Putting e-Business in Dubai Ports at work
Atelier Groupe BNP Paribas - Europe
March 2003
Dubai Ports Authority (DPA) has always been at the forefront of technical and organizational progress. DPA’s Management has early recognized the opportunity of improving customer satisfaction through faster, more reliable and eventually more cost-effective real-time interaction with its customers by building a complete e-business platform, with the Internet and the World-wide Web as carrier and user interface, respectively.
NavLink, a global specialist in strategic Internet Consulting, Systems & Network Integration, and Managed Hosting Services, has been awarded the contract for the design of a major Portal site and infrastructure, enabling DPA to offer a full range of advanced e-business services and IP-based value-added services to the ports community.
The Portal offers today three types of service:
- “Inquiries”, allowing authorized users to obtain essential information through database queries with automatic response (container status, container history, discharge and load list, agent inventory, vessel status, etc.). These and the other services are provided with a high level of access control and user identification for registered and authorized users only.
- “Requests” concern database queries with human control/ approval by Dubai Ports Authority. Examples include requests for Inter-Port Transfers, crane-berth booking, container release and other work orders.
- “Transactions” like electronic invoicing and payment have been put in place with additional security provisions and agreements with external organizations like banks, certification authority etc.
Since the installation of the e-business Portal, Dubai Ports Authority now handles in excess of 4 million containers per year, twice as much as in the year 2000.
This growth makes the ports of Dubai the leading port in the Arab region and the 10th world-wide.
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