e-solution is more than a dot.com

The dust is settling on the dot.com era after a number of high profile collapses. Many now realise that you cannot sit between a shipowner and his supplier and collect a premium without offering something in return. Ship chandlery is not the same as delivering books for example. Delivering pyrotechnics and dangerous chemicals, requires a completely different solution. Getting paid for delivery is hard enough. But getting paid will be nearly impossible if the courier hasn?t got a signature because the ship was late or berthed at another quay explains Ove Jahren, Unitor?s corporate logistics and development manager. “What is the advantage of a system that confirms delivery but cannot deliver,” asks Gunnar Berg Treidene, Unitor?s vice president of operations, logistics & IT? He explains: “If you introduce a dot.com without integrated systems ? delivery is unlikely to happen ? you need to have some fundamentals in place.” And that is where Unitor believes it has a considerable advantage. “Never having a customer asking for goods we can?t deliver,” says Jahren. Many of the early dot.coms spent vast sums of money on brand building advertising campaigns. They told suppliers to sign up or be left behind. Many companies signed up, starting a competition among dot.coms to see which ones could be linked to the biggest names. War cry However, Unitor did not believe the ?first mover advantage?, war cry of many dot.coms. It sought to look at its own solution that offered both suppliers and buyers an advantage. “No one listened to what the customer or supplier wanted ? they were fixated on the technology of their platforms and had too many preconceived ideas,” says Stephan Nielsen CEO of e4marine, Unitor?s e-commerce platform. He told The Motor Ship, having a large number of buyers raising queries does not help suppliers as it generates a lot of work with very little return. He also points out that the profit margins in this sector are low enough without suppliers competing in an auction type environment. Unitor didn?t believe the shipping industry was ready for dramatic change. So it launched e4marine. It based it on delivering a core IT solution that integrates the buyers and sellers systems. “Everyone is talking about integration, so we did the right thing,” says Chris Thain, Unitor?s marketing director. He explains that Unitor wants to offer a “quality seamless transaction”. Orders sent to the supplier should go into the back of his system. “If the buyer doesn?t see us we have done a good job,” says Thain. No interference Unitor believes that the speed of reply is extremely important and has focussed on a very high e-source enabler. “The buyer wants as few integration problems as possible,” says Thain. He explains that Unitor is looking at new services but wants to get the basics right before building. Unitor says it doesn?t interfere with supplier?s already low operating margins. Neilsen adds that e4marine will work with the portals that stay around. One of e4marine?s main advantages is trackability, says Thain. He says it enables monitoring of who is doing business with who and who is the contact if a consignment is not delivered. Unitor is working with many suppliers including Wärtsilä. It has integrated “deep into the Wärtsilä system”, says Neilsen. He explains that any portal that wants to do business with the company will have to integrate as this is the only way to do it. Last year saw the company launch its first pilot with Silja Line. “We are working on more generic solutions to make it easier for others to come in,” says Neilsen. “The shipping industry doesn?t want or need a marketplace ? it boils down to control. Customers and suppliers don?t want to delegate to a third party over which they have no control.”