ShipServ (www.shipserv.com) now provides an end-to-end web-based procurement applications supporting both ship managers and suppliers in the maritime industry. After several months of testing and running real transactions with select beta customers, ShipServ opened for business on July 24, signing up ship managers and suppliers for its services. Based in San Francisco, ShipServ has offices in Oslo, Piraeus, Rotterdam, Washington, Copenhagen and a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week Customer Service Center in Wilmington, N.C., to assist in any transaction. ShipServ will soon open offices in Singapore and London. ShipServ's management team has more than 150 years of maritime experience at sea and ashore, as well as information technology experts with state-of-the-art Silicon Valley know-how and experience.
ShipServ is designed as a simple-to-use web-based system that requires no expensive hardware or software. All that is needed is a computer and Internet access. ShipServ uses MTML, the XML-based e-commerce standard for the maritime industry. MTML (www.mtml.org) was developed by ShipServ in cooperation with the International Maritime Purchasing Association (IMPA, www.impa.net) and has been adopted by numerous industry leading companies.