upgrading to the current version keeps up our vendors’ ability to support TAMS when problems crop up,” Snyder said.

It also adds GIS support, and provides the convenience of using an employee’s Windows login to access the system, so a separate TAMS login and password is not needed.

The next phase of the TAMS upgrade project will update the Linear Referencing System used to locate ITD work and projects, and build a noticeable improvement in WARS, or, Winter Automated Reporting System.

There are eight new TAMS 7.4 tutorial videos available to watch in TalentED and learn about the system changes. While the roll out was so seamless it went unnoticed, you can still recognize the project team’s hard work now! Be sure to give them a congratulations on their job well done.

Here's the list of TAMS Upgrade team memers:

Ben Smith, Devin Conner, Cynthia LaJoy, Rene Wright, David Grende, Randy Norris, Subarna Guha, Zeeshawn Ahmad, Kelvin Murphy, Dorothy Aydelotte, Santiago Palomera, Abmash Giri, Cynthia Gardner, Pat Hanrahan, Tyler Jackson, James Palmer, Jack Stom, Will Jensen, James Poorbaugh, Steve Spoor, and Ken Stewart.

Published 06-05-20