CAPE TOWN: The South African ports of Cape Town and Saldanha have become the latest to ‘go live’ with Transnet National Ports Authority’s new US$6 million web-based Integrated Port Management System (IPMS,) first introduced as a pilot at the Port of Durban in July, 2015, according to Cape Business News.
IPMS is a new-age system which supplants manual processes and enables key port operations to be managed online in real time across TNPA’s eight commercial ports.
Chief Executive of Transnet National Ports Authority Richard Vallihu said: “Global ports are adopting ‘smartPORT’ concepts and the world is increasingly embracing digital technologies and data analytics to make sense of the information that we have around us.
“Gathering that information in the first place is a challenge. This online system will help transform our ocean gateways into smartPORTs by using advanced information technology that will make them more intelligent and sustainable, while conserving resources, time, space and energy.
“As TNPA we believe that the glue or the backbone of our entire port system is information systems, but in an integrated way, where we manage just about every input and output to make monitoring, tracking, evaluating and optimising a lot simpler.”
The IPMS, which integrates multiple ports on a single platform, used Malaysian and Singaporean port management systems as a blueprint.
The next South African ports to go live will be Port Elizabeth, Ngqura and East London.
