A new driver dispatching system is paying big dividends in the operations of Seaboard Marine, a Miami-based shipping company that moves imports and exports between the United States and trading partners in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.The subsidiary of $5.5-billion Seaboard Corp. operates more than 40 vessels in the region, which serve 35 ports in 25 countries. Seaboard needed a way to connect the data and logic in its dispatching system with the location and other data coming from the trucks.

Surround Technologies was hired to build a whole new .NET dispatching system, which is called Horizons. The goal was simple: drive operational efficiency by enabling dispatchers to make more informed decisions and plan more efficiently. Dispatchers immediately took to the slick-looking new Horizons application when Seaboard rolled it out into production. The real benefit, however, can be found in the 15 to 20% increased overall operational capacity.

Mercy Longa-Porro, VP of Information Systems, sees the bottom-line benefits of Horizons. "We're saving money in having more efficient dispatching because now they can handle more jobs with the same amount of dispatchers. And now we can see where the drivers are, so we can make sure the next job they get assigned is in the general vicinity of where they are, as opposed to driving longer distances because we didn't know who was where," she says.

Surround Technologies in conjunction with Seaboard Marine has released a case study detailing the entire process of building and deploying the Horizons system. It provides insight into the planning and development process and highlights key strategic areas where best practices and industry know how saved time and money. Quotes from key company partners involved in the creation process detail the thoughts of department heads and employees using the new software.

To view the Seaboard Marine case study online visit:

http://www.surroundtech.com/Success/Seaboard.aspx

To download the Seaboard Marine case study in PDF form visit:

http://www.surroundtech.com/files/success/SeaboardMarineCaseStudy.pdf

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http://www.surroundtech.com/Success/