20/20- The Decade of Dissemination

A few years ago, there was a major announcement that Apple and Microsoft were going to collaborate on a shared platform.  The fact that these tech giants—and fierce competitors—were joining forces to produce a product that would enhance the customer’s experience was extraordinary!!

It caused me, then, to reflect on how “close to the vest” the maritime community was at the time.  Now we would call it “siloed” as each company held their information on both operations and commercial elements tightly and, quite literally, existed in their own world.

This world has changed with the advances in digitalization, the collection of data sets, and the ease of communications.  While commercial information is still private, the value of sharing information is now recognized as essential to create efficiencies for all parties.

The partnerships we are seeing today (note the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping) are designed to help the ENTIRE industry face challenges that would daunt a single entity.  The benefits of digitalization and blockchain efforts are now being realized to improve the BUSINESS of shipping in making it more efficient.

Even as we face market challenges, the old adage that “a rising tide lifts all ships” is perfectly suited to the world we live in today.  At SHIPPINGInsight, we are committed to facilitating these collaborations by pulling the potential partners together and engaging in dialog that will open opportunities for relevant parties to explore the possibilities of creating these “rising tide” solutions.

Keep optimizing,

Carleen