Page 45: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2002)

E-Commerce

How Far Has E-Procurement Come in the Maritime Community?

As dot-com firms that lacked a solid foundation disappeared from the land- scape, the strongest are left standing amid the rubble. It is worth noting that at the height of the 'dot-com' boom and phenomenal statistics from various research groups, Gartner Group predict- ed that 75 percent of e-business projects would fail because of a lack of under- standing of technology and poor busi- ness planning.

Of the companies predominately built on smaller amounts of capital from within the industry such as Oslo, Nor- way-based MarineProvider — from day

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Tony Giambrone (at left), of Maersk Line with

MarineProvider's CEO, Collin Lewis, worked together to establish a user-friendly electronic procurement solution. one there was a vested interest in not only the day-day operations of the com- pany via its investors, but there was a mission that MarineProvider had — which was to assist companies already within the maritime community.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

MarineProvider has emerged as a leading supplier of e-Procurement solu- tions in the marine industry, and now has more 40 percent of buyers that have signed up to use an e-Procurement sys- tem as clients, including Maersk Line,

Ltd.; Golar LNG; Sun Cruises; and

China Navigation. Collin Lewis, CEO of MarineProvider is confident that this is just the beginning of the company's already-established client base. "It's clear that we (MarineProvider) are moving through the early adopter phase and that significant activity is tak- ing place in the e-procurement sector, we've seen the concerns our clients have regarding e-Procurement evolve, and crucially one area that has changed is the understanding that e-Procurement can be an intricate part of maritime busi- ness strategies not in the future but now."

The impact MarineProvider is seeing varies from a complete transformation of existing procurement business to just a peripheral effect on current operations.

However, the bottom line is that there is now strong recognition that there will be e-procurement in the marine industry.

While some organizations are overcom- ing the barriers to e-business transfor- mation, many companies still perceive significant risks and uncertainties, and there was a slowing of the predicted implementation of e-business in general.

Many companies adopted a "wait and see" attitude before investing heavily in 44 Circle 231 on Reader Service Card or visit www.maritimereporterinfo.com

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