Digital Transformation in Shipping

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International shipping need to digitalize it’s operations, but how to pick the right tools and systems among the magnitude on offer?

Here is one that claim to have the answer to the question:

Geneva Dry Dialogues: GeoServe - Splash247

Customers want simpler, smarter, and more connected solutions, he argues, pointing out that today most owners are stuck managing multiple platforms and tools for bunkering, routing, port disbursements, laytime, and emissions—leading to inefficiencies, errors, and lost time.
GeoServe offers an end-to-end voyage management solution—from support during pre-fixture to post-fixture execution and post-voyage finalisation and analysis.

Or go for a mulitude of systems, each claiming to be best suited for individual task?:

SSY appoints former Clarksons exec to lead digital transformation - Splash247

Earlier this year, SSY along with Arrow, Gibson Shipbrokers, Howe Robinson, and IFCHOR Galbraiths jointly introduced Ocean Recap – a purpose-built recap and charter party management platform designed to give the Clarksons-backed Sea platform more competition.

And that is just top of the iceberg, there are a lot more below water.

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We have come a long way in the last 50 years or so:

Advanced connectivity transforms the ‘Vessel as a Floating Office’ from...

From ships with no “connectivity” to ships that is controlled from the office, including watering the onboard vegi garden remotely:

“What we’ve started experimenting with at Synergy is growing our own food on the ships,” he said. “AI from the shore is controlling the water, the temperature, and the light. That’s something that’s completely impossible to do without AI through broadband.”

An anecdote from a time long past:
A bit over 50 years ago I got my first command. The ship that had only MF radio for “connectivity”.
On our 5-6 week trips from Singapore to East Indonesia v.v. we had “connectivity” with the Owner and Manager in Singapore only abt. day and a half sailing before arriving back in Singapore to alert them of our ETA and whatever return cargo I had managed to pick up.

That is the reverse of the “Vessel as a Floating Office” they are talking about now.
The “ship run from the ship”, not from the office ashore as envisaged here. .

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Interoperability is shipping’s new infrastructure - Splash247

This is the hard-edged message from the International Chamber of Commerce’s Digital Standards Initiative July 2025 roadmap, which distils trade’s sprawl into 189 core data elements, 36 documents, and a “verify once, use many” trust stack for corridor-scale execution.

Bottom Line:
Shipping does not require another platform; it needs a shared language, a portable identity, and verifiable reliability that any platform can adopt. This is precisely what the ICC DSI playbook sets out with routes to interoperability and a clear trust model tied to LEI/vLEI. The call: wire it in now, because the next disruption should stress test a digital network, not expose a paper maze stretching from bridge to berth to back office.

PS> But how will it reduce the “paper work” burden onboard ship?

[Hogsnort]

What I wanted was a database that I entered all the crews details in as they joined. If there was some country that wanted to know how much gold they had in their dentistry there was provision for that to,

The database was kept up to date by the office and after filling in some voyage details onboard the Port Papers rolled off the printer not limited to the following:

Certifying no gold bullion in the bilges (India)

Crew effects down to watches and electric razors (India)

Semen’s books and highly detailed inventory of provisions (Brazil)

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More predictions about the changes that digitalization and AI will do to shipping:

OrbitMI: Who will be the winners in the connected maritime era? - Splash247

“The next 12 months will mark the shift from fragmented, reactive decision-making to connected platforms,” he says in this week’s big Maritime CEO interview. “These will integrate every source of operational truth, apply AI to interpret it instantly, and deliver insight crews and operators can act on immediately.”