Mark O’Neil, Columbia Marlow: “digitalisation is a means to an end”

At this year’s CrewConnect Global, we spoke to the leaders and stakeholders of this industry, and found out about their views on the changes in the maritime industry and their impact on crewing and seafarers.

Mark O’Neil, President & CEO of Columbia Marlow Shipmanagement, on technology, connectivity, and the seafarer’s role in the maritime industry.

What are your experiences with implementing technology in your business and on board?

“I think the whole debate – this year and last year – on digitalisation and technology is to a certain extent a Y2K phenomenon. Digitalisation is a means to an end, but it’s not the end itself. The end is optimisation, and we, at Columbia Shipmanagement, have to take whatever steps we can to optimise for our clients and optimise ourselves so that we achieve the economies of scale, the efficacies and the efficiencies which the market requires. Digitalisation is a part of that.

Digitalisation is the interaction between three components: innovation, technology, and processes. Everyone focuses purely on the technology side of it – do we have the latest hardware? Do we have the latest software? But that’s missing the point. Digitalisation is about innovation – how do we do things better? – and technology helps us do that. Once we have a process, how can we keep reviewing that process to see whether we do things better and better?

So digitalisation and technology are means to an end, but optimisation of what we do, reducing the costs, doing things more for less and better is what we’re all about.

The importance of this conference [CrewConnect Global] and what we were saying on the panel was that digitalisation is only so good as the training one puts into the crew on board vessels and the staff ashore to actually utilise digitalisation and technology. Crew remain at the very heart of what we do. Digitalisation and technology will never take away that factor.

How we train our crew on the new technologies and innovative processes is vitally important. Part of that is connectivity. A lot of the technologies are connectivity driven. Data transfer from the vessels to our performance optimisation control rooms, for instance, depends on connectivity. But it’s also for the crew’s wellbeing. There is a huge need for crew to be connected with each other and with their families ashore. You then have the dilemma whether crew should be connected 24/7 or should connectivity be limited in certain circumstances? If we’re operating tankers and etc. we want our crew during their rest periods to rest and not be playing on the internet or connected with family and friends all of that time. So there are huge issues around connectivity. It’s not simply enough to say ‘yes, our crew should be connected 24/7’. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered.”

How did seafarers react to the onslaught of new technologies?

“I think that most seafarers are probably the age of my children and therefore grew up, certainly the junior seafarers, in a different technological environment than, for instance, I did. Their adaptability and their interest in technology and connectivity is so much more advanced than in my generation. Anything new and exciting is received extremely positively.

At Columbia Shipmanagement, we’ve started what we call our ‘I care’ philosophy which focuses on adherence by our seafarers to our core values, policies and management system. Connectivity, technology, software and hardware are key to that and facilitate that. For instance, we have our crew portal which allows seafarers to look up on their iPhones or tablets their next rotation, engagements, their salaries, training status – what certification they need to maintain their status. We have an Adobe eLearning platform now which is app based so that crew members can, during their time off, do a lot of their training through their iPhones, instead of coming into the office, the manning agents, or our crew training centres. It’s a very effective tool.

Our performance optimisation control room allows crew to be better managed in terms of training, rotation, and communication on a parochial level. If there is something amiss or awry, then we are able to much better manage that as part of our casualty response but also incident response on board the vessels. So technology is a huge assistance, but we don’t want to get ourselves into a situation where the tail wags the dog. The dog has to wag the tail. We have to use technology by a proper, motivated, trained, efficient crew, rather than believe that technology, connectivity, hardware and software will drive in itself optimisation. It won’t. It’s just a tool in that tool box.”

Connectivity is one of the most prominent digital development on ships. Can you tell us the ROIs of having connectivity on your ships?

“I think it’s wrong to look at the ROI of connectivity itself. That is the tail wagging the dog. Return on investment comes from a motivated, well-trained, efficient crew and optimised performance. Connectivity is part of that process, but as I always say to our clients, you don’t need to digitalise all of your operations. You only need to digitalise those aspects of operations that make you more attractive to your market. There is absolutely no point in having 24/7 connectivity if that doesn’t assist the crew or the market you are serving.

There is an argument for 24/7 connectivity the because a lot of the data that will flow from the vessels to our technical superintendents, marine superintendents, and crew superintendents are required for our performance optimisation control. But for our crew, there is probably little need. Therefore, keeping that under control and continually monitoring that is important. There is no return on investment on connectivity per se. It’s what you do with that connectivity is the decider on whether it’s worthwhile having connectivity or to what extent you have connectivity.”

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