The company’s port system is a hit in LA/LBBy Peter A. Buxbaum, AJOTAdvent, Inc. stumbled by sheer good fortune on a venture that will keep the company liquid during these hard economic times. The Murray Hill, N.J.-based software developer, best known for its maritime terminal operating systems, won a contract in 2008 to adapt its existing product to one which would automate the implementation of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports’ PierPass and Clean Trucks programs. The result is what Advent calls its Port Community System, or PCS, a single system designed to manage the diverse needs—such as fee payments, EDI communications, appointment systems, and truck traffic management—of a port community. Now that Advent has implemented its PCS in Los Angeles and Long Beach, it has galvanized interest among other port authorities to do the same. “No one is spending money on maritime terminal operating systems,” said Carl D’Emilio, Advent’s CEO. “But many ports are looking at implementing some kind of program.” The ports of Seattle, Tacoma, and Oakland in the United States, and Sydney, Australia, are among the ports expected to acquire port management systems in the coming year or so. “Most port authorities have embarked on some flavor of a green initiative,” said D’Emilio. “The same kind of data collection, fee generation, and appointment services that support the PierPass initiative can also be adapted to other programs.” Advent expects to get its fair share of the business. “Our successful implementation in Los Angeles and Long Beach has put us in a good position to get other business,” said D’Emilio. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach started the PierPass and Clean Trucks programs in 2005. Back then, the challenge was to mitigate the ill effects the boom in international trade, and the concomitant rise in truck traffic were having on the ports’ landside environments. PierPass added five extra shifts per week to port work schedules in an effort to shift a significant level of cargo to off-peak hours, while charging higher fees to shipments moving during peak times. The Clean Trucks program provides incentives to harbor truck operators to switch to low-emission, alternative-fuel trucks by charging higher fees to “dirty” trucks as opposed to those using cleaner fuels. These new pricing schemes and fee schedules required an automated management system. A company called ACS, which provides automated road toll systems, won the original contract in 2005, but the port authorities were dissatisfied with the solution, so they re-bid the contract in 2008 and Advent landed the job. “They needed a company that could provide the financial piece and which understood the maritime terminal business,” said D’Emilio. To create its Port Community System, Advent borrowed components its other products and assembled a single database which could calculate financial transactions, handle electronic data interchanges (EDI), and track port trucks by their radio-frequency identification (RFID) numbers in order to apply appropriate fees as they move through the port. Advent teamed up with VE Systems of Irvine, Calif., to provide the financial transaction end of the system. Advent’s EDI engine is now handling 4 million transactions per month for PierPass. “The important thing is that, instead of cobbling together parts of our older products, we gutted everything and started from the ground up to create one database that manages all functions,” said D’Emilio. The Advent product is also modular in design, allowing ports to select different offerings when and as they need them without having to invest in a new system. The PCS modules include truck management functions such as terminal appointments, cargo availability, truck tracking and dispatching; terminal activities such as appointment management, content management and EDI monitoring; and shipper features such as port fee payments, notifications, and account administration. The guts of the system includes Advent’s EDI engine