Belfast Harbour operates Northern Ireland’s principal maritime gateway, handling more than two thirds of the region’s maritime trade activity.

Belfast Harbour is committed to developing a World Leading Regional Port, utilising leading edge technology and sustainable energy solutions to unlock new levels of safety, productivity and profitability for everyone. The Harbour Estate covers an area of 2,000 acres and is a key element of Northern Ireland’s logistics and distribution hub. The Harbour Estate is a key economic hub, with over 700 businesses working within the harbour and a source of tourism with over 1.4m passengers moving through the port annually, all of which contribute significantly to Northern Ireland’s economy.

To support these activities, Belfast Harbour wanted to ensure that they had access to the latest financial data across the business so that they could make informed decisions that support continued growth, while simultaneously introducing efficiencies.

Belfast Harbour selected Version 1 and their recommendation of the industry-leading Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform following a competitive tender exercise. The resulting programme of work involved the replacement of legacy Financial and Procurement systems, and the migration of existing data, to consolidate information and processes. The scope of services included General Ledger, Accounts Payable/ Receivable, Fixed Assets, Cash Management, Purchasing, Self-Service Procurement, Inventory and Making Tax Digital.

As part of a single collaborative project team, Version 1 worked closely with Belfast Harbour from day one to develop a trusted partnership that covered project preparation, design, implementation, testing and hypercare services; which enabled go-live of the ERP within the agreed project duration.

Version 1 is also assisting BHC with an on-going Managed Service to ensure that continuous innovation from Oracle’s quarterly releases can be applied.

Alison Headley, Public Sector Portfolio Director at Version 1, said:

As a leading supplier of Oracle SaaS expertise, Version 1 are delighted to have helped Belfast Harbour with the successful delivery of Oracle Cloud ERP. Belfast Harbour has been a pleasure to work with and we look forward to further developing this partnership to enable further business benefits.

Kerry Vester, IS Manager at Belfast Harbour Commissioners, said:

Version 1 was our partner in delivering Oracle Fusion ERP solution.  Our aim was to replace legacy Finance, Procurement, Fixed Assets and Payment applications with a single solution.  Overall, the implementation went smoothly and was completed under budget which was a great achievement given the size and complexity of the system and project.  Our approach was to “Adopt not Adapt” – Version 1 helped us reach that goal using the full configuration capabilities of Oracle Fusion with no custom development required.  Moving to Oracle Fusion ensures future upgrades are completed with minimal disruption and maintenance costs should be kept to a minimum. Version 1 provided a structured and methodological project approach with any issues or changes being turned around in a timely manner.

Learn more about the Application Modernisation services offered by Version 1 here.

About Version 1

Leading technology and digital transformation provider Version 1 employs over 2600 people across the UK, Ireland, Spain, and India. Specialising in delivering digital, cloud, data and ERP transformation services, Version 1 is rapidly growing to meet the demand of its 500+ customers, from commercial enterprises to public sector organisations. With longstanding customer relationships and 98% customer retention, Version 1 has notably been gaining a strong foothold in the UK market of late with recent wins in HMRC, Channel 4, Land & Property Services (LPS), National Highways, Department of Justice, and Education Authority to name a few.