"The primary objective of ITPMIS, which has been designed to handle containerised cargo, is to ensure that containers at the port can be moved in the most efficient manner." Mohd Sidik told Computimes in an interview.

"Any movement made, be it loading or unloading, can be carried out in the shortest possible time with optimum usage of resources," he added.

He said PTP has awarded the contract for the project to CMC India Ltd, a wholly-owned entity of the Government of India, through a tendering process in November last year.

The scope of the contract is to supply, install, test, commission, as well as to provide training and maintenance for all the systems needed at the port. These include the container handling subsystem, the automatic gate system, radio data transmission and networking, hardware and cabling.

"In carrying out the project, CMC will be supported by a few local vendors that are given subcontracts job," Mohd Sidik said, adding that CMC will be providing the container handling subsystem; Mach, that consists of all modules necessary to run port and terminal operations.

"ITPMIS is the nerve centre of the port's 24 hours a day operation and thus, any single point of failure have to be avoided. Due to this critical business operation need, it is being built with a complete dual redundancy scheme, including all the hardware, cabling, power supply, database and applications."

Each of the system will be located separately within the port vicinity with the main computer room located at the Port Administration Building (PAB) while the hot back-up system is located at the Parallel Processing Building (PPB).

"However, since only the PPB us currently operational, it will house the comprehensive IT set up and also run the operations for both the primary and back-up stage until the PAB us completed in early 2000," said Mohd Sidik.

He added that in ensuring that the switch over from PPB to PAB is smooth, ITPMIS implementation is divided into two phases.

Phase One will see the setting up of the system and getting it up and running from PPB, while phase two will involve the physical migration of the primary system from PPB to PAB.

"Phase one will be ready for operations testing in October this year while phase two is targeted to be completed in June 2000. It will start in December with IT infrastructure set up at PAB followed with the installation of networking and cabling," said Mohd Sidik.

The ITPMIS project entails the installations of RM16.5 million worth of hardware which includes two HP9000/K580 database servers, four HP9000/K380 servers to be used for application, communication and development.

Also included are four HP NetServers for file server and mail server, 10 HP Unix workstations and 175 IBM personal computers (PCs) plus other hardware like disk array, back-up system, fibre channel, GPS clock receiver and printers.

In addition, the hardware for networking consists of five 3Com Corebuilder Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switches, 23 3Com stackable hubs, Netbuilder for leased line connectivity, Total Control for dial-up connectivity and also single and multi-mode fibres.

About RM10.5 million form the budget will be allocated for application software which comprise Mach for container handling, OpenHR for human resource, OpenFinancial for Finance and IFS Maintenance for repair and maintenance.

Mohd Sidik said in order to prepare PTP to undertake operations, IT personnel are being sent for training for all ITPMIS's components. Training programmes are part of the ITPMS contract where initial training will consists of generic modules and progressively tailored to ITPMIS, he added. "There will also be on-the-job training for PTP staff. Transfer of technology will take place on a day-to-day basis via project involvement by staff both at the project management level and site installation," he said