Unitor Launches New IT Program
Unitor has taken the next step in giving customers the power to manage their fleets. Customer empowerment in the area of information technology is the next generation of service supported product offerings. Unitor's new information technology system named PartnerSHIP offers subscribers access to all critical information regarding their fleet as well as data about Unitor's worldwide network. This Web-based program offers secure and direct customer access into Unitor's mainframe computer. This computer network acts as a data repository for all of the customer's information. In conjunction with that information it also accesses Unitor's own central database regarding its products, services and port information through a secure web server. By offering customers all of this information through a single vehicle it allows owners to better understand how and where they are utilizing the Unitor network. Unitor is the first marine chemical company to offer such a free service to its clients. This variety of informational tools focus on ship owner specific pricing, reporting, port offerings, and product support.
PartnerSHIP gives instant access to pricing of Unitor products worldwide. Once a client's contract pricing is established, the client can then access PartnerSHIP to review net pricing in potential ports. Clients can also make comparative reports in order to evaluate the cost benefits of all proposed ports. Since shipowners will know in advance their ports of call, Unitor makes it possible to forecast future costs based on pricing structures and anticipated consumption. With regards to actual deliveries, users can also drill down to review signed delivery documents and related information. This alleviates the time necessary in researching delivery notes and allows for auditing of actual pricing from contract to delivery.
PartnerSHIP allows ship owners access to their own data in order to generate custom reports. These reports can be used to review fleetwide costs and consumption. The program also allows the generation of reports that can compare similar vessels in order to determine proper usage of products onboard. This allows for real-time access to data that might not be readily available to ship owners until the end of the month or worse still — the end of the year. This permits corrective measures to be taken well in advance to avoid end-of-year budget overruns. Another feature of this reporting function is that PartnerSHIP can download customer data to any spreadsheet type program. This enables the owner to perform efficient comparisons, internal reports, and other documents that ship owners require through the course of the year. As with all capabilities of PartnerSHIP, this downloading ability is user specific and only information related to the client's company can be accessed.
Robert Lee Gordon is the director of purchasing for Ocean Development Company. Gordon is responsible for all project related purchasing of hotel, nautical, and engineering products for Project America, M/S Patriot, Columbia Queen, and the Coastal Vessels.
