Case
Case
Fierce competition and outdated technology have long held P&O Ferries back. But with the release of the PULSE platform, the British shipping company is embracing a more efficient, data-driven future. The key takeaway? Legacy transformation doesn’t have to be slow or painful. It can be swift, strategic, and almost risk-free—even for large, complex organisations.
Chloe Friend, IT Director at P&O Ferries
The shipping industry is under pressure to modernise. Companies that don’t update their systems or streamline processes risk falling behind in a competitive marketplace. For P&O Ferries, with 185 years of history and 13 vessels transporting over 4.4 million passengers, almost 1 million cars, and over 1.3m freight units annually, the challenge was clear: outdated IT systems were slowing down operations, frustrating customers, and impacting profitability.
Check-ins at ports sometimes reverted to manual, paper-based processes, leaving staff stretched thin and passengers frustrated. The booking system was clunky, requiring excessive customer information just to complete transactions. Freight contracts, though profitable, brought their own complexities with tight timeframes and specific equipment requirements. Passenger bookings, often made at the last minute, added another layer of unpredictability, leading to underutilised capacity and lost revenue.
»P&O’s biggest issue was outdated IT systems that consumed more resources than necessary and made it hard to stay competitive,« said Damien Venkatasamy, UK Partner at Netcompany.
years of history
vessels
annual passengers
cars and +1.3m freight units annually
The Port of Calais. In the spring of 2023, a new hybrid ferry was launched between Dover and Calais. It’s the first of its kind, with all onboard services running on high-tech IT systems—an innovation that benefits both passengers and staff. Image credit: Port Boulogne Calais.
In 2022, P&O Ferries partnered with us for an IT health check and to plan their digital transformation. Our teams visited key ports like Dover and Zeebrugge, working closely with P&O Ferries to identify immediate and long-term needs.
»Strengthening collaboration between their business and IT teams was crucial. We laid a solid foundation so they could focus on medium- and long-term goals without being bogged down by immediate technical issues,« says Damien Venkatasamy.
»Practically, we helped to design a future-facing system for P&O, covering how users create accounts, book trips, and move quickly through ports and onto ships,« adds Damien Venkatasamy.
One of the first major changes was the creation of a new app to simplify coach passengers’ throughput through the ports.
This was only the first destination on P&O’s digital transformation journey, however.
Partner at Netcompany UK
To improve cost-to-serve, P&O launched a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) of our real-time data platform PULSE on one of their key routes in November 2024. This launch followed a nine-month, tightly-knit project plan.
PULSE helps P&O address a major challenge: capacity optimisation.
Whereas freight and passengers were once managed in separate systems, PULSE gives staff a real-time overview of operations, enabling them to optimise capacity distribution between passengers and freight for maximum profitability.
One future possibility is using PULSE for terminal optimisation.
At Zeebrugge port, complex terminal operations demand precision. PULSE could play a vital role in reducing costs and improving efficiency by correlating labour costs with terminal activities, generating insights to enhance decision-making.
Logistics, Maritime and Shipping industries have an opportunity now to benefit from the maturation of digital platforms to gain a unique advantage.
Logistics, Maritime and Shipping industries have an opportunity now to benefit from the maturation of digital platforms to gain a unique advantage.
One source of truth
PULSE provides a full real-time situational overview across systems. A collaborative UI enables different user roles from many organisations (or parts of the organisation), ensuring one source of truth for all. The Unified Domain Model is defined with Master Data, Reference data, and business rules, all of which are configurable through the UI.
Real-time response to disruptions
PULSE applies business logic and prediction models to raise predictive events. With the full situational awareness established the system can make appropriate actions – both automatically and manually – converting insight into operation in real-time. Strong integration capabilities enable PULSE to establish two-way integrations to legacy systems, such that actions take effect in the rest of the eco-system.
Full capacity and asset utilisation
Better utilisation of available data allows for micro-optimisation of operational efficiency and capacity optimisation. At Copenhagen Airports, the maximum capacity level increased from 30M to 40M passengers per year. The same is possible for the shipping industry.
Faster time to market for new initiatives
Data collected by PULSE can be used to create better models which Pulse can operationalise. New business processes can easily be implemented in PULSE, with little dependence on legacy systems. This leads to faster adoption to changing needs enabling the business to drive innovation with minimal involvement of IT, reducing time to market from months to weeks or even days.
Logistics, Maritime and Shipping industries have an opportunity now to benefit from the maturation of digital platforms to gain a unique advantage.
Logistics, Maritime and Shipping industries have an opportunity now to benefit from the maturation of digital platforms to gain a unique advantage.
Immediate results include reduced reliance on outdated, unreliable legacy IT systems, which will eventually be completely decommissioned as P&O Ferries goes live with their remaining routes, resulting in improved operational stability, and freeing up resources to focus on strategic goals. The PULSE platform enables capacity optimisation by providing a single view of real-time passenger and freight data, providing a solid foundation for future innovation and optimising the revenue/profit yield for P&O Ferries’ crossings.
In the spring of 2023, a new hybrid ferry was launched between Dover and Calais. It’s the first of its kind, with all onboard services running on high-tech IT systems—an innovation that benefits both passengers and staff.
P&O is fully committed to the next phase of their digital transformation, with PULSE at the heart of their operations.
»We’re on a transformational journey, and Netcompany has been instrumental in driving these changes. Their deep knowledge, hands-on approach, and willingness to challenge us constructively have been key to our success. To deliver the first phase of this project within 8 months is a significant achievement internally at P&O and with our trusted vendors«, said Chloe Friend, CIO at P&O Ferries.
Chloe Friend, CIO, P&O
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