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Excerpt from Intel Case Study..." One of GEOTrac's clients is Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL), a transportation company that uses tugs and barges on the Mackenzie River to provide a lifeline to northern communities where cellular service is spotty and radio transmissions are unreliable. Ross Potter, Manager of Information Systems at NTCL says their efficiency was limited by the technology available in the far north. Relying on radio transmissions did not allow them to effectively move their barges around quickly during the short June to October timeframe when ships can travel the river. Potter says they would leave a barge in one location longer than it needed to be, and with remote communities relying on NTCL for delivery of food, fuel and building supplies, efficiency is critical. Using GEOTrac's GPS technology, Potter can use the Internet and instantly see where every barge and tug is located, plan the next shipment and maximize deliveries during their short season to ensure the remote northern communities have the supplies they need before they are cut-off for the long winter months. "We are the lifeline for these communities. It is an essential service," he says, noting NTCL's six tugs and each of the 66 barges are transporting anywhere from two thousand tonnes of supplies across distances that take from three hours to nine days to traverse. With each barge equipped with GEOTrac tracking systems, NTCL can log onto the tracking software running on IBM Blade Servers with Intel Xeon processor technology and instantly see which barge needs to be moved, where it is, where it needs to go next and precisely what cargo is on board. "We're working in a very remote environment where technology is not always reliable," says Potter. "With GEOTrac, we have been able to gain efficiency that was never possible before." NTCL is planning to take advantage of the instant messaging technology to further increase communication between barges, tugs and home base. Potter sees real advantages to being able to warn captains of weather hazards or other important information that they need immediately, whether they're inside or outside radio range. |