Communication protocol in case of reduced Port Community System availability

Portbase strives to be fully open and transparent in its dealings with the community. Around-the-clock insight into the availability of the Port Community System (PCS) is an important aspect in this regard. In the event the availability of the PCS is reduced or interrupted, fast and comprehensive communication also helps users and other stakeholders take effective decisions, adjust course and inform those who are directly affected.

The PCS is considered to be experiencing reduced or interrupted availability when one or more services on the platform are inoperable. In this regard, we distinguish between scheduled maintenance and disruptions.

Scheduled maintenance

The PCS will not be available during scheduled (and announced) maintenance. Such maintenance will always have a designated start and end time.

Communication in the event of scheduled maintenance
Portbase will announce scheduled maintenance on the website status.portbase.com two weeks in advance. An additional announcement will be published on this status website one hour prior to the start of the maintenance work. PCS users and other stakeholders can subscribe to receive these messages automatically.

Disruption

A disruption means that PCS services or the entire PCS platform are experiencing an unplanned reduction or interruption in availability. In the event scheduled maintenance takes longer than announced, this will also be considered a disruption.

Communication in the event of a disruption
In any and all cases of a disruption involving the PCS, Portbase will take the following steps:

• Portbase will report the reduced or interrupted availability of specific Portbase services and/or the PCS platform on status.portbase.com at the earliest possible opportunity. This notification will be assigned the status Investigating.
• Once the cause of the disruption is known, Portbase will adjust the status to Identified.
• As soon as a solution to the problem has been identified, the status will be changed to Monitoring.
• Then, when the disruption has been resolved, the status will be updated to Resolved as well.

This will enable all PCS users and other stakeholders to follow the progress of a notification from start to finish, 24 hours a day, via status.portbase.com.

Subscribe to notifications
PCS users and other stakeholders can also subscribe to receive email or SMS notifications in the event of disruptions:

• Subscribers to email notifications will automatically receive a message every time the status of a notification changes.
• Subscribers to SMS notification will receive a message at the start (Investigating) of the notification process and again at its conclusion (Resolved).

All status information and communication regarding reduced and/or interrupted availability will be in English. Archives of past communication can be found at status.portbase.com.

Date of introduction:

This communication protocol will enter into force on July 23.