SOGET is a unique company, whose creation and development are linked to the emergence of information technologies for the general public at the end of the 70s, and to the explosion in the transport of goods by sea linked to globalisation in the 80s. At that time, maritime flows and the number of containers to be handled increased, and competition between ports intensified, prompting logistics and port players to think about solutions to improve their productivity and competitiveness.
When SOGET was set up, its first seven employees created a tool and a computer network for transmitting data, and worked to enter the data from the waybills carried by truck drivers into a computer terminal, then transmitted them to container terminals.
That was the precursor of the very first-generation Port Community System, called ADEMAR (Accélération Des Expéditions MARitimes).
DEMAR was interfaced with the customs declarations system of the time, SOFI, and deployed in Le Havre in 1984.
The second generation of PCS arrived with the emergence of the Internet and EDI: ADEMAR+ was put into service.
That was the first step towards the today’s global community IT systems.
Similar initiatives emerged in Europe.
In the course of a few years, the number of digitized documents increased, as did the number of organizations joining the system as users, creating a genuine ‘digital port community’.
The number of SOGET employees increased in turn, reaching around 30 in 1992.
In 1992, driven by the commercial relations between the port communities of Le Havre and Guadeloupe, the first feasibility studies were carried out by SOGET’s teams in Guadeloupe, and then in the Nantes port community.
ADEMAR+ acquired by Nantes-Saint-Nazaire and Pointe-à-Pitre ports.
1st AMS Provider certification by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Advance Trade Data Initiative (ATDI) with U.S. Customs and Border Protection implemented by SOGET.
In 2005, ports migrated to the next system generation, AP+, developed in collaboratively by the Le Havre and Marseille port communities. The port of Rouen also adopted AP+.
Interoperability with the French NCTS, called NSTI, implemented to manage European transit.
Interoperability with DELTA online customs formalities implemented.
MoU signed with the Gabonese Shippers’ Council (CGC) to implement the Cargos Tracking Electronic System (BIETC) for shipments to and from the country.
SOGET awarded ECS (Export Control System) certification by European Union customs authorities.
2008 was a historic year for SOGET.
As SOGET celebrated 25 years of French port and logistics experience, the signing of the company’s first international contract, to implement a PCS with the port and airport community of Mauritius, represented a major strategic turning point.
As a hub for maritime transshipment and air transit between South-East Asia and Southern Africa, Mauritius was a springboard for our Le Havre-based company’s shift to a new operational dimension.
SOGET awarded ICS (Import Control System) certification by European Union customs authorities.
1st airport deployment of the AP+ Port Community System, in Guadeloupe.
A second success for SOGET’s global strategy, in partnership with Bureau Veritas, with the installation of our PCS at the Autonomous Port of Cotonou in Benin, and the creation of its operator, SEGUB.
Interoperability implemented between AP and ASYCUDA (UNCTAD).
Founding in Brussels of the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA) by SOGET and its Belgian, English, German, Netherlands and Spanish counterparts.
The IPCSA was initially the EPCSA (‘E’ for ‘European’), with six founding members. It now has more than 40 members worldwide.
Launch of global collaboration with Microsoft
Implementation in Le Havre of the SOGET TAS Truck Appointment System, Europe’s first community-level carrier appointment system.
Inroads into Asia with the deployment of the world’s largest PCS project in Indonesia in 2012. Creation of the national operator ILCS (Indonesia Logistics Community Service).
AP+ installed in Benin, in the Port Community System’s first border post deployment.
The port of Cotonou’s International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) Gold IT Award illustrated the change a PCS can bring in developing countries.
In collaboration with the Le Havre port authority (Grand Port Maritime du Havre), SOGET deployed the Port Operating System (POS) at the Autonomous Port of Abidjan, the leading port in West Africa.
The Togo (2013) and DRC (2014) contracts were won in partnership with Bureau Veritas.
These two African contracts were similar, as they concerned multimodal management of all border posts (ports, airports and land borders) and the creation of a national operator.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo contract stood out thanks to the deployment of the PCS pre-clearance module, creating a genuine single window for foreign trade for the largest Francophone country worldwide, at five times the size of France.
Now more than 100 employees strong, SOGET launched its new generation PCS: S ONE. Today, S ONE is deployed on France’s leading transport corridor, Axe Seine (from Le Havre to the Parisian inland port terminals), as well as countrywide in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Jamaica.
S ONE gradually replaced AP+ at the terminals operated by SOGET around the world.
Deployment of the Jamaican national PCS, including at the Port of Kingston, the leading strategic transshipment hub in the Caribbean.
Jamaica was a technological game-changer, with the deployment of the first PCS using Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology.
On International Customs Day, SEGUCE Togo, the operator of the country’s Single Window for Foreign Trade (GUCE), received a World Customs Organization (WCO) Certificate of Merit
for exceptional services to the global customs community.
Incorporation of Verified Gross Mass (VGM) into SOGET Port Community Systems, in accordance with IMO SOLAS regulations.
SOGET became the first certified DELTA T contractor for French customs.
DELTA T is an online service for customs formalities, replacing NSTI, the French NCTS.
Trafis Lab, the first public-private applied research laboratory for trade facilitation and development of digital logistics, launched by French Customs, HAROPA, SOGET and ISEL–Le Havre Normandy University.
At the invitation of French Customs, SOGET teams and pilot users took part in real-world tests, which proved that S ONE, SOGET Customs and the “smart border” system implemented by Customs in preparation for Brexit were highly interoperable.
The Rouen Port Union (UPR) bought into SOGET
HAROPA and SOGET launched a new dashboard and dynamic performance analysis module to keep track of port transit performance. My KPIs is a digital first in the European port environment.
France PCS industry group created by SOGET and MGI to improve French logistics performance and tangibly support government bodies through greater interoperability between different information systems.
GreenONE launched by SOGET, in partnership with the TK’Blue labelling agency, to provide its customers with precise, automatic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting.
SOGET's teams migrated the entire S ONE France application platform, previously hosted on its own servers in Le Havre, France, to the Microsoft Azure cloud.
Okiduty is the result of a strategic alliance between SOGET and Customs Bridge, which together rised the challenge of revolutionising customs, by offering a complete ecosystem with services using disruptive technologies.
The PCS S ONE is deployed in all the ports of the Seine Axis from Le Havre to Paris, and the Loire Axis has also seen AP+ disappear in favour of its successor.
10.000 users connect daily to enjoy a more ergonomic tool and exploit new features.
After 12 years of processing goods exchange flows using PCS AP+, the Fédération Maritime du Port de Calais and SOGET renew their collaboration.
The leading port for cross-Channel freight moves up a gear and equips itself with S ONE.
SOGET and S2PWEB have joined forces to optimize the transport of containerized goods by road, beyond the port area. From MouvONE, transport organizers can directly transmit their container transport orders to all their carriers via the GedMouv traceability solution.
European leader in forestry and pulp & paper traffic, the port community of La Rochelle is moving up a gear and equipping itself with S ONE, after 11 years with AP+.
All the company's software production is ISO 27001 certified. SOGET further extends the protection it offers its customers against the risks of abusive and malicious use of information, guaranteeing the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data transported over its Infrastructure.
Easyport at the service of port performance, the Founding Members have decided to join forces and pool their skills and knowledge to produce digital solutions of the highest quality for port, maritime and logistics communities.
A new milestone made possible after the software publisher won an international tender to set up a "port and airport community system". Trinidad and Tobago becomes the 10th country to be equipped with SOGET solutions.
Learning and sharing knowledge are at the heart of SOGET's HR policy. Through training courses for its customers, work-study students, and local, national and international academic partnerships, SOGET promotes its know-how within the SOGET Academy.
The joint laboratory project - Labcom - of SOGET and the University of Le Havre Normandie joins the national network of "LabCom" approved by the ANR and the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
Photo credit: Pixabay