A 10 page paper. Using a Harvard Business School Case Study, the writer responds to student-generated questions as well as the questions contained in this case study itself. The paper begins by describing the situation as it existed at the Ports Authority in the mid-1990s, including the major players, technology and challenges. The paper goes on to discuss how information technology could help overcome the problems and how that type of IT system would need to work (not the technology, the concept of how it would work). From there the writer makes four specific recommendations related to what should be included in the new IT system and where a new system should be first implemented, e.g., small shipping lines or large, and the reasons for each recommendation. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: MM12_PGduba.rtf
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Dubai Ports Authority, not the least of which the extra 24 hours it to for cargo ships to travel around the strait to dock at Dubai. The paper system was
described like spaghetti and it was. It was a mass of redundant steps for everyone concerned with numerous mistakes costing time and money. Mohammad Sharaf was in charge of
Customer Services at the Dubai Ports Authority (DBA) and despite overwhelming odds, he and his people were able to improve the services provided but they had a very long way
to go and Sharaf knew it. There were two ports, Port Rashid and Jel Ali, both of which were finally united under one administrative department. Sharaf had developed a ground/trucking
transportation system, accurate and speedy cargo handling procedures and specialized storage facilities. The other people involved included merchants, who are importers, exporters or both; different kinds of agents; shipping lines
and their own Customs agency. One major problem was the hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper handled, each of which was subject to errors with a manual system.
The major problems involved the manifests and the handling of same. It was cumbersome, to say the least. Other paper products included the Bill of Lading, the delivery order, and
the bill of entry. Another major player in the situation was the Dubai Customers Department, which required all of its own paper and was not correlated with the Ports Authority,
even though they each required much of the identical information. The situation was so un-related to each other that there was a report of one agents representative traveling back
and forth between Dubai and Jebel Ali 100 times in a month, each trip requiring an hour. Major obstacles to automating systems were: there was no standard for automation in
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