Maritime IT standardization and business integration (2)

Smart integration of the ships and remote access to the vessels’ assets ends one of the main problems of IT in maritime businesses – doubled (“redundant”) data. There are opportunities to save money when transmitting data, especially when considering the rise of Inmarsat’s pay-as-you-go offer. But the root cause for high communication costs remains, as much data is captured and transmitted two, three or even more times.

Maritime IT standardization and how it helps:

One of the main reasons for this is the missing standardization of data, caused by using different software vendors. Most of them try to offer consistent data structures, but only for their own products. Unable to look out of the box, all the different data providers will continue to send data, which already exist as no one has a common interfacing. An example for this is the VDR, where much of the operational data of the vessel is stored.

As no stand-alone maker is able to do this, the IMO and Classification Societies should start defining international standards for the storage and interchange of data.

Compared to the situation ashore, missing maritime IT standardization is similar to dealing with public and governmental entities (like tax departments) – annoyingly asking you for the same information repeatedly, even if it is already available within another instance or department.

Today it is technically possible to roll out a new version of Microsoft Windows to every onboard computer, only using scripts and an online connection. However, maritime IT departments cannot administrate the individual needs of 5 or more computers per vessel, where most of them are using different tools to solve the same tasks. In addition, crew members often insist on doing things “the usual” (“their own”) way.

This example clearly points out how maritime IT standardization needs to happen on board vessels with common software architecture and integrated systems. However, heavy rejection trying to change the trampled paths is almost certain.

Of course, it is not always possible to avoid exceptions but 80 to 95% of all computers can be successfully standardized, saving money and labor in the long run. This is a process of organizational improvements, which cannot be fought by one sole department.

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