Halcrow has developed a Port Asset Management System, which is founded on software that has been continuously developed in the marine environment over a period of almost 20 years and is currently utilised by over 300 people worldwide.

The software is a stand-alone system that can run over a network or on a stand-alone PC. The system is developed entirely by Halcrow. For more information contact Michael Stickley or Sean Palmer on +44(0)1793 812479 or .

The Asset Management System is used to retain information on a user-friendly platform using base maps and photographic back-drops.  Individual assets are recorded on the map, and assets of different types can be filtered for ease of access.

Users can click on an asset to pull up a diary of records associated with that location.  These can include inspection pro forma, photographs, PDF, AutoCAD or Microsoft documents.  It is usually the case that a historic record of information associated with an asset is built up over time.

Being able to access information on asset location, condition, and historical records of intervention forms and costs provide a powerful basis for making asset management decisions on a day-to-day and high level budgeting.

Halcrow's Asset Management system also provides for analysis of various data sets over time.

Survey data, typically through navigation channels can be analysed to identify areas of accretion, alarm or crisis areas can be flagged which in turn can be used to optimise maintenance dredging.

Climatic time-series data can be uploaded and analysed: wave data, water levels and wind data.

The ability to store and interrogate climatic information alongside asset data provides a much wider picture, E.g. damage sustained to an asset may relate directly to a severe storm event.

The use of the asset information can be extended for use in direct management decisions through the reporting function of the system.  The system allows users to run a report on condition by asset type, this can be linked to look-up tables on typical intervention costs to enable a first pass budget estimate to be determined. 

Alternatively, the user can specify an available budget, either overall or by asset type, and run a report on the recommended interventions. 

Such a report requires that the user is clear on the objective criteria that are used in setting the priorities for intervention. 

Certain interventions are absolute requirements due to health and safety risks, e.g. intervention on improving the condition of yards would require an objective assessment of the value of doing so.  Criteria in this case might include traffic intensity, traffic type, pavement condition, impacts on drainage etc. 

For such objective assessments to lead to appropriate management decisions on priority actions, it is vital that a consistent method for inspections is implemented. 

Halcrow can advise on these inspections, including development of inspection manuals, training and preparation of inspection pro forma that can be input direct to the Asset Management System.

Users have indicated a strong benefit in the ability to record Health and Safety incidents within the Asset Management System, as it enables reporting on any clusters of similar incidents around specific parts of the port. 

This facilitates timely management intervention, with the possibility of both improving work-place safety and reducing insurance costs by having appropriate management systems in place.

A further extension to the Asset Management System is the ability to run a range of scenarios for intervention via a Life Cycle Cost Model.

The user can select an asset for replacement or maintenance improvement (say, to increase the condition grade of a fender from “4 = poor” to “1 = very good”), and determine the cost profile and value over a prescribed “life-cycle” of a range of maintenance and replacement actions. 

By making a number of such changes using the interactive system, users can test out their plans and verify the value of their proposed activities.

Halcrow's Asset Management System is developed in a modular fashion and can be further extended and customised to meet the individual needs of port owners and operators if required.

Functionality can be extended as and when needed, it is recommended that the basic system is populated and used for a period of time before more complex decision-support systems are incorporated.