Northern Stevedoring Services (NSS) is being fitted out with a range of revamped systems and processes designed to accommodate a new era for the business.
NSS Finance Manager Darren Locke has been leading a program of review and implementation with a third-party provider for what is now the largest logistics, transport and stevedoring business in regional Queensland.
It was part of guiding the business into a new era, Darren said.
“It’s important that we can keep our systems current and up to date so that we can flex up as we need to and be able to cope with expansion and greater volumes of business,” he said.
“This is more about efficiencies and looking for opportunities to improve our processes.
“We’re growing quickly, so we need to be able to grow with that and handle the increase in volumes of information and data and make sure that it’s accurate and reliable.”
Benefits starting to be realised
The obvious examples were warehousing and management, Darren said.
“The new system will be real-time-system based. And we can offer the customer a direct portal into their own data so they can view at any time, real-time information.
“So that’s quick. That’s a nice example of some of the benefits and improvements we’re looking at.”
Enhanced compliance and data reliability
The new system would also help NSS meet its compliance obligations, Darren said.
“Obviously that requires a lot of access to data and often quite quickly, but the data also needs to be accurate as well.
“So having modern digitised systems in place gives you reliable, accurate, readily available data. It’s critical in terms of the regulatory sense.”
The new systems offered customers access throughout the transport, delivery and loading cycle, he said.
Implementation timeline
The review and implementation process by a third-party provider had so far been a year-long investment by the business, Darren said.
“The initial review took approximately three months since that time with (EOFY) year-end and audit in the middle of it.”
“We have a number of priorities that we’re working towards, and we expect over the next 12 to 18 months we’ll implement a number of those systems at NSS,” he said.
One of those priorities was a new payroll system, Darren said.