Global seaport leaders convene in San Francisco this week for Navis World

As Navis World gets underway in San Francisco for its 12th biennial user conference, global shippers reliant on ocean borne cargo will be provided with insights on industry trends, operational best practices and the most advanced technologies being used today to optimize terminal and supply chain processes. This event is “invitation-only,” thereby targeting decision-makers who have already invested heavily in technological solutions. At the same time, Navis has made two significant announcements regarding its own offerings for seaport efficiencies.

In a move to enhance transparency, the new Compass visual workflow management application promises to digitize the workflow and standardize the way terminals interact with other cargo stakeholders.

According to spokesmen, this end-to-end visual workflow management system permits all users to see the upcoming vessel visits, comments and important vessel information to know exactly what tasks need to be done and who is working on them. The application spans the terminal, starting when the vessels call the terminal and includes the activities that take place before, during and after the vessel visit. This includes berth and vessel planning, execution, continuous improvement, claims management and commercial discussions.

“At present, management of different tasks and processes across the terminal container flow take place in silos, with little standardization or real-time information exchange, and few opportunities for collaboration,” says Younus Aftab, Chief Product Officer at Navis. “We are addressing these fundamental constraints to give our terminal customers the critical visibility and connectivity required to reach the next level of efficiency and productivity. Our end-to-end application ensures the availability of critical planning information exactly when it is needed, enabling more informed decision-making and better service.”

At the same time, Navis unveiled “Navis Smart,” a portfolio of terminal and carrier software solutions collected and aggregated give shippers access to untapped data to unlock additional value within their operations. The introduction of Navis Smart is meant to provides the shipping industry with the step change necessary to unleash the next wave of application intelligence – enabling insights from connected solutions and leveraging learning or cognitive computing, while simultaneously bringing down the total cost of ownership of assets.

Two of the first applications built with Navis Smart technology, include the following:

Compass– the first step to consolidate many different planning phases into a more concise and intelligent planning process. “Compass provides an end-to-end view of the vessel planning process, standardizing the execution for vessel visits and matching performance against KPIs,” said Patrick Brehmer, Senior Product Manager, NavisLabs. “It will help terminal teams, EDI clerks, vessel planners, planning managers and operations managers be on the same page and avoid costly errors.” Compass is one of the first in a series of applications deployable on-premise or in the cloud and represents one of the first Navis Smart services bringing improved visibility and workflow to a traditionally siloed set of processes.

N4 Ops Monitoring– provides real-time business intelligence for operations monitoring. “To make critical decisions in real-time, operations managers need visibility into operational events as they happen to make decisions and take action on the spot, to handle exceptions and to improve productivity while saving time and cost,” said Manoj Bhardwaj, Director of BI Solutions, Navis.

Andy Barrons, Chief Strategy Officer at Navis told SCMR that “all users will now be on the same page and have access to the same information, leading to fewer instances of miscommunication.”

He added that the real-time visibility alerts terminals to potential issues early on and allows them more time to take corrective action while a complete and visible list of planning tasks ensures “that everyone’s priorities are aligned and leads to less idle time and rework.”