Customers
Asia Container Terminal
Lyttelton Port of Christchurch

We've now got a system that is capable of supporting our long-term volume targets, as well as the capability to support multiple
operations, terminals and automated movements, all from one instance of the system.
— Darrin Bain, Information Technology Manager, Lyttelton, Port of Christchurch

 

Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) is the gateway to the South Island of New Zealand and a world class supplier of port services. As the major deep-water port in the South Island, Lyttelton is at the hub of trade and plays a vital role in the global transport network.

The port prides itself on catering for a diverse range of trades and offers a full array of shipping services to exporters and importers, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Lyttelton’s container terminal provides specialized cargo handling and stevedoring services.

Today LPC employs nearly 400 full-time staff in operational, management and administration roles. It has approximately 1,700 shareholders with majority ownership being held by Christchurch City Holdings Limited. In terms of technology, LPC was looking for a terminal operating system (TOS) that could replace its old legacy system and support the port's strategic direction for the future. In 2006, LPC was the first terminal globally to implement Navis™ SPARCS N4 (TOS).

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership
This year marks the first anniversary of the implementation for the most innovative terminal operating system (TOS) in the history of the maritime industry. In April 2006, Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) became the first port to go live with SPARCS N4, replacing LPC's 11-year-old legacy system in order to support the Port's short and long-term strategic direction.

LPC had experienced difficulties with its old terminal operating system and was looking for a new system to deliver efficient and cost-effective service to its customers. "The offer from Navis delivered us a low-risk option to enhance our system software and enable our strategic goal of delivering
fast, efficient turnaround to customers," said Darrin Bain, Information Technology Manager at LPC.

SPARCS N4 is a fully-integrated solution from gate to yard to vessel, eliminating the manual processes and costly errors required to keep disjointed systems in sync. The multi-complex, multi-facility data model of SPARCS N4 allows for a single, homogeneous system across operations, giving LPC a much higher level of visibility while reducing administration and support costs by standardizing and centralizing hardware and software infrastructure, IT administration, and common business functions across LPC's operations.

"The new system streamlines and monitors a wide range of operations, as well as planning and managing the movement of cargo from ship to shore," said Peter Davie, Chief Executive, LPC. "SPARCS N4 improves our efficiency, the accuracy of information and our customer service, while at
the same time reducing our costs."

And the high level of configurability within SPARCS N4 has allowed LPC to respond to new on-going requirements very quickly and at much lower costs than previously possible. "We added additional truck service lanes, and we were able to do the project ourselves, very easily,” Bain said. "We completed the project within a day of the request using SPARCS N4. Without SPARCS N4, that would have taken us a month in duration and cost about 15,000 New Zealand dollars [U.S. $11,000]. It's a great comfort to know that we now have a system with a very high degree of configurability which can be achieved quite readily using our own internal staff.”

"We've now got a system that is capable of supporting our long-term volume targets, as well as the capability to support multiple operations, terminals and automated movements, all from one instance of the system," Bain said.

"It is great that SPARCS N4 adds value to our organization through its scalable, open, deployable, adaptable and maintainable architecture," Bain said.

"SPARCS N4 is the future product for Navis and it is evident that they have invested a lot of time into ensuring this solution will work," Bain said.

"The software scales with our business to reduce underutilization of IT infra-structure and eliminate unnecessary, upfront capital expenditures."

Increase Real-time Responsiveness
LPC has real-time visibility across all operations with SPARCS N4's multicomplex, multi-facility design. Vessel, yard and rail planners make decisions in real-time to avoid congestion and increase efficiency in their respective operations.

One of LPC’s customers, Chris Holt, said his shipping line company relies on SPARCS N4 over its own in-house system for critical day-to-day operations because SPARCS N4 is quick, reliable and works in a real-time environment. "SPARCS N4 is a far better system than what we had. It's very
user-friendly, and it seems to offer a quicker response to issue resolution," said Holt, Operations Supervisor at CMA CGM ANL LTD in New Zealand. "It is a very good system."

SPARCS N4 TOS tracks the real-time activity and productivity of container handling equipment (CHE) and cranes, providing the ability to recover from a failed CHE by redistributing its work to other operation CHEs. Also, work orders are automatically dispatched to radio data terminals (RDTs) for
increased driver productivity.

Improved Customer and Employee Productivity
SPARCS N4's Java-based rich internet application (RIA) is a highly productive and intuitive user interface significantly superior to the typical HTML-based community system. It has allowed LPC to offer its customers and the community at large increased access to real-time operational and
administrative information. External customer access is higher than ever before at LPC and customer feedback has been tremendous.

LPC Customer Manager Tim Cope said. "There has been positive feedback from my customers on SPARCS N4, both in the ease-of-use and also the advanced functionality that it offers the end-user. The software greatly enhances our service offering and enables us to be a market leader in the
provision of real-time information to our customers."

Bain added, "We now have more than 600 customers and between 30 to 40 additional employees using SPARCS N4 at Lyttelton."

LPC customer Geoff Carpenter said SPARCS N4 has streamlined his company's business. "No longer do we have futile trips to the port, because all details regarding the holds/stops of the container are there on the web site," said Carpenter of New Zealand Express Transport. "Our customers can also see the status of their containers and also can put pressure on us to perform should we not be delivering quick enough. All in all, SPARCS N4 is a win-win situation all round.”

Additionally, the Java-based solution provides LPC inherent cross-platform portability, alleviating the impact of a heterogeneous hardware infrastructure that may arise through natural technology evolution and upgrades.

"We have experienced a reduction in telephone calls and emails to the port because of the visibility across the operations," Bain said. "SPARCS N4 empowers the customers to have access to the information they need when they need it."

Eliminated Expensive Customization
"The most significant aspect of the SPARCS N4 TOS is its ability to define business rules and actions without the need to write customer specific code," Bain said. “Because of SPARCS N4, we are able to focus our IT resources on process improvement. Adopting features within SPARCS N4
has dramatically reduced the duration of projects and cost and has enabled LPC to be more responsive to customer requirements."

Additionally, SPARCS N4 TOS software development kits (SKDs), build upon open application programming interfaces (APIs), which makes it easy for LPC to extend its TOS by integrating other best-of-breed solutions and in-house applications without invasive, risky, expensive customization.

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