On April 09, 2019, SEDNA gathered a panel of industry leaders to uncover how technology can improve efficiency and accelerate organizational performance in shipping. Panelists Jenna Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of Shipamax, and Martin Hjelle, Head of Technology and Digital Strategy at Western Bulk, each brought their unique perspective to the conversation, and 3 effective strategies emerged on how shipping organizations can successfully leverage technology to increase efficiency and drive organizational performance:
“Go back to basics, find out what is slowing people down.” – Jenna Brown
Jenna Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of Shipamax
Exploit and Explore
Martin Hjelle’s “Exploit and Explore” strategy focuses on auditing existing systems and processes before exploring new ways to work. When analyzing existing systems, it’s important to remember that change is disruptive, not to mention expensive, so there might be no need to fix what isn’t broken.
After identifying the key issues in your technology stack, it’s time to explore new business models, new systems, and new ways of working together. Martin recommends expending 70% of your effort on exploiting and 30% on exploring while asking yourself if this decision will add value to the business and its customers.
“The SEDNA and Shipamax integration reduces the number of emails for chartering managers by 70% to 85%.” – Martin Hjelle
Leverage APIs To Help Your Company Save Time and Work Together
Forbes magazine predicted the importance of API’s just a couple years ago in an article entitled “2017 Is Quickly Becoming The Year Of The API Economy” which said “CIOs must create and launch new business models faster to keep their companies competitive. APIs are the fuel helping to make this happen by enabling diverse platforms, apps, and systems to connect and share data with each other.”
APIs allow organizations to create a network of systems and reduce the need for mental context switching. API technology is also fostering a collaborative environment between organizations, leading to greater innovation in the marketplace.
SEDNA recently launched our own API program to unify corporate information and accelerate the productivity of enterprise organizations. According to Martin, the SEDNA integration with Veson’s Veslink IMOS Platform and Shipamax allows his team to start the day with the inbox that’s important to them, while reducing the volume of email by 70%-85%.
“Learn new things, be curious, then you’ll be ready for whatever comes.” – Martin Hjelle
Martin Hjelle, Head of Technology and Digital Strategy at Western Bulk
Commitment is the #1 Key to Success
Any company changes should be done full-heartedly with the buy-in from top-level managers all the way to individual employees. When rolling out a new system, it’s important to set a firm deadline to eliminate technical debt.
Having champions for new systems across the company can also be a very useful tool for change management. Overall, there needs to be a company-wide effort to drive the change. This involves training and clear communication to get everyone on the same page.
It’s important to remember that technology is not the answer to every problem. Tasks requiring repetition or combing through big data can be aided by technology; however, technology cannot replace human judgment and relationship management. How is your company leveraging technology?
For the full details on Jenna and Martin’s conversation, download our eBook – How to Increase Organizational Efficiency with Technology.