APM Terminals’ new GC3 to help rethink technology to drive company growth
Published by Claire Cuddihy,
Assistant Editor
Dry Bulk,
APM Terminals, a port and terminal operating group based in the Netherlands has launched a new global core competency centre (GC3), which will ensure that the company not only continues to lead in terms of technology, but will proactively rethink how technology can drive company growth.
Plans for the GC3 reportedly commenced in July with more than half of its employees already onboard, but was only launched officially earlier in September in Algeciras (Spain). Global IT Director at APM Terminals, Richard Ventre, said: “The vision is to create an internal technical centre to meet the demands of our business in the areas of terminal operating systems (TOS), asset digitisation and workforce management.”
“As this team matures, we will have an unrivalled internal capability around TOS that will reduce our reliance on vendors and allow us to determine the pace we move at.”
According to the port, the transport and logistics sector is evolving rapidly, with digitisation and IT leading the way when it comes to meeting the requirement of customers and partners. GC3 is to employ industry best practices to reduce incident resolution time, the overall number of incidents, and ultimately exceed customer expectations. In other words, it will offer consistent and high-quality IT support and services to APM Terminals’ operations.
Over 25 GC3 trainees have commenced the intensive industry and operational training as well as application-specific trainings for TOS, application development (AD), and wireless fleet management systems (WFMS).
According to APM Terminals, a group of trainees has already visited APM Terminals’ Port of Salalah for an AD project and are planning their next visits to APM Terminals Tangier and APM Terminals Gothenburg to assist with the WFMS deployments.
Chief Information Officer at APM Terminals, Ralf Weissbeck, commented: “I am very much looking forward to working with partner UST, to build this global core capability centre and I am very confident that we will together make a success to the benefit all our terminals.”
UST Global’s partner programme complements its existing centres of excellence, to develop strategic relationships with best-of-breed organisations to provide UST Global developers with advanced access to innovative technology and educational resources.
Trainees are to spend extended periods of time at various terminals across the world to gain hands-on experience of the day-to-day operational tasks involved in supporting applications, and finding solutions to how these can be best supported and addressed in the future.
Read the article online at: https://www.drybulkmagazine.com/ports-terminals/02102018/apm-terminals-new-gc3-to-help-rethink-technology-to-drive-company-growth/
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