20


Issue 5 2016 - Freight Business Journal


Plugging the leaks in global shipping


Accenture, best known for consultancy services, has long been an IT systems supporter for sea and air freight operators. It offers a wide range of products and services to the shipping industry, and one of its latest releases is a new module for its Ocean Cargo Soſtware suite. The new version is designed to improve billing accuracy and consistency by offering ocean cargo carriers a more streamlined and automated pricing process. The release’s new detention


and demurrage (DnD) module helps shipping lines to maintain and manage DnD tariffs, negotiations and calculations.


Logistics Soſtware


Carriers charge customers detention and demurrage fees for late pick up or return of shipping containers. The enhanced suite is designed


to improve the efficiency of rate and surcharge management,


quotes, tenders and contracts administration, route generation and


schedule supervision. It


also supports booking, vessel capacity management and documentation. Managing director of


New Ocean Hub chief steps aboard with big ideas


Ocean Hub, the knowledge and technology community that allows the maritime shipping industry to


interact through a


platform, has taken on board a new chairman, Jo Christian Oterhals.


way,” Oterhals adds. Ocean Hub offers a single


digital


platform that makes it efficient to consume, distribute and interact with content relevant to industry professionals. “The media industry craves and needs innovation. I’m convinced that ‘outsiders’ will drive such innovation. Ocean Hub is one of those outsiders that is willing to turn established ideas upside down and change everything from business models to how companies and their audiences interact,” Oterhals notes.


“I’m excited to take the chairman


position of Ocean Hub, and look forward to talk to established players within the media and ocean industries on how we can work together to enhance their existing offerings,“ he says. “I was attracted to Ocean Hub


quite simply because the founders and main owners are not media professionals. They’ve not only identified an interesting niche – a niche that happens to be a major international industry – but they have extensive experience from various areas within the ocean industry. As such, with Ocean Hub they try to solve their own specific needs for a special kind of product. The most successful Internet services have always begun that


Further development


Ocean Hub has been available online for three years now, but is said to be moving into a more “visible and scalable” phase. A major revamp of functionality and design will emphasise the social elements of Ocean Hub, enabling users to more efficiently connect and interact. Key features will include end-user posts on the front page, simpler and more powerful filter options, and ‘gamification’ elements - using typical elements of game-play to encourage greater engagement with the service. “Aſter that, major platform


upgrades are in the pipeline, which will enable us not only to improve our existing offering but also to easily enter new spaces should


we want that,” Oterhals says.


“Scalability is key for us.” Moreover: “As of today we’re


mainly based in Oslo, but we plan to expand operations to other major international locations for the ocean industries,” he says. “We haven’t decided all the details yet, but that kind of expansion will be imperative, either alone or together with partners. “We aim to become a one-stop


shop for all kinds of information relevant for maritime shipping professional,” Oterhals observes. “Today, that content is spread over hundreds if not thousands of websites. In addition, we aim to use our technology to enable our users to automatically filter only the most relevant information for them, and not


to push an


unedited and unabridged tsunami of information at them — which, honestly, is how all this (generally) works today. This also works the other way around – for companies that have a need to publish and share information, we’ll provide them with a relevant audience.” Chief executive and co-founder


of Ocean Hub, Christian Teigland, concludes: “The development of the company has been a step-by- step journey and the next releases will for sure put us in a unique position.”


Accenture’s freight and logistics operation, Ganesh Vaideeswaran, explains that the latest development is only the latest improvement made as a “natural part of the evolution” of Accenture’s cargo offerings. The company has been providing tailor-made solutions for ocean carriers for about 15 years, he recalls. Accenture Freight &


(AFLS)


solutions range across all areas of pricing and sales, customer service, revenue management, documentation and operations. Technogical developments have allowed shipping lines to maximise their revenue. The new release represents


a further development of the company’s “capabilities in the pricing environment” for ocean cargo, Vaideeswaran says, and is all part of the effort to minimise


“revenue leakage”, a multi-billion dollar problem for the industry. The carriers aren’t equipped to deal with it, he considers, not without assistance – hence Accenture’s decision a couple of years ago, to develop a new DnD management capability – and the latest result of which can be seen in the September 2015 launch of its latest Ocean Cargo Pricing soſtware and new DnD module. The soſtware is designed to help ocean carriers prevent revenue leakages and improve business results by providing greater visibility into the utilisation of a vessel’s capacity and its yield carrier’s contribution. Both the


Pricing and the


DnD modules can be bought by customers as part of a large Accenture suite or as a stand- alone product; the cargo shipping environment is so complex that Accenture decided long ago to offer its products in modular form. As a large systems integrator, Accenture can also integrate the module into a client’s


Jam-busters


Jamming is one of the potential problems facing navigators. It can be intentional or unintentional but both involve the broadcast of a stronger signal that blocks or overpowers the relatively weak GPS transmission from the satellites high above the earth’s surface. Jamming for nefarious or deceptive purposes is illegal in many states but


small,


inexpensive jamming devices can easily be obtained. GPS is also vulnerable to unintentional interference from spurious out of band transmissions from, for example, mobile communication networks. Other threats to GPS come


in the form of spoofing and adverse space weather. Spoofing is the broadcast of a false GPS signal that deceives the GPS receiver into locking on to the spoofed signal, thus resulting in the display of an incorrect position. Space weather in the form


of solar flares and sun spot activity can also disrupt GPS signals as they pass through the ionosphere. With shipping operating in


an increasingly unstable and dangerous world, intentional jamming or


the industry, P&I spoofing of GPS


equipment on board ships should be of great concern to


Club


risk assessor, David Nichol believes. There have been well-publicised allegations of signal jamming by North Korea and it could be used in areas of heightened political tension and conflict. There is also the risk that jamming or spoofing


///IT


own systems management environment. This and all of Accenture’s products are part of the firm’s


commitment to maximise profitability of its customers, says Vaideeswaran. Its soſtware and systems support Accenture’s cargo shipping customers right across their business process – throughout the quote, booking and delivery cycle – he says. It works with partners in selected fields, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM), to bring in additional, specialised expertise in these business areas, as it seeks to offer an “end to-end solution in a holistic way”.


defend themselves against an incident of GPS denial. In this we come back to the importance of not solely relying upon the GPS for navigation and ensuring that the vessel SMS has contingency plans for a GPS outage scenario,” Nichol remarks. “More can also be done by


governments and hydrographic services… advertise the vulnerability of


GPS and


impress upon users the need to have contingencies in place in case of interference with the service. This will also extend to vessel traffic and port services that could find operations severely disrupted and endangered in the event of a jamming or spoofing attack. “Secondly, it may be argued


may be used to interfere with the navigation of ships in acts of terrorism, piracy or mischief, he points out. “GPS is now such a ubiquitous


feature of our everyday lives, including on our own mobile phones, that we have come to uncritically accept its reliability. The problem is not a cost issue but rather ensuring that ship managers and crews become aware of the problem, its consequences and how to


that governments need to do more in providing an alternative land-based electronic navigation system, namely Enhanced Loran (eLoran), which is more resistant to interference, as a back up to the Global Navigation Satellite System. South Korea and Russia are actively working on their own versions of eLoran and efforts appear to be underway in the US to install the system. “Unfortunately plans to


set up the system, which also requires the use of transmitters on mainland Europe, had to be abandoned due to a lack of support for the project from other European states,” Nichol concludes.


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