Main Objectives and Tasks

Traditionally, IT- infrastructure at ship owners is focused on transactions, reporting unprocessed data on the company’s operations and logistics chain. Among other things, analytical IT revolves around how the unprocessed data can be utilised for generating information and knowledge, and how it can contribute to gain competitive advantage

Transactions oriented IT

• Descriptive
• Describes and follows the activites of the company
• Collection, processing, and communication of ‘raw data’ concerning the company’s value chain.
• One requirement
• Foundation for a competitive advantage?
• Several different systems are being utilized within shipping
• Systems are followed and acquired when proven mature

Analytical IT

• Normative
• Why and how should the company position itself for future challenges?
• Analytical IT systems is, to a large extent, decision support systems
• Should be supported by a organisational consensus
• Generate insight and knowledge
• Lead to a competitive advantage
• In general, very few systems are applied within shipping (in comparison to other industries)

R&D Tasks

• Analytical IT claims a new standard of data to be effectively utilised by the system (going beyond those for transactions oriented data)
•  Mapping of existing IT-infrastructure and solutions for internal information handling for the ship owner
• Define the gap between existing systems and the demands for analytical systems
• Identify ‘best practice’ solutions from other parts of the transport industry
• Generate an understanding of how to create analytical IT systems, with existing systems as the foundation
• How to structure and establish efficient and open information channels, generating the input for the system, and how to maintain and uphold the quality of the data
• Generate a 'comprising' computer model for ship owners, adapted to new business models and extended solutions for systems support