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tions, these firms become the beneficia- ries of the often-heavy investment made by others. And by outsourcing the main- tenance of selected applications and databases, they cut the cost of inputting data manually.

For information providers like Poten, this approach has the obvious advantage of allowing firms to concentrate on their core-competencies. Shipbrokers, for instance, are still the only source of real- time vessel and cargo position and fix- ture transparency in the market. As such, they are clearly in a strong position to maintain this information electronically as a service to others. Port information, on the other hand, is the realm of, say, the port agents, and should be main- tained by them. Vessel databases, one would like to think, should be main- tained by the ship owners. And so on.

For all the logic of Shipping Internet 3.0, we are not there yet. Standards such as XML lay the foundations for industry- wide compatibility of information, but without common data definitions in the shipping industry, this means little. As the Internet comes to be viewed more as a servant of the bottom line than a revo- lution in business practices, service providers, shipbrokers among them, stand at an interesting juncture.

If the pain endured by Shipping Inter- net 1.0 has taught us anything, it is that the structure imposed by 'gate-keeper'

Internet companies is too inflexible to satisfy the information and transaction needs of today's ocean transportation industry. Without undermining their own business models, Version 2.0 Internet companies will, we believe, fall at the same hurdle.

This article is one of a series of e-business opinions published by Poten & Partners (www.poten.com), a leading provider of bro- kerage, consulting and project development services to the energy and transportation industries.

Marine Software Ltd. Supplies

Program For Byron Marine

U.K.-based software company Marine

Software Ltd., has provided its software program - Marine Storekeeper for Win- dows - to Byron Marine for M.V. Dora- da, the Falkland Islands Fishery Protec- tion vessel. Byron has also ordered

Marine Planned Maintenance for Win- dows for the vessel, together with com- missioning Marine Software to carry out a skeleton setup of the planned mainte- nance database. The skeleton setups involve setting up the planned mainte- nance database from the classification society master list, adding a PM Job

Card for each item on the master list, together with the survey job routine.

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Q www.vanhallhealth.com

Are you paying too much for (J^S medical bills?

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BRINGING TWO TOGETHER

CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Xantic is a new company formed by the merger between

Station 12 and SpecTec - a match that Is perfectly balanced.

Because by combining the knowledge and expertise of the two companies, Xantic will deliver smart new solutions and synergies, while offering you a genuine one-stop solution for all mobile satellite communications, maritime ICT, and satellite broadband communications. These services represent the highest quality of satellite services currently available, and Xantic will also be offering you all the exciting ICT developments that lie ahead.

Xantic is a truly global company, with 29 offices and agents all over the world and 2i»/7 customer services helpdesks. To find out more about how to benefit from a reliable partnership with

Xantic, please contact Customer Services: [email protected].

Or visit our website: www.xantic.net.

Af « v xantic

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