Credit: Mainfreight
Logistics company Mainfreight continued to lift investment in ICT systems and transformation in the year to 31 March, 2023.
ICT spending at increased has from $67.5 million in the year to 31 March, 2021 to $79.5 million in 2022 and then to $94.1 million in 2023. As a percentage of revenue, ICT spend in 2023 increased to 1.66 per cent from 1.55 per cent in 2022.
Capital investment in ICT also increased to $20.2 million in 2023 from $17 million the year before.
"We continue investing capital, both in people and dollars, to develop and strengthen our technology offerings," Mainfreight told investors in its annual report.
"There has been a degree of technical debt within the business where a number of long-term projects required completion. Further, a modernisation of other operational systems was required."
Revenue for the year increased to $5.7 billion from $5.2 billion while net profit lifted from $355.4 million to $426.5 million.
Mainfreight's CaroTrans USA business will join the rest of its "air and ocean" operations using an off-the-shelf product to improve efficiency and visibility for customers, Mainfreight said. Alongside this, a full refresh of the air and ocean customer booking system is planned.
"Our transport operations now have consistency across all regions in terms of process and systems," Mainfreight reported. "Project Real Time will increase the accuracy and visibility of data for our team and our customers."
Project Real Time puts control over information with the person doing the job, using mobile devices.
This would include wharf operations when connecting air and ocean performance into warehouses for import customers.
Cyber security investment had also increased and remained a critical resource for further monitoring and improvement.
Advanced cyber security training and education had raised team awarenesss and played a regular role in the day to day work lives of staff.
Supply chain visibility now included carbon emissions calculations by shipment or consignment. This is to be developed further to encompass carbon emissions incurred during the warehousing process.
"Our Maintel analytics tools continue to provide excellent 'what if' solutions for our team and customers," Mainfreght said.
It was now intended to develop an amount of artificial intelligence alongside this to enhance knowledge of supply chain activity for customers.
"Contrary to past commentary, we are exploring cloud technology to improve our ability to support business growth and service our team and customers more efficiently," Mainfreight said.
Last year IT infrastructure and security manager Dave Hall outlined the first part of the project called "build and transform Mainfreight’s aging nerve-centre", or Batman for short, covering the replacement of server and storage hardware across the company's New Zealand data centres.
An accompanying "heart transplant" project, dubbed Alfred, involved the replacement of network equipment or in Mainfreight's New Zealand data centres.
