“We want to be the operating system for the whole maritime economy”

Imagine a world where all of your operational and crewing data is in one place. It is accessible by different pieces of maritime software that can not only provide your onboard and onshore teams with the information they need but also interact with other software so that your people can make better decisions in real time in one seamless process using the interconnected data. The system is increasingly intelligent, offering predictions, automated prompts, and targeted training at the moment it is needed. It also benchmarks your vessel and crew performance against industry standards, providing a clear view of how you are doing.

The Co-CEOs of LR OneOcean and OTG have imagined exactly that situation and that is what they are planning to create. This was the vision behind the decision to combine OneOcean and OTG in 2024 and work has begun to make this a reality. And the ambition goes further.

“We want to be a unique source of truth for the whole industry,” says Nicholas Goubert, Co-CEO of OneOcean and OTG. “There is nothing like that in the industry. Data is siloed and not standardised, services are fragmented, nothing is centralised.”

“Customers are saying ‘Wouldn’t it be good to have everything on a single platform?’ They are all tired of workarounds and after-the-fact bridging between solutions. Everybody is looking to simplify their life. The market is ready for it.”

The CEOs believe that combining OneOcean and OTG puts them in the strongest position to deliver this vision.

“This will take a neutral player whose only focus is providing this service to the industry,” says Goubert. “And we have the sheer scale to do it. We have a large product portfolio. In every single category we have either the number one or two in the market – and I would claim they are number one.

“We have thirty thousand vessels using at least one of our solutions today, we have more than one million seafarers using one of our training solutions. So, we have a strong position to access an unrivalled amount of data points, and every time a ship or crew member is using one of our solutions, we can better understand how our customers work.

“On top of that, between the two companies we probably have decades of historical data that we can leverage. It puts us in a much better position than anyone else in the market.”

It’s a point picked up by Nick Copley, Co-CEO OneOcean and OTG.

“Both OneOcean and OTG are leaders in their respective areas,” he says. “No other digital maritime provider has the breadth of solutions or the scale we have. That is a clear differentiator.

“So, if other companies only operate in part of the market – say you just do crew management or voyage management – you’re not going to be able to join together the components of the operational experience.”

“We want to be the operating system of the maritime economy.” It is a big aspiration articulated by Nicholas Goubert, as both CEOs set out the way the combined proposition will work.

“What we are building is a big data platform with services on top.” says Goubert.

What both men make clear is that this will be a move away from selling individual products with specific features towards offering an integrated platform with everything you need available as modules, which can be selected and configured according to your requirements.

“The key performance measures are ROI and operational efficiency,” says Goubert.

“In the short term, we will continue to provide more reporting and analytics to all of our customers that will allow them to better understand the impact of our solutions on their own KPIs.”

But information is still locked in separate solutions available on the market. This is changing. Goubert says, “As we bring all of the data we learn into a big data lake you create new intelligence by combining multiple datasets.”

For example, combining voyage planning and monitoring with learning solutions will allow the system to deliver to relevant crew members the exact knowledge they need to acquire or refresh at each stage of the journey. Goubert says: “If you know you’re entering a zone that is at risk or if you know you’re going to enter a specific port on the journey, our solution will enable you to push a notification and a micro-learning or refresher to the crew.

In the case of a port, it can provide them with historical data about the key requirements for entering that port. What happened in that port in the past three years in terms of detention, the type of audit that has happened? And then you can prepare for that in advance.”

“Bringing all these pieces together allows us to take the complexity away from the people and only push the right information at the right time.”

Goubert sums it up like this. “The direction of travel is to start providing the solution to allow our customers to make more data-driven decisions. We want to leverage technology to simplify their life onboard and onshore.”

The OneOcean/OTG proposition is a unique combination – but Copley says it is a symptom of a consolidating marketplace where there will be fewer, big players offering joined-up solutions. Just as the software industry moved towards offering platforms like Office365 where multiple solutions are interconnected, so the maritime industry is going in the same direction. It means many customers will make a strategic choice about which partner to choose across their needs, rather than transactionally fixing one problem at a time.

Copley says, “I do think there will be further consolidation. Whether or not that means the consolidated entities will choose to consolidate onto one platform, as we’re doing, is a different question… the industry is consolidating around one or a couple of providers in each component space.

“What we do is help people operationally. Others help people in other ways, for example, commercially – what’s being transported on a vessel.”

“If you want to see your operations as a competitive advantage, where you can be more efficient or gain greater insight and so make quicker decisions, then yes, you need to make a choice.”

“If you are an operator who doesn’t see this as an advantage – you simply want to minimise cost – then yes you could have point solutions on each component part. You could even do it on Excel or get a person to do it, like the 1970s… so there will be a tail of smaller companies offering point solutions, but they’re not offering an equivalent proposition.”

However, it will be increasingly difficult to operate without intelligent digital solutions in a world of growing complexity and rapid change. And that means even the most conservative maritime players will need to act. In a traditionally slow-moving industry, the pace of digital transformation is increasing.

Copley puts it this way: “There’s a whole load of change coming down the pipe at this industry – Fuel EU, EU ETS, IMO MEPC measures – this is all coming at our clients.”

“There’s also a shortage in qualified seafarers, so that’s another industry dynamic here which is indisputable. In terms of this industry, the weight and pace of change has increased. It is accelerating and becoming more real.”

“So yes, historically maritime is not the fastest moving industry. But there are macro factors here that are a catalyst for change.”

The development and rollout of the new platform will happen in stages.

“What we’re providing is mission-critical software,” says Goubert.

“Like a company will not change their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning software) overnight, we are deeply embedded in the way our customers operate. This is a transformation that’s going to take a bit of time. So, it’s an important conversation, an important decision, but they have to get there due to the pressure from the market and regulators.”

“And the market is responding extremely positively to our proposal already.”

Goubert says the combined OneOcean/OTG has already started working with early adopters in the sector who are ambitious for change.

“It’s about demonstrating the value of the platform to customers who grasp our value proposition and will work with us to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) that we deliver.”

“They already feel the pain, having to deal with too many solutions. And most of them are already using one or more of our solutions, so transitioning is easier than changing to a completely new solution.”

This isn’t just about the size of the customer. It’s about ambition and attitude toward change. As with all software innovation, this gives any business the chance to be smarter.

“If you’re a smaller player, what our solution enables you to access is scale,” says Copley. “You can access the same operational efficiency that a significantly larger organisation might have due to the fact that they likely have a bigger IT or crewing team.”

Goubert says this will be a game-changer over time.

“Our value proposition is this: let’s work together to level up your entire operation. What it brings out of the box is simplification, leading to operational efficiency. As it evolves, it will give you the capacity to start making data-driven decisions to drive even more operational efficiency.

“We are not offering a revolution. We are offering a futureproof solution that we will deliver to you on an iterative basis so that you can absorb this innovation, and we’re going to work with you towards the adoption of that new way of working.”

“For the first time we can say: let us really leverage the power of technology to simplify your work, and instead of your people spending hours doing administrative work and reconciling databases between different systems, let’s have them doing high value work that will make them more productive, happier and motivated. At the same time this will help you have way more operational efficiency, which will be what every single company wants.”