On the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, the St. Lucia Air & Sea Ports Authority, charged with the responsibility for ports of entry that includes two airports, two seaports and three marinas, has consistently embraced use of technology to improve operations. In 2007, SLASPA embarked on a major exercise toward improving the efficiency of its seaport operations by using automation to streamline core business processes and procedures.
Prior to this exercise, the manual recording and calculation of cargo-related information posed challenges, as did the lack of a reliable data source that could provide accurate and timely statistics for decision-making. As a result, SLASPA contracted Ideal Business Services Ltd. of the United Kingdom to provide the required programming expertise through one of its programmers, Paul Parkinson.
Through this collaboration, SLASPA upgraded its cargo management system to Unitrack and successfully implemented several enhancements, including:
- A single database system to capture data on cargo, cruise, ferry, yachting and airport operations.
- An interface for electronic data interchange between the St. Lucia Customs and Excise Department system, Asycuda++ (Automated System For Customs Data) and SLASPA's cargo management system. This interface presented a true example of EDI connectivity between two organizations and allowed the port to achieve two major operational efficiencies. First, the port now receives all manifests directly into its cargo management system upon registration in Asycuda by a shipper. Second, the port receives automatic notification of container releases from Customs, with Customs in turn receiving automatic confirmation that a container has exited the port.
- Automation of the invoicing process whereby all billing-related data is extracted from Unitrack with SLASPA's tariff incorporated.
- A container tracking system which enables shipping agents to track their containers by accessing a Web-based container-tracking module that provides real-time information on the movement and status of containers.
- A Web-based vessel berthing schedule which facilitates real-time viewing of a graphical representation of vessels berthed at the seaport.
During the coming year, SLASPA officials plan to implement the automatic calculation of excess storage on cargo as well as the delivery of cargo using personal digital assistants, or PDAs, which will automatically update the gate-out releases in Unitrack. Another initiative entails developing the capacity within Unitrack to capture data on vessel, yard, storage and gate operations and generating port performance indicators from that data.
"These automation initiatives are aimed at having a cargo management system that captures all our cargo operations in a single computerized system," said Grace Michel the St. Lucia authority's director of information systems. "Unitrack is easily customizable, and, as a result, we have been able to tailor the system to suit our exact needs at a fraction of the cost of other larger systems."
Sean Matthew, the authority's general manager and chief executive officer, added, "Our customers have expressed immense satisfaction with the increased use of technology by the port and the responsiveness of management in meeting their demands and significantly enhancing the customer service experience. The intention is to build on Unitrack one module at a time to better facilitate the needs of our internal and external customers."
