Marten van der Velde is Director Strategy & Innovation at Portbase, and one of our keynote speakers at IDnext ’21.
Marten started working at Port infolink in 2003, where he started at the Product Development department. At first as project support, later on as project manager. In this role he was responsible for several projects leading to different services for a.o. barge operators, port authorities, terminals and forwarders. Besides this, he was involved in business development and responsible for the European R&D projects in which the organization was involved.
In 2009 Port infolink merged with Portnet into Portbase. Marten stayed onboard as Strategy & Business Consultant. In 2014 Marten became the Director Strategy & Innovation, in which he is part of the management team and responsible for the strategy of the organization, its portfolio and the R&D and innovation function.
In this short interview Marten tells us about Portbase and how his team manages to stay ahead, while the services to the business need to stay operational, and he shares his main message for the IDnext event.
Portbase could be for some audience still unknown. What is Portbase and what are the main objective and goals?
Portbase is the neutral Port Community System provider for all the Dutch ports and connected corridors. Currently more than 5000 organizations connected, throughout the entire chain. By offering services for data exchange we help the entire community to lower chain costs and increase chain quality.
Covid had a huge impact on our society. How did Portbase cope with this pandemic? What kind of impact did it had (or stilll has) on the logistics chain?
The impact of covid has been high, on several levels. First of course the impact on the way of working – not in the office but online, also in the contact with our customers and stakeholders. Second, we saw an increase in the demand for digitization. Knowing the status of transport modes and goods in order to stay in control of the supply chains, but also the overall information on volumes and transport flows was highly needed. Therefor we created a dashboard with that information, so that involved organization could respond to changes in the market. Last, the import and export of goods was impacted, leading to for instance an imbalance in the demand for empty containers.
Innovation is an important enable for Portbase. Port community system (PCS) – exchanging reliable information in a rapid state – is a great example. Still, how do you keep ahead while your services to the business need to stay operational?
Innovation is being done in different ways. The current services are continuously being updated with new and/or altered functionality. This in accordance with our clients, organized in client panels so that we are able to prioritize and define the functionality. For new services and propositions we organized a second speed in our organization, by establishing a business development team. This team is able to explore and realize prototypes, proof of values and concepts, based upon customer needs and available and authorized data. When successful, we are able to decide whether the new service should be brought to our existing domain teams or that we should extend.
What will be your main message at the IDnext event?
Security of data exchange is crucial. IAM is off course a steady backbone, as secured channels are as well. Increasing the security levels is doable but however challenging. In this talk I will give you some examples of what we encounter and what we do to increase the security level, the trust in data exchange and how we help organizations to give and get access to other data sources. And secure the privacy of the container!
