The maritime industry’s financial leaders are faced with a sea of rapid technological and regulatory change, a lack of access to real-time information, questions around digital system integrability and operability, and the ongoing challenge of balancing financial constraints with the demands of the business.
Combine this with the many stakeholders involved in a single ship’s voyage and the niche environment that it operates in, and it can be a challenge to determine if and how investments in digital solutions will bring a good return. Our guide, Navigating New Financial Seas, created in collaboration with Marcura seeks to provide a brief dive into the various digital solutions used from pre-fixture to post-fixture, to improve efficiencies and ultimately cost. In the final two articles in this series of twelve, we discuss a list of 3 recommendations for financial leaders that we believe could help them make more sense of the complex digital solutions landscape.
People are the most critical part.
It’s important to remember that the most critical part of successful digital solutions deployment is the people. People need to be onboard with digital transformation, and that includes the solutions they are expected to operate.
Creating a culture that encourages people to be engaged and motivated in new solutions is imperative for their success. One way of ensuring this happens is by implementing solutions gradually. This helps to ensure all those who will be affected by any changes as a result of these solutions are not only informed but also happy about it.
One CFO interviewed as part of this research said, “You’ve got to get the foundations in place first, then once they are stable build the next piece and the next and so on. If you break it down into bite-size chunks and build incrementally you are in a situation where you can stop at any time if you need to. If something isn’t working or people aren’t happy you can just stop and restart in 12 months.”
This approach also provides the opportunity to align goals across departments. “Ideally, you want to find a solution that fits multiple people’s needs. Implementing in a rush means that you might meet one department’s needs but not others and trying to get them to work together is a big challenge. So getting that alignment is important. Understand the catalyst for the solution and explore how it can help the entire organisation, not just one department. Try to engage people in its selection and design.
Prioritise solutions that are high-impact, agile, and scalable.
Digital solutions need to be integrable and scalable. If they aren’t integrable, modifications to the existing infrastructure will be required and have a negative financial impact. If digital solutions aren’t scalable, they may bring immediate benefits, but further down the line become redundant. This will result in new solutions being implemented at an additional cost.
In order to select solutions that are scalable and integrable, you need to know what you want to make digital and why. This will enable better decision-making when it comes to digital solutions. There is no use going digital for the sake of it. As outlined in the decision-making framework, it’s key to first identify the issues and potential for digital solutions to make a substantial impact. This will help to determine the level of scalability required in the future and if the solution is likely to meet increasing things asked of it. For instance, additional volumes of data, more rapid transfer of information, or greater analysis.
For a more detailed insight and understanding of the recommendations given in this article as well as the third and final recommendation, please refer to our latest thought leadership report in partnership with Marcura, Navigating New Financial Seas. This comprehensive guide demonstrates how digital solutions can optimise shipping operations from the pre and post-voyage fixture stages, through to the voyage itself, to ensure financial success. The full report can be downloaded below:
