Hamburg Port Consulting (HPC) has been selected to support the first multi-port community system (PCS) in Brazil which will connect four major Brazilian ports with the aim to increase efficiency.
Palladium International contacted the HPC, which specialises in strategy and transformation services for ports, marine and inland terminals as well as intermodal rail, to elaborate a governance model that guides all stakeholders successfully during the change process to the collaborative approach a PCS promotes.
The project is part of the Brazil trade Facilitation programme which is a four-year component of the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) to assist Brazil in increasing the trade flows.
One of the programme’s objectives include modernising Brazilian ports by introducing a piloting PCS for the Port of Santos, Port of Suape, Port of Rio de Janeiro and Port of Itajai as part of a smart port concept.
HPC was awarded the contract to develop the governance model that develops a regulatory framework structure shaping the way the stakeholders collaborate and provides a professional change management process.
Marcelo D’Antona, ports lead within the programme at Palladium International, said: “When introducing complex technical platforms that is going to disrupt traditional patterns of communicating to promote a new level of effectiveness, it is crucial that all parties are involved from the very project start.
“As a vital success factor for the acceptance, stakeholder participation should be supervised by an experienced player with an ideally solid understanding of technical transformation processes in a maritime environment. We therefore welcome HPC on board of this flagship project.”
HPC has based its strategic approach on surveys, interviews and workshops and the community platform’s requirements will need to dynamically adapt to the changing environments of the stakeholders.
Every stakeholder, regardless of organisational size, has been equally represented and actively involved in the decision-making process that leads to greater acceptance.
In order to gain advantages for everyone involved, data sharing based on one joined platform can start.
Pablo Bowen, market segment leader and project director at HPC, said: “Making data available to all the members of a port community, sharing what was previously strictly guarded is a huge paradigm shift.
“It happens, and only then successfully, when each participant can generate an advantage for himself. In numerous projects we have experienced that the step to a common database can already break up ways of thinking.”
Bowen noted that a good governance model is a key success factor when implementing a PCS and agility, equality and transparency ensure to keep all involved in the process in line.
HPC has been involved in several projects initiating a PCS such as the Hamburg Vessel Coordination Centre (HVCC), the inland PCS for nine ports across three countries – RheinPorts Information System (RPIS) – and a PCS in a South East Asia country.
The success of a PCS depends on the willingness to exchange company information with other partners in the supply chain that pass through the port.
Therefore, a PCS must have the broad support of all parties which can only be achieved if all parties are involved as early as the project initiation phase.
HPC offers guidance through the process of designing and implementing a PCS during all states of the project.
