A first of its kind tender process was held in the Ashdod port and was concluded in the last month with the announcement of the winning start-ups who will change the future of the port. The chosen start-ups deal in the fields of logistics, operations and security and offer technological solutions for everyday port matters. These solutions will place the Ashdod port at the forefront of innovation in the world of sea ports.
The winning start-ups deal, among other things, in transforming containers into "smart" containers; this technology enables weighing the containers automatically and precisely and providing real time information to significantly improve the efficiency of various processes in the port. An additional start-up will provide protection against cyber-attacks to the various maritime systems in the port.
In the framework of the collaboration between the winning start-ups and the Ashdod Port, the start-ups will gain access to the vast amounts of information and data in the port. They will be able to develop their technologies, which will be implemented in the port and will be of significant value in terms of operations, efficiency and service.
Orna Hausman Bechor, the chair of the Ashdod Port, added: "we have broken through to created access and connection to the worlds of innovation and technology which were barred from us till now. We bridged the gap between the fast-paced and advanced language of the start-ups and the excess bureaucracy which often is the problem of governmental companies. I am proud to be the head of the first port in Israel to rise to the challenge and start the process. As part of the port's preparation for competition and as part of the organizational change we are undergoing, the integration of technologies into our daily operations will take the port forward to an advanced global standard".
This is the first step in terms of the progress of the Ashdod port into the technological worlds, and this significant step is already being followed by additional ventures that will move forward in the near future. There are discussions being held with one of the leading accelerators in Israel, which is in ongoing contact with the port and possible further collaborations are being examined. In addition, one of the ideas the port is promoting is an in-house Hackathon. The goal is to have the employees indicate the challenges and the problems they wish to solve.