An Analysis Present Condition of Information Systems in Turkish Ports and Direction of Improvement

The international business environment of port logistics has changed drastically in the last few decades. The increase in international trade, advent of ultra-large vessels, changes in customer needs and development of new cargo handling technologies, the competition between container ports has become very severe in the last few decades and ports started to invest in their infrastructure and information systems in order to increase their efficiency and to sustain their position as a hub of their region. On the other hand, Turkish ports fell behind in this competition of efficiency, and although it has a very strategic position in the intersection of three continents, this situation is causing the logistics route between Europe and Asia to be shifted beyond the borders of Turkey. This paper aims to offer the direction of information systems in Turkish public and private ports. For this purpose, the current information systems in Turkey's major ports were examined by multiple case study methods, general problems were appointed and the direction of improvement was offered. According to the results, the low level of information technology utilization is due to administrational deficiency, such as out-of-date business processes, severe bureaucracy and insufficient human resources, rather than any technical incapability.