The Integrated Information System SIVECO Applications at the Maritime Ports Administration Constanta

Introducing IT - A Decisive Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy

In light of the economy globalization, modern harbors play the role of commercial services centers that should provide efficient transportation, appropriate technical facilities and communications at international standards, in order to ensure clients access to local and global markets as well. Furthermore, modern harbors should guarantee a great diversity of added value services, thus becoming comprehensive service platforms aimed at satisfying clients most stringent demands.

Introducing IT into the port administration activities, extended to the entire port level, leads to the streamlining of interdepartmental communication, communication between different departments of the harbor administration and its partners and ensures rapid access to information - fact that recommends extending the system to the level of the whole harbor community by linking all harbor (shipping) agents with Romanian and foreign partners. This is especially true today, as no one can operate efficiently outside an integrated information based framework.

The Integrated Information System plays a major role in:

• organizing and streamlining activities, imposed by the integration of applications
• intrinsic checking of each activity , at the level of the integrated data flow to which it belongs
• increasing the coherence and accuracy of received, processed and sent data
• increasing the document processing speed, eliminating time-outs and manually processed documents
• controlling activities and substantiating the decision-making at the management level based on analysis indicators
• strictly controlling data access
• storing data in full safety, by allowing only authorized users access, and only where it is fully justifiable, and in the appropriate presentation form, due to the security procedures implemented at the level of department, user and record

Description of the NEPTUN implementation solution

Within the comprehensive project of introducing IT to the activities of the Constanta Maritime Ports Administration (APMC), the BULL - SIVECO Romania consortium has implemented a proprietary solution, an ERP integrated information system, based on SIVECO Applications. This represents a set of standard applications created by SIVECO Romania to meet the general requirements of a company.

Based on a client/server architecture and using Oracle technology, this system ensures the independence of the component applications against the server platform they are installed on - while Oracle provides different database server versions based on the desired machine and operating systems: IBM AS/400, HP, BULL etc.

The NEPTUN IT-based solution consists of a highly integrated ERP application that entirely covers the typical activities of ports administrations.

The solution includes the whole cycle of processes specific to a comprehensive project, starting with the analysis of the current client status, the development of specific functionalities, testing, installation and customization of applications, as well as monitoring the integrated software modules.

The Integrated Information System, developed by the Bull - SIVECO Romania consortium for the ports administrations, includes applications aimed at introducing IT to the following types of activities:

• Harbor activity: Management of maritime and river traffic (ships, arrivals, maneuvers, departures), cargo traffic, port events
• Finance, Accounting: Financial Management, Financial Accounting, Cost Control Management, Budgets, Fixed Assets, Inventories
• Commercial Activity: Contracts, Litigations, Ships Refunds, Rental Refunds, Invoicing
• Maintenance: Equipment Maintenance/Repairs, Infra- and Superstructure Maintenance, Interface with Cost Estimates computing packages, Material Stocks for Maintenance/Repairs, Materials procurement for Maintenance/Repairs, Monitoring the fuel consumption for ships and heating stations
• Services: Services for re-providing communications, electric energy, thermal energy, water; miscellaneous services; General Stock Management; Overall Procurement Management; GIS Interface
• Investment: Investment Plans, Public Acquisitions (investments, equipment acquisition, repair works), Management of the Cost Estimates
• Human Resources, Payroll: Employee Records, Recruiting, Performance Evaluation, Training, Evaluation Center, Payroll
• Access Control: Management of the Port Access Information
• E-mail: E-mail Management, Registration of Source/Destination Data
• Management Informational System: Analysis of the financial-accounting indicators, Analysis of the purchase orders, Analysis of the equipment availability and of repair costs, Analysis of the investment achievement, Analysis of the port traffic

Advantages of using NEPTUN IT solution

The NEPTUN IT solution contributes significantly to improving efficiency of activities of the ports administrations and of port operators as well.

The most convincing arguments are the quantizable benefits that can be illustrated at the level of each type of activity. The introduction of the information system, apart from the quantizable advantages (in terms of value, percentage, or time) produces also generic benefits whose importance cannot be ignored.

"Launching" the NEPTUN Solution

In the autumn of 1998, the Bull Group together with its partners SIVECO Romania SA, Datek Telecom SA and CRESCENDO International kicked off the project called "NEPTUN Integrated Information System" for the Constanta Ports Administration (APMC), one of the largest and most comprehensive integrated information systems developed in Romania to date. The NEPTUN system made it possible for the Ports Administration to access in real time all data concerning the port traffic - which lead to an efficient and qualitative management and a extensive development strategy.
Due to its geostrategic position, the Constanta Port represents a vital link between Europe and Central Asia, being an interface between European traders and the Asian markets.

The Constanta port has always offered a direct and attractive way from the costs point of view, for Romania as well as for the Central and East European countries. Since the building of the Rhine-Danube Channel and the opening towards CSI from the Eastern side of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, Constanta has become the main port that can efficiently serve East European as well as the Central European markets.

An important step towards the implementation of the ambitious strategy to transform the Constanta Port into the East European Gate was achieved by completing the Integrated Information Management System at APMC.

The above-mentioned strategy aims to turn the Constanta Port into a junction between the markets from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe, and a water bridge between the countries around the Black Sea and the Danube Corridor.

The project included the design, development, installation, configuration and implementation of a complete solution (servers and workstations, networks and software applications).

The system consists of 2 NSPF (no single point of failure) cluster servers, complementary networks, (optic fiber, structured cabling, radio transmissions), including the necessary equipment for a permanent high-quality connection between all work points (routers, switches, bridges etc.), over 200 performing workstations, an Oracle database management system, operating systems and software applications according to the technical specifications.

The Integrated Information System covers a large business area defined by 850 processes.

The project started with a rigorously elaborated plan, based on a very detailed analysis of the activities carried out by the Constanta Maritime Ports Administration, concluded with defining of 287 current activities and 868 work procedures. The conversion of these activities and procedures into software applications was achieved by creating 17 integrated IT applications including 168 modules with complex functionalities.

For each application, the persons involved in the usage of applications, management of the integrated system and AMPC management were trained and tested.

During the implementation of the Integrated System at APMC, Bull and SIVECO Romania made many pertinent recommendations to modify the internal procedures, which contributed to the increase of the system performance and to a better organization of specific APMC activities.

Here are some of the benefits acknowledged at the Constanta Ports Administration one year after the launch of the integrated information system:

• EFFICIENCY: Obvious economic benefits that ensure higher performance in the company activity
• SECURITY: The possibility of real time update and to access on-line the electronic newsletters. concerning ships schedule in the port
• SPEED: The capacity to retrieve at any moment comprehensive centralized situations from the database- consistent at the APMC administration level
• CONTROL OF THE EXPENSES: Cumulating automatically all services carried out for a ship by the Administration subsidiaries and the issue of a single invoice. Also, ensuring a permanent control by the system allows the reduction of non-productive (overhead) expenses and the adoption of efficient, timely measures - which is one of the project major benefits
• RIGOR and PROMPTNESS: The correct and rhythmic data processing in the system allows the prompt execution of accounting period closings, stores management, cost control management and fixed assets management - almost instantly with introduction of the latest data and transactions

After almost one year since the inauguration of the integrated information system at APMC, the consortium made up of SIVECO Romania and Bull Romania also created the portal for this organization. It represents an essential source of information of interest for the members of the Constanta Port community, due to providing data concerning specific harbor activities, as well as for other visitors, due to the marketing information, general information and statistics offered.

The portal is meant to be one of the main promotion tools of the Constanta Port - for Romanian or foreign companies interested in carrying out various activities there.

Browsing through the portal's pages, visitors, at any time, access the latest data and information concerning APMC and the port's activity.

The public, general interest information includes presentations of the available port facilities (equipments, infrastructure, services etc.), as well as of general statistics. such as those concerning merchandise quantities transiting the harbor yearly.

The information useful to the harbor community is various and tries to cover all the needs of a community member.