Procurement Solution News

The international owner of containerships Danaos Corporation  has partnered with iMarine Software, fully integrating the maritime e-procurement solution 'SeaProc eProcurement' platform into their system.Danaos Web Enterprise Suite is a web-enabled maritime software suite that automates all the daily functions of any shipping company, said a press release from the developers of marine information systems.Combining comprehensive maritime domain knowledge with advanced technology expertise, Danaos provides maritime software for the ship owner, ship manager, broker, operator, charterer or accountant, it said.Danaos’ web-enabled software solutions encompass the full spectrum of the shipping industry’s processes…

Chainalytics, a global leader in supply chain consulting, and Drewry, the global shipping consultancy, have partnered to launch an innovative ocean freight procurement solution for shippers. The Chainalytics Ocean Buying Group, in partnership with Drewry, will provide participating Beneficial Cargo Owners (BCOs) with enhanced purchasing power, service monitoring and cost transparency. The new strategic partnership delivers a pioneering ocean freight procurement platform that will enable medium and small scale importers and exporters to collaboratively achieve “big shipper” rates and terms direct with ocean carriers and benefit from shared intelligence for better commercial decisions.

OW Bunker, a physical distributor and reseller of marine fuels, announced the launch of a physical distribution operation in Australia. The move is part of OW Bunker’s strategy to further expand the company’s global physical distribution presence in key locations for customers, ensuring end-to-end quality in the services and products that it provides. OW Bunker has leased a fuel oil tank in Port Kembla, New South Wales. The company will provide vessels with a full range of products including RMG 380 cSt and RME 180 cSt fuel oil ex-pipe and DMA gas oil by road tanker.

Inatech launches its Optimizer to add smart decision making for fuel purchasing to its cloud-based management solution for the entire fuel procurement process. The company explains that Optimizer helps ship operators take the guesswork out of their fuel purchasing decisions by providing real-time guidance on the three key factors of quantity, location and price strategy-how much fuel to buy for each ship in their fleet, the best port to bunker at and the right price strategy (spot versus contract). In ongoing proof of concept evaluations for large shipping companies, Inatech's Optimizer has been shown to deliver real-world fuel cost savings of up to five percent.

GAC Bunker Fuels Limited has appointed two new UAE-based bunker traders as part of its regional expansion plan. Georgia Paravalou will trade and broker marine fuels in her new role. An economics and management graduate, she joins GAC Bunker Fuels from AP&A. Ltd, where she worked as a shipbroker, coordinated the marketing department and developed business in the UK and South China. Anthony Inglis is charged with expanding GAC's bunker business in the Middle East and developing bunkering operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. He joined GAC Bunker Fuels from Weatherford International, where he served as a Procurement and Logistics Co-ordinator for the same market. says Nicholas Browne, Global Director of GAC Bunker Fuels.

Ventyx, an ABB company announce that Sydney Ferries has successfully completed a significant upgrade of Ventyx Ellipse for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), on time and on budget. Sydney Ferries also implemented other leading Ventyx solutions as part of the organization's strategic review of business processes and systems. The implementations have enabled Sydney Ferries to achieve significant functional improvements that further enhance the safety and reliability of its ferry service, which transports more than 14 million people across Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River each year.

OW Bunker, one of the world’s leading suppliers and traders of marine fuel, today announced that it has launched a new operation in Brazil. The move is part of its continued strategy to develop its operations in South America following the recent commencement of physical operations in Panama and Uruguay. Based in Rio de Janeiro, the operation will strengthen the company’s offering to customers transiting within the ECSA (East Coast South America) region. Customers will have access to a full range of quality products when and where they need them…

Multi Service, the transaction management company responsible for online bunker procurement technology currently utilized by major government entities worldwide, announced today the addition of James Bremner to the maritime solutions team. Bremner will lead product and business development efforts for the company’s online bunker procurement systems. “Our government program has gained solid traction in the marketplace,” said Michele Urness, senior vice president of Multi Service,” and has illustrated the value of an online transaction network in the bunker industry.” In fact, more than 220,000 metric tonnes of fuel were run through the company’s bunker procurement solution in 2010…

Multi Service announced the successful execution of a long term bunker fuel and services procurement agreement with the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) of The Republic of Singapore. The agreement allows bunker suppliers on the Multi Service bunker network to provide competitive tenders on marine fuel and chandlering services for the DSTA through the company’s web-based bunker procurement solution, altivis. “Primarily, the Singapore navy operates in the Asia Pacific region,” said Colin Wills, Business Development Representative for the Marine division of Multi Service Government Programs. “Our network of bunker suppliers in this region is strong and continues to grow.

Colin Wills and Multi Service Corporation have extended their contract initiated in December 2008. As under the original agreement, Colin will continue to offer business development assistance for altivis, the company’s marine fuel procurement solution, and consult with the company’s military clientele. Colin has also been commissioned for the SEA Card program, a web-based bunker procurement platform used by the U.S. Government.

SeaSupplier Ltd. (SeaSupplier), the marine e-procurement subsidiary of Stolt-Nielsen S.A. announced it has been chosen by Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., based Seabulk International to provide its total SeaManager e-procurement solution to Seabulk International's three global divisions: Seabulk Offshore, Seabulk Tankers, and Seabulk Towing . cost and time. Gerhard E. Kurz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seabulk, commented, "This is a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to lower costs and improve service and response time to our customers. We have evaluated several e-procurement solutions to streamline our purchasing process and reduce our costs.

In joint co-operation, MarineProvider and Xantic (former SpecTec) have built an integration module linking the AMOS Maintenance & Purchase software (AMOS M&P) version 5.0 with MarineProvider's e-procurement solution. "Each customer that upgrades to AMOS M&P version 5.0 receives a complete e-Procurement enabled version that contains everything needed to work seamlessly with MarineProvider's e-procurement solution. AMOS users do not need any special additional patches or custom configuration work done", says Collin Lewis, CEO of MarineProvider ASA. "MarineProvider required a much deeper integration than the generic portal driver functionality in our e-commerce module," says Paul Ashton, Director Technology and Innovations of Xantic.

Unitor's 4,500 international shipping customers now have a ready made solution for e-commerce procurement available. The solution makes it possible to electronically purchase Unitor products and services from vessels at sea or from the owner's office. Unitor and SpecTec's free and independent marine procurement portal, e4marine, has now opened the industry's first vessel-based e-commerce procurement solution following trials with the Baltic ferry operator Silja Line. After evaluating the e4marine solution, Silja Line went "live" by ordering marine chemicals and refrigerant gases for its flagship, the 59,912 grt passenger RoRo Silja Europa, running between Stockholm (Sweden) and Turku (Finland) from the vessel, via e4marine, to Unitor.

SeaSupplier Ltd, the marine e-procurement subsidiary of Stolt-Nielsen S.A, announced today it has signed a multi-year SeaManager ™, e-procurement contract with Stolt Offshore S.A., the world's largest operator of specialty sub sea construction and maintenance ships, pipe laying and heavy lift barges. Together with Stolt Offshore’s annual expenditure of $600 million on products and services and with SNTG, Seabulk International, RCCL, Teekay Shipping and NYK LINE, more than a $1billion of expenditure is anticipated to be transacted through the SeaSupplier Value Added Network™. SeaSupplier will provide Stolt Offshore S.A with its complete procurement solution, SeaManager™, as well as consulting services for database rationalization and business process re-engineering.

Star Information Systems (SIS) and Marine Transaction Services (MTS) of Oslo, Norway, announce the development of a global business-to-business (B2B) software and e-commerce solution for the shipping industry. “MTS and SIS offer true B2B integration. MTS’s expertise in e-commerce for primary marine vendors was a major determining factor for SIS entering into this collaboration. The two companies have worked professionally together for the past two years” said Leif Tusvik, head of department SISCommerce. Under the new cooperation agreement, MTS will integrate marine vendors existing ERP/back office systems with ship owners and operators currently utilising SISCommerce software.

As dot-com firms that lacked a solid foundation disappeared from the landscape, the strongest are left standing amid the rubble. It is worth noting that at the height of the 'dot-com' boom and phenomenal statistics from various research groups, Gartner Group predicted that 75 percent of e-business projects would fail because of a lack of understanding of technology and poor business planning. Of the companies predominately built on smaller amounts of capital from within the industry such as Oslo, Norway-based MarineProvider — from day one there was a vested interest in not only the day-day operations of the company via its investors, but there was a mission that MarineProvider had — which was to assist companies already within the maritime community.