Interview Álvaro Domínguez, field technician at the Port of Barcelona

Álvaro is a field technician at the Port of Barcelona. A great infrastructure in which maintenance support is even more critical in the current situation. Despite the emergency that we are immersed in, our presence in the port has not been diminished, the work in collaboration with the team in the San Sebastian office and the TOC, allows them to continue attending to the multiple incidents that arise in the daily life of the Port of Barcelona with high standards of quality and safety.

I imagine that with the situation created by the COVID-19 the service you provide to the port will be a combination of on-site work and remote work.

Every day we go to the Port of Barcelona office. Although it is true that sporadically, we have been able to do teleworking and attend as much as possible remotely. So teleworking is not a new fact.

Could you describe to us the maintenance project that Ikusi carries out for the Port of Barcelona?

The project has two targets: the Port Authority and the Logistics Centre. The scope of the project includes access controls, vehicles, and number plates. We monitor the incidents, provide them with a solution and, of course, give the client visibility of all this.

In the infrastructure of the characteristics of the port, should it be difficult to respond remotely to all incidents?

Yes, it should. Some incidents can be dealt with remotely, such as those related to telecommunications networks and servers. But others have to be responded to in the field, such as incidents due to vandalism, knocks, accidents, and equipment that, for one reason or another, stops working. We have to coordinate with suppliers and get everything back up and running in the shortest possible time.

Safety in these infrastructures is critical. How do you support the Port of Barcelona in this aspect?

Of course, security is essential and at Ikusi we carry out a very important task in this area. Any vehicle entering or leaving the port is monitored by an Ikusi camera. We provide the client with a front photo and a back photo that allows for image correlation so that the client can make traceability. We are providing the client with essential data so that they can use it for their own data analysis. This is critical information for the port.

To carry out your work you can count on the support provided by the San Sebastian office, right?

Yes, we do. In Barcelona, three people form the team: Arnau Planas, Christian Perich, and me. We are technical integrators, so we can deal with both hardware and software issues. From San Sebastian, they give us support through the TOC and with the engineering part. So you can imagine, these days we are using Webex to its fullest. We always try to give support in the field, but we can resort to our colleagues to remotely analyze the computers that have incidents and, if necessary, from the TOC they put us in contact with our engineering colleagues.

How are you organizing yourself to maintain contact and visibility with the client?

That is a fundamental aspect at the moment. Just as we connect with our colleagues via Webex, we also connect with the client. It is essential to maintain this contact and for the client to see that our contribution is not only reactive to incidents but that our knowledge of the infrastructure allows us to propose improvements and make proposals to the client