Dubai-based port operator DP World uses innovative technologies to strengthen its logistics infrastructure and diversify its portfolio to better meet the dynamic business needs of its customers and partners. Technological innovations have been taking place at the company for more than a decade, but Mike Bhaskaran, DP World's COO and CTO, who took over the role in less than two years, is accelerating the transformation. digital to offer safer and faster services, efficient and more sustainable solutions. “When I started in the middle of last year, we saw an opportunity for back office automation. We chose Oracle Fusion ERP as the platform to strengthen consistency across our multiple geographies. We are slowly rolling it out across our global operations,” he said. It is extremely important balancing financial and supply systems across its infrastructure in more than 40 countries, he said, so they can speak the same language and it was the beginning of the journey.He mainly stated that the company's customers are ocean liners and freight forwarders and if "We can make your job easier on data sharing, ease of access to data, and provision of As things progress, physical goods and data will also help financial flow. " Technology, in many ways, he said, has reduced the number of yard moves and on-time delivery to customers to make it easier for them through a wide range of applications. "Our goal is to make it easier to move goods in multiple countries with a single click," he said. Bhaskaran subsequently focused on office products, office automation and moving to the cloud, providing solutions to speed up the flow of goods through its ports and services. "For us , as a catalyst for global trade, we have focused on terminal operating systems to facilitate access (the speed with which people can reach our ports), container movement, billing, we collaborate with our clients and offer solutions customer focused. “The center of digital transformation is the customer. How can we facilitate access and better do our job of keeping them and providing them with solutions," he said.
Box-Bay Storage to Reduce Traffic Congestion
DP World has been a pioneer in working with US-based Navis for terminal operating systems and is at the forefront of technological innovation such as Hyperloop and Box-Bay Storage. DP World signed a partnership with Virgin Hyperloop One in 2018 to revolutionize the transport of people and goods. Bhaskaran said Box-Bay Storage, which can stack 11 containers vertically, can mix the containers when necessary and reduce space and will be operational by the end of this year. “Now we can't put a full container in an empty container, but with Box-Bay storage, it's possible. An automated system can retrieve each one without moving the others. The main objective of this initiative is to reduce traffic congestion in the terminals for the movement of containers," he said. Although DP World does not currently use physical robots, it says they use robotic process automation (chatbots) for tasks. "No we infuse technology for technology's sake and it all depends on where the applications are required, then we buy the best technology." We use Oracle CRM for a specific purpose and SAP Hana for reporting and in some cases we build it in-house and have our system operating terminal, known as Zodiac," he said. In addition, he said that the cloud is a journey and that they have moved most of the division's email to the cloud, Microsoft Office 365, and some SaaS (software as a service) platforms. They are already in the cloud. However, Bhaskaran is not of the opinion that everything should be in the cloud and it all depends on the applications where they want to use it. "In some cases, we want applications to be on-site and that's important in terms of security and customer-facing. We've just started using blockchain and will be launching pilot projects very soon, mainly using on-chain and documentation sharing. of supply, and we are building new use cases," he stated. Bhaskaran said that the digital journey has started on a global scale and everyone is excited.
Take advantage of blockchain technologies
"In the next two to three years, a large part of the new tools and processes that we are currently developing will be present throughout our network. Exchanging documents, leveraging blockchain and creating smart contracts will be a great opportunity for the logistics industry," Bhaskaran said. For a digital transformation to be successful, he said that culture is a critical factor in attracting, developing and retaining digital talent within the organization and that talent is the number one challenge of digital transformations, globally and locally. But Bhaskaran said DP World has a "very innovative culture." "People are always looking for new ways to improve our customer experience and this has been very positive. Of all the technology opportunities and business processes, what we use has to be the best fit for our customers. Because we have a lot of automation and documentation, we understand that blockchain solutions will help us solve the problem. The culture was therefore innovative and receptive. "The managing change aspect of the culture was very warm and welcoming. It was a very collegial culture as a company, so the question was when we have a good business case, that everyone was responsive and did the right thing for the customer," he said. In addition, he stated that there is a culture of learning within the company and that the latent capacity within the organization itself is high. "Most of the staff are using new tools like mapping and visualization, and there's a great appetite for learning and that's inherent in the culture." I had nothing to do because it was the best part of my job,” he said. Furthermore, he said that this year, the focus will be mainly on back office automation, blockchain-enabled technologies and endpoint operating systems. “It's a journey and a lot of work needs to be done in the next three years," he said. Although at the forefront of innovation, DP World does not want to rest on its laurels and is always looking for innovative companies around the world that can stimulate innovation for them, whatever it is in IoT devices, blockchain, AI and other advanced technologies.The company is working with an Indian technology accelerator platform for logistics, Log-X, both in Kerala and in different parts of the India looking for new technologies and startups that are helping the ecosystem they have "We have met several companies and they are doing a good job in fleet automation, truck automation and that is good for us on our digital journey." Innovation will play an important role in building an integrated logistics platform that offers comprehensive solutions to cargo owners," he said.