Three Digitalization Hacks for the Maritime Industry

In the maritime sector, a lot of document control software is being replaced in an effort to improve profitability from projects and processes. Despite these replacements, mistakes during projects are still made, and new document control software is often disappointing. In this article, we focus on why these mistakes keep happening. To make sure you choose the right software to improve processes in your maritime company, we will give you three valuable hacks that will help you make the right choice avoiding all these pitfalls and which supports your maritime innovation. 

What do you want to solve with maritime digitalization?

Document control systems are widely used in the maritime sector. However, for many reasons, including poor performance, people often start to look for new document control systems. There are plenty of new systems to choose from, but what do you want to solve with a new system? If you are looking to innovate and improve, don’t go for the package which is simply replacing what you already do. First, rethink your information strategy. 

To innovate you have to define an information strategy 

Successful maritime digitalization can only be achieved by visualizing your future position and innovate from a planned perspective. 

Before you take such a huge step as implementing new software in your company, it is advisable to first create a vision for your maritime digital transformation. This means that you first have to decide what you want to achieve with your digital solution. Then you convert that into a strategy with action points and after that, you look at which software solution best fits your vision and strategy. 

Below you find three digitalization hacks that will immediately help you successfully digitalize your maritime projects and maritime processes. 

Maritime digitalization hack #1: Document = History

Working with (printed or digital) documents is a thing of the past and should stay there. After training, maritime companies often discover that documents never can contribute to the opportunities new IT technology is offering. Documents are so complex that humans nor computers can understand them in a proper, required way. We all know examples of projects that went wrong because the ship was built with outdated documents. This will not change if you continue to run your projects based on documents. OK, some documents will remain, but only as a report from something else. Let us introduce: data-driven operations as a successful strategy in your maritime digitalization.

Maritime digitalization hack #2: Data = King

Real maritime innovation starts with data-driven operations. This means that you manage your maritime project data in a data management system. This allows you to create new, much better processes, which would be impossible in a document-driven structure. In a data-driven system, it is even better, the structure of a ship is leading. If you are looking for information, you no longer have to spend hours going through documents. You can easily navigate through your projects because the menus are based on the ship configuration. Think Digital Twin. Go for a proper maritime data management tool to enable a new way of working, save time and frustrations and increase your competitiveness.

Maritime digitalization hack #3: Choose Maritime Sector Specific Software 

When it comes to choosing which data management software is best for your company, you should look for specific software for the maritime sector. Look for software that is specifically made to support maritime projects and even better look for software that supports the life cycle of a ship. Thus, from tender, design, engineering, and construction phase to operations, delivery, and midlife upgrade phases.

Last but not least, our most valuable maritime digitalization hack. It’s simple but crucial for developments in the future. Look for a scalable software tool that supports all your digitalization steps. 

With half our staff being maritime experts and the other half IT experts, we offer over 30 years of maritime IT experience as your maritime IT knowledge partner. Start digitalizing today and let us help you to get the most out of your maritime projects. 

For more information, please visit www.shipbuilder.nl