McAllister Towing is a marine towing company founded in 1864 with operations in several East Coast ports. McAllister Towing of Charleston was established in 1987 to provide towing services in the Charleston area. The company uses McAllister Central Dispatch (MCD), an in-house information system, to manage business processes like billing, dispatching, and job tracking across all locations. MCD allows input of job details, generation of reports, and answering of business questions about customers, tugboat usage, and past jobs.

1. McAllister Towing of Charleston, Inc.

2. Business DescriptionMcAllister Towing: a marine towing and transportation businessOne of the oldest and largest companies in their industryCities of operation: New York City, Staten Island, Portland, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Hampton Roads, Wilmington, Georgetown, Charleston, Jacksonville, and Port Everglades

3. Business Description (Continued)Founded in 1864Services offered: ship docking, coastal towing, harbor towing, bulk transportationCustomer base of over 1,000 steamship companiesUsage of 70 tugboats and 12 bargesHeadquarters in New York City, New York

4. McAllister Towing of Charleston, Inc.Established in 1987Offers additional offshore assistance and towingLocated on the CooperRiverMission: provide superior service to the Charleston area by employing the finest marine engineers, captains, and technicians and maintaining the most efficient tugboatsGoal: to be the top marine towing business in CharlestonObjectives: keep the level of their tugboatmaintenance high, maintain employee licenses, and have a high response time for their customers

5. McAllister’s Information System McAllister Central Dispatch, known as MCDMain business processes: billing and dispatchingSub processes: job confirmation and review, tow job review, dispatch listings, port job log of Charleston

6. McAllister’s Tiered ProcessInput of information for requested jobInformation reviewed by port with detailed timesSent to the New York office to be reviewed and approvedInvoice is generated from New York office

7. MCD Input and ProcessesInput information: ship name, agent for each ship, customer name, time of job, type of job, etc.Processes: job scheduling, vessel data updating, relaying of docking instructions, updating and relaying of notes, adding to job listThere are many separate options and fields to input data into

8. MCD Input MethodsManual typing: job tonnage, date of order placementDrop down menu: agent, who bill goes toLook up screen: vessel name, job locationAutomatically entered data: port (Charleston), job to (MCA Towing Charleston Division)Previously selected data: type of job (ship assist)

9. Main Questions Answered by MCDDetails of jobs that occurWhat time ships departSummary of the job

10. Development of MCDMcAllister Central Dispatch developed specifically for the organizationNot a standard program off the shelfIT department interviewed different programmers around countryIT advised company president about best systemCompany president had final decisionMCD is maintain in house by McAllister’s IT departmentMCD is the universal system used by all eleven McAllister Towing locations

11. MCD Sample ReportsJob confirmation and review: dispatcher inputs all information for job when requested, used the most frequently

12. MCD Sample ReportsTow job review: summary of job, not frequently used unless there is a problem with a job

13. MCD Sample ReportsInvoice: generated frequently with every job for customer

14. MCD Sample ReportsList of dispatch jobs: list of jobs with color coding system

15. MCD Sample ReportsPort job log: most complex, answers business questions

16. Port Job LogCan show all previous jobs Allows for specific selections of a data setInformation: order date, time requested, time started, vessel to be assisted, NRT, tug boats used, type of work, job location, customer number and name, job number

17. McAllister Business QuestionsHow many tugs were sent out on October the 22nd with a job type of docking? FiveHow many time have jobs been requested by customer number 124018, Hamburg Sud?From October 10th to October 24th there were four requestsWhich tugboat is being used the most?The Dorothy McAllister was used twenty-one times by itself, the Nancy McAllister only used four times by itself

18. Business QuestionsWhich customers have a tendency to request a job type of sailing or docking?

19. Business QuestionsHow many tugs are used with each vessel requesting assistance?

20. ConclusionMCD is a very effective system that generates all necessary information for the companyWith a specific design for the company and the ability to be maintained in-house, the system is very successfulUsing MCD, the company can answer many questions about customers and jobs to help analyze their company