This month Internetrix is thrilled to announce the launch of the new Port Kembla Port Corporation website. Designed to give the Port’s stakeholders access to timely and relevant communications, the new site does this and more. “We need to be able to keep the new website fresh by regularly updating it with easy-to-use tools,” said Rod Thompson, Port Kembla Port Corporation’s IT Manager.

The Port Kembla Port Corporation (PKPC) is a Statutory Corporation of the NSW Government responsible for administering, managing and growing the port of Port Kembla. Servicing Metropolitan and regional NSW, PKPC provides a number wharf and property assets for unloading, loading and storing cargo. Located an hour south of Sydney, Port Kembla is conveniently placed to service its markets.

With stakeholders ranging from government to local residents, PKPC must provide professional, timely and relevant communications, shipping schedules, port access information and interactions with anyone from coastal services. In more recent times Port Kembla has taken on a more diverse role as a result of the government relocating some port activities from Sydney Harbor.

To reflect its new functions and better service its customers, PKPC saw the need for a cost effective website that could take advantage of the latest cutting edge website technology. “We wanted a fresh looking page with the ability of end users to do the content management,” Rod said.

To help solve the problem, PKPC brought Internetrix on board as part of a consulting project. Internetrix found that although the PKPC website already had some advanced functionality, there was definitely room for improvement as the site was almost five years old and many technical advances could be added to better serve PKPC.

So Internetrix created a new website for PKPC and implemented Internetrix Freestyle—an innovative content management system (CMS).

With Freestyle, PKPC’s non-technical staff can easily control and maintain website content. Staff members are now assigned administrative rights over different areas of the website. With a user name and password, these staff members can login and modify only their own pages within the site.

“Updating the site is now quite manageable and straightforward,” Rod said. “Freestyle is a very easy tool to use.”

Freestyle’s Dynamic News Presentation module displays PKPC’s latest news on the homepage. Any page can be marked as type ‘news’ and Freestyle automatically displays the two most recent news items in the designated area of the home page.

New multi-media and e-learning components help PKPC deliver an outstanding level of education and service to the community. Pages set as type ‘multimedia’ in Freestyle have a separate design that embeds a video. E-learning areas of the site function as an interactive slide-show where visitors can find out more about the Port and its functions.

One of the most innovative features of the PKPC website is the Shipping Movements page. An extensive HTML page now displays all pending, arrived and departed ships over a multi-day period. The Internetrix system collects the information in close to real-time from the one of the Port’s existing databases and puts it into a format that is easily read and understood by the public. Information includes arrival/departure time, action, vessel, berth and more.

To add to all the complex features, today’s PKPC website has other simple features such as breadcrumb navigation to help PKPC site visitors to better keep track of their position within the site, which ensures greater navigational ease.

“There are two things that I like most about the site. The first thing is the CMS aspect of it. People here in charge of maintaining the site are admin people, not tech people. Second, if anything comes up, Internetrix is very quick to respond to help issues.”

To see the new Port Kembla Port Corporation site for yourself, visit www.portkembla.com.au