Carl D'Emilio runs a software company, but he's never written a line of code in his life. "I'm not a technical person," he said. Advent Inc., which develops booking, tracking and documentation technology for ocean container carriers and shippers, has been doing well in a bad market, with revenue up 40% in 2001, D'Emilio said.
Relaxed in jeans and a blue shirt left open at the collar, he's quite clear about what's made that success. "It's important to have people who understand the hardware and the software, but it's even more important that they understand the business," D'Emilio said. Having spent five years managing the loading and unloading of container ships at terminals for "K" Line, Matson Navigation and Hapag-Lloyd, D'Emilio feels he has an understanding of cargo handling.
But of course understanding computer code is important, too. D'Emilio brought in Joe Saturnia — an information technology consultant with M&M Mars and Merck Pharmaceuticals, among others — as chief information officer in 1998. "He's the best programmer I've ever come across," D'Emilio said.
Watching D'Emilio walk around his brightly painted headquarters in New Providence, N.J. (his wife chose the office colors), you get the feeling that this is someone who has no interest in the dot-com hype. "My job is to make sure the sales people don't bullshit the customers at sales calls. I'm coming at it strictly from a function perspective and a user perspective," he said.
D'Emilio, 34, had early exposure to logistics when the industry was radically changing. His father, Al, joined Sea-Land Service when it was still "one corrugated shack in Newark," having previously worked in insurance. "He saw a container being loaded and thought it was a cool idea, so he joined." Sea-Land founder Malcom McLean sent him to Europe to help manage Sea-Land's relationships with its newly acquired European agents. That meant D'Emilio spent his childhood visiting an international array of "uncles," some of whom still keep in touch.
After his stint working for shipping lines, D'Emilio decided with his brother Mike (who later left the company) that container lines needed computerized operations manuals, and co-founded Advent in 1995. The company then moved into automated documentation and cargo management. In June, Advent went live with a cargo-monitoring and management system for "K" Line's Japanese operations. More locations are to follow. Advent also counts Maersk Sealand, Exxon Mobil, M&M Mars, Wallenius Wilhelmsen and MOL's bulk shipping operation among its customers.
That's plenty to crow about, but D'Emilio credits his 40-person staff with the company's success. "The reason we've done well in the last year when everyone else was struggling is the people," D'Emilio said. "We're not like typical consultants with three-piece suits. We're more like athletes. We may not be polished, but we're going to get the job done."
Advent recently published a white paper on a suggested solution to the problem of physically screening containers for dangerous elements without opening them — crucial since Sept. 11. Cargo Sentry is a briefcase-sized unit containing off-the-shelf scanning technology that could be attached to the spreader bar of a container crane. That way, the container could be screened for a range of ills, including radioactivity, at the time it's being loaded in a foreign port.
There are two main advantages to Advent's idea: First, the scanning unit would be attached either with clamps or magnets, meaning it could be quickly moved around as one crane stopped and another started working. In addition, the components inside would be interchangeable — the moment a better biohazard detection unit was invented, it would simply slot in to replace the old one. "It's better than the container-based solution," D'Emilio said. "You have to know how much you have to move a container, lift a container, how much they get beaten up."
D'Emilio is proud of the Cargo Sentry idea, developed in conjunction with Adaptive Solutions Inc., a Philadelphia-based consulting firm. It is one of 10 or so that's being considered by the Transportation Security Administration, and D'Emilio is visibly excited at the attention. The administration has asked Advent to resubmit its proposal with more detailed costs. D'Emilio's common-sense approach to business worked in his favor here, too, he figures. "I didn't know if I was supposed to go through some procedure to submit it formally," he said. "I just sent it to them."
