For two years, preparatory work and planning went on to replace and upgrade a majority of Helsingborg’s port’s digital systems. And after just two months, many of the most important metrics are back at the same levels as before the shift. According to IT manager Sanjin Redzepagic, collaboration and careful inventory have been two of the success factors for the successful transition.
We have changed pretty much our entire system flora at one and the same time. We have been working for over two years on this implementation and went live with everything in one day, and apart from an expected decrease in productivity in the first time, everything has gone well, says Sanjin Redzepagic, IT manager, Helsingborgs Hamn.
COORDINATION BIG CHALLENGE
Business systems, terminal systems, financial systems, container handling systems – everything has been replaced. In total, it is about 200 employees at the Port of Helsingborg who, together with approximately 500 to 1000 customers, have received new digital workspaces.
All customers have received new customer pages and all truck drivers now manage the delivery and collection of goods with an app instead of paper and pen, to name a few of the changes.
– It was an enormous amount of work to map all processes and functions. The big challenge was to coordinate everything, not least because so many meetings were only managed digitally. The fact that we recast our IT department a few years ago to have a greater focus on business development and to become more involved in the processes of each business has been decisive for the success of this major shift.
NEW HARBOR WITHIN FIVE YEARS
The background to the system change is that the entire port is to be successively modernized with the hope that Helsingborg will have a completely new port sometime before 2030. It is part of the goal of becoming ”the most modern port in the Nordics”.
– It’s not just about having modern technology gadgets and gadgets at our disposal; it is at least as much about us having the most satisfied employees and about being an important, climate-smart playing partner for all the social actors we are in contact with. We are also part of Helsingborg’s investment in the smart city.
SAME FIGURES – AFTER TWO MONTHS
Sanjin Redzepagic is satisfied that the system change is done, and that you now have time to continue screwing, updating and adjusting. In the beginning, there were some things that went wrong, not least what is called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which helps transfer information about, for example, inventory balances and order confirmations between different systems.
– Even though we were well prepared, it is a big change. But already two months later, we are back to the same figures as before the introduction, for example regarding how long it takes from the time a truck is here until all goods are loaded. I’m sitting in this now and I see on my screen that the average time is 22 minutes, which is exactly what it was before we went live. It’s amazing when you consider the impact this has had on all our employees and customers.
What tips do you have for those who are going to undergo similar, large system replacements?
– Know your business well, involve the right skills, and be thorough in the inventory. If it’s something that will affect users and customers outside of the business itself, make it a priority to address their feedback and fix issues they discover.
NEXT STEP: AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
The next step in the port update work for Sanjin Redzepagic and his colleagues is to test autonomous vehicles that could speed up the process of loading and unloading ships. Customer benefit and sustainability are in focus.
– Together with a number of other companies, we are testing how autonomous vehicles would function in such a varied environment as a port is. The sustainability and climate issue is important to us, and we introduced the first electric truck as recently as February this year. We are probably one of the first ports in the world to do that.
https://voister.se/artikel/2024/03/succe-for-helsingborgs-hamns-stora-it-systemskifte
