Page 13: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Nov/Dec 2018)

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N i c h o l l s

Battle for Data?

ne of the most fercely fought Data: does the hype match the results?

battles in shipping today is the While big owners or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)

Obattle for data. On a weekly may have the budgets to invest in their own digital systems, for basis, we see companies of all stripes the many smaller owners, operators and suppliers (who make up – ship managers, owners, class soci- the majority of the market), digital transformation is beyond the eties, equipment manufacturers and reach of budgets stretched by a continually challenging market. even coating suppliers – investing in C-suite respondents to a recent Futurenautics study revealed that their own digital solutions and fercely 76% of their organizations are investing less than US$100,000 competing for control over data: the per annum in their digital initiatives, with 57% investing less than new oil. Each of these is creating sys- US$25,000 per annum. Only 11% of organizations are investing tems aimed at improving performance, more than US$1 million annually. Similarly, in a recent study by claiming that they are ideally placed to Inmarsat on IoT adoption, when compared with other industries, harvest a variety of performance data shipping had a high proportion of early adopters – but a similar and position themselves as the one- number of ‘laggards.’ stop shop for all the data that a voy- Shipping is living out sci-f author William Gibson’s claim that age generates. Of course, there’s a “the future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.” good reason for all organizations to up Small players risk becoming left behind while big fsh invest, their game digitally – every aspect of consolidate, and lock their users into expensive, all-singing, all- personal and business life has been af- dancing digital ecosystems – replicating Apple’s ‘walled-garden’ fected by the march of technology, and business model. So what does the alternative look like?

every business needs to invest in the right talent to compete in this context. Future Proofng

And the business case is clear – ac- It’s clear that we need an alternative to the closed systems that cording to analysts at Future Market are beginning to proliferate, which can hide multiple ineffcien-

Insights, the push for better data and cies and practices that ultimately harm their users. Owners and optimization solutions is driving the operators need to be able to choose what data sets they integrate marine electronics market to dizzying into the platforms they use – and take control over what they pay new heights. This market has already for. Either paying suppliers multiple times for overlapping data- reached more than US$4.14 billion sets or being locked into paying for information they don’t need in 2018, but is predicted to jump to benefts no one. The platforms we build need to allow users to

US$7.75 billion by 2028. Future Mar- customize the data they use – and must also be open enough to ket Insights expects marine electronics incorporate new datasets from unexpected places.

market revenues to grow at a rate of This is vital, because whoever is creating the solution will tend 6.5% per annum over the next decade. to measure what’s closest to their own business area and simply

However, when we look at whether focus on that. For example, if your software system is built by your this trend benefts the market, it’s un- engine manufacturer, your best data will focus on how you can op- clear that this battle for control over timize your engine and ignore other vital factors and information. data is really delivering results for Data solutions need to be built by looking at the voyage as a the market. whole, and looking at the factors that most directly impact the www.maritimelogisticsprofessional.com 13

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