Commercial Module

It is mainly based in two entities: Freights and Taxes. Freights are the contracts signed between the agent and the customer and they keep record of the information concerning Shipping Lines, places within which cargo circulates cargo details and transport equipment. Freights are a package of taxes describing the conditions under which each service (SF, TUP, BAF, etc.) has been negotiated, in value, currency, to be settled in origin or destination, etc. Among others, several functionalities were developed enabling:

• Grouping different taxes to calculate its total value in the invoice;
• Assign freight to the transportation process, with no need to rejoin information;
• Update or create new taxes for a selected freight group;
• Copy freights with detail, including its taxes;
• Build a freight inter-relationship hierarchy.

Cargo Module

It is based upon several entities: Journey, Transport, Customer Processes, booking of containers, goods to be transported, etc.

Through the creation of journey and transport, customer processes are assembled for the mediation of navigating cargo or traffic. In the customer processes all information needed to issue bl’s, load manifests, loading and unloading lists is described. Among others, several functionalities were developed enabling:

• Copying and moving customer processes (between vessels and journeys), including the option of enclosing goods and equipment details;
• Select and assign available containers within the equipment area and according to the Line;
• Smart Booking Request - Booking automatic cargo;
• Import and Export files from and to third parties, ex: APL ( Lisbon Port), Shipping Lines and terminals.

Equipment Module

This module is based mainly upon the following entities: Equipment and Traffic.

Through them it is possible to control the equipment during its journey between ports, terminals, parking meters and places. The entity Equipment classifies containers according to its identification, characteristics and Line owner.

The entity Movements is used to keep record of all equipment movements. Movements are basically defined by its type and the places where they took place. There are several functionalities that enable:

• Group Movements - Add and change group movements based on the data from the selected proceedings;
• Flat file generation to report daily movements to Shipping Lines;
• Regular record of all the movements of a container.

There is also the entity Demurrage Process which is used to register and invoice delays in equipment delivery by the customer.

Financial Module

This module uses a number of entities, among them Invoices and Services, which enable document creation and printing, such as invoices, receipts, credit notes, etc., for customers, suppliers and transportation Lines. Management and issuing of final accounts with each Line; final invoices (General Account, Vessel Call Expenses, Statement Account) may be configured following the different sizes of the application: Vessel, Travel, Transport, Time Process or Period. The analysis of the financial result of a specific Service, Line, Transport, Process or Journey is also included in this module. On one hand it is possible to calculate the net result of each Process, Transport or Journey and on the other hand it is also possible to obtain its real result after income and expenditure confirmation.

The interface with the ERP Minimal/J is included in this module. All documents issued in Agencies can and should be migrated through several available functionalities. It is possible to aggregate several invoices and migrate the invoices as a unique document, migrate a group of invoices selected according to date, type of document, customer, etc, as well as to know their integration status. Based on a relational data base, all areas are completely integrated, minimizing information entry effort and maximizing requested performance.

The Agencies entities (tables) are divided into two categories: main and auxiliary.
The main entities are used on a daily basis and represent the agent’s business activity.
The auxiliary entities support the main ones and are used occasionally when necessary.

Technology

• is developed in English and was planned for the EURO;
• is designed with CASE tool (Computer Aided Software Engineering), Advantage: Plex from Computer Associates;
• using client-server RPC (Remote Procedure Call), TCP-IP (Internet Protocol) Internet technologies, it can be generated for different platforms including Windows NT/BackOffice, Windows/AS-400, 5250/AS-400, Windows/ODBC, Java/JDBC and Windows/HP-UX and Oracle. It is already implemented in the first two.

Data entry (manifests, container movement lists, etc) is totally automatic with no need to process data manually. Herewith staff is free to perform more intelligent tasks. Using technologies like EDI, EDI-FACT, Agencies exchanges electronic information with all the Shipping agent’s partners.

Agencies is used in Portugal (Ibero Linhas Transportes, Lisbon, Oporto) through WindowsXP/BackOffice technology and in the Netherlands (DOCRA Agencies) using Windows 2000/AS-400 technology.

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