Thome Ship Management Selects MarineLink eCommerce

(Oslo, 16 March 2011) Thome Ship Management, one of the world's leading independent international ship managers, has chosen MarineLink eCommerce provided by EDB ErgoGroup as the sole eCommerce provider for its purchasing operations. The three year contract covers its entire fleet of about 150 vessels.

E-business solutions are not new to Thome Ship Management, as the group has been using e-business solutions since 2005. In April 2007, Thome Ship Management added the then MTS to their e-business platform.

Thome was the first manager in the shipping community to run two concurrent eCommerce portals, one being MTS/MarineLink. They did this successfully whilst maintaining focus on transparency and efficiency.

Thome saw the need to bring onboard MTS for three reasons: firstly commercial reasons, then to have experience using both systems and see what MTS can do for Thome, and lastly to keep their options open. After experiencing both systems and due to EDB ErgoGroup's continued commitment to further development of marine shipping specialties within contract hosting, in Jan 2011 Thome Ship Management made the decision to engage MarineLink eCommerce service provided by EDB ErgoGroup as its sole eCommerce provider.

Last year the market saw EDB ErgoGroup purchase Wilhelmsen Ships Service's eCommerce solution, MTS. It was renamed as MarineLink and has been integrated into EDB ErgoGroup's advanced eCommerce platform. MarineLink has added new functionality for invoice processing and logistics integration.

Thome's Procurement & Supply Chain Manager Ryan Dalgado said: "Advanced eCommerce delivered by MarineLink is our choice for addressing the current and future needs of our purchasing operations, further improving the efficiency of our purchasing operation and making savings. We want to be the fore runner in eCommerce with MarineLink developing advanced eCommerce solutions which helps us monitor our purchasing operations through dynamic reporting tools, enabling us to deliver quality ship management."

Thome Ship Management will utilize MarineLink to implement the following eCommerce functionality towards its suppliers:

•    Efficient and high quality electronic eCommerce processes for handling inquiries, quotes, orders and order confirmations
•    Receiving and processing electronic invoices with attachments
•    Self Service eCommerce portal via MarineLink Bridge
•    eCommerce reporting tools on KPIs
•    Contract hosting to improve data quality and lower costs

"EDB ErgoGroup MarineLink has a great and wonderful experience working with Thome although it was a very challenging encounter. More than 2,700 vessels are now trading through EDB ErgoGroup MarineLink, and the EDB ErgoGroup eCommerce solution is managing more than 15,000 integrated businesses performing over 250 million eCommerce transactions annually, which allows the companies to efficiently process orders, requests for quotes, invoices and logistics documents through a single, electronic connection to all of its suppliers," said Jonny Lotten of EDB ErgoGroup.
 

Source: EDB ErgoGroup