The first session was rather more interactive and interesting as the audience and the industry leaders tried to find answers to some of the most intriguing questions on digitalisation, PCS and use of technology in the maritime sector.
- What is stopping companies from adopting technology or digitalisation?
Vijay Minocha: The reason for reluctance in adapting technology is a mix of additional cost incurred, reluctance to change, not having internal advocacy and fear of unknown. When you look at where we are today with regard to where we should be, this is not something which will happen in one day. Digitisation has become a competitive necessity now. This industry is going to be far more connected and there are going to be more individual neutral platforms that will leverage technology to reap on efficiencies and reduce cost. There is going to be a lot more data and it will be properly harnessed using this technology. The industry will become more agile.
Digitalisation is taking more time because our industry is also plagued by low margins which reduces the budget allocated to IT. But this will The first session was rather more interactive and interesting as the audience and the industry leaders tried to find answers to some of the most intriguing questions on digitalisation, PCS and use of technology in the maritime sector. Developing digital infrastructure: Getting basics right change as technologies that deliver short-term RoI will be used in the industry. INTTRA records about 800,000 transactions per week, which means data sharing is happening. When data is used for producing value far more than the transaction itself that’s when you get worth from using technology platforms.
Vivek Kele: Technology has today become the language of business. If you use proper technology it will be easy for your vendors to supply to you and your customers can better use your services. ‘Fear of the unknown’ is the first thing I believe that stops companies from adapting technology, especially people from the previous generations who have been following traditional work culture successfully. People often look at technology as an expense and not as an investment.
Abhijit Desai: One of the major issues that holds back businesses from adapting technology is trust. I see that people don’t want to share information on platforms. This affects the transparency of the transaction.
- A lot of independent platforms exist today. How should a user choose the right platform?
Liji Nowal: Shipping industry is different from the rest because each stakeholder is tightly coupled with the other, while each has their unique requirements. So asking them to come on a common platform may not be correct, instead they should be given the option of connecting with the common platform. A platform that is best for a carrier may not be optimal for a shipper as each have their own unique requirements. As a platform provider it is our responsibility to ensure interoperability among all stakeholders. The way forward is to have collaborative platforms.
Abhijit Desai: I have seen most of the technology implementations are often top-down and this is where it fails. People on the ground level for whom you are developing solutions (L to R) Vivek Kele, Director,Teamglobal Logistics Pvt Ltd; S Padmanabhan, Director, SATTVA Logistics Group, Ramprasad, Editor in Chief and Publisher, Maritime Gateway; Vijay Minocha, President, Asia Pacific, INTTRA Pte Ltd; Abhijit Desai, Head – PCS, Portall; Liji Nowal, Managing Director, Odex India Solutions Pvt Ltd; Naval Singh, Manager- IBM Cloud, IBM India 20 MARITIME GATEWAY / OCTOBER 2018 need to be consulted and there is need for change management.
- How far do you feel Indian regulations and enforcement is robust to ensure no commercial/personal information is leaked?
Naval Singh: When people move to new work systems or Cloud they are very cautious about where the data is stored. Data is stored in transit and before transit in encrypted format. IBM Blockchain provides shared, distributed measure in a permissioned network so you know who are the trusted parties and the data transmitted is secured by SHA 256 algorithm. When people are moving from a paper-based to a paperless environment they need to understand that as the industry becomes more agile, the security aspect is handled by service providers like IBM who ensure data is properly secured.
Vivek Kele: When thousands of shippers are sharing their bill of lading with me, I should have no problem in sharing my data as long as security concerns are addressed.
Liji Nowal: As a platform operator it is our duty to ensure we provide security to our customers. There are three corner stones to ensure security – the first is technology itself to ensure data is stored in encrypted format and not accessible to hackers. The Indian Information Security Act gives assurance to people sharing data. Companies offering platforms for data sharing need to take cognizance of GDPR. If data is open it brings the business model into question, so technology providers also need to make a conscious effort to ensure there is no leakage.
Abhijit Desai: Having a security mechanism in place does not make your data fully secure, but it reduces the possibility of you losing the databank. There are laws that government of India is putting together for data protection. Service providers should ensure they stick to these norms and there is response mechanism to ensure if there is a data theft how best you reduce its effect and prevent its reoccurrence.
- IPA is the owner and Portall is the service provider. Who is responsible in case of security breach?
Abhijit Desai: IPA owns the data and the system, so the primary protector of the system would be IPA.
- In PCS can we have an API or Web interface where we can pull commonly used information directly into an ERP?
Abhijit Desai: Yes. It is possible. In fact, one of the first things we did when we got the contract was the APIs. Gone are the days of EDI and logging onto website for entering data. For a successful platform ERPs should be able to connect to it and this happens only through APIs. API architecture opens up a vast arena of applications that you can bring onto a platform to make it a success. APIs will also make PCS more affordable as there is not much upfront cost involved and it will attract more market players to connect.
- Currently discussions about a solution are more over documentation. Is it only digitising the existing documents or we will move up the value chain?
Vijay Minocha: If you look at the steps that need to be taken it is from manual to digital to connected to intelligent to intuitive and that’s how it will progress. Currently we are at the bottom, moving towards digitalisation. The next step will be Blockchain which is being connected.
Liji Nowal: It depends on the geography. For example, Australia was an early adopters of banking technology systems, while West Africa is a later adopter. In West Africa businesses are forced to innovate and now they are at the intuitive level. India today is somewhere at the third level which is interoperability and we can directly go to intuitive level, if technology providers dare to do it.
- Is the shipper being considered while developing the PCS 1X? What is the level of his understanding of the platform being developed?
AMTOI has formed a Tech Council which is bringing all the technology service providers together to discuss the fastest way to get to the platform. A shipper cannot come to the platform until the service providers are connected to it via APIs. Currently the Tech Council has limited its scope of consulting to service providers, but once we gain traction we will also consult the shippers.
- While many technologies are emerging as disruption to business, can there be any disruption to INTTRA’s business?
Vijay Minocha: Each technology is bringing a different value so it exists. We have been present for 18 years and are still growing. There should be more competition and disruption, but the concept at INTTRA is that do not recreate what somebody has already done, but add value to it and build on it.
We have partnered with 150 software enterprises, so that they can use our platform and build over it.
- Is there any merit in developing individual Blockchain based solutions or do we need a moderator like IATA?
Vivek Kele: There is no problem in developing individual solutions because they will have to ultimately connect to a platform. We need these individual solutions as they help connect to a platform immediately.
- The session is titled “Getting basics right,” so what is right for India, right now?
Vijay Minocha: India needs a platform which will bring synergies as required. Platforms through collaborations will be the success of the PCS.
Vivek Kele: Platforms are independent, but we have to ensure that physical movement of cargo and data interchange happen simultaneously. Currently, data interchange is slower than physical movement of cargo, but after adoption of PCS, data interchange will be faster than the movement of cargo.
Liji Nowal: Getting the basics right is important. The first thing being developed is the blueprint. What needs to plug-in is not just providers like us but the end-users to get them build solutions for themselves. This requires continuous engagement with users who are actual documentation users, logistics executives. Dialogue should begin with these people first because the power of the platform will be seen if their lives can be simplified.
Abhijit Desai: Putting a PCS together and ensuring reach to the last constituent of trade is what will make it successful. Aligning with INTTRA or similar solution providers will only ensure there is more functionality made available. On the other side, the air cargo system is also coming up. In some point of time we are going to have an amalgamation of platforms together offering a single view.
