Marine Intelligence leaders urge shipping industry to share data

Marine Intelligence leaders urge shipping industry to share data
Jamey Bergman 24 May 2018 http://www.marinemec.com/news/view,marine-intelligence-leaders-urge-ship...

Speaking at the European Marine Intelligence Conference in Hamburg, division heads from both Caterpillar and Wärtsilä told the maritime industry they stood to benefit by setting aside competitive practices to open the way for open data platforms.

In the event’s opening session, Wärtsilä’s Chief Digital Officer Marco Ryan and Caterpillar Business Development Manager Bert Ritscher told attendees data sharing – for goals that could benefit the industry as a whole – was the way forward.

“Let’s stop competing on some things and let’s start working together as an industry,” Mr Ryan said, urging colleagues to look beyond their current operating models and think about new business models that reflect the change that digital is bringing to shipping.

For his part, Mr Ritscher focused on educating attendees about what, exactly, analytics are and what they are not, but he threw in a comment that left no doubt as to where he stands on the issue of data sharing.

“Let me just say that I am a big proponent of sharing data,” he said.

In a follow up interview, he told this publication that the industry needs to shift its mindset to an open standard because “there are use cases … for when data sharing works”.

Mr Ritscher cited a number of what he sees as net benefits to the industry from sharing data, including the development of key performance indicators (KPIs) based on industry-wide averages across fuel consumption, conditions-based monitoring and business intelligence.

Another argument in favour of the practice, according to Mr Ritscher is that it will help an industry often viewed as ageing to bring in much-needed younger talent. He said adopting a practice of sharing data now as standard would open the market to innovation and keep it relevant.

“The market has faced challenges and it has contracted,” he said. “If the industry ramps up again, the opportunity to innovate and the tools that could be developed from sharing the data will attract younger people.”