After the first session of the inaugural Geneva Dry conference chewed over digital efficiency drivers across the dry bulk supply chain, the second session of the day followed a similar – digital – path and looked at how large amounts of shipping data could be turned into actionable solutions. The session was opened by its moderator, Neville Smith, director of Mariner Communications, with an apt question – are vast pools of data really necessary for shipping? The first panellist to address the room was Andrew Roberts, head of EMEA at RightShip, who opted to first measure the pulse of the attendees by asking, by a show of hands, how many of them were truly comfortable making decisions from data analytical tools in their day-to-day business. After noting ‘a sprinkle’ of hands raised, he stated that data was critical and a key enabler for businesses to make effective decisions. “Data-led companies are 23 times more likely to acquire customers more efficiently, 19 times more likely to retain customers, and around 7% more likely to be profitable versus competitors,” Roberts said. He further noted that as many as 70% of executives are uncomfortable making decisions from data that comes from analytical tools. His statement set the tone for the rest of the session with the panel further continuing to emphasise the importance of data in shipping. From her perspective of working with chartering managers and freight traders Sigrid Teig, director of strategic customer partnerships at Dubai-based maritime software provider Marcura, said that it doesn’t matter how much data there is because it is useless without context. “What’s fantastically interesting about chartering is that the same data point can make you walk away from a fixture and also be completely irrelevant depending on the market conditions because it’s still very experience-based,” Teig said. Regulation compliance will always trump nice-to-have systems But as much as all agreed that data was indispensable, even going so far as to say that there is no such thing as too much data, Manish Singh, founder of investment advisory AboutShips, pointed to the disaggregation of data and the data divide between onshore and at sea. He claimed that the faster the shore colleagues are getting ahead on the data curve, the more they are asking their colleagues at sea questions they are not equipped to give the answers to. “If you are at sea in a digitalising company, it gets worse for you before it gets better because you’re playing with bows and arrows while your colleagues are playing with heavy artillery,” he told the attendees. The microphone was then handed to Ingrid Kylstad, head of market management and strategy at Klaveness Dry Bulk who emphasised that digitalisation means nothing if data is accumulated, and no outcomes are defined from that data. For that reason, Klaveness focused on investing in new people which shipping never looked at before such as data scientists and developers, working on turning the data into positive outcomes. The very positive discussion about data did stop for a few minutes as Morten Lind-Olsen, CEO of ship-shore data communications services provider Dualog, focused on two negative sides of data usage – standardisation and the willingness to invest on a larger scale. “Onboard a ship today you have 7,000 data points at least but mainly it is not standardised in a format you can share so the data stays onboard,” Lind-Olsen said. He also believes that the problem of data