Recently, I was fortunate enough to witness a webinar full of genuine industry insights from maritime tech leaders sharing experiences and I thought to myself… ‘Ailsa, we’ve got to share this with the rest of the industry.’ So that’s what we’re doing this week!
Earlier this year, Thetius ran a webinar in partnership with GeoServe, discussing the evolving Voyage Optimisation market and how data silos are impacting the industry. Present were key software vendors and ship operators sharing successes, challenges and advice based on their own careers. Those leaders are: Sanjay Kapoor - CEO at GeoServe, Leigh Steed-Middleton - President at Sedna, Aditya Trehan - Managing Director at Maersk and Paolo Vaccaro - Head of Tankers Operations at d’Amico Shipping.
Sanjay Kapoor - CEO at GeoServe
Maritime operations teams are spending nearly half their time on manual data entry as opposed to strategic decision-making, according to new research into voyage operations inefficiencies. This staggering figure represents a fundamental misuse of skilled personnel who should be optimising commercial outcomes, not copying data between disconnected systems.
The scale of data silos facing operators is ridiculous, especially given the wave of Digital Transformation sweeping across the industry. Aditya shared his experience, "At any given point you had, you would have at least 5 different software that need to needed to talk to each other. You had the voyage management system, and then you had a separate system for weather routing, bunkers and so on."
"You're sometimes counted in operations by the number of fires you douse"
Simple Question: Is The Cost Of Your IT Worth IT?
If your answer is anything along the lines of “I don’t know”, then you need to ask yourself some tough questions. What if I told you there was an organisation out there that could tell you how your costs align with the rest of the industry and whether your chosen software is a help or a hindrance when it comes to optimising operations?.
Join the Thetius IT Cost Benchmarking Club and transform those numbers into insights. We'll anonymously compare your fleet's technology spending against industry peers, giving you the concrete data you need to make informed decisions. From cybersecurity to crew software, we'll show you exactly where your IT budget stands in the market.
Skeptical? Check it out for yourself…
For many operators, each day becomes an exercise in crisis management rather than voyage optimisation. "There are elements which suddenly come on priority. Things need to be done right there and then," Sanjay explained. This reactive approach means operators spend their jumping from one issue to the next and can lose sight of the bigger commercial picture.
Sanjay continued: "You're sometimes counted in operations by the number of fires you douse." When your performance metric becomes damage limitation over profit maximisation, something has gone seriously wrong with your operational setup.
The human cost of this fragmented exosystem is great, Aditya explains, "How can we free up their time to be able to focus on those rather than having to spend 30% of their time doing data entry and making mistakes, which anyway lead to costly errors." This is a common occurrence throughout the data lifecycle, from gathering the insights, processing the data and distributing the lessons learned.
“Email is still very central to the way shipping companies operate and function. It's also the easiest way to move large and complex, unstructured sets of information”
Despite millions invested in digital transformation initiatives, email remains the glue holding maritime operations together. "Email is still very central to the way shipping companies operate and function. It's also the easiest way to move large and complex, unstructured sets of information around the world," Leigh explained.
This reliance on email isn't necessarily problematic - the issue arises when companies try to replace it entirely as opposed to enhancing it with better integration tools.
The truth is that the most sophisticated technology stack will fail without proper change management. "Change is not easy... it has to start right from the bottom. It also has to start by seeing where the value addition comes to the end user," Sanjay warns. Too many maritime companies purchase software then wonder why adoption rates remain stubbornly low.
“It's important that you don't see AI as a silver bullet to solve everything”
Before rushing into artificial intelligence implementations, you need to stop and give yourself a reality check. "It's important that you don't see AI as a silver bullet to solve everything." cautions Leigh. It’s solid advice that everybody knows to follow, but all too often you see organisations across every industry getting swept up in the hype - determined to be the leaders of the pack.
“You should be yourself - the best part of the machine”
The overarching advice from these industry leaders is clear… The priority should be to build an integrated ecosystem of software over fancy new tech like AI. As Paolo put it: "You are still the most appreciated piece of intelligence in the equipment, even before the artificial intelligence. You should be curious. You should be yourself - the best part of the machine."
Quick-Fire Tech News Round-Up
And that’s it for another week of industry insights brought straight to your inbox. If you come across any cool webinars or fancy a chat about tech, don’t hesitate to reach out, Ailsa.