DP World is one of the largest marine terminal operators with more than 60 terminals across six continents, playing a vital role in the World’s infrastructure. DP World Australia, in a partnership with three innovative technology companies, wanted to improve the efficiency of their operations by delivering real time, critical, operational information into the hands of their port staff.
Partnering with Microsoft, Altis Consulting and Extended Results, DP World Australia wanted to lead a revolution on the waterfront by putting performance information into the hands of field staff.
The Problem
DP World wanted to increase employee productivity, improve customer service and maintain a competitive advantage. DP World Australia wanted an innovative approach that would deliver key performance indicators and business metrics to their people in real-time.
DP World staff needed access to critical business data for measuring and monitoring key metrics on the fly for its Australian ports in Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney. Previous methods for distributing performance data were cumbersome, time-consuming, and failed to meet the needs of the people on the ground. The lack of access to real-time metrics made it difficult to provide the level of insight necessary for them to make informed decisions.
Terminal management and regional office management needed up-to-date information in order to set targets and see trending patterns, both regionally and within each terminal.
To solve this problem, a three way partnership was developed to bring business intelligence into the hands of its key staff in the field.
The Solution
DP World partnered with three technology companies, including Altis Consulting, Microsoft and Extended Results, who together pioneered the new tailor made business solution.
Leveraging existing data, simplifying the delivery process and delivering it to the user in a format they could understand was core to the success of this project.
The first challenge was to develop a data warehouse and set of reports which would provide the correct operational views.
Altis Consulting prepared the data and built the required views and interfaces to enable real-time reporting. The next challenge was to deliver the intelligence to the staff in the field.
Extended Results’ PushBI brought innovation directly to the terminal managers and staff by enabling users to see key performance indicators and deliver these actionable metrics to the users via desktop widgets and – more importantly – handheld devices. The interface works on a number of commercially available tablets – so no special hardware was required.
The software delivers real time performance information every 60 seconds into the hands of local stevedores. In what is a first for the industry, staff have the ability to access all live terminal data such as quayside, landside and labour activities via smart technologies such as Android phones and iPads.
“…Putting this powerful technology into the hands of operations managers means they will be able to respond faster to the needs of our customers and container movements on the waterfront.”
The Results
The technology has helped DP World Australia show the world how stevedores can:
- Have immediate access to time critical information from any company terminal around Australia
- Reduce decision making by cutting down on the number of hours spent every week on paperwork
- Improve visibility of performance and drive productivity and efficiency at each terminal location
“The new technology is already making a big difference to our Australian operations by providing operational managers with real-time critical operational information at their fingertips, at any of our locations around Australia…”
“It’s bound to radically change data capture and analysis in the globally competitive container handling industry and Reinforces DP World’s commitment to innovation and excellence in customer service.”
“Response from the field has been overwhelmingly positive, with DP World’s Australian terminals now taking full advantage of the new technology” – Senior Vice President and Managing Director DP World ANZ, Ganesh Raj.
John Hoffman CEO at Altis Consulting points out, “This is a great example of how mobile BI technologies can make immediate improvements to a business. In addition, it demonstrates how a focused team can deliver tangible value in short amount of time.”
