Page 58: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2002)

E-Commerce be used to select parts for a requisition or the purchase order. In addition, the information is then stored in the data- base for future use," reports Xantic in a company press release.

Likewise, suppliers have automated their in-house buying, order fulfillment, accounting and inventory management, too, and can integrate with the portals and buyers using MTML to achieve sim- ilar efficiencies.

Catalogs Go On-Line

There are several catalogs that have become industry standards. The Inter- national Marine Purchasing Association publishes the IMPA Marine Stores

Guide, complete with illustrations, spec- ifications, product information and com- parison tables for all major manufactur- ers. The Marine Stores Guide has 1,000 pages listing 3,777 commodities and 32,500 different codes.

The International Ship Suppliers Asso- ciation also has its Ship Stores Cata- logue listing 55,000 line items of ship stores.

Both IMPA and ISSA are based in the

UK but have members worldwide.

Several e-commerce companies, like

ShipServ and iShipExchange have "pre- ferred partnership" arrangements with

IMPA, ISSA, or both.

Items can be ordered using either cata- log's numbers. Both catalogs are avail- able on CD, with a "shopping cart" fea- ture that enables a master or chief engi- neer to pick items from either catalogue and create a requisition that can be faxed, emailed or transmitted via

ShipServ TradeNet to the owner's pur- chasing department, for example.

One commercial supplier, Unitor, has a catalog with 10,000 products for ship- board use from maintenance and repair equipment to marine gases and refriger- ants.

The Inventory Locator Service (ILS) serves as an auction site. Anyone with excess inventory can use ILS in much the same way that E-Bay works for collectibles.

ILS not only supports the maritime industry, but the aviation industry and government purchasing as well. A search for a part can be conducted by a variety of ways, including by National

Stock Number (NSN).

Some e-commerce systems charged suppliers a percentage-based commis- sion based on the value of the goods pur- chased, but this proved to be unrealistic.

A one-percent commission may seem small, but on a $100,000 winch it can become steep. Some companies charge a straight transaction fee. In the case of the supplier, a monthly fee may also be accompanied by a transaction fee - in the range of $2 -$5 — for each purchase order. Some e-commerce companies, however, make no charge to the supplier on the basis that the shipowner pays for the service. Most e-commerce business- es today charge subscription or monthly license fees. In the case of the ship owner this will be related to the number of ships (around $100 per month).

Despite much promise, some maritime e-commerce companies have flamed out.

Even with the most sophisticated tech- nology, at the end of the day it all comes down to trust and relationships.

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