Navis Smart will allow customers to take advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The 2019 edition of the biennial Navis World conference in San Francisco got off to a unusual start last week, when a group of performers entered the ballroom where the event was being held wearing black T-shirts labeled “terminal,” “vessel,” “carrier,” “gate,” “container” and “inland terminal.”
Calling out to each other as they clapped various rhythms with the help of the audience, they were eventually joined on stage by Benoit de la Tour, the company’s CEO, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the Navis logo.
It was a unusual way for Navis to make the point that it believes its popular N4 terminal operating systems and other software products can help different members of the ocean shipping supply chain make music together.
“This is pretty much what we are doing, all of us in this room here — we are making the incredibly complex supply chain of global transportation as simple and as effective a possible,” explained de la Tour.
He said the conference brought together about 300 customers from 60 countries that are responsible for about 450 million container moves annually, about half of global container throughput.
While some terminal operators have developed their own in-house terminal operating systems, Navis says it is the leading provider to companies that buy terminal operating systems from an third party.
The software arm of Finland’s Cargotec Corp.’s Kalmar subsidiary, Navis is continuing to expand its scope and create new products that stitch together various companies in the ocean shipping business.
De la Tour said Navis is seeking to make its products easier to deploy and upgrade, while adding new software. That means software that is more scalable, reliable and stable; which is easier to deploy, troubleshoot and even roll-back.
While most terminals have “on premise” systems, where Navis software resides on a computer at the terminal, the company is also offering “cloud” version of its N4 software, and more choice in how they pay for software, including purchasing it on a subscription basis.
De la Tour said Navis is working to make its software work better with automated terminals, referencing a recent report by the management consulting firm McKinsey, which together with the Shanghai International Port Group surveyed 40 executives and other port “practitioners” predicting wider adoption of automation at container terminals.
That survey found 80 percent of respondents expect at least half of all greenfield port projects will be semi- or fully automated in the next five years. It also found that total or partial conversion of existing “brownfield” ports will gain momentum with the prediction that half of the top 50 ports will initiate retrofitting plans or add automated equipment during the next five years.
Navis unveiled a number of new products at the conference last week.
These include “Navis Smart,” a product the company said provides new ways for container terminals and carriers to capture and process industry data to optimize planning, visibility and asset utilization.
The company said by capturing and standardizing data from terminals and carriers Navis Smart will “provide a foundation to apply machine learning to Navis applications, making the software smarter over time.”
Younus Aftab, chief products officer at Navis, said Navis Smart also allows the company to introduce more applications and services that are modular and easy for users to deploy and consume.
The range of Navis products has grown far beyond its original terminal operating system into a comprehensive suite of applications that cover various aspects of the ocean shipping supply chain.
Aftab explained that once a customer has bought into the Navis platform, it will be be able to add products and services without digging up and rebuilding, so to speak, the foundation of its information technology platform.
“We enable that by using data,” he said. “Data is the glue that connects Navis applications to Navis platform and it is also the glue that creates interoperability and connectivity between Navis’ assets and other players.
Navis products are diverse, and many new products were added when Cargotec acquired Germany’s Interschalt in 2016.
They include the MACS3 loading computer, a computer that is used to safely load and ballast ships and software to assist in lashing of containers. MAC3S has a 65 percent market share in container shipping, but is also used on roll-on, roll-off and bulk vessels, and was acquired by Navis when it acquired Interschalt.
Other software products added through the Interschalt acquisition include Bluetracker fleet performance software can be used to monitor the efficiency of engines and emissions of pollutants as well as Stowman, software for planning the stowage of containers on ships.
Even though Navis’ sister company Kalmar makes cargo handling equipment, Navis software is designed to work with equipment made by other hardware companies.
Two years ago Navis rolled out XVELA, a product that assists shipping lines and terminals to collaborate on cargo stowage so that they can optimize the use of vessels and improve terminal performance.
The company has a new berth window software module that aims to improve the planning of vessel visits, accelerate the turn of vessels at terminals, an improve terminal utilization.
“Compass” is an new application announced last week built with the Navis Smart technology. It is a visual workflow management application that uses data to improve the management of vessel operations before, during and after a vessel visits a terminal. It’s a sort of smart checklist which can help assure the smooth turnover of tasks from one employee to another as they work over multiple shifts.
Aftab said, for example, as the same ship in a string returns to a terminal month over month, the artificial intelligence capabilities in Compass and Navis Smart will help companies optimize the management of vessel operations.
With artificial intelligence, “the more you train it, the more it sees what is actually happening and the more it can help,” he explained, so that operators don’t have to redo cumbersome steps taken in the past.
Navis has also been working to increase its appeal to ports with non-containerized general cargo.
On March 22, Navis announced it had reached a deal to provide its N4 operating system to North Carolina Ports, which operates the ports of Wilmington and Morehead City as well as an inland terminal in Charlotte. In addition to handling nearly 400,000 TEU of containerized cargo, those terminals handle over four million tons of general cargo annually.
On March 8, Navis announced it had acquired Miami-based Octopi, a company that has a cloud-based terminal operating system built for small container and mixed cargo terminals.
De la Tour said this is a “lighter TOS” that is more intuitive and does not require heavy IT infrastructure and resources.
Navis has been increasing its involvement in rail operations at marine terminals, pointing to projects with GCT Deltaport in the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia and the Virginia Port Authority.
De la Tour said the company has invested in coming up with solutions for the rail industry, referencing challenges the container shipping industry faces, particularly in the U.S. stemming from the truck driver shortage and environmental regulations.
