Shipping Must Embrace Digital Technologies -Marine Money Panel
“To be a top performer, you must embrace technology,” said Søren Meyer, Chief Strategy Officer, Maersk Tankers, speaking at the Marine Money Week conference in New York on Tuesday.
Meyer was referring to the industry-wide digitalization evolution currently underway in the tanker shipping sector, as part of a panel discussion with Frank Coles, President, Transas Group, Wartsila Voyage Solutions; and Scott G. Borgerson, Ph.D., CEO, CargoMetrics Technologies LLC.
Digitalization has been gaining more attention in shipping as the industry increasingly looks to leverage data to improve commercial performance and investment returns. The panelists agreed that new digital solutions will strengthen trading decisions, increase efficiencies, create new customer services and generate new business.
“Data and digitalization will transform the shipping and transportation industries,” said Borgerson, who leads a technology-driven investment company.
“We take a Moneyball quantitative approach to shipping,” Borgerson said. “It’s 2018, but in many ways this business is run the same as it has for the past century.”
Coles, whose firm Transas was acquired by Wärtsilä earlier this year for €210 million as the driver for its Voyage Solutions business, has long championed the advantages of a smarter, more integrated digital approach to shipping.
“Forget about the future,” Coles emphasized, “the future is now.”