Controlling flows of goods and traffic in real time

It is the largest seaport in Germany: the Port of Hamburg. 145.7 million tons of goods and merchandise were handled here in 2014, up to 40,000 trucks were loaded and unloaded every day and over 150,000 jobs in the metropolitan region are directly or indirectly linked to the port.

And the prospects are promising: the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics expects the number of containers handled annually to increase from just under 10 million at present to 14.5 million by 2025 - an increase of almost 50 percent.

However, the port's success presents its operator, the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), with a challenge: it cannot and does not want to expand roads, railways and waterways indefinitely on the limited port area.

As early as 2011, the HPA was therefore looking for ways to manage the flow of goods and traffic in the port more efficiently and to make optimum use of the limited space available. The maxim was to increase throughput and turnover in the same space.

Globally unique IT solution developed

In 2011, the HPA commissioned T-Systems to develop a digital logistics concept that would meet the requirements and help secure the future viability of the Port of Hamburg.

Deutsche Telekom's business customer division set up a comprehensive project team with SAP, freight forwarders, parking lot operators and the ADAC.

Smartport Logistics (SPL) was launched as a pilot project in September 2012. After a two-year test phase, the HPA, Deutsche Telekom and SAP released their joint project for official use.

The globally unique system consists of two central components: Telematic One based on the Connected Car platform from T-Systems and Connected Logistics based on Hana.

Smartport Logistics brings together all relevant traffic and infrastructure data from the port in real time in a private cloud, such as container locations, truck positions, construction sites and parking spaces.

The Hana in-memory database ensures that the collected data is analyzed immediately. The information obtained is passed on directly to port operators, freight forwarders, truck drivers and parking lot operators in a targeted manner - using a Telematic app from T-Systems, among other things.

In this way, SPL ensures that all those involved are provided with the relevant information at the right time. And the Hamburg Port Authority itself receives a centralized picture of the situation at the touch of a button.

Productivity up twelve percent

The digital logistics solution from T-Systems and SAP offers a number of advantages. The ETA service (Estimated Time of Arrival) calculates and displays the expected arrival time of trucks at the terminal.

The "Track & Trace" function plans the assignment of containers to trucks and minimizes dwell times in the port. A geofencing system informs the dispatcher when the truck reaches or leaves a certain zone. This means that the driver only receives exactly the information that is relevant to his route.

Traffic Control" sends the truck driver up-to-date data on the traffic and infrastructure situation - for example on traffic jams, current roadworks, bridge closures or openings. And a messaging service directs the trucker to a parking space if required.

Thanks to continuous data exchange, port operators, freight forwarders and parking lot operators, among others, can react to the current situation in real time and use their resources more efficiently.

Everyone involved benefits: port management can monitor and control truck and container movements in real time. Freight forwarders can coordinate their fleets faster and more flexibly. And the trucker knows immediately the quickest way to get to the location of the container to be picked up or whether loading will be delayed and he can head for a free parking space first.

Positive effects: shorter downtimes, faster goods handling, better utilization of the existing infrastructure. Thanks to Smartport Logistics, the productivity of individual participants has already increased by twelve percent.

And the solution's potential is far from exhausted. The added value of SPL is also clearly noticeable in everyday working life: a truck driver now manages an average of eight port tours a day instead of seven.

Freely scalable thanks to the cloud

This shows: Alongside many other industries, logistics companies are also taking the path of digitalization - and it is paying off. The basis for the digital transformation of port logistics is the cloud.

All SPL services are provided as software as a service from a private cloud. Advantages of the technology: Additional applications can be easily integrated in the future and the HPA does not have to operate its own server farms.

The solution is also freely scalable without any major additional investment. The cloud not only provides services for the HPA and other users, it also stores all available information provided by the two central SPL components.

Telematic One, based on the Connected Car platform from T-Systems, integrates the telematics systems of vehicle and trailer manufacturers and transmits relevant traffic information.

Dispatchers and truck drivers no longer have to exchange important information via inadequate radio connections. The on-board units in the trucks or Samsung tablets with a special T-Systems Telematic app in the driver's cab are used for communication.

Orders can be transmitted, positions communicated, traffic information displayed and queries made. Geofencing technology ensures precise positioning of the truck and enables location-based services.

Evaluate traffic data in real time

Connected Logistics - based on Hana - is the second component. The in-memory database makes it possible to evaluate the diverse information from different sources in real time.

This includes telemetry, business, weather and traffic data as well as news. In contrast to enterprise business intelligence solutions, the Hana in-memory solution does not store the data on the hard disk, but directly in the main memory.

This enables large volumes of data to be processed and analyzed in a matter of seconds. With conventional databases, this would take hours or even days.

In the Port of Hamburg, on the other hand, the data is available almost immediately for processing, evaluation and forwarding. In addition, the Hana portal offers role-based access to all participants.

In the case of innovative technologies such as in-memory computing, three factors in particular are decisive in addition to the software: a reliable, high-performance platform for technical provision, an attractive business concept as a customer incentive and the stable and secure operation of the solution.

However, there is no such thing as 100% security - not even in IT. This is why T-Systems has developed a holistic quality program that also benefits the Port of Hamburg: "Zero Outage" combines preventative measures with structured management in the event of an emergency.

T-Systems and its suppliers rehearse a wide variety of scenarios and the interaction of platforms, processes and people involved in more than 500 fault simulations a year. The "Manager on Duty" coordinates all measures in the event of an incident until the problem is successfully resolved - day and night if necessary.

Thanks to its pan-European network, T-Systems can also offer its reliable and secure SAP hosting and cloud services outside Germany - from German data centers.

With over 40 million SAPS (SAP Application Performance Standard) and more than 2.6 million productive SAP users, T-Systems provides the basic operation and the world's largest cloud hosting platform for SAP landscapes.

Airports and train stations benefit

In future, further real-time data is to be fed into the Smartport Logistics system for the Hamburg Port Authority - for example on order management, ship arrivals and depot and terminal resources.

Based on this real-time information, SPL will also be able to provide automated recommendations for action, so-called predictive analytics, for dispatchers and drivers in the future: e.g. automated delay reports or automatic incoming goods inspections for refrigerated transports.

The long-term goal is to link the information from all modes of transport with the cargo information. The future scenario: in the intelligent port of 2025, pilots, ships, trucks, freight forwarders, disaster control and the nautical control center are fully networked and exchange all relevant data in real time. The more data flows into the SAP Hana database, the better the traffic and goods flows can be coordinated.

But it is not only the continuous expansion of SPL to include further data sources and users in the Port of Hamburg that is planned. In March 2015, T-Systems and SAP signed an agreement to offer the unique Smartport Logistics solution to operators of airports, freight stations and parcel centers in the future.

Here too, logistics processes and goods flows can be sustainably optimized by providing real-time data.