Sparcs is the graphical planning and equipment control system which includes many of the most important features of the system, amongst which are:

• Vessel Planning which allows planning of the loading and unloading of vessels.  Compared to text based systems Sparcs dramatically speeds up the planning process.  Automated tools are available that assign yard positions resulting in economic and efficient use of yard space as well as equipment utilisation.
• Yard Planning using multiple graphical views of the yards greatly assists the planners to carry our their jobs efficiently and effectively.  One facet of the system allows the identification of container groups which further improves the operational efficiency.
• Equipment Control allows the optimum allocation of equipment using wireless radio terminals which increases the efficiency of container movement around the yards.

Express is the program suite that posts all transactions to the main Oracle database and includes the following modules:

• Import - all import container details, manifest and bay plans are posted and maintained using this module.
• Export - nominating of export containers, pre-advising and handling of all export related activities are covered by this module.
• CFS - maintenance of records for all LCL cargos is covered by this module.
• Gates - the records for all in gate and out gate activities for the receipt and despatch of containers are processed by the gate module.
• Vessel - definition of vessels, assignment of class and maintenance of multiple stowage plans are included in this module.
• Billing – this module covers all aspects of billing for container movements and other charges.

The systems at NCT support many UN standard EDIFACT file formats for bay plans, vessel and gate movements as outlined below:

• BAPLIE – Versions 1.5 and 2.0 are supported for all incoming and outgoing bay plan messages.
• COARRI – For vessel movement , separate files being generated for discharge and loading.
• CODECO – This UN standard file is used for gate movements.

Customised files in ASCII format are also generated and sent regularly to fulfil our customer’s requirements, some examples of the activities covered are:

Daily reports including Despatch list, Receipt list, Empty inventory, De-van list, Trans-shipment list