Outsourcing Ahoy!

The client

Barwil (www.barwil.com) is a shipping agency that offers a wide range of shipping and cargo-related services. It has an integrated network of more than 200 offices that span 55 countries across the world. The cargo-related activities include inland logistics, distribution services, NVOCC operations, airfreight, stevedoring and general freight forwarding activities.

The challenge

Barwil provides services–such as fueling, filling water tanks, cash to master, crew sign-on and sign-off–to incoming vessels.

Barwil used to monitor its operations using a client-server application at select locations. The company’s task soon became formidable because Barwil was operating from multiple systems and standards. In addition, customers wanted to access data from their own systems instead of using Barwil’s systems, which was not possible because the company’s systems were not centralized. What’s more, each time the Barwil management required data for the global market, a fresh database dump had to be created.

To put a centralized system in place that could function in a 24x7 frame, Barwil engaged the Indian company Wipro (www.wipro.com) to:

n Design a new architecture for
the solution

n Understand the financial system (SUN) of other vendors for smooth integration with the new system

n Define authentication and controls for five user groups, while retaining the synergy of the interface design

n Tackle potential security threats arising from integration and access by customer systems

n Integrate the re-engineered system with customers’ indigenous systems

n Provide support to more than
500 users

The solution

The Barwil and Wipro team developed a web-based tool called the Vessel Operations Support System (VOSS), which is capable of supporting hub management, agent operations, customer data reports and administration from a single window.

The system is designed to allow users to access the same window for any given functionality with different views and permissions. As a security feature, user identification and time of activity are registered in the system.

Data communication between the SUN and VOSS systems is enabled via the Internet or dedicated lines (for specific locations). The workflow is defined such that all cash-related requests and responses are sent to the SUN system connected to that hub. SUN acknowledges all requests received from VOSS with an XML output. This output is captured in VOSS and the results are updated in the VOSS database.

The initial release took four months to complete and was done in January 2001. From a simple development effort, the tasks have spanned from 24x7 kind of user support to performance tuning of the applications and integrating the application with Barwil’s customer applications using XML-based messaging technologies. To ensure 24x7 availability of the system, failover and load balancing techniques are used during maintenance activities. Wipro also provided support services to help Barwil’s customers understand the system, thereby eliminating database errors.

The advantage

VOSS easily integrates with customers’ indigenous systems, ensuring smooth and timely availability of data and addition of new accounts to Barwil. In addition, Barwil has leveraged 40% to 50% cost savings on development and maintenance and a similar amount on support because of outsourcing the project.