Page 54: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q3 2011)

Union and North Carolina,ShipDecision now boasts as many as 50 end users across 5 clients; in all phasesof the maritime industry, some of whom also employ it on 30 ships at sea. Typically, and after an initial set-up fee, clients are charged on a monthly basis, on a per user scale.Carbone started out by checking tosee what was already in the market and found that pieces of the total picturewere being addressed, but no one was doing it all. He explains, ?When we launched our prototype three years ago,we were the first to bring a fully func- tioning, web-based solution to the mar-itime industry. We believe that ShipDecision is unique in that it hasbeen designed from a clean sheet ofpaper to address what we perceive as a huge challenge in the maritime indus-try: integration of information from the various players. Our niche is in building business systems that provide both for the integration of data across individual companies and between business part- ners of those companies, therebyimproving efficiency across the board. Our systems are built for the sake of business, not for the sake of technolo- gy.? ShipDecision organizes and links data, primarily e-mail and/or manualinput, but also takes in stovepiped data from any source and removes obstacles. The software works with ?what you have,? including primary path E-mails, documents, spreadsheets, technical files and even WEB interfaced weather inputs. Because ShipDecision is ?dataagnostic,? the system serves to first ana- lyze, then understand and normalizeand finalize provide a unified structure which can link multiple reference num-bers and data streams for a particularvoyage, transaction or freight insurance claim. Says, Carbone, ?That?s a war I know how to fight. And, everybody wins.? He adds, ?In the end, everyone is working better, faster and more effi- ciently.? SECURITY AND CAPACITY WEB-based and featuring Tier III & IV hosting, ShipDecision isn?t beingrun out of someone?s garage. The sys- tem is high capacity, boasts high avail- ability, is robust and has IT governance. According to ShipDecision?s Carbone, testing of the software is done annually by ?ethical hackers? and penetration testing is done regularly. Using their experience from the insurance side of the ledger, ShipDecision operators ensure the safety of data through robust security protocols.With some clients averaging 8,000 to 10,000 e-mails managed on a dailybasis, ShipDecision?s robust capacity have proven its durability, and easily handles the typical data flow for a medium sized ship owner/operator. The system operates on a spoked, customiz- able solution, assembled on a per cus-tomer basis ? through a standardized ITsolution. E-mails and messages are fil- tered to those who have a need to see particular pieces of information.Carbone calls this ?tuning the views.? A vault then stores documents to a vessel or voyage and provides for a searchable database.MARITIME APPLICATIONS Starting with the E-mail managementfunction, ShipDecision eliminatesSOFTWARE SOLUTIONS ?When we launched our prototype, we were the first to bring a fullyfunctioning, web-basedsolution to the maritimeindustry. We believe that ShipDecision is unique in that it has beendesigned from a clean sheet of paper to address what we perceive as a huge challenge in themaritime industry: inte- gration of information from the various play- ers.? ? Albert Carbone 54 Maritime Professional 3Q 2011MP #3 (50-64):MP Layouts 8/17/2011 4:42 PM Page 54