Page 24: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2018)

perfectly well, they don’t communicate pute and not being paid – and a subse- company and with relevant business Overcoming Resistance with one another. quent hole in the cash-? ow. partners. This signi? cantly reduces the Twenty or more years ago, digitiza- administrative burden and introduces tion was the prerogative of the very large

Achieving Integration Finding a Solution ef? ciencies across the business. It also shipping company with deep pockets.

In a fully integrated shipping company, Evolution is probably the main culprit frees up staff to focus on more customer- They developed bespoke applications the tariff system captures all the com- for the current state of affairs. Shipping oriented tasks. and recruited armies of technicians to plex information relating to individual companies have adopted digitization A well-thought-out software appli- look after them. But times have moved customers, ports, terminals and cargoes piecemeal and so have installed individ- cation will retrieve variable costs per on and, today, it is a fairly simple pro- – and this can be a hugely complicated ual packages to perform speci? c tasks as shipment from a cost database and ap- cess to buy specialist solutions that can matrix of individual prices, restrictions, required, or as budget became available. ply these as estimated costs to the book- be easily con? gured and customised to discounts and incentives. When a cus- The resulting mix of sometimes bespoke ing. Information on volumes taken from suit the individualities of each company tomer requests a quotation, the quotation and sometimes off-the-shelf packages the customer at the time of booking are and user. These packages are the means system should automatically look up the has generated a maze of applications automatically married with this data to to make digitized companies into digital- relevant tariff to create a bespoke and ac- that sit alongside each other, but which provide analysis and pro? tability assess- ly-integrated companies. The beauty of curate quotation. don’t integrate or communicate. A huge ments for each consignment. these applications is that they are built

If the quotation turns into a sale, the amount of data is re-keyed between dis- And, as the voyage progresses and to facilitate total integration between system will, again, automatically create connected departments within the same actual costs become known, real-time each of the core processes – connecting the required booking con? rmation, bills shipping company. updates allow pro? tability to be moni- existing systems through a single over-

SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS of lading, manifest and more. And once To scrap what is already in place and tored throughout the voyage. Automat- arching, fully connected and seamlessly the vessel has sailed, an invoice will be start afresh is a daunting and time-con- ing these processes enables a valuable networked entity. So, data ? ows seam- automatically generated and that infor- suming task. Many shipping companies amount of data to be captured, shared lessly between ship operations, commer- mation will be posted to “accounts re- are simply not prepared to take two and reused throughout the company. It cial, container logistics, accounting and ceivables” via an interface. steps backwards in order to make three can also be analysed for performance management. Other than the obvious

During this process, if changes need or more in the right direction. Coupled reporting encouraging management to advantages of less data input, reduced to be made, a fully integrated system with this, most IT departments are strug- make smart and informed decisions. errors and the ability to deliver height- will automatically create manifest cor- gling to remain compliant with an ever- More so, good shipping-oriented soft- ened customer service, these packaged rections, credit notes and invoices at the increasing raft of external reporting reg- ware will also manage and monitor voy- solutions are available at a fraction of the press of a button. In other words, infor- ulations which are required just to keep age progress and port call activities. price of building a bespoke system. Ef- mation will ? ow seamlessly from one the company trading. Internal integra- Schedules can be monitored and updated fectively, they have levelled the IT play- activity to another without the need to tion will always play second ? ddle. from arrival, departure and noon-reports ing ? eld across the entire spectrum of re-enter data. Retyping leads to errors, But there is a solution. Modern ship- automatically received from the vessel. shipping companies. Like the open-plan errors lead to delays and delays disrupt ping software is modular, meaning ship- Changes caused by unforeseen events of? ce, or the smartphone, or the laptop, cash? ow and cost money. ping companies need only select the can be simulated to provide estimates many shipping companies are beginning

Reducing the argument to a monetary applications they require to automate of the potential impact on the overall to raise their heads from the day-to-day basis, it is widely understood that around certain processes within their businesses. schedule. The operator can then simulate to see the advantages of having their 10% of global outgoing freight invoices Each module seamlessly integrates with the “what ifs” and ? nd the most appro- various business functions communicate are incorrect due to human error in trans- others to facilitate a ? ow of information priate countermeasures. with each other. Like all good ideas, the ferring information from one system to across the company. But while there is a good solution to concept is very simple, and with pack- another. Even for a small shipping com- Data need only be input once, thus achieve full integration within shipping aged software now widely available, pany boasting a modest revenue of $100 reducing duplication, errors and silo companies, resistance remains. achieving full integration is easily within million, that means $10 million in dis- working. Data is then shared across the reach.

Image: SoftShip 24 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • NOVEMBER 2018

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