An I.T. professional since 1999, Mark has worked for several companies over the years in various Support roles. Supporting applications primarily based on Unix and Windows operating systems, and integrated with Oracle and Microsoft databases, Mark gained excellent knowledge in navigating complex computing environments.

Prior to Port & Terminal Logistics LLC, Mark worked for Navis for over 6 years. Starting out in the Support department of Navis in the London, UK office, Mark worked with numerous container terminals in the European region, and quickly became known as the go-to-person for any issues related to the Navis SPARCS product. Mark visited several container terminals around Europe, performing new installations, upgrades, health checks and diagnosis of critical issues. Mark also was tasked with daily support functions such as reproducing issues, and answering product related questions, both onsite and remotely.

After two years working in London, Mark transferred to the Navis Oakland, USA office, as a Senior Support Engineer, providing the same services to the North American Terminals that were previously performed for the European Terminals.

While working for Support, Mark worked on several projects on behalf of Navis' Professional Services team due to his expert knowledge in the Navis SPARCS product. Mark officially moved into the Professional Services department in 2008, where his last job title with Navis was as a Principal Consultant. One of the main projects assigned to Mark during this time, was a Rail implementation project with the customer Virginia International Terminals (VIT). After VIT signed a license agreement for Navis SPARCS N4, it became clear that Mark would be working with VIT for a few years assisting in the implementation project. Mark therefore decided to relocate to Norfolk, Virginia in 2010 in order to provide a more effective and responsive service to VIT, and to reduce travel time across states.

In July 2011, Mark left Navis to form an independent consulting company, Port & Terminal Logistics LLC.

Starting in the shipping industry in 2001, Joe has over 14 years of terminal operation experience with various companies and locations both in the US and abroad.

Joe has supported various types of operations during that time, from traditional yard and vessel operations to the most innovative and automated environments of today.

Joe started his career in 2001 at a traditionally operated facility in Portsmouth VA where he excelled at Yard and Vessel planning and created innovative solutions to match terminal shortcoming and needs. In 2006 Joe was selected to participate in a nearby automated project. Joe’s main roles during the project where to liaise with software providers (TOS, PDS, RRM, ASC) in order to provide functional interfaces, manage and test software for defects, and create control processes that were in line with terminal requirements and Software/supplier functionality.

After the completion of the project, Joe went on to manage the Operations Control Center where he helped to absorb 100% volume increase and on board several new customers over a 6 month period. Additionally he helped to restructure the entire rail operation to save the company both time and resources.

After 5 years Joe moved his career overseas. He helped in the implementation of another automated facility in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This state of the art facility came online in September of 2012 and has experienced great success. His responsibilities at this semi-automated marine terminal included the creation of all TOS training material, restructuring of interface between PDS supplier and TOS, and the management of Gaps and issues with software suppliers. Joe was also tasked with selecting, training, and managing a team from around the world that would manage this facility for years to come.

From there he was handpicked to participate in the DPW London Gateway Project that currently boost some the highest production numbers in Europe. After successful completion of the project, Joe has moved to the other side of the world to assume the role of Sr. Automation Consultant in what will be the most advanced container shipping terminal in the world. This project will include the most advance forms of automation, remote operated STS cranes, fully automated shuttle carriers, and automated pinning stations. This endeavor will truly advance the industry standards for automation.

In October of 2012 Joe started the international division of Port & Terminal Logistics.

A graduate of the California Maritime Acadamy at the early age of only 19, with a Major in Business & Administration, and a Minor in International Business & Logistics. Ruth was recruited straight out of college by Navis LLC as a support engineer based out of the Oakland office in 2007. Over the next 4 years, Ruth gained expertise in SPARCS, Navis N4 and PowerStow products, providing support functions such as reproducing issues, and answering product related questions. In 2010 Ruth moved to Virginia with her husband Mark, and continued providing support to Navis customers from the East Coast.

In late 2011, Ruth left Navis and joined Port & Terminal Logistics as a consultant. Since then, Ruth has been the main resource for populating vessel schedules for terminals, and resolving EDI errors related to vessel voyages (bookings, customs holds and releases etc).

Jeff cumulates 16 years of experience in business and software implementation on large-scale projects in Canada and the UK. He began his career on the East Coast, deploying software solutions in the healthcare industry. Seeing an opportunity to further his expertise, he relocated with his family to the West Coast in 2009, where he continued to do contract work in a wide range of industries.

His career path eventually led him to the Terminal industry, where he successfully implemented a reporting strategy migrating Express reports to the SPARCS N4 Terminal Operating System. His successes caught the attention of his peers, who realized his approach and track record would serve the marine industry well. Jeff has since relocated with his family to sunny Arizona, where he will continue to work directly with our customers gathering business requirements, and advising them on their operational needs to improve productivity. Jeff is a wizard with Oracle, SQL, PL/SQL development, among his wide array of tools.

Jeff has a reputation of consistently delivering high quality business and technical requirements, code reviews, team-oriented leadership, development and deployment of IT systems. He is relentless at procuring tailored solutions to improve productivity.

Patrick started working in the Maritime/Supply chain software space in 2001 and has accumulated 18+ years of experience working with container terminals and shipping lines all around the world. Experienced with complex project management, analyzing business processes, configuration and testing, professional services, creating and executing training programs, practice management, change management, customer success programs and consulting around the world.

Patrick started his career providing SPARCS/Express product support and QA for Maersk, the largest shipping/terminal operator in the world. During that time he provided customer support, case management, and issue tracking through Salesforce. He also managed and installed fixes directly onto client’s production systems while ensuring minimal down time for critical port operations. Patrick participated in upgrades of 11 domestic Maersk terminals, the largest handling more than 2 million TEU’s.

As a project consultant, he gained operational and implementation experience at terminals worldwide including Projects include ECT Deltaport (Europe Container Terminals), PHA (Port of Houston Authority), TSI (terminal Services Inc), YTI (Yusen Terminals Inc), APMNA BAL (Port of Baltimore), APMNA HOU (Port of Houston), APMNA OAK (Port of Oakland), APMNA MIA (Port of Miami), GCT (Global New Jersey), TIPS (Thailand) and APMNA Pier 400 (Los Angeles) .

As a Project Manager Patrick managed implementations in four countries with budgets ranging from $300K to over $1. During this time he conducted O&A’s, managed budgets, generate weekly reports, conducted client calls, performed project planning, scheduled resources, organized go-lives, and managed projects closure. Projects he managed include GCT (New Jersey), TIPS (Laem Chabang), TSC (Itapoa Brazil), MGT (Montreal), and VIT (Virginia). GCT was the first live instance of SPARCS N4 in North America and Itapoa was the first in Brazil.

Patrick also created a standardized Navis N4 training program and lead product training for customers at marine terminals around the world in Namibia, Cartagena, Kuala Lumpur, Dakar, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, Rotterdam and others. Patrick created training for Navis BI as well.

As Practice Manager Patrick lead a team of 12 and was responsible for overall policies/day to day business operations of the field development group to generate customer funded product enhancements for Navis N4.

We are offering an opportunity to be part of a high-performing team helping one of the most technologically advanced container terminals in the world to be the most efficient and profitable terminal in the region. You will be contributing to the client's ambition of transforming and maintaining a leading position within the port industry. This is an opportunity to work closely together with terminal leaders to leverage a strong relationship and ensure a good working environment. You will be part of a strong and fully engaged project team in a fast-paced business environment offering unique personal growth opportunities.

Responsibilities

The Associate Consultant:

• actively learns and contributes to fine tuning the operational processes in a fully automated container terminal in order to ensure the same processes are reflected in the Terminal Operating System (TOS)
• contributes towards the development of TOS implementation documents including reference data configuration and maintenance, workflow mapping as per business requirements, system installation, system testing, and integration.
• performs standard TOS administration duties including reference data maintenance, patch testing and installation, log file maintenance, vessel and yard file maintenance, vessel schedules, configurations and settings, etc.
• follows up the resolution of incidents with suppliers and ensure timely delivery of required solutions
• executes the implementation and support of business-critical systems
• supports the integration of the TOS with the automated equipment
• acts as the bridge between with operations and the IT department
• assists with performing system implementation tasks for implementation projects
• helps to determine business and technology requirements in terms of operational process and technology.
• works as part of a team providing technical solutions for the implementation of products from vendors such as NAVIS, ABB, NASCENT, NOW Solutions, CAMCO, IDENTEC and more.
• works closely with Operations personnel and peers to define, prioritize and document business and operational requirements for system implementation and upgrade projects.
• assists with defining interface requirements to integrate solutions with other existing systems, and assess solution options and define conceptual solution design, in conjunction with client operational and IT systems engineers.
• serves as customer advocate throughout solution design, development and test phases to ensure delivered solution meets customer objectives.
• assists with building a growing consulting practice to include practice aids and templates for use at multiple clients.
• provides onsite and on-call support to end users at the terminal and integrated 3rd party systems
• prioritizes reported issues to accurately identify, escalate, and respond to urgent or critical matters in support of 24x7x365 operations.
• works towards building a continuous improvement mind set for the business-critical systems and processes for their respective areas of responsibilities
• Day to day interaction with the vendors for hardware and standard software in accordance with IT policy and standards
• adheres to the agreed SLAs for system maintenance & support.
• installs, modifies and makes minor repairs to applications, and provides technical assistance and training to end users.
• loads specified application packages/patches/releases into computer systems as and when there are new developments from vendors

Qualifications

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Computer Applications, Electrical or Automation

Or

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Experience

• Experienced in technical application administration
• Experienced in functional administration experience
• Experience of working in a highly responsive support organization
• Maritime experience is a plus

Any of the below skills would be highly advantageous

• Development experience in C++/Java/Javascript
• Experience designing complex algorithms for mission-critical, enterprise software applications
• Application development and dimensional (data) warehouse experience
• Experience with test automation, describing functional requirements with use cases, and capturing designs
• Experience working in team-oriented environments, and working with other project stakeholders and functional groups
• Working knowledge of Databases (SQL, ORACLE, MYSQL) including querying the database, creating / modifying tables, views, familiar with backup/recovery techniques

Mandatory skills required

• Must be multi-task oriented with proven ability to manage several activities simultaneously.
• Fluent communication in English language

Who writes the reports used by Terminal Operations? Do you have somebody that has expertise in databases and joining data between multiple tables? Or do you have somebody with enough knowledge to get by? Do you have the TOS provider write all reports for you? Do you experience system performance issues when specific reports need to be run?

Port & Terminal Logistics can take care of all aspects of the report lifecycle. We perform in depth analysis of the operations performed in each department of your business for your reporting needs. From requirements gathering, to design, creation, implementation and support. We tailor all reports that are generated into a single common structure to be re-used across all reports. Why hard code a report based on today's operating rules, when they may change in a year or two and make the report incorrect? We can create reports that are truly customizable, and can easily be modified based on configuration settings. This makes the reports as dynamic as the Terminal Operating System itself, and ensures vital information is not lost or incorrect as things change over time.

Why outsource this task?

Ask the following questions to help understand how much this task costs you as a company:
  - How many people have an extensive Navis N4 Data Model knowledge?
  - What percentage of their time will be spent on this task?
  - Is there other work they can be doing that is more valuable to the company?
  - Do we have the right resources to gather cohesive requirements?

Our Services

With an extensive N4 Data Model knowledge, we are able to provide turn key solutions from Business Analysis to Deployment. We proud ourselves in delivering high quality products focused on look and feel consistency, standardization and best practices. In the initial phase, we can explore different reporting strategies based on customer’s vision and existing in-house technology.

Whose responsibility is it to create vessel schedules in the Terminal Operating System - Operations (since it is vessel work) or IT (since EDI fails if the vessel visit doesn’t exist)?

If your terminal has asked this question before, you are not alone. Employees typically do not want to take ownership of inputting vessel schedules in the TOS, as it is a boring, tedious task.

It is not something that (in general) is adequately performed by temporary staff. EDI for Bookings, Manifests, Holds and Releases rely on the vessel visit information to exist in order to be processed. The correction and reprocessing of this information requires both technical and industry knowledge, in order to be effectively processed in a timely manner.

Why outsource this task?

Ask the following questions to help understand how much this task costs you as a company:
  - How many people do you employ to input the vessel schedules in your system and fix related EDI errors?
  - How much do you pay them in salary, benefits, vacation, sick time?
  - What percentage of their time is spent on this task?
  - How well do they perform the task?
  - Do they have job satisfaction?
  - Is there other work they can be doing that is more valuable to the company?
  - How proactive are they with inputting schedules ahead of time to reduce EDI errors?

Our Services

With remote access into your TOS, we can input all of the vessel schedules for you in a proactive manner. The earlier the vessel visit information is input into your system, the fewer EDI errors are generated. We actively work with the Shipping Lines to input information according to their published schedules, and work with your Vessel Department to ensure all data is input according to their standards.

All of our employees are from the Maritime Industry, and have a technical understanding of EDI. They understand the importance of accurate data, and prompt correction of EDI errors. This not only reduces any delays in the operation (which in-turn ensures prompt availablility of cargo to your customers), but also reduces the chances of an unauthorized gate out of a container which can result in hefty fines.