The managers of the Port Authority of Kribi like saying that digitisation and paperless procedures are ineluctable for the company. It must be said that the company has already made the feat of designing and implementing its own Port Information System in less than three years. In the same vein, PAK launched a hackathon, a competition for young start-ups, IT students and amateurs to find technological and digital solutions that are relevant and innovative to tackle port issues and challenges identified by PAK. Various other projects are in the pipe at the Information Systems and Documentation Department (DSID).

PAK has now embarked on drawing an IT, Digital and Telecommunications Master Plan to fully harness the benefits of digitization and new technologies, improve on the functional coverage of information systems, control the costs of developing and operating information systems and strengthen internal synergies and cooperation. The tasks thereof assigned to the Tunisian firm ST2i, member of the STUDI group, officially started last Friday 19 March for 6 months.

According to BAKO HAROUNA, PAK Deputy General Manager, who presided over the ceremony launching the drafting of the master plan mentioned above, the missions assigned to ST2i are manifold. First, the firm will carry out an audit of the current state of PAK’s information system and telecommunications solutions so as to have a clear map of the current system, including technical, professional, organizational and economic aspects.

ST2i will then have to present an updated vision on standards and good practices, define the maturity and performance of PAK information system, determine the current and future needs in order to define their impact on the current system. Inter alia, the firm equally has to define the major avenues of the computerization and modernization strategy for PAK, develop the strategic axes into scenarios to define an optimal target, define the optimal organisational target accordingly, build and update the project portfolio to align it with the defined target.

The final objective is to develop an IT and Digital Master Plan, a Telecommunication Master Plan, as well as a change management plan and a charter for the use of the information system of the Port Authority of Kribi.