Collaboration in the Shipping Industry: Innovation and Technology AN INDUSTRY REVIEW PAPER
WHO WE ARE
TESTIMONIALS
Shipping2030 is a different kind of event, designed to provide the platform the industry needs to locate and share the big ideas and accelerate innovation. Connecting people with technology, ideas and with each other – from ship operators to customers, suppliers, start-ups and regulators – will make companies more agile, collaborative, knowledgeable and attractive to new talent as they invest in digital infrastructure and skills they need to successfully exploit the markets of the future.
“ I very much enjoyed the event which was (as always) fully packed with diverse, relevant subject matter experts providing interesting insights on challenges and opportunities related to new regulations and technologies.” at Shipping2030 Europe Louise Vinther Alis, Environmental Manager of Marine Standards, Maersk Line
Moving away from traditional technology conferences, this event focusses on the business strategy for digital – turning a vision to a reality. It is the meeting point where disruptive projects connect around the boardroom for a broader plan. The format of the event is a high-level, visionary & strategic plenary which offers through leadership from within the maritime sector and importantly from outside, from companies who can contextualise these flows of information.
“ Thanks for a great event; one of the first actually where Shipping and IT meet in a very open and positive manner. I really appreciated the possibility to give my opinion on the panels and I think the overall quality of speakers was very high!”at Shipping2030 Asia Andre Simha, Global Chief Information Officer, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company “ It’s been excellent. I think what I like the most is that it’s such a wide participation of global and national leaders in technology, compliance, regulatory and shipping. It’s a very good event.”at Shipping2030 North America Daniel Gianfalla, National Maritime Security Advisory Committee, The US Department of Homeland Security
CONTENTS p3: The Power of Collaboration p5: “Bringing the spirit of modern innovation” with Autonomous, Unmanned, Smart Ships p8: Blockchain: “A Product and Platform That Solves the Headaches Carriers and Operators Currently Face” p10: 4 Cases of Cyber Security Failures in Shipping History p12: Embracing the Digital Culture
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The Power of Collaboration Technology has been at the forefront of 2017’s maritime news, signifying a step towards shipping’s digital transformation. Autonomous ships are now on the market, and the supply chain is being disrupted every day by blockchain technology, IoT, big data, AI and many more! These developments, however, could not have happened without collaboration, which has been identified as key to a business’ success in digital transformation. “For innovation to succeed, there needs to be a balance between both organizations and regulators in how they collaborate”, Marius Johansen, VP Business Solutions & Marketing at Wilhelmsen Ship Agency said at Shipping2030 Asia in 2017. Indeed, stories of new developments have come out last year thanks to partnerships between industry stakeholders. Autonomous ships are being developed and they are starting to appear on the seas. Nippon Yusen K. K., Japan’s largest container line, has been testing robotic ships, focusing on crash avoidance, with radar manufacturer Furuno Electric Co. and communication equipment-makers Japan Radio Co. and Tokyo Keiki Inc., while Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Kawasaki Kisen Kaiwa are likely to follow suit. Meanwhile, blockchain has become the new buzz word not only in shipping, but also in the finance and many other sectors. Last year, several research labs have been set up to find out blockchain’s true potential for the maritime industry, for example BLOC (Blockchain Labs for Open Collaborations) and BlockLab, and the labs have made phenomenal headways into the unique and innovative applications of blockchain. Maritime, an industry previously thought of as ‘traditional’, is now seeing more startups succeeding. In fact, many shipping companies, like Torvald Klaveness and recently CMA CGM, are creating spaces to support startups’ growth and innovate their businesses through the findings of these labs.
“ Digitalisation and connectivity will inevitably bring on the challenge of implementing effective cybersecurity measures.” These collaborations, however, are not risk-free and the amount of work required to build and sustain these partnerships should not be underestimated. But technology and the ability to innovate is not just an optional nice-to-have quirk for your business. It is becoming an industry driving force that is sweeping over every sector and market leaders are moving fast to gain competitive edge by learning about digitalisation. “The next generation of ships are likely to be super-connected assets whose real-time data has the power not just to predict when maintenance might be necessary but also trading decisions. The industry essentially needs to digitalise and develop an additional layer of revenue that is powered by the data generated by trading the vessels”, wrote the Danish Ship Finance in their Shipping Market Review – November 2017. Digitalisation and connectivity will inevitably bring on the challenge of implementing effective cybersecurity measures. Since the Maersk cyberattack due to the ‘non-Petya’ malware, security has become one of the most important issues in the
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maritime industry, and the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation only puts the pressure on for companies who trade or hold data of European citizens. Recently Jim Hagemann Snabe, Chairman at A.P. Møller-Maersk, opened up about the cybersecurity incident during a discussion on the future of cybersecurity led by the World Economic Forum. “This was a very significant wake-up call for our organisation, A.P. Møller-Maersk, certainly a very expensive one. It cost us $250-300 million, and yet I argue that it was a very important wake-up call. So what did we learn? Number one: we were basically average when it comes to cybersecurity like many companies. This was a wake-up call to become not just good, but we actually have a plan to come into a situation where our ability to manage cybersecurity becomes a competitive advantage. That is our ambition.” In recent memory, far too many incidents have occurred where a company’s cybersecurity has been hacked, threatening to release data or utilising the accessed information to run organised crime. Vulnerabilities in cyber defence will only multiply during shipping’s digital transformation, so cybersecurity should not just be a part of a company’s safety culture, but it should also be an integral part of developing a digital culture.
Shipowners and ship management companies are certainly interested in digitisation, and whether it is done through collaboration with an external company, or a collaboration with a startup, there is still room for the industry to grow. Technology like predictive analysis, AI, automation, robotics, and blockchain are advancing rapidly – faster than we can get our heads around them. But keeping up to date and learning about them regularly will take you one step closer to being able to implement them in your business. For that reason, this paper features: • An interview with Philip Bourque, Director for Business Development at Sea Machines, the startup that is at the forefront of autonomous ship development, • A discussion with the team behind ShipChain, the hottest blockchain startup in the maritime scene, who have created the logistics platform of the future, • A collection of cybersecurity case studies that highlight what the maritime industry needs to do in order to become more secure, • And an interview with Nakul Malhotra, Vice President of Technical Solutions & Marketing Marine Products at Wilhelmsen Ships Service, where we discuss embracing the digital culture in the maritime industry. ■
“Bringing the spirit of modern innovation” with Autonomous, Unmanned, Smart Ships Many of shipping’s technological giants broke news of their latest autonomous or robotic ship developments in 2017. Yara International and Kongsberg Gruppen are planning on launching their autonomous surface vessel late 2018, while Rolls-Royce is partnering up with Google to develop smart and self-learning ships, and they are also working with the European Space Agency to investigate the use of remote control technology in the maritime industry. The President of Rolls-Royce Marine, Mikael Makinen said: “Autonomous shipping is the future of the maritime industry. As disruptive as the smartphone, the smart ship will revolutionise the landscape of the ship design and operations”. 2017 also saw the rise of a brand new autonomous shipping startup Sea Machines, who are already conquering the seas with their universal autonomous vessel control system. Speaking to Philip Bourque, Director of Business Development at Sea Machines, we dug deep into the concept of autonomous vessels and explored the different interpretations of this disruptive technology. There are a lot of words associated with autonomous ships: ‘robotic’, ‘unmanned’, and ‘smart’. What do these terms actually mean? At Sea Machines, our company mission is to revitalize ocean going transport with autonomous technology. This effort and vision spans across multiple vertical sectors within the maritime field, with applications requiring varied levels of autonomy. In defining ‘robotic’, ‘unmanned’, and ‘smart’ as it applies to autonomous vessels, our view would be that ‘robotic’ could be defined as remotely operated machines or vessels. ‘Unmanned’ would be defined as vessels operating without a human crew onboard and ‘smart’ could be defined as digitally enabled technology and data communications that advances and improves vessel operations. Sea Machines is an active innovator in all three categories.
How do these terms differ from each other? The levels of autonomy are still being defined, in part by demand, but also government regulations, authorities, and classification societies. As such, we have seen different parts of the world have varying approaches to defining what an autonomous ship is legally. The definitions are becoming clearer on a global scale, however there is a natural gap between how the early adopters vs laggards perceive the technology. What is it that Sea Machines does at the moment? Sea Machines has developed a universal, vessel agnostic, autonomous vessel control system named the Sea Machines 300. This system is comprised of hardened marine-grade electronics and computers that host our autonomy software for vessel command & control. We employ situation awareness and collision avoidance algorithms into the navigation suite, which is designed to work with various sensor inputs including AIS, Radar, ECDIS, Sonar, Camera. We are working on LIDAR integration and experimenting with different types of IMU devices now. What are the benefits to the adoption of autonomous vessels in the industry? Autonomous vessels will strengthen the maritime industry by allowing increased interconnectivity, which will in turn allow for increased efficiency. These gains are realized differently by the type of user, from container shippers to survey vessel users, but
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ultimately it comes down to increasing safety and productivity through the use of data driven decisions. We already witnessed this logic apply to the airline industry years ago, through digital flight planners and autopilots, it’s time to apply similar ideas to the maritime sector which is still the largest mode of transportation, delivering 90% of the world’s trade! How do you see the competition to bring autonomous ships to the market? Where do you see yourselves in the supply chain? Much of the competition by major companies has focused on large ship applications and associated future concepts. When Sea Machines started in 2015, we chose a pragmatic approach as we wanted to get on the water sooner and address the earlier adopters, starting with smaller autonomous vessels like work and utility boats. Now that we have developed our technology for this field, we are moving up in vessel size and in 2018, and we will enter the large vessel market. Being a smaller company allows us some great advantages in that we are able to act with a swift, nimble approach. We have built a solid team with the right mix of mariners, software engineers, perception specialists and autonomy scientists; and we are confident our team will make an impact amongst our larger competitors in the autonomy community. What drives product creation at Sea Machines?
In your experience, is the maritime industry (tankers, liners, offshore, etc.) ready to adopt autonomous shipping? The technology is there for certain routes, but we will still see humans in the loop for a number of years. Considering assets of 200m and larger, Sea Machines believes the first phase will be the deployment of manned ships with autonomous systems in place that act as “smart” systems. As the “smart systems” are accepted, we will see the technology evolve toward minimally manned ships, with reduced crew. How soon can we realistically expect autonomous vessels to dominate the seas? The acceptance and development of autonomous vessel technology is occurring faster than most thought. Nevertheless, there is much work to do in creating a responsible path to a sea of self-driving ships. There are three parts to the effort, the innovators, the operators, and the regulatory authorities. These three parties are starting to interact and work together to provide working examples of autonomous vessels, and that’s very exciting. Once a few early adopters break the mold to show what is possible, we’ll see more players accepting and gaining from the technology.
Bringing the spirit of modern innovation to one of the world’s oldest, largest, and mostly unknown sectors – marine & maritime.
What are the top 3 challenges to the adoption of autonomous vessels in the maritime industry? How do you think they can be overcome?
In the spirit of product creation, we strive to deliver a product that offers impressive performance. In terms of autonomy, this translates to an intuitive, stable system that can replace or check human input. We have a “future driven” company culture, so we are always thinking beyond what we are currently working on. This is an exciting environment that brings on new challenges and solutions to apply toward our vision of creating increased safety and productivity, through data driven decisions.
One of our biggest challenges is battling the human comfort zone. Even after proving that human error is the leading cause of most transport accidents, it’s hard to let the computer take over. Many people have the same fear with modern autopilot in cars.
We are really excited to release the next generation of Sea Machines products.
We like to relate to the story of elevator technology: When the first automated elevators were introduced, there was still an ‘elevator man’. His task was to push a button, but ultimately, his task was to make people feel safe. We have seen aviation transform from manual controls to
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autopilots that can land in minimally manned mode, but we still need pilots.
Autonomous vessels – are they overhyped or a near-future reality? Why?
The first step to overcoming this challenge in the maritime sector is to blend autonomy and self-piloting systems on crewed vessels.
A near future reality. Our note to the naysayers is that like all great technology, the idea might seem far-fetched at first.
Challenge number two is the fact we are addressing an industry that is very traditional in nature. We are breaking hundreds of years in mariner culture by removing a ‘watch’ and replacing that with electronic eyes and data. For some it’s an easy decision to jump into this 21st century technology, but others take a more conservative approach to adopting it. Challenge number three is keeping to speed with the continuous developments in imaging and sensor technologies. This is something all technology companies face, and not necessarily something we’ll overcome. Great sensor technologies are becoming cheaper, and that is making it easier to meet challenges we face in terms of perception. These sensor developments are exciting because they allow for our software capabilities to advance.
There is so much to gain from autonomy in the maritime sector, especially when faced with high operation costs and grim safety records, while operating in an open “autonomy-ready” environment. It just makes sense. Meet the experts behind SeaMachines at GST & Shipping2030 Europe in Copenhagen.
Blockchain: “A Product and Platform That Solves the Headaches Carriers and Operators Currently Face� Although maritime is often regarded as traditional, this image is changing as more technologies are adopted into the industry. Blockchain, a new trend in the logistics and other business sectors, is gaining popularity rapidly, as industry giants are racing to make use of it and some are close to succeeding. Recently, Japanese corporate giants including Mitsui OSK Line started trialling blockchain to streamline and upgrade cross-border trade operations. DNV GL and Deloitte are using it to advance the certification industry within shipping. Maersk has been testing blockchain with Microsoft to manage insurance and risk better. The Port of Antwerp has been piloting a project to make container handling more efficient and secure. Here, we speak to representatives of ShipChain, a new disruptor in the transport and logistics sector, and discuss the potentials of this technology and its impact on shipping as we know it. Blockchain has gained popularity in the finance sector, but now many other industries, including shipping, are looking into developing it. What are the top 5 benefits blockchain offers to the maritime industry, and why should the industry pay attention to blockchain? For one, blockchain is a virtual ledger. The use of a decentralized virtual ledger will allow freight and shipping companies to get rid of paper logs and have a more concrete electronic ledger to record transactions along the supply chain. Blockchain unifies platforms. Currently, there is no unified system or platform that brings companies together and makes them all work well together, when along the supply chain there can be several parties involved in transactions including manufacturers, brokers, insurers, shippers, and several other stakeholders. Blockchain technology and what we are building with ShipChain is a unified ecosystem that brings all players together to collaborate and work together rather than seeing each other as competitors.
Blockchain can show immutable data. Sensors inside of containers and trucks can show information about everything from temperature, to light info, to how many times the door was opened. This will give shippers and carriers more insight into the conditions of their goods, as well as better identify potential fraud. Blockchain can reduce fraud. Tying into the immutable data comes a reduced risk for fraud. For instance within the United States alone, the FBI estimates there is $30 Billion in cargo and freight fraud every year. Preventing that with increased visibility and the inability to edit transactions in the past will have a significant impact on reducing global freight fraud. Depending on the system used, blockchains can operate with or without cryptocurrencies. The original intent of a blockchain with a cryptocurrency is to incentivize actors and stakeholders within the ecosystem, that is how Bitcoin rewards miners. Similarly, members of the supply chain can potentially be incentivized through tokens or currencies operating within a supply chain blockchain. This can be a method to align the incentives and goals across all parties and reduce the potential for bad actors. What solutions does ShipChain offer for the maritime industry? ShipChain is building an ecosystem to bring all freight and shipping companies together into one platform to transact together along the supply chain. Starting from the moment a product is manufactured to the point it’s delivered to its customer. Through the platform, carriers will also be incentivized to deliver packages on time and have drivers deliver packages safely and effectively through a carrier rewards program. We plan
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to further enhance this program as we move forward but from our understanding there isn’t any type of rewards program like this currently in the industry. As a maritime startup, what drives ShipChain’s product creation process? The opportunity to use blockchain technology to solve so many of the inefficiencies that currently exist in the industry today. The team behind ShipChain is a very experienced team with deep knowledge in business, logistics, and blockchain technology that when you combine all these aspects and build a platform like ShipChain, you can make massive change. This is our vision and the direction we take with the business, to create a product and platform that solves the headaches carriers and operators currently face today and have faced for several years now. We want to make things easier for all stakeholders along the supply chain and for them to have a home within ShipChain that helps them solve their current problems and makes their businesses run more efficiently. Based on the webinar we hosted in November, many in the industry understand that blockchain is a virtual system, but does the industry need physical infrastructures to accommodate it?
companies have chosen to deal with them and see it as a norm in the industry. When this type of mentality happens within the industry it’s tougher for change to take shape. Change is inevitable in this industry now that blockchain has become mainstream and adoption is happening at a rapid pace and here at ShipChain we aim to be the innovators and disruptors. In your experience, is the industry ready to adopt blockchain technology? The question isn’t ‘is the industry ready to adopt blockchain technology’, it’s ‘what’s the best way for my company to use blockchain in my business today’. And the answer to that question can be several things and businesses within this industry will discover this with the platform we are building. We are at the forefront of a trillion dollar industry doing something that no one has done before. It won’t be easy and there will be a lot of hills to climb but blockchain technology is here to stay and we want to be innovators of the industry that makes others realize that blockchain and the supply chain go hand-in-hand. How soon can we realistically see blockchain in application?
That will really be up to the carriers for the level of detail they want to store on the blockchain. For instance we are including IoT sensor data as information a carrier may want to store, so the ability to will be available. If they want to keep it simple and only do barcode scans or RFID scans, they can do that as well. We expect to see many going the sensor route.
In the first few months of 2018 our roadmap at ShipChain is to have our platform operational and we will be doing our beta program with our partner Perdue Farms. Through the beta platform we plan to make sure everything works well and we are able to iron out the kinks in order to build a platform that solves the problems we are trying to solve.
What are the top 3 challenges to the adoption of blockchain in the maritime industry? How do you think they could be overcome?
Blockchain – is it overhyped or a near-future reality? Why?
A top challenge is that a lot of the big players in the industry don’t have the ability to adopt new types of technologies quickly and effectively implement them into their businesses. DHL spent close to a billion dollars for several years trying to build a track and trace platform online and essentially they had to scrap this project as it wasn’t effective. Startups like ShipChain have the ability to pivot and make changes especially with new technologies rather fast because they don’t have centralized powers holding the keys to the entire company. This is a big advantage for a startup in any industry really and why a lot of big companies end up acquiring other smaller companies that have aspects or platforms they want to add to their business.
Definitely not over-hyped. I feel that bitcoin itself is overhyped because lots of people who are not familiar with the industry or its capabilities feel that bitcoin and blockchain are the same thing. Blockchain is a revolutionary piece of technology that bitcoin operates off of and is going to disrupt multiple industries and all its capabilities are still in very infant stages. In 5,10, 15 years blockchain technology I feel will be a norm for businesses and blockchains will be a common place for almost all businesses in some shape or form. Meet the experts behind ShipChain at GST & Shipping2030 Europe in Copenhagen. ■
Another challenge in the industry is that shipping and logistics have been around for decades making a lot of the companies that exist today fairly old school. They’ve only known one way to operate their business which involves several inefficiencies and rather than solving them over the years most 9
4 Cases of Cyber Security Failures in Shipping History As the deadline (25 May 2018) for the General Data Protection Regulation approaches, cyber security has become even more important for all business sectors, including shipping. Many industries are worried about data breaches, which will have strict fines once the GDPR applies. But on top of data breach concerns, a cyber security hack could endanger business operations and put individuals at risk in shipping. Here, we are looking at some of the most infamous cases of the past few years, which highlighted the vulnerabilities of shipping operations and called the industry to act and to strengthen cyber security measures. Research Fellow at the International Security Department at Chatham House, Chronis Kapalidis advises us on where the gaps are in these cases of cyber attacks.
THE CLARKSONS CYBER SECURITY HACK
THE MAERSK CYBER ATTACK
In a series of high-profile hacks in corporate America, including Deloitte, Yahoo, and Equifax, Clarksons, the world’s largest shipbroker, suffered a cyber attack in November 2017 via an “unauthorised access gained via a single and isolated user account”, the company said.
In June 2017, Maersk was hit by the non-Petya malware as part of a national attack. The virus stopped the company’s operations in Rotterdam, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Auckland, and many more ports around the world.
The Response Investigations into the cyber security breach were immediate after discovery. Working with data security experts, Clarksons studied the attack in depth in order to learn from it and develop better security measures. The Outcome Luckily, the incident had not affected operations, and Clarksons announced that their full year results were in line with their expectations despite the attack. Kapalidis’ Advice “This incident highlights in the most apt way that the issue of cybersecurity in the maritime industry should not be solely considered for ships and ports. It affects directly the entire maritime economy, consisting of ships, ports, shipping companies, insurers, brokers, vendors, classes and others. It illustrates the importance for the development of ‘cyber culture’ for the most important pillar of cyber resilience, the human factor. If it was an unintended act it brings forward the necessity for effective cybersecurity training to all maritime professionals. If it was an intended act the companies should redraft their access and administration rights, adopting a ‘need-to-know’principle, limiting them only to necessary personnel, all of which should be closely monitored.”
The Response The response was quick and all actions by Maersk were transparent, including its communications with the media via Twitter. In an interview with KNect365, Commissioner William P. Doyle of the US Federal Maritime Commission commended “Maersk for making the decision to waive demurrage and detention fees arguably accrued by customers during the period when a system outage caused by the Petya cyberattack impacted its ability to release cargo”. The Outcome The attack has caused worldwide concern over the maritime industry’s ability to fend itself against hackers. Ong Choo Kiat, President of U-Ming Marine Transport, Taiwan’s largest dry bulk ship owner said that Maersk was regarded as a leader in IT technology, but as Commissioner Doyle said, “if it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone”. Maersk reported a $250-300 million loss due to the disrupted business operations in July and August. Kapalidis’ Advice “This specific hack highlights two things. First, it shows the importance of the third pillar of cyber resilience: the procedures. Secondly it stresses the significance of effective testing of all adopted cyber security policies and measures within each specific industry. The specific malware affected a known vulnerability, that 10
could have been identified if efficient pen-testing was conducted by a 3rd party IT firm. Finally, on a positive side, it should be accredited to Maersk that they chose to go public; a fact that stresses the importance of information sharing.”
DRUG TRAFFICKING VIA THE PORT OF ANTWERP HACKED Over a two-year period starting from June 2011, the Port of Antwerp suffered from continuous cyber security attacks that controlled the movement and location of containers. This allowed drug traffickers to hide illegal drugs among legitimate cargo. The Response After noticing entire containers vanish, the Port of Antwerp worked with official authorities to uncover the mystery of the missing cargo. Once the security breach was discovered and confirmed, the Port of Antwerp installed a firewall to prevent further attacks, but the hackers were able to breach that remotely, too. The Outcome After the incident, the Port of Antwerp has improved their IT security – a BBC article reported. But today, authorities still come across smuggling attempts, not just at the Port of Antwerp, but also in the Port of Hamburg.
MALWARE ON MOBILE OFFSHORE DRILLING UNIT INCAPACITATED NETWORKS Offshore oil workers unintentionally uploaded malware that disrupted computer networks by downloading infected files of pornography and illegal music directly, and by bringing infected laptops and USB drives on board. The malware disabled the signals to the dynamic positioning thrusters, so the MODU drifted off of the well site. For safety reasons, the well was temporarily shut down. The Outcome The incident shed a light on the poor cyber protection of oil rigs and brought cyber criminals’ activities to the forefront. Any malfunctioning on an oil rig could prove disastrous, but in the case of a cyber attack, meddling with these systems can be catastrophic for both the workers and the environment. Kapalidis’ Advice “Another example of a non-existent ‘cyber culture’. The incident highlights the disastrous effects that such an attack on an offshore critical infrastructure, or a ship, could have on the environment. A case that affected both the human factor and the infrastructure and illustrated the necessity for effective cyber training for maritime professionals, once again.” ■
Kapalidis’ Advice “This case illustrates how cyberspace may be used as a facilitator for traditional organised crime. It was clear that no sufficient cyber security measures were in place. It also stresses the necessity for developing resilient mechanisms to such attacks by adopting a backup container control and monitoring system. Finally, it highlights the intertwinement between cyber and physical systems.”
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Embracing the Digital Culture Collaborations to develop technologies and innovations are a short step away for your company to embrace the digital culture. When defining digital culture, many point to our daily interaction with our smart phones, tablets, TV, and other devices that have become a part of our lives through an organic process. In the case of organisations, however, this process needs to be triggered and nurtured. Here, we speak to Nakul Malhotra, Vice President of Technical Solutions & Marketing Marine Products for Wilhelmsen Ships Service, who has been an integral part of the company’s digital transformation and who is still working to develop new and exciting innovations for the maritime industry. Digital culture organically developed in our personal lives but how does a company or organisation grow a digital culture? For maritime companies, the challenge is to understand just how to take digitalisation, and all of the different technologies associated with digitalisation, into the marine market. I think that’s something that we at Wilhelmsen Ships Service have been very conscious of – how can digitalisation work specifically for us and our customers? In adopting a digital culture, the most important element is about recognising where our strengths are and how technology can assist us in bringing speed, relevance, and newer solutions to the market. One of our core competencies as a company is our intimate knowledge and understanding of our customers’ issues and pain points. This is key driver in our creation of all our solutions, but the tricky part is having the right environment in place to be able to utilise all these new technologies and create new maritime solutions. This is particularly important because digital culture, shouldn’t be seen in isolation. Cultivating a digital culture requires a wholesale change from an organisational perspective: how do people work, who do they interact with, how do you bring together cross functional teams working smarter and faster together, how do you enhance collaborations across geographies and stakeholders?
Establishing a new division, or introducing a few new tools, does not answer these questions about how people work day to day. There isn’t a switch you can just turn on. We see this journey progressing in small steps, which have relevance in isolation, but when you string them together, cause a massive change. For example, we worked with a number of stakeholders to establish what we call the ‘Venture Playbook’, which helps guide who we work with, what tools we use, how we crosscollaborate, how we work in cross-functional teams, and what ventures mean for us. Our Digital Boiler Water Maintenance Solution, was the first venture utilising this new playbook. Establishing a working prototype in just 12 weeks, for trial with our customers, it perfectly illustrates what I mean by cultural change. It’s altered how we work within product management and other functions as well. Today, we work with our customers a lot more, we talk to our target market and talk to development partners among our customers, so that the products we’re developing are actually answering their specific needs. Where is shipping at in its digital transformation and its development of digital culture? I think shipping as a whole is in the disruptive stage, and therefore, as with other industries, you are going to have early adopters, the cultural leaders, and pockets of movers who take the first steps. Their numbers have been increasing in the last years and now you’re seeing more articles, use-case studies, and more examples of people contributing to the industry, bringing these changes forward. But I also think there are still
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a large number of companies still waiting and watching, trying to understand what digitalisation means for their business and just what the industry will look like. Most importantly they’re weighing up whether there will even be a market they can participate in, without changing the way they do business. From a Wilhelmsen Ships Service perspective, it’s really important for us to combine our very rich heritage, experience, competence, and customer focus with what these new technologies can do. For example, our work with ChatBots matches a ‘new’ technology, albeit well-established in other industries like banking, with one of our core competencies, customer service. We typically have questions from customers that are very similar in nature, repeated, which require responses, and to wait 24-48 hours for an answer just doesn’t seem acceptable anymore in a world like ours. We should be able to get those responses in a few minutes. Perhaps a minute, perhaps a second, and that’s where ChatBots comes in. It is just one example of how we’re utilising technology to support our existing competence and solve a problem for our customers.
And finally, what is your advice to maritime businesses and organisations who are looking to digitise? My sincere advice is not to run out and throw a lot of money at something before you have an understanding of how it can benefit your particular business and customers. I think it’s the worst thing to do. It’s very important to recognise what the individual business is really good at. What is your expertise? What is your core competence? And then be curious and take a look around at what technologies can be applied to become even better. We’ve taken this approach, as adopting a digital culture isn’t a simple case of copy and paste. It needs to be relevant to the individual organisations and the people in those organisations. It requires a complete culture shift in terms of work processes, tools and statements are not enough to construct a digital culture. It’s a lot of work and it also needs a lot of ambassadors to make sure you are truly working in that way. ■
What developments and improvements can we look forward to in 2018? I think you will see greater momentum, with a small group of people who recognise the value in digitalisation and understand it, wanting to work very fast in developing partnerships with other stakeholders. I think in 2018, we will have more discussions about unifying certain areas of shipping to create a wider, digital ecosystem for stakeholders to participate in, which hopefully also makes it easier for other customers to contribute. From Wilhelmsen Ships Service, you will see more work with augmented reality, more ChatBots, more 3D printing, new developments with our Smart Ropes digital mooring assistant and potentially a 2.0 scaled-up version of our Digital Boiler Water Maintenance Solution. So, we’ve got a lot of exciting things up our sleeves.
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Learn about digitalisation with more experts at our upcoming events: GST & Shipping2030 Europe 20-23 March | Copenhagen
GST & Shipping2030 Digital Week 28-31 May
Shipping2030 Middle East
Shipping2030 Asia 25-26 September | Singapore
Shipping2030 North America 14-15 November | New York
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