A custom agency management system, built in 2 months

The full story

Who are Cockfield Knight?

Established in 1981, Cockfield, Knight & Co. Limited are based out of the port of Middlesborough. They offer superior port agency services to all users of ports in the North East of England, catering for anything from 1,000 dwt coasters up to 170,000 dwt cape-sized vessels. They have experience in dry bulk chartering in the short sea, Baltic and Mediterranean trades, as well as project and pipe cargoes to worldwide destinations. They work closely with berth operators offering heavy haulage, craneage and fabrication facilities. They also provide offshore logistics working with major multi-national companies and providing worldwide support for their marine-based assets. It is a very diverse and demanding business, and as Andy Souter, Assistant Agency Manager says, it is one "where getting it right matters."

Souter further explains that "We are the agents acting as the eyes and ears for the ship owners acting on behalf of the them to arrange and monitor services efficiently and cost effectively whilst the ships are in port. We also provide husbandry, looking after crews and on-board consumables, look after legal tasks, arrange pilots, tugs and manage crew changes. Our work includes anything from booking dentists for crew members through all in port logistics to ensuring the correct legal documents are in place for ships to leave port."

The business is very reactive and needs to move quickly on many different requirements at all times.

This is the story of how they replaced their old agency management system and various manual and spreadsheet processes with a tailored system, written in an agile fashion using m-Power from MRC.

The challenges

Cockfield Knight's old agency management system was difficult to use and they had to supplement it with many manual processes. To use it staff needed a week's training and follow-on training a month later for the associated legal paperwork processes. It was no longer fit for purpose with the growing demands on the company.

The final straw: It was coming to the end of its life and about to go out of support. After searching for a solution, they chose to use the services of MRC (UK) Ltd and their web application development tool, m-Power. Facing tight deadlines, m-Power gave them a way to quickly build a new system that could address all of the particular requirements of their varied businesses.

Solution

Souter describes the situation and how the project started: "We were wondering how we were going to get this sorted and found MRC. They created a proof of concept pilot application and we could see that this would deliver exactly what we needed. So we decided to go with them in October and from a standing start they built the system with m-Power in the following weeks and the system was ready to go by the end of December. This included the legal documents Bill of Lading and the Statement of Facts which had to be spot on and were delivered 100% correct and were critical for the go live. The progress was great, we were able to hit our key go-live dates and cancel support of the old system."

"The first version replicated our old system and turned out to be just the start. It then progressed in leaps and bounds as the system was further refined. MRC are friendly and offer good advice on changes, it has been great to work with them. The system has now come quite far. It's so easy to use we can train new staff to use it all within a day. It's not difficult, it works in an instant."

What they built

Cockfield Knight now has a variety of custom applications built with m-Power. Here are some of the most notable solutions:

The Whiteboard

Cockfield Knight used to have a very large whiteboard on the wall in their main office that all staff could look at to see the status of all ships due in, in port, and recently departed. But it was difficult to keep up to date and simply could not show all the information needed.

This has been replaced with a new browser-based solution written using m-Power. Souter says "The m-Power Whiteboard is awesome. It has transformed how we operate, all you need do is go to this one screen and everything is there, for all our staff, from wherever they happen to be working. Updates now take just a few seconds, we ping them on and that is instantly shared across the team."

"Our work can be 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The system ensures whoever is working not only has the latest information on hand, but can update it in real time. Now that the team instantly knows the right information, there is no longer a need for hand-over and for calls and emails to check progress. For example if we get a call from the Harbour office asking for an Estimate Time to Sail anyone at any hour of the day can get this information from the new m-Power Whiteboard, saving finding and speaking to whoever is looking after the vessel. We have a central system we all can rely on."

The whiteboard is saving time and looks great. It is the centrepiece of all their processes. According to Souter, it even helps impress new clients: "The whiteboard really looks state of the art. When new clients see it they are wowed."

Invoicing

Invoicing was a particular problem for Cockfield Knight. Reconciling incoming invoices and their recharging to the correct ship owners, shipping principals, or other parties was hard to keep track of. It was very manual and led to many calls and emails between departments to resolve. This meant they were missing invoices and staff were spending lots of time dealing with questions from the finance team.

Souter likes the elegance of the system. "The new agency system monitors everything, it is genius, it has a clever tick-box system for tracking," he says. "There's no way of getting it wrong. Since this has been in place we haven't missed any invoices, not one, the errors have dropped to zero. It is simple to use and has significant benefits for our compliance. It's a great asset to our company."

"We need to send the invoices to SAP with the correct PO number and Invoice reference. This is now automatically generated at a single click in our system. This is just one example of how the solution is so fit for purpose, it is a series of light touches that make our life better. Simplicity is the best approach, if you make it too complex you're failing".

Port Cost Calculator

Another key module is the Port Cost Calculator which has replaced an old complex spreadsheet solution. Souter says "We used to a spreadsheet with a dozen worksheets and you even had to maintain formulae across these sheets to configure new price lists, whereas now we can just put new tariffs in via m-Power screens. You can do it from wherever you are and colleagues can access the results instantly as well. It is so much quicker and reliable".

MRC's Service

After being given the go-ahead MRC quickly started building the new system, working in an agile fashion to achieve the tight timescales and sharing the screens with Cockfield Knight as it evolved. Souter observes "From no knowledge of our processes to a live system and a good version of the live system within a couple of months, that was pretty good going. I was surprised that MRC are not a shipping-oriented business as they have hit the spot. They have absolutely done a great job. We have learnt from them as they have learnt from us. Their agile way of working allows us to discuss ideas, try & see different options to then get a solution that really works for what we want. Support is always there whenever needed. For example, when a ship was waiting to leave port a change to the system was provided within an hour of asking and the ship left on time."

"MRC helped design our system, understood our requests and implemented them in simple ingenious ways, with a simple to use system. We like the light touch for effective management, doing what we need without restricting us. It was always vital that it offered this flexibility as we are always having to react to new situations. The power of the system is endless, we can put as much information in as we want. It can store and share information wherever and whenever we need it."

Conclusion

Cockfield Knight have got exactly what they want and the system is continuing to grow as and when there are new ideas and demands. Souter says "MRC have been a great company to work with, polite, every question has been answered and resolved swiftly and they have contributed ideas throughout the process. Not only have we have saved on the licence costs for the old system, but we save staff time on all tasks as they are easier and swifter now. The ultimate win is that our quality of service is better as a result as well."

It has been a successful partnership, helping Cockfield Knight get a tailored system that does exactly what they need, working in the way they need. Souter sums it by saying: "Together we've built a great system. We now have an industry leading agency management system, one that we own. I'm so proud of the result."

To learn more about Cockfield Knight, please visit their website: https://www.cockfieldknight.com/.

Page updated July 2026