ASCO - Kinesys

ASCO is a leading logistics company for the oil and gas industry with operations throughout the world. They offer a number of services including offshore and onshore logistics, international freight management, waste management, personnel and marine service.

ASCO required a new manifesting application for supply voyages to rigs in the North Sea. The software had to be intuitive to use, visually appealing and have the ability to work with different languages. It also had to be capable of working through satellite communications to enable offshore materials coordinators to access the application.

A solution was required that would support the entire manifesting process from the warehouse to the platform and back again. Each manifesting stage interacts with one another and so the system was required to have different job roles that would allow different users to access different parts of the system depending on which stage they were involved in.

ASCO requested a very visual interface to the system that is intuitive to use, that people would identify with and that would require minimal training for users. As the software also had to be accessed from offshore Codify needed to develop a solution that would work well over high latency, low bandwidth communications whilst still delivering a rich user interface. Codify chose to use Microsoft Silverlight for this project as it would allow Kinesys to meet all these requirements and give users the same experience no matter where it is accessed from.

Codify assigned a business analyst and graphic designer to work closely with ASCO to design the user interface whilst the software developer designed a tiered architecture to minimise 'chatter' to enable it to work successfully offshore. After six months from project acceptance Codify delivered the project, as Doug More, IT Director explains, "The resulting software has really grabbed the imagination of our staff which is quite unusual for an IT system as they don't normally do that. The user adoption rate is extremely high and we have found minimal training is required when we add new users to the system."

The first module of Kinesys is complete and in use with another module in progress and more planned for the future. This modular approach has brought ASCO a number of benefits as Doug More continues, "A companywide system can typically take over a year to design, build and implement. The modular approach taken on Kinesys has given us a fast turnaround and we have seen the benefits sooner rather than later. Further modules can be added as and when required which gives the software the flexibility to evolve along with the company. Codify delivered on time and on budget and hit all the milestones we set. This has allowed us to quickly and smoothly integrate the system into ASCO and reap the benefits that Kinesys brings us."

ASCO chose Codify as they felt we shared the same vision for Kinesys from the outset of the project. When asked for the reason Codify was chosen over others, Doug More explains, "From Codify's proposal we felt they really understood our needs much better than the others did. The pre-bid material was outstanding and showed they really knew what we were looking for. This, along with a competitive price, led us to choose Codify as the company to build Kinesys."

Doug continues "Kinesys definitely gives us a competitive advantage and is a clear differentiator, it shows we are investing today in efficient modern technology that will give us and our clients further benefits in the future. Customers who use Kinesys have commented it is one of the many reasons they will stay with ASCO and we are in the process of taking Kinesys to other clients to bring them the same benefits."