ICO's Ship Comes in With Business Intelligence

WebFOCUS and iWay reporting solutions from Information Builders help keep International Car Operators, a world-leading stevedoring company, on the right course.

WebFOCUS, iWay Deliver Improved Reporting Capabilities to Vehicle Transportation Company

International Car Operators (ICO), a world-leading stevedoring company that handles roll-on/roll-off cargo operations, is a leader in international vehicle transport, processing about 1,600,000 vehicles each year with a fleet of more than 1,000 ships. Before they reach their final destination, these cars, vans, trucks, and other vehicles have already put on countless miles traveling from the factories where they were built.

Headquartered in Antwerp and Zeebrugge, in Belgium, ICO ensures optimum productivity in all roll-on/roll-off processes, vehicle handling, and other logistics activities. ICO's terminals are Europe's second-largest vehicle transportation hubs.

ICO owns several terminals where vehicles bound for export get to their destination by rail, by road, or by sea. It's also within these terminals that ships are unloaded, before materials are sorted and sent to their final destinations. In addition to the organization and management of vehicle-transportation logistic chains, ICO also provides several other services.

A team of experts ensures that all cars are properly finished – for example, checking if requested options and accessories are installed. To perform these processes as efficiently as possible, ICO needed a high-performance system that would allow for the full monitoring and control of each related activity, such as loading and unloading, or inbound and outbound shipping.

"In order to manage such volumes and flows, impeccable organization is a must," says Alain Guillemyn, ICO's IT manager. "A reliable, high-performance computer system is a keystone in this organization, because all processes rely on it."

To fulfill this mission, ICO has developed its own computer platform that has been strengthened with the addition of WebFOCUS from Information Builders. ICO chose WebFOCUS for its ability to easily manage multiple sources of information and to simultaneously serve a large number of users, for both operational and reporting needs.

"Reporting is an essential process in our organization," says Guillemyn. "When reports can't be generated, our activities come to a halt. The basis of our reporting consists of all operational information related to vehicle transportation. As soon as a ship leaves Japan's port with over 500 cars on board, we receive all relevant information about these vehicles – the model, chassis number, destination, and more."

He further explains. "As soon as the ship gets to Antwerp or Zeebrugge, we unload the cars and park them on the transit zone according to their destination. Each vehicle has a bar code, allowing us to know at all times where it's located. If the needed information can't be automatically retrieved or processed, we would have to manually process all cars at unloading. The consequences would be several days of delay per ship, a huge transshipment cost, reallocating teams to gain the needed additional resources, and fines for exceeding the time limit."

ICO also uses Information Builders iWay adapters to facilitate smooth integration of data coming from various platforms. At Antwerp's terminal, iWay essentially provides all "pre-announcements" processing. When a ship sails to one of ICO's terminals, iWay adapters convert all vehicle information into operational data. iWay also monitors each vehicle's follow-up, and other aspects of its life cycle.

This vast array of information opens up other opportunities that go beyond simple operational processes. "WebFOCUS is the ideal reporting tool for our customers. It's complete, highly functional, and easy to operate," Guillemyn affirms. "It is a vital link in our communication with our clients. For now, the demand for this type of transparent reporting tool is booming."

For ICO, reporting on the various aspects of its operations is too critical a process to be neglected. The company is therefore determined to expand its reporting capabilities throughout the entire organization. "At the moment, we want to extend reporting transparency to our entire IT infrastructure. In our business, information technology is crucial, as it considerably influences our performance and results," Guillemyn concludes.