Tau Morwe on Portnet's EDI plans,
customer satisfaction commitment and more ...

FTW and its sister publication on the internet, FTNow, recently acted as a conduit between Port Operations Division CEO Tau Morwe and his customers. These are some of the issues raised...

Sydney Ramoorthy:
Q: I represent a software house developing software for the clearing and forwarding agents. Our biggest complaint from our agents is the problem they have tracking a container with Portnet.
I would like to know what is in the pipeline with Portnet as far as this issue goes. We would like to have some connectivity with Portnet instead of every agent getting into Portnet to get this info.We currently have a hub which our agents can use.

A: Port Community
System on the cards
Portnet is currently looking at the feasibility and implications of implementing a Port Community System. A committee consisting of Portnet and interested stakeholders has already been put in place. Such a system will address issues similar to the one you are raising.
It is inconceivable that Portnet will limit accessibility to a Port Community System to a single company. The purpose of such a system will be to process and provide information to individuals, Government, private and public companies that are authorised for that specific purpose.

Peter Worman:
Q: Regarding the question of the 1.78% wharfage, the perception of our clients is that this is just a tax that they have to pay.
l Is Portnet intending to retain what importers see as a very unfair tax or are they going to start upgrading berths, deepening moorings and tidying up the Port in general for all users?
l Many leaseholders have seen their lease payments to Portnet jump by alarming levels with no corresponding increase in the level of
service. What is Portnet's motivation here?
l Portnet traditionally has a very poor record for service delivery.
In many areas this has become worse. What many of us users find worrying is the level of arrogance shown by some of the new managers. We had hoped that we had seen the last of this arrogance when the ANC came into power. How is Portnet going to address the issue of service delivery taking into account its background?
l Is Transnet going to continue to use Portnet to bankroll the loss leaders like Metrorail etc?

A: POD committed to 1000%
customer satisfaction
On 21 September 2000 POD and PAD jointly hosted a one-day workshop titled Sustained Economic Viability Through Port Reform. On that day the tariff reform project was formally launched. Meetings on the subject matter (tariff reform) have also been taking place between POD/PAD and the various customer clusters.
We in POD consider tariff reform an important step in the divisionalisation of Portnet. We
support Government's strategy of creating
an enabling environment whereby export
commodities are rendered competitive on the global market.
I will refer your question on leases and infrastructure development to the CEO Port Authority.
Service delivery is receiving urgent attention from myself. If you were present at the stakeholder conference referred to above, you would know that POD is committed to 1000 % (not a typing error, yes 1000%) customer satisfaction.

Andre Wissler:
Q: What is Portnet's strategy for electronic data integration between the ports and its users such as the carriers, forwarders and shippers / cargo owners. When can we have access to this data and how would it be provided as we believe that this will be key to the successful development of business to business integration in the shipping & transport community.

Peter Hemer:
Q: Portnet has put in place new computer systems, but as a user of information this is not seen - why? Examples are the Portnet website which is seldom if ever up to date, Dbn, Plz, Cpt etc all present information differently etc
I have personally spoken with people through the organisation to try to get information which can be put out accurately and consistently, but it appears that some people believe this
information is secret (Vessel arrival dates in Dbn). This information is circulated in various formats within the port structure to facilitate planning but is also in the computer system they operate. Why not make it more freely available?
Personnel performing information dissemination functions in Cape Town have to fax out stack data after capturing it on a spread sheet but have no access to email. Surely as far as cost controls go letting a person use email is more desirable than faxing?
We read about all the expenditure going into the ports, but what use is spending money on the port when cargo keeps on getting lost enroute for exports. Surely a co-ordinated system between the railways and ports is of utmost importance. Not even Viamax, the in-house Transnet logistics operation, can seem to get this right.
A: Portnet's EDI strategy
in a nut shell
Portnet has introduced the new Cosmos operational system at our container terminals across the country. Phase I of the project now complete involved the installation of yard operation modules only. Phase II of the project is to launch the on-line billing and EDI modules. It is envisaged that this phase of the project will be completed by the 1st quarter of 2001.
During this period we will be consulting all our stakeholders to understand their specific EDI requirements and data formats and will be negotiating a sequence of phasing out our manual processes and replacing them with best practices.
We foresee two categories of information - namely, public and private. We believe in the principle that public information will be available to our stakeholders without the need for intermediate parties obtaining it freely from Portnet and re-selling it to our stakeholders. With regard to the content of private information, this will be negotiated with the relevant parties.

Current website status
The current status of our website has been compromised due to the phasing in of our new systems at Portnet. It was important for us to have attended to our operational imperatives, namely optimising our container stack areas and yard equipment usage. This has helped already in that we are handling a record number of containers at our terminals, which would not have been possible if we had focused on e-business matters first.
We are now in a position to attend to
the website compromised by the launch of Cosmos Phase II that I mentioned earlier.

Cargo in transit problems
With regard to any cargo being lost in transit we have existing processes to deal with such incidents. I would appreciate it if you could provide me with more information about your cargo-in-transit problems so that I would be able to assist in its speedy resolution.

Should you require any further information or clarification on this matter please do not hesitate to contact myself or our Mr Logan Naidoo at the Portnet IT Office in Durban on
Tel: (031) 361 7261.

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