- vessels and berths
- general cargo
- equipment and warehouses
- port services
- administrative support
- full integration with INPLAN Port Management Solution and third party systems
- public portal (port community)
- Centralized workflow
- Pooling of all relevant data
- Automated and upon-request clearing and billing (self-clearing)
- Partly automated online distribution of bills and billing information
- External payment facilities (online / bank)
- Control procedures with 0% fraud margins
- External portal for customers (port community)
- Full integration with ERP and CAMA
- Statistics and reporting
- Contract management
- Automated follow-up
- Automated renewals
- Price management
- Graphical user interface
- Statistics and reporting
- Reduced paperwork (terminal operations 100% paperless, invoices reduced by 3,000 p./day)
- Increased speed / time savings in core workflows
- Improved staff efficiency
- Reduced waiting times
- No need of customer presence
- Abolished traffic disruptions and pollution
- Accuracy and prevention of manual interferences in transaction processing
- Improved credibility
- Online collaboration / transparency for the port community
- Conformance with international standards (e.g. ISPS, ISO 9001)
Case Study Port of Beirut: INPLAN Port Operations and Management System
Administrative excellence at Port of Beirut
(Authority, Operations, Community)
Winner of 2015 IAPH IT Gold Award!
Port of Beirut, mediterranean port and catalyst of regional economies, experienced a strong and enduring upswing in tonnage (4.5 to 8.3 Mio. t) and container volume (0.4 to 1.1 Mio. TEU) between 2005 and 2013. Simultaneously, accompanied by very unstable political situation, the port was challenged by significantly increased number of operations, storage capacity and traffic, doubling the terminal area, introducing of new equipment, implementing reorganizations and restructurings and a 48% decrease in the number of of employees. The daily problems led to fear a collapse of the operational capability in near future. Tremendous negative effects increased. Therefore, the management team took the decision for a new long-term strategy for the port. Both, growth and the new port strategy, made extensive introduction of sustainable IT infrastructure and port management software necessary for the driving factors shaping the port. As logical consequence, the Port of Beirut Operations and Management system (POMS) was designed. International tenders were invited and the POMS is realized by INPLAN. The POMS was designed closely together between the port’s IT department and INPLAN, specialized in Port Management software made in Germany. The software takes into account not only keeping up with workflow processing, but also integrates enhanced opportunities of business intelligence and automated functions to manage the business actively. Also real-time collaboration with members of the port community on data level and role-based access vice-versa was implemented. POMS is a web-based system providing complete, real-time access to all operational activities, past, present and future. For database, web server and workstations standard business requirements are considered to allow ease of use and avoiding high investment costs. POMS is multitenant and multilingual, contains authorization, archiving, document handling and visualization modules.
Step 1: INPLAN Port Operations Solution (Cargo Management - CAMA)
With INPLAN Port Operations Solution all port operations are enabled to be processed by using only the new software. The solution provides the following major functions, with several sub-functions for each.
Management of:
Step 2: INPLAN Port Management module for billing (IBS)
IBS ensures that all fees and services completed at the port are captured and accurately billed. The system overhauled the previous manual billing process. Results were automated, quick processing and distribution of billing and payment information to all stakeholders involved and ultimately generated revenue growth. Main elements of the system are the following:
Port of Beirut authority bills a number of up to 1.500 bills per working day in peak times.
Step 3: INPLAN Port Management module for Real Estate Management
The application administers all port’s real estate, sites and rental units and allows rapid and flexible handling of all work allocated. It offers the best practice functionality through graphical user interface and is fully integrated with IBS and CAMA. Main functionalities are:
Technological Landscape
As basis for all software systems within the port, BePoriS was created, a strong database for a group of core systems of administrative applications and for the surrounding of the new INPLAN POMS. External access is also included as linking-up to third party systems, mainly by interfaces to the container Terminal Operating System (TOS), major local banks, public authorities, the harbor master, agents, forwarders, clients and the website to underline the strategy towards a Port Community System. Today INPLAN POMS at Port of Beirut is in operational use of 900 users.
Results achieved
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