AUSTREX Outgrows Spreadsheets for Maritime Scheduling

Shipping is core to AUSTREX’s business success. The company uses purpose-built, highly regulated vessels to transport livestock over long distances. Unfortunately, AUSTREX’s shipping department was challenged to manage their growing business with a small team and a spreadsheet-based shipping schedule. Their manual workflow was an obstacle to growth and it cost them money. “It was inefficient and not sustainable,” notes Gary Ashton, AUSTREX Shipping and Trading Manager.

The company conducted an evaluation of software systems and ultimately decided to partner with Veson Nautical to resolve their challenges. Veson Nautical is the leading provider of commercial maritime software and services that transform the constant flow of shipping data into a strategic asset, with more than 200 shipping company clients around the globe. In August 2014, AUSTREX rolled-out their Veson Nautical solution to their shipping organization.

IMOSLive and Veslink Selected to Support AUSTREX Growth

IMOSLive is a hosted version of Veson Nautical’s Integrated Maritime Operations System (IMOS), the enterprise solution that accelerates smart decisions at every stage of a voyage. Some shipping companies prefer IMOSLive because the secure hosting eliminates up-front IT infrastructure investment and management, in-house software installation, and internal hardware and software upkeep. Essentially, IMOSLive provides all the features and benefits of IMOS without having to be installed on a client’s premises.

Mr. Ashton states: “We were skeptical at first, however, implementing IMOSLive has been one the most value adding experiences ever completed at AUSTREX. Each day we continue to be amazed by what IMOSLive can do for us.”

Veslink, the other Veson product that AUSTREX selected, is a web-based solution that sets a new standard for the collection, analysis, and sharing of maritime data.  In choosing Veslink, AUSTREX vessels joined with thousands of vessels submitting forms each month. Mr. Ashton says AUSTREX chose Veslink because it easily captures performance data, provides daily reports directly from vessels, and has unique partner capability that allows AUSTREX to easily share reports with other voyage stakeholders.

6 Months after Implementation, AUSTREX Sees a Return on Investment

Mr. Ashton noted IMOSLive and Veslink paid for themselves within 6 months. “Thanks to IMOSLive and Veslink, we’ve saved the cost of hiring an extra person. We received additional claims worth more than $100,000. We now can predict with 90% accuracy ETA to load port, which allows us to minimize operational costs when quarantining animals.”

Describing some of the benefits of AUSTREX’s new solution, Mr. Ashton lists:

• Accurate voyage costings and freight forecasts
• Fast and precise bunker planning
• Claims management – 100% of claims back today
• End-to-end workflow efficiency by eliminating spreadsheets
• No internal IT support required thanks to web-based software
• Automated invoice generation

“The benefits provided by IMOSLive and Veslink have far exceeded our expectations. I have worked on many systems implementations and this would rank as one of the easiest I have ever completed,” Mr. Ashton continued confidently, adding: “Now I have more time to relax!”