Consolidated data, curated by suppliers who understand the market is most likely to drive value, writes Staci Satterwhite, CEO of ABS Wavesight. Shipping is often encouraged to take lessons from other industries. Just as they have benefited from digital transformation, shipping has a unique opportunity to leverage data to drive operational efficiency, enhance safety and increase commercial opportunity. The process of digitalisation has taken root in shipping, but it suffers from a familiar challenge of fragmentation and perceptions of low value. Some of the stumbling blocks are technical, but many stem from the need for software creators to think less like a developer and more like a shipowner. Here are five simple ideas to achieve digitalisation that buyers can leverage and sellers can work towards, based on quantifiable results. 1. Profitable operations are the primary objective For shipowners and operators, the primary need in achieving digital transformation is to access complex and sometimes disparate information and ideas within a single pane of glass to improve operations. The aim is to harness all the available data to create insights that create value and help management run a better business, not just to deploy software because they feel they have to. Shipping is a value creation business. The software it adopts must drive revenue growth and reduce expenses. Most often it is the consolidation of data that drives value creation. In fact, uniting data sources is key to enabling the shipping industry to embrace the next technology wave machine learning, AI and predictive analytics. 2. Know where the market is – and where it’s going. The early stages of digital transformation are often marked by disruption, and there are plenty of examples of apparently simple changes from paper to digital that have faced resistance. Digitalising medical records seems an obvious way to share data between users in different locations but suspicion of change meant it wasn’t always welcomed at first. Once there was a robust use case, that resistance fell away. Swap patient scans for data on vessel status, condition of equipment and expected weather, and superintendents and crew start to see what it can do for them in their day-to-day work. Add in the potential of AI, predictive data analytics and risk-based intelligence to provide real-time updates to personnel and it’s possible to enhance safety and enhance regulatory compliance. The challenge is pushing the adoption curve past the point where the benefits can be felt more easily by any operator. Resistance to change still exists, and we need to recognize that some in shipping believe that collecting, storing and sharing data creates more transparency than they require. 3. Work on your relationships – they are key to success So, will better vessel operations software be adopted more widely? The answer of course is yes, not least because the potential of machine learning and AI turns the tide into a tidal wave. Owners need to understand that a transparent approach and data-driven relationships are the way this industry is moving. A data-driven strategy exposes the way you run your business toward your partners in a way that simply wasn’t possible even a decade ago. That creates understandable resistance; too many internal stakeholders still view it as a necessary evil and haven’t made the leap toward recognizing the value it can bring. Compliance and reporting are obvious first steps but not enough o