Grupo CICE

Grupo CICE (CICE) is an integrated logistics company headquartered in Veracruz, Mexico. The company has gained a competitive advantage by handling a variety of cargo types in the container-centric region of the Gulf of Mexico. To consolidate this advantage, CICE upgraded its homemade terminal operating system (TOS), opting for Master Terminal due to its ability to cope with the complexities of managing mixed cargo.

The big decision

The decision to purchase a TOS was driven by a number of factors according to Genaro Mendez, Director of Information Technology at Grupo CICE.

“Large efforts were being required to maintain our legacy systems. These systems were composed of several modules that lacked both integration and the ability to deal with new functionality that we were introducing at the port.”

“We had a decision to make,” adds Mendez. “To completely redesign and rewrite all our software, or to look for a solution that could fast-track us to the same level as, or further than, our competitors.”

An innovative approach

When selecting a software solution, CICE had to look at the bigger picture. What vendor could provide them with a single system that could handle the intricacies of their diverse business operations?

“We reviewed several systems, most of which either specialized in containers, or if they handled general cargo were composed of a mixture of different systems,” says Mendez. “Master Terminal offered us one system for all our requirements and has a very large list of useful features.”

CICE has taken an innovative approach to their use of Master Terminal, using the software’s flexibility to customize work order functionality. By leveraging Master Terminal’s Web Services architecture and CAMS (cargo activity messaging system), CICE has been able to build a streamlined process by which to take in data from a customer-facing Web Portal.

Much like an e-commerce site, CICE’s customers can select the services they would like CICE to perform, chiefly cargo being delivered to, or picked up from, the terminal. The solution also provides the required output to support billing for the services that were completed.

Surviving in a global economy

By providing facilities to handle mixed cargo, CICE are offering an alternative to the more one-dimensional container-specific terminals. The introduction of Master Terminal, a TOS designed to handle the complexities of managing mixed cargo, has allowed CICE to streamline processes and ultimately increase throughput.

“Efficiency is the only form of defense for a service business,” says Genaro. “To do more with less resources in a record time, is always the goal for survival in a global economy. This is particularly true of those of us in the maritime industry looking to service foreign trade. We are confident that Jade Logistics can help us in fine tuning our business processes and controls to achieve the efficiency we expect.”