Case Study
The Port of Dover is one of Europe’s busiest ferry ports and a vital artery for UK trade and passenger travel to continental Europe. Handling millions of passengers, vehicles, and substantial freight volumes each year, the port demands highly efficient, integrated systems to run its complex operations.
To modernise its legacy infrastructure and build a digitally resilient organisation, the Port embarked on a transformation centred on Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP and engaged Shape Associates to lead that journey from the client side.
The Challenge
Prior to the transformation, the Port of Dover operated on an ERP system that was approaching end-of-support in 2024, creating significant operational and strategic risk. The legacy infrastructure presented compounding challenges that the Port could no longer afford to leave unaddressed:
Manual Processes: Heavy reliance on manual spreadsheets and reconciliation, increasing the risk of financial errors and audit exposure.
Reporting Inefficiency: Time-consuming, resource-intensive reporting that prevented finance leaders from accessing real-time operational insight.
Scalability Constraints: A legacy system unable to keep pace with evolving regulatory requirements or the Port’s strategic growth ambitions.
High Maintenance Burden: Growing on-premise infrastructure costs with no path to modernisation or the cloud.
Recognising these risks, the Port sought a modern, cloud-based ERP solution — and crucially, the right independent partner to protect its interests throughout the transformation.
Implementation Approach
The Port of Dover selected Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP as its strategic platform. Shape Associates was engaged to take full responsibility for client-side delivery acting as an independent Business Integrator, entirely aligned with the Port’s interests throughout.
Shape’s scope spanned the full lifecycle:
Business change, stakeholder engagement and change management
Programme and project management on behalf of the client
Data migration strategy, cleansing and validation
Cutover management and go-live readiness
Transition to the internal BAU team post go-live
The programme was executed in phases to minimise disruption to port operations, adopting a cloud-first, best-practice approach. Rather than replicating legacy workflows, Shape challenged the Port to standardise processes and embrace the capabilities of Oracle Fusion across five core modules:
Financial Management
Procurement
Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
Human Capital Management (HCM)
Shape was instrumental in ensuring the success of our Oracle implementation
Resutls & IMPACT
The engagement delivered measurable, tangible outcomes across financial, operational and organisational dimensions outcomes that directly strengthened the Port’s position before, during and after go-live.
Why This Matters
ERP transformations fail most often not because of technology, but because of poor procurement decisions, inadequate readiness, weak change management, and a lack of independent client-side governance.
The Port of Dover engagement demonstrates what becomes possible when organisations invest in getting these foundations right. Shape Associates’ role throughout was consistently that of a client-side champion: independent, outcome-focused, and entirely aligned with the Port’s best interests.
From challenging the procurement process to drive better value, to building the operational readiness that gave the programme its best chance of success, Shape brought the expertise and impartiality that only a true Business Integrator can provide.
The result was a programme that entered implementation with clarity of purpose, clean data, optimised processes, engaged stakeholders, and over half a million pounds of savings already secured before a single line of code was written.
For ERP vendors, this engagement illustrates a compelling truth: when clients are properly supported on the client side, implementations succeed. Shape Associates makes your technology investment land.
