EMERGING ICT AND PORT COMMUNITY SYSTEMS: A SURVEY OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

Emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) were identified as the main pillar of the fifth-generation ports. Ports’ issues were solved with stand-alone ICT solutions adopted by each stakeholder. Today new benefits and challenges are connected with the introduction of shared emerging ICTs among port stakeholders, generating efficiencies in the solution of shared decisions. One of the tools that supports the interaction between port stakeholders is the Port Community System (PCS), which has been the object of numerous studies in recent years aimed at defining its benefits in terms of reducing the costs, or disutilities, of port operations. The paper presents a state of the art relating the Port Community Systems (PCS), in which a classification of scientific papers selected from the scientific databases present on the web is reported according to some classification criteria. The results of this analysis show that in the last decade the study and implementation, even experimental, of the PCSs inside ports has undergone a relevant acceleration. This is due to the fact that for port communities, being equipped with the PCS is now of strategic importance since its presence increases the competitiveness of the whole port. The work is useful both for port planners and for technicians of port manufacturing equipment companies, because it allows to identify the potential advantages obtained with the introduction of advanced evolutions of PCS.