‘More leaders than laggards’ in maritime digitalisation race

At a press preview of the findings hosted at its office in Ålesund, western Norway, Inmarsat noted that the industry’s reputation for being conservative was perhaps unjustified. Among the 125 shipping companies surveyed were “more leaders than laggards”, the company reported.

Christer Baltzersen, sales director, certified applications programme, Inmarsat, said: “We tend to see shipping as reluctant to change, but that is not entirely true. However, there is a big difference between companies, from those with large IT departments through to those with a few ships running businesses by fax.”

Among the highlights of the survey’s findings, around 70% of respondents claimed to be using digitalisation and the internet of things to drive down insurance premiums. Nearly half (43%) said that improving health and safety was the main reason for digitalisation.

Cybersecurity was an understandable concern for many, with 87% of those questions saying that they needed to improve their approach to security. External threats took second place to insecure storage of gathered data in respondents’ concerns, reflecting both the use of cloud storage services and a practice of storing data before understanding how it will be used.

Ship owners may be surprisingly responsive to the digital challenge, but the survey showed that the industry was often failing to attract the skills need for internet of things adoption.

“On all levels – strategic, management and delivery – we are lacking people with skills,” concluded Baltzersen.

The full survey results, which include analysis of five other industries, will be published later this month.