Specification of an IT Platform for Barge Traffic Optimisation at the Upper Rhine

The Challenge

RheinPorts, an international consortium consisting of the port authorities and adjoint chambers of commerce of Basel (Switzerland), Mulhouse (France) and Weil am Rhein (Germany) intended to optimise the barge traffic on the Upper Rhine aiming at an overall berth planning for their container terminals and streamlining of customs procedures between the European Union and Switzerland. For this purpose RheinPorts initiated an IT platform, which should optimise the processes between the main stakeholders for barge operations, mainly container terminals, shipping lines, barge operators and customs. As part of this project, HPC elaborated a comprehensive specification for the IT platform containing business processes and derived functional requirements. It was completed by non-functional requirements such as technical, interface and organisational requirements to be fulfilled by the future IT platform. Important part of the specification phase has been the integration of all different stakeholders and the organisation of clarification workshops in order to ensure a broad acceptance of the platform. The IT specification will serve as a basis for the procurement, implementation, commissioning and operation of the IT platform..

Tasks Performed

• Organisation and moderation of requirements workshops with terminal operators, shipping lines, barge operators and customs officials
• Interviews with customs officials of France, Germany and Switzerland
• Terminal visits and audits of the seven participating container terminals
• Definition and modelling of business processes based on the workshop results and interviews
• Definition of state-of-the-art technical requirements
• Definition of interface requirements according to international standards in electronic data interchange
• Definition of organisational requirements for the supplier of the IT platform suitable for the RheinPorts consortium
• Study about empty container management in the region
• Presentation of project status and risks to the steering committee
• Presentation of the results of the project to the executive committee
• Elaboration of a roadmap and strategy for the implementation of the IT platform

Benefit

• IT systems that exactly meet your operational requirements
• Fully transparent and traceable integrated project management
• Stakeholder and change management based on many years of experience