2011 eAsia Award

Recommendation Form
(to be filled by the HoD of the country/economy)
Recommended Project: General Cargo Operations Management System (GCOMS)
Category: Trade Facilitation
Electronic Business in Public Sector
Electronic Business in Private Sector
Bridging Digital Divide
(Select only one category for a project)
Recommended by: (in print by the HoD) : Mahmood Zargar
Rational:
Iranian ports and maritime organization- PMO- as Iranian maritime focal point and headquarters of
more than 12 commercial ports has been at the forefront of Iran's transformation into the leading trade
and commerce centre in the country.
Furthermore, information and communication services are the prime objective of PMO to improve
service in advance of customer demand. PMO, therefore, has the flexibility to adopt software to
specific customer requirements and terminals management to develop and keep advances in electronic
data interchange.
The General Cargo Management System (GCOMS) is a web-based facility that has been developed and
implemented through 3 years. The system has evolved from a ship loading management tool to a fully fledged
Cargo Management System with the ability to manage multiple locations /cargo types (including bulk, break-
bulk and containers) and transportation mediums in all Iranian ports . Successful results which PMO received
during operational periods of GCOMS are as follows:

Improve overall planning efficiency of resources like berths and storage space
Provide real-time status of vessel and cargo activities
Provide centralized control centre for customer assistance
Improve vessel productivity with close monitoring and pre-emptive corrective measure
Improve port security with tracking of all cargo movements in the ports

Signature of the HoD:

Date: 16 Aug. 2011

2

2011 eAsia Awards
Application Form
(to be submitted by the project lead)
Country/Economy: Islamic Republic of Iran Date: 13 Aug 2011
Project Title: General Cargo Operations Management System (GCOMS)
Organization: Ports & Maritime Organization
Category: Trade Facilitation
Electronic Business in Public Sector
Electronic Business in Private Sector
Bridging Digital Divide
(Select only one category for a project)
Project Leader:
Ebrahim Karimi
Job title:
Director General of Statistics & Information
Technology
Phone Number: +98 21 84932295
+98 21 84932281
Email Address: ICT@pmo.ir
Contact Person: Soheila Sheibani Moghaddam
Mailing Address: Statistics & IT Directorate, 6
th
floor, No.1, Ports & Maritime Org
Tower, South Didar St. , Shahid Haghani Highway, Vanak Sq. , Tehran, Iran
Phone Number: +98 21 84932295 Fax: +98 21 84932297
Email address: sheibani@pmo.ir
URL (if applicable): www.pmo.ir
This form is completed and submitted by (in print):
Ebrahim Karimi
Director General of Statistics & Information Technology
Ports & Maritime Org.
Ministry Of Roads & Transportation
Signature:

3






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P
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Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) is the maritime administration
of Islamic Republic of Iran, dating back to 1914. Its responsibilities are
the authority of the government to control all ports and maritime
affairs, implementation of port and coastal shipping regulations,
promoting shipping and commerce, collecting port duties and taxes,
and also registering vessels. The increasing commercial capacities are
forcing nations to adopt new trade practices and standards. To provide
new trade facilitation, PMO utilized Advanced Cargo Information
System (ACIS) at the suggestion of UNCTAD in 2001. The pilot was the
largest port in Iran called 'Shahid Rajaee', which is located in
Hormozgan province situated alongside the coastal waters of Persian
Gulf. ACIS was not customizable to domestic business rules therefore
PMO started a new project titled General Cargo Operation
Management System (GCOMS) after reengineering the software in
2007 and finalized it after 29 months in 2010. GCOMS is a real time
proactive system providing terminal operations, port documentations
and electronic data interchange for transferring data between ports,
customs departments and shipping line agencies that enables the
community members to improve day to day management and decision
making. It is designed to provide an information network linking the
physical points along various surface transport routes at 54 terminals in
11 ports in 9.743.900 m2 areas in Iran. The key success point is how to
design and implement a single customizable system for several
maritime cargo operations based on different stakeholders needs in
developing countries. The importance is the solution proposed for
construction of the infrastructure of trade facilitation.















Port & Maritime Organization
Islamic Republic of IRAN
AFACT Plenary
eAsia AWARD




Table of Contents
Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Project Scope ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Goals & Objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 10
Challenges .................................................................................................................................................. 11
Strategies .................................................................................................................................................... 13
Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 15
Reengineering ............................................................................................................................................. 17
Standards .................................................................................................................................................... 18
Economic benefits, achievements and impacts ........................................................................................... 20
Next Step Onward ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Resources .................................................................................................................................................... 24
References ................................................................................................................................................... 25





















5


Executive Summary
PMO had to respond to the demand for sophisticated data communication solutions, both to drive
efficiencies in the exchange of information within the terminals and between all involved parties like
customs departments and shipping line agencies. It was no longer enough to just handle cargo in the
most efficient manner; the market increasingly expected ports to be sophisticated at handling data.
GCOMS was the solution to manage ports operations and documents efficiently. GCOMS as an
integrated software used in all Iranian ports to facilitate trade and business regarding maritime
transportation.
PMO [1] utilized Advanced Cargo Information System (ACIS) at the suggestion of United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2001. The pilot was the largest port in Iran called
'Shahid Rajaee', which is located in Hormozgan province situated alongside the coastal waters of Persian
Gulf. ACIS [2] is a generic name given to a 'tool box' of computer applications designed to produce
management information for tracking transport equipment and cargo in and out of ports.
ACIS was not success in other ports of Iran; therefore on 20 November, 2007, PMO started a new
project to develop a unified application for small to huge sized general & break bulk cargo terminals.
The main motivation was investment in IT infrastructure, because, smaller terminals unable to cope with
the demands of a global economy where instant information is the key asset.
5 April, 2008, GCOMS was executed in Shahid Bahonar port for the first time and right after 29 months,
it became the largest port community network in Iran which is consist of 375 members including 11
ports, 11 customs departments, 3 banks, 35 stevedores, and 290 shipping lines & agencies.
During these months, there were continuing improvements in technologies for terminal operations, with
the trend continuing to be towards greater integration between systems, for example combining vessel
track and port management systems. With trade volumes continuing to rise, many terminals were facing
problems of congestion and the need to utilize equipment and space as efficiently as possible.
On 3 February, 2009, port of Bushehr received the first cargo manifest electronically by GCOMS
Gateway [3] . Almost 100% of manifests are now received electronically into GCOMS by its gateway,
predominately using UN/EDIFACT HANMOV message. It replaced the seven copies that were
previously circulated around the port on paper. An application called EDI Express (EDIX) [4] is
available for the companies that do not have the capability to send data electronically. The manifests
submitted to the system are used by port operators, for operational purposes. Also a CUSCAR format is
forwarded to the customs department, for profiling purposes.
A steering committee including some sub-groups was formed to ensure the project and redesign
processes. It has often been stated that one of the major reasons for the overwhelming success of the
system is that it was 'designed for the users by the users', a philosophy which has continued for the past
50 years.
The reason for this approach, rather than just seeking to expand the operational area was quite simple.
Senior management recognized that if they did not tackle the bottlenecks that were occurring because of
the cumbersome documentary processes and procedures associated with the movement of cargo in ports,
they could not solve the problem.

6


Project Scope
GCOMS is developed to manage maritime cargo operations in ports. Its scope is general and break bulk
cargo, which includes over 46% of transportation in commercial ports of Iran and its services are to
manage operating, documenting and data interchanging processes for all members working in this
community. It is an enterprise solution for small to huge sized general cargo terminals to resolve
transportation management issues in a wide country.
Loading & Discharging of Ports in Iran in 2010 [5]
Port Zone L & D (MT) GCOMS
(MT)
Percent Area (m2)
Shahid-Rajaee SEZ 73,742,838 23,669,141 32% 4,193,000
Imam-Khomeini SEZ 36,734,866 25,484,474 69% 2,622,000
Anzali FTZ 6,868,457 6,554,630 95% 572,500
Bushehr SEZ 4,372,092 1,712,984 39% 266,000
Amirabad SEZ 2,153,193 2,106,775 98% 1,043,000
Shahid-Bahonar - 1,802,183 1,242,491 69% 50,000
Chabahar FTZ 1,638,695 388,901 24% 246,200
Khoramshahr FTZ 1,279,972 766,095 60% 480,000
Noshahr - 1,137,173 1,072,979 94% 134,500
Lenge - 1,107,187 1,107,182 100% 108,200
Abadan - 75,820 73,464 97% 28,500
Other - 9,202,445 0 0% -
Total 140,114,921 64,179,116 46% 9,743,900
1 MT = 1,000 KGs
There are 11 commercial ports in Iran with 64 million tons of cargo transportation per year which are
using GCOMS services for about 134 quays in 57 terminals around 5,478,800
m2
areas. In these ports,
12,383 transactions are processed by the system for loading and discharging 25 vessels and 8,792 trucks
& wagons daily. It provides many facilities to simplify these processes, such as handhelds to automate
data gathering by stevedores & terminals, internet & intranets to interchange data with customs, banks,
carriers & agencies and local networks to read data from weighing machines for automating weighing
process.
Daily Transactions [6]
Documents Number Percent
Vessel Booking 25 0.2%
Cargo Handling 8,792 72.5%
Warehouse Receipt 396 3.3%
Port Billing 341 2.8%
Customs Clearance 232 1.9%
Gate Pass 2,349 19.3%
Total 12,135 100%

7

The system comprises several modules including Harbor Master
1
, Manifest Transfer, Cargo Handling,
Port Billing, Gate Pass, and Statistics reports. The Harbor Master covers each step of a ship's call from
boarding of a pilot to berthing at a quay. The Manifest Transfer enables terminals to electronically
receive and transmit manifest data to and from the customs departments, shipping lines & agencies. The
Cargo Handling comprises terminal operations including cargo transferring, storage warehousing and
delivery operations. The Port Billing is based on operational information provided by the system and the
Gate Pass monitors goods entering and exiting the ports for administrative purposes.
The following figure demonstrates GCOMS at a glance:

The system interface gives operators and clients the possibility of interfacing with the above
mentioned to exchange data between ports, customs departments, stevedores, and shipping lines &
agencies. Port authorities have often been instrumental in establishing such communities. In some cases,
the role of the port authority has been as a facilitator in bringing together the stakeholders to define
appropriate EDI services.
GCOMS community includes 375 members as follows.
Stakeholders [6]
Stakeholders Number
Port 11
Customs 11
Stevedore 35
Shipping Line & Agency 290
Bank 3
Total 375

1
Harbor Master is replaced by IMAS

8



GCOMS interface snapshots:
Port Documentary Station User Interface

















9

WEB Based Gateway User Interface
































10

EDI User Interface


11

Customs User Interface


12


Goals & Objectives
This project is has been done to achieve three major values as follows:
1. Trade Facilitation
2. Simplify Business Process
3. Increase Competitiveness
The reasonable conceptual plan to provide essential opportunities is as follows:
1. Reengineering business processes to have unified cargo operations in all ports.
2. Developing software for port documentation based on major ports expertise.
3. Developing software for terminal operations based on world-wide expertise.
4. Developing software for data mining based on Business Intelligence Technology.
5. Developing software for electronic data interchange based on UN/EDIFACT standards.
6. Developing a unique web-based application for data communication between all parties.












13


Challenges

Toward project processes PMO faced with the following challenges:
1. User resistance in the early phase of implementation & their preference to work with their previous way
of work.
2. Port customers slow learning curve.
3. Difficulties in the way of gaining agreement on inter-organizational process changes.
4. Wide differences between operational procedures & documents layout in different ports.
5. Different business models in ports concerning the variation of goods and ships.
6. Dynamic changes in port-tariff values, transportation & trade policies, and the high pressure demand for
system change concerning business transformation.
7. Different levels of managers' commitment in different ports.



Strategies
Strategies defined in this project are as follows [7]:
1. Develop electronic data and documents exchange in maritime and port community.
2. Develop integrated systems, disciplines and channels of communication for costumers.
3. Design and implementation of integrated, comprehensive enterprise solutions.
4. Develop knowledge management and decision support systems in order to improve organizations
performance.
5. Expand IT solutions based on e-commerce in order to increase speed and quality of services.
6. Organizing and developing IT projects management & monitoring mechanisms, and procedures.
7. Planning for implementation of patterns, frameworks and standards of information security
management.
8. Develop human resource capabilities in information technology area to increase digital readiness PMO
human resource.


The following figure demonstrates strategies at a glance:


14



Deliver qualified,
continues, on time services
to stakeholders by IT
development
Improve And streamline
processes of relation with
costumers through IT tools
Increase
information,
system and
process
integration
Reduction
Operational costs
by IT systems
development
Improve
managing
information and
knowledge
assets
Increase
capabilities,
ability of decision
making, planning
and monitoring
Increase security of
data exchange in
organization
Increase efficiency &
effectiveness of IT
projects development
Increase quality and
quantity of IT
services
Increase alignment
of IT development
with organization
needs
Increase efficiency
& effectiveness of
IT projects
development
Increase
supervisions ability
of IT department
Increase innovation,
learning and
efficiency of human
resources with by
tools
Improve
organizations
performance by IT
development
Costumer
Orientation
Business
Contribution
Operational
Excellence
Future
Orientation

15




Methodology
The selected methodology for software development was IBM Rational Unified Process (v.2003.06.00)
[8]. In order to fit methodology with the project needs and requirements PMO had tailored
abovementioned methodology in the following aspects:
1. Work & Activities
2. Time
3. Deliverables
Work & Activities
All RUP six development disciplines, including business modeling, requirements, analysis & design,
implementation, test and deployment were used. However, to meet our specific needs the following
disciplines were customized:
Business modeling: with regards to the demand for accurately modeling both
intra-organizational and inter-organizational process, PMO selected BPMN as the process
modeling language instead of the UML activity diagram.
Requirements: PMO used user involvement practice conditionally for two years and gathered
more than 500 ideas for improvement of software functionality and ease of use from user
community.
Test: concerning high number of iterations in transition phase and economically critical mission
of ports, PMO expected very high quality deliverables with zero defects in operations as well as
billing. Therefore PMO designed a strong and sophisticated test laboratory which performs
different tests on application before every delivery.
Deployment: the solution was distributed in nature for Business Intelligence model which is
centralized. Therefore PMO developed special purpose secure VPN between the software factory,
test laboratory and 11 ports for the following purpose:
1. Iterative deployment in the transition phase.
2. 7x24 support and emergency trouble shooting.
3. Data quality monitoring and engineering for Business Intelligence.




16



Time:
Number of iterations in the four RUP's phase including inception, elaboration, construction and
transition were sequentially 1, 1, 3, and 24. Concerning port categories mentioned in 'Project Scope'
PMO has assigned three iterations to the construction of the base solution and software component
platform for each zone. As project used user involvement practice in requirement discipline, it
dynamically has adopted the software with user needs so it has successfully delivered and deployed 24
versions of the solution in 24 planned iteration of transition phase.
Deliverables:
In order to make RUP agile for the demanding and changing atmosphere of the ports, the project
reduced the number of artifacts to the least possible number of documents as the following to capture
the key knowledge in parallel by avoiding aimless documentation.
1. Business & Software Visions
2. Software Architecture Document
3. Software Requirements Specifications
4. Project Management Plan
5. Requirement Management Plan
6. Change Management Plan
7. Configuration Management Plan
8. Software Development Plan
9. Test Plan
Using tailored RUP, GCOMS have flaunted in three waives in all 12 Iranian commercial ports. The table
below shows the waves spread GCOMS in 29 months of project duration.
Ports Timeline (29 months)
Shahid-Rajaee
Shahid-Bahonar
Noshahr
Bushehr
Khoramshahr
Amirabad
Imam-Khomeini
Chabahar
Anzali
Lenge
Abadan
- Early stage of use with the parallel working.
- Retirement of old software and process change.
- New process with the revolutionized software platform.

17


Reengineering
At the beginning of the project, every port was working with its own process and documentation style
and a different tariff structure. Therefore a consignee possessing the same cargo in two different ports
was operating with two different working styles and their different costs of handling. In this way,
developing a common technical infrastructure which works for all ports was a challenging task. Also the
processes were inefficient and the documentation was insufficient and there were lack of adequate
statistics elsewhere. Some critical processes including financial or data exchange with customs were
manual in almost 90% of ports.
The project started with the decision of process reengineering in both level of intra-organization and
inter-organization. A cross-functional team was established with the plan for step by step change in
operational, financial and statistical aspects and members were carefully selected by the top
management among mid-level PMO managers who were committed to implement the recommended
changes in their own work area across the country. From the other side all critical changes were
endorsed by the PMO board of directors and a consultancy team was responsible for the application of
BPR and BPI techniques as a continuous task. The following figures show the structure of reengineering
team and allocated manpower.



RE Working Group
Member Meeting
Process Improvement
5 11
Financial Integrity 5 16
Special Economic Zone
5 1
Information & Statistics
5 9
Total
20 37





18

At the end of the day, all forms, billing procedures, tariff policies, working processes and required
reports had been defined and implemented. The following table shows the name of major processes and
documents covered in this reengineering practice.

Reengineered Port processes Process exceptions Documents
Import & Export (Direct / Indirect)
Changing transportation type Port exit/entrance permission & Tally
Transit (inland/cross border)
Using rented or private storages Invoice
Transshipment(direct/indirect)
Exit permission cancellation Minutes of operation & Permissions
Maritime cabotage
Goods without customs permission Statistical reports
































19

Standards

The following standards have been implemented in GCOMS
1. Some parts of UN/CEFACT ISCM
2. International Maritime Dangerous Good (IMDG) Code
3. Some parts of UN/CCL and UN/TDED 2005
4. EDIFACT Messages
a. HANMOV
2

b. COPARN
3

c. CUSCAR
4

5. UNECE Recommendation
a. N. 1 - United Nations Layout Key for Trade Documents
b. N. 3 - Code for the Representation of Names of Countries
c. N. 7 - Numerical Representation of Dates, Time and Periods of Time
d. N. 12 - Measures to Facilitate Maritime Transport Documents Procedures
e. N. 16 - LOCODE - Code for Trade and Transport Locations
f. N. 19 - Code for Modes of Transport
g. N. 20 - Codes for Units of Measure Used in International Trade
h. N. 21 - Codes for Passengers, Types of Cargo, Packages and Packaging Materials (with
Complementary Codes for Package Names)
i. N. 24 - Trade and Transport Status Codes
j. N. 28 - Codes for Types of Means of Transport


2
UN/EDIFACT Cargo handling and movement message to document cargo manifests transferring between ports and shipping
line agencies.
3
UN/EDIFACT Movement of equipments message to document notes transferring between ports and transport terminals.
4
UN/EDIFACT Customs cargo report message for cargo manifests transferring between ports and customs departments.

20

Economic benefits, achievements and impacts
GCOMS has dramatically changed the costs of operation in Iranian commercial ports. To measure this
fact we used three approaches:
1. Port Productivity [6]
2. Return Of Investment [6]
3. National Economical Impact [9]
Port Productivity:
The following figure shows how the speed of operation has increased. The illustrated index shows the
productivity of port value chain in import cycle which is calculated by the bellow formula:


Similarly, the productivity of port value chain in export cycle which is calculated by the below formula
is illustrated in the next figure.


21


Return of investment:
The whole cost of projects was assumed as capital expenditure. By investment appraisal techniques we
calculate a usage fee based on cost recovery approach. Using this strategy, currently PMO is receiving
0.75% of invoice value as usage fee from general cargo port operators (16 operators in 11 commercial
ports).
National impact:
In the past three decades, there is a strong correlation between Consumer Price Index and Tonnage of
Cargo operated in ports (figure 2), therefore PMO believes the impact of this port modernization
practice on national economy should be considered.

22




In this regard, we compare number of days in trade procedures before and after GCOMS in the table
below:
Process


Reduced
Days
Export 1
Import 7
Total number of reduced days 8
Using TFI calculator, we are claiming for active participation in changing the GDP by the amount of
1,324,450,000 USD, within export facilitation practice and similarly 6,193,425,000 USD in import
facilitation practice [9].


23

Next Step Onward

Port Community System is the next step. PCS addresses the complexities of the international trade
transaction process and interfaces and integrates with the customs management systems, terminal
operations system, and other legacy applications of the shipping lines, financial applications of the banks and
insurance companies and e-government applications. The following diagram shows the concept of PCS.

Components of PCS which PMO is going to develop are:
1. Intelligent Electronic Message Switching Facility and Translation services
2. Message Hub (M-Hub)
3. Translation Hub (T-Hub)
4. Customer Management System (CMS)
5. Authentication and Authorization (ANA)
6. Single Sign-On (SSO)
7. Network Billing system (NBS)
8. Centralized Data Repository
9. Web Services Gateway (WSG)
10. Portal Server
11. Web Content Manager (WCM)
12. Reporting

24


Resources

The following figures illustrate all costs of the GCOMS during the project cycle.
Cost Analysis [6]
No Description Cost (USD)
1 Re-engineering 37,200$
2 Development & Maintenance 1,110,000$
3 System Experts 505,500$
4 Hardware 986,667$
5 Software 2,032,953$
6 Building, Equipments & Appliances 120,000$
7 Other Expenses 727,400$
Total 5,519,720$



In this project several experts have participated from different disciplines, which are shown in the
following table.
Manpower [6]
No Role Value (Man/day)
1 Steering Committee 15
2 Executive Managers 12
3 Port Experts 22
4 System Experts 8
5 Project Management Office 3
6 Developers 15
7 Maintainers 12
Total 90


25

References
[1] Ports and Maritime Organization of Islamic Republic of Iran, "PMO History",
http://www.pmo.ir/aboutpmo-history-en.html,
[2] United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), "the Advanced Cargo Information
System (ACIS)",
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1979&lang=1, June 2002

[3] Ports and Maritime Organization, "General Cargo Operation Management System (GCOMS)",
http://gcomsgateway.pmo.ir/Portal/WebSite/Index.aspx#,

[4] Rahyab Rayane Gostar Co., "Electronic Data Interchange Express (EDIX)",
http://www.rahyab.ir/Persian/Products/PR_EDI.aspx,

[5] Ports and Maritime Organization, General Directorate of Statistics & IT, "Annual Throughput by Port
2010", http://it.pmo.ir/sta25-st37-fa.html, February 2011

[6] Ports and Maritime Organization, GCOMS, Project Management Office, "Project Report 2010", August
2011

[7] Ports and Maritime Organization, General Directorate of Statistics & IT, "IT Strategies ", Mars 2011
[8] IBM Co., "Rational Unified Process", Version 2003.06.00,
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rup/,
[9] TCBoost, Supporting Trade Capacity Building World Wide, TFI Calculator,
http://tcboostproject.com/resources/tools/impactcalculator.php?country_id=94#input