Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), a division of Transnet, is set to introduce a SAP HANA-powered e-commerce platform as part of its 'smart people's ports' initiative.
The fully integrated e-commerce platform is expected to go live in April 2017. SAP HANA is an in-memory database management system developed by German software giant SAP.
Under its R300 billion Transnet Market Demand Strategy, TNPA is investing in various resources and technology solutions to improve the operational performance of its ports.
Global ports are adopting the 'smart people's ports' concept, which aims at contributing to sustainable growth focusing on triggering innovation of technologies and processes to achieve a lower environmental impact and a higher competitiveness in port activities.
"Global ports must embrace digital technologies and data analytics to remain competitive and to make monitoring, tracking, evaluating and optimising more efficient for both the port authority and the customer," says Richard Vallihu, TNPA chief executive.
Transnet's new Order to Cash initiative will replace the nine-year-old PortsOnline system customers previously used for online submission of cargo documentation.
"PortsOnline had significantly reduced the manual capturing process and the time taken to conclude the online order processing cycle," says Mohammed Abdool, TNPA chief financial officer and executive sponsor of the project.
"The aim now is to cater for the changing needs of TNPA ports and customers by creating a better customer experience through improved visibility across various interactions with the port authority," he notes.
Abdool says a formal project team had commenced with the design of the new system and during the course of the next few months, engagements would take place with customers and other stakeholders through existing structures, business forums and customer sessions.
The new technology will provide an e-commerce platform with advanced customer relationship management and electronically-enabled customer order management on a single in-memory computing platform powered by SAP HANA.
Customers will be able to interact with TNPA across various channels, including TNPA's call centre and online. The platform also offers self-service functionality for customers, where they can log in, maintain their own profiles, place sales orders, view current credit limits, and view and download invoices and statements.
"Like the Integrated Port Management System (IPMS) which TNPA introduced last year, Order to Cash will see Transnet create further visibility of port processes to enable transparency and better integrated planning between all port stakeholders," says Mmutle Lentle, TNPA's technical and CIO for information systems.
Recent technology advances by Transnet include the IPMS which automates key marine processes across ports and the roll-out of port operations centres equipped with advanced ICT systems. TNPA will also introduce technologies for the management of port interfaces with rail, road and other trading partners in the ports eco system at a later stage.
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