HPC Hamburg Port Consulting has been selected to support the implementation of the first multi-port community system (PCS) in Brazil.
The PCS will connect four major Brazilian ports and aims to increase the ports’ efficiency. HPC was contracted by Palladium International Limited to elaborate the 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 financed by the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the United Kingdom.
The Brazil Trade Facilitation Programme is a four-year component of FCO’s Brazil Prosperity Fund Programme to assist Brazil in increasing the trade flows.
One of the programme’s objectives is to modernise 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.
Governance Model
Experienced in strategic consulting for governance, specification, implementation, and operations of PCS, 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.
“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,“ said Marcelo D’Antona, ports lead within the programme at Palladium International.
“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’s strategic approach of the stakeholder management bases on surveys, interviews, and workshops.
The community platform’s requirements will need to dynamically adapt to the changing environments of the stakeholders.
In this agile and transparent environment, every stakeholder, regardless of organizational size, is equally represented and actively involved in the decision-making process that leads to greater acceptance.
Data sharing based on one joined platform can start in order to gain advantages for everyone.
“Making data available to all the members of a port community, sharing what was previously strictly guarded is a huge paradigm shift,” said Pablo Bowen, Market Segment Leader and project director at HPC.
“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 data base can already break up ways of thinking. Agility, equality, and transparency ensure to keep all involved in the process in line. A good governance model is a key success factor when you are implementing a PCS.”
HPC Experience
HPC has been involved in several projects initiating a port community system such as Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center (HVCC), RheinPorts Information System (RPIS) – an inland port community system for nine ports across three countries at the Upper Rhine and a PCS definition in a South East Asia country.
The success of an inter-organisational information hub system such as PCS depends on the willingness to exchange company information with other partners in the supply chain that pass through the port.
A PCS must therefore have the broad support of all parties. This high level of acceptance can only be achieved if all parties are involved as early as the project initiation phase.
HPC guides clients through the process of designing and implementing a PCS during all stages of the project covering project initiation, systems analysis and design, implementation and adoption, and maintenance and growth.
