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Lettie K. Haynes, assistant VP for BNSF's technology services division, can remember the days when pencil and paper were used to keep track of the huge shipments of products hauled on the railroad. She also recalls a time when very few women or African Americans were seen on the job.
BNSF Railway Co, the railway subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (Ft Worth, TX), has come a long way during Haynes' thirteen-year stint as an IT professional. In some cases Haynes' own innovation and persistence played a role in the technology advances and diversity initiatives. She continues to propel technology forward and help others move their career goals along.
"I was fortunate. I grew up here from a career standpoint, and I have had many opportunities to stretch and grow. I believe in giving that opportunity to others. It makes sense to bring someone else along," Haynes says.
On the job since October
Haynes started training for her current job last July, when her former boss announced he was retiring. She took over his responsibilities full time in October.
Haynes supports an application portfolio that combines proprietary and purchased software. It includes systems that support back-office functions like HR and finance, as well as the marketing business area. Bonnie Henn-Pritchard, another assistant VP, is responsible for the railroad's transportation systems applications.
About 130 employees are under Haynes' direction. Her team also includes some sixty contractors. Their managers report to five directors, in Ft Worth and Topeka, KS, and the directors report to Haynes. She also spends some time with suppliers of the systems that BNSF uses.
Increased need for services
The railroad as a whole is experiencing an increased need for IT services, Haynes says. Her scope of work covers marketing, finance, HR, and the chief of staff's needs. Systems for marketing, she notes, involve Web solutions that let customers manage their own shipments. That ranges from ordering railcars to tracking the shipment through to its final destination and paying the bill.
Another major area is the railroad's customer relationship management system, where all the company's sales and marketing account reps keep a common database of customer info. That includes everything from phone numbers to specific needs of a particular customer.
In finance, Haynes' IT team supports the systems used for accounts payable, general ledger, financial reporting and revenue management. Chief-of-staff technology needs include support for the internal employee website, the major communication channel to all BNSF employees. The team also supports HR with programs for compensation, benefits and performance management.
Still learning
Haynes is still in learning-curve mode in her new job. Her immediate goal for this year is to overhaul the finance and HR office suites. The railroad is using legacy technology, and "We have decided to restructure all the back-office systems," she says. "It will be a multiyear effort, but standardizing the business processes will give us more efficiency."
She supports marketing systems for advanced planning and equipment management. Both efforts will help BNSF accommodate the major growth forecast in the next few years.
"In my short thirteen years here, there's been quite a bit of change," she says. "The Internet has been a major factor in that change, because we leverage it for business transactions. The whole e-business concept has been a game changer, letting our customers do their own transactions and monitor their own shipments."
Starting out
Haynes grew up in Center, TX. Her father, who worked for the former Santa Fe Railway, died when Haynes was five. Her mother kept the family together and worked part-time as a cook.
At the University of North Texas, Haynes took a CS course and found that she loved to work with computers. She got her BSCS in 1982, and last year she completed an MBA at Texas Christian University.
Her first job was as an analyst/programmer with a marketing research company in Dallas. She was in the IT department, working on software for telemarketing surveys. Then she took a job with the City of Dallas, supporting its employee benefits and payroll area.
From 1987 to 1993 she worked for Policy Management Systems Corp (Dallas, TX), a software vendor. She started as a programmer/analyst and finished as supervisor of development. "I was handling installations, training and support for insurance companies and putting in a lot of travel time. They were leveraging IBM's OS2 system, the first one that let you have multiple windows up at one time."
Working for the railroad
Then she saw a BNSF ad looking for OS2 people to help leverage the technology at the railroad. "I was hired during the ground-floor development phase," she recalls happily.
All her jobs with BNSF have been in Ft Worth. She started as senior developer/consultant for apps development in technology services. Her initial project was finding a way to capture customer orders and track them. She had to understand all aspects of the railroad to work on that solution.
"Some things were obviously in place when I joined BNSF but the Internet capabilities just weren't there," she notes. "Today we are applying so many different levels of technology to meet business needs."
From 1996 to 1999 Haynes was senior manager for apps development in technology services, her first management position. The Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe had announced a merger, and she co-managed the team that developed the first system for equipment distribution on the newly combined railroads. The project had to be done by 1997, when the merger of the two railroads' systems would be complete.
"It was one of the few times I worked an all-nighter," she says. "And I slept on the couch outside my office for several nights. We were all very proud when we made the system work."
The two rail IT systems were put together on July 4, 1997. "It was a huge accomplishment for us. The railroad operates 24/7, and folks were working as the systems merger was going on," she says.
Directing business intelligence
From 1999 to 2003 Haynes was director of business intelligence in technology services. She oversaw a broad area of the business, including the corporate data warehouse, and had three managers reporting to her.
Her team developed several award-winning solutions to support finance and operations. From ensuring appropriate reconciliation of railroad payments to monitoring operations performance through scorecard applications, the business intelligence team "set new standards for utilizing the corporate data at BNSF," Haynes says proudly.
In 2004, Haynes became director of service delivery management in technology services. "My CIO decided to stretch me by exposing me to vendor management and governance," she says. "I moved from apps development into the infrastructure area. I spent 90 percent of my time interacting with suppliers. It was a great move for me, and gave me a whole new perspective that has already proven valuable."
Diversity leader
Haynes is also a leader in the diversity movement at BNSF. In 2000 she and some other diverse employees spent several days with General Electric's diversity forum leaders to learn their approach. She came back to help spearhead BNSF's efforts, which led to the formation of the company's first minority forum in 2000. In 2002, Haynes was given the company's diversity change agent award for her work.
Today she's a member of the African American network affinity group and the women's network, and is serving as a liaison leader for the BNSF Asian American network.
In fact, guidance is Haynes' specialty. She persuaded the tech services department to use the Inroads internship program as a recruiting channel and was Inroads' 2006 business mentor of the year.
Over the years she's mentored some three dozen people, formally and informally. "I've done that at every level of my career and I enjoy it immensely," she says.
A specialty is talking to women about balancing career with family. Haynes' son is eight, "so I'm right in the middle of that juggling act!" she says with a laugh.
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