PD Ports is a port and logistics company operating predominately on the eastern ports of England. The company manages the movement of cargo from port to terminal and aims to sell combined services, including transport and warehousing, to its customers. Recent acquisitions in these new areas necessitated investment in an integrated ERP solution, moving away from the current stand-alone operations in its 20 locations across the UK.
Marco van den Bremer-Hornsby, IT Director at PD Ports, said: “Our vision was for the port, warehousing, transport, and other business services to be integrated in one system. IFS Applications will therefore act as a dynamic host, capable of coordinating customer orders as well as keeping track of where each customer is in our value chain. It will essentially act as a central data warehouse, with customers able to pop in and out anywhere along the chain depending on the services they receive, and with PD Ports able to serve that customer without the delay associated with pulling up information utilising multiple data systems. This will significantly improve our customer experience and operational efficiency.”
Prior to appointing IFS, PD Ports used ERP software for the financial aspect of the business only, with all other aspects handled separately at each operational base using various legacy systems. These legacy systems, approaching end-of-life, required an overhaul to create an integrated solution that unified the entire business to include the wide portfolio of port-centric logistics services of the company’s operations.
Paul Massey, Managing Director, IFS Europe West, said: “The challenge was to provide a solution that could integrate PD Ports’ various business units into one functional, easy to use system. Our experience in the sector and work with Brookfield, PD Ports’ parent company, ensured IFS delivered just that. We look forward to working with PD Ports to provide a system that will be a dynamic driver for business growth and enhance its level of customer service.”
van den Bremer-Hornsby concluded: “We selected IFS for a number of reasons, including its asset management expertise and proven ability to deploy its ERP application seamlessly and on time. The functionality of IFS Applications and knowledge of our business also played a key role in the selection process, but most importantly, IFS demonstrated that its ERP application is agile enough to suit our particular business needs.”
The payroll and HR aspects of IFS Applications will go live as early as autumn 2011 with 400 office based users and the remaining functions are due to be completed by 2013.