“We saved about $102 million in 2009 from fuel savings and other efficiencies through the transparency we had using the COMS application on the Microsoft platform.”

Steffen Conradsen, Director, Situation Room, Maersk Line

Executives at shipping giant Maersk Line wanted faster, more efficient access to vital operational information from eight operations centers around the world. Using in-house development expertise and Microsoft products, the company designed a powerful application called the Central Operational Management System. The software is helping Maersk Line save millions annually in operating expenses through data visualization, leading to important business insights that help boost its competitive position.

Business NeedsThe A.P. Møller–Maersk Group is one of the largest transportation and logistics companies in the world. Its container division, Maersk Line, has offices and subsidiaries in more than 135 countries, operates 500 container ships, and transports cargo on another 400 ships operated by its partners. In the first half of 2010, the container-related activities of the A.P. Møller-Maersk Group reported more than U.S.$12.4 billion in revenue.

Coordinating the logistics of a global shipping operation is immensely complicated. In recent years, the job of Maersk Line managers has become even more complex, with the economic downturn and increased competitive pressures. And, as the world’s second-largest consumer of “bunker fuel”—the heavy fuel used to power large ship engines—Maersk Line was also concerned about the effects of rising fuel costs on its business. The situation was particularly acute for personnel at the company’s headquarters in Copenhagen, where they help monitor and coordinate the activities of frontline operations working from eight different operations centers around the world.

Steffen Conradsen, an operations manager at Maersk Line headquarters, says senior executives wanted to implement a technology solution that could help gather information from the regional centers faster and more efficiently than the traditional, manually intensive method of using email and spreadsheets. The goal was to perform business analysis on events and operating costs such as the late arrival of a ship into port or higher-than-normal use of fuel.

“We needed a team that could operate as the ‘eye in the sky’ on all of our global operations to get a better sense of how we were performing and to find ways of serving our customers more effectively,” says Conradsen. “For example, it used to take up to two weeks to gather reliability data on the global fleet schedules. This was a real problem because of the time it took to analyze and fix the problem.”

SolutionThe company’s regional operation in Spain had developed an application called the Central Operational Management System (COMS). It was based on Microsoft products including Microsoft SQL Server data management software. At the urging of senior executives, company developers expanded on this application. It is now the

Customer: Maersk LineWebsite: www.maerskline.com Customer Size: 17,000 employeesCountry or Region: DenmarkIndustry: Transportation and logistics

Customer ProfileMaersk Line is one of the world’s largest shipping companies. Based in Copenhagen, it is a division of the A.P. Møller–Maersk Group, a corporation that was ranked 147 in the 2010 Fortune Global 500 listing.

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Enterprise Microsoft Visual Studio− Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

Professional Edition Technologies− Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies

Microsoft SQL ServerCustomer Solution Case Study

Maersk Container Division Cuts Operating Costs by $102 Million with New Software

core logistics information solution used in the “Situation Room” in Copenhagen. It is also used in frontline operations centers and in various business departments.

Conradsen, who was named Director of the Situation Room, says Maersk Line decided to use the Microsoft products to update and enhance the COMS solution because the application worked well in its original iteration. “Plus, we already had the Microsoft tools and expertise inside the company, which would let us quickly take initial concepts for richer features and expand them into user testing,” he says.

The solution is a visually rich, continually evolving application built on Microsoft products that include Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition development system, and the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. The solution runs on the Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise operating system.

BenefitsBy building a comprehensive logistics management solution on Microsoft products, Maersk Line developed a mission-critical application that delivers a number of business benefits. The faster, more effective delivery of information from the company’s frontline operations centers is helping reduce operating expenses. By using Microsoft products, Maersk has created a powerful, feature-rich application at a fraction of the cost of buying an external solution. And the rich reporting and analysis give executives deeper insights into their operations so the company can be more competitive.

Saved $100 Million in Operating Costs in First YearThe COMS solution is helping provide Maersk Line with far greater visibility into the costs of its operations. The company has achieved significant cost savings by identifying the most efficient routes for ships and other factors that reduce fuel consumption. “We saved about $102 million in 2009 from fuel savings and other efficiencies through the transparency we had using the COMS application on the Microsoft platform,” says Conradsen.

Provides Cost-EffectivenessBy choosing to build the enhanced COMS solution internally using Microsoft products, Maersk cut about 90 percent of its estimated cost of an externally developed solution. This, combined with other cost savings achieved by the solution, has helped Maersk attain a fast return on its investment. “By using the Microsoft products and developing the solution internally, the solution has only cost us about $2.5 million,” Conradsen says.

Supports Rich Reports, Business Insights The COMS solution is giving Maersk Line employees comprehensive information faster than before. “Instead of waiting two weeks or more like we did in the past to get information from our frontline operations centers, we now get daily updates and comprehensive weekly reports that we put into Microsoft PowerPoint slides for distribution to executives and other managers,” says Conradsen. “As a result, we’re faster at making decisions that result in better performance.” He notes that in the past, the company’s average reliability rating—based on the number of ships that arrived at port within 12 hours of the scheduled time—was 74 percent. “Today that number is 88 percent,” he says. “This has been confirmed by the internationally recognized shipping analyst Drewry, which ranks Maersk Line as the Number 1 global carrier in schedule reliability. With fast access to data from all of our operations centers, we can provide better service to our customers. That puts us significantly ahead of our competitors.”

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Document published September 2010