Dr. Shahreen Osman, Business Development Manager at DNV Maritime Advisory, recently examined the digitalization challenges in the maritime industry. He emphasized that the integration of digital technologies faces serious issues that hinder the maximum utilization of these technologies. These problems are mainly due to the lack of data coherence and disconnected systems in this industry.
Integration Challenges of Technology
In conducted surveys, integration has been recognized as one of the most prominent barriers to digitalization in maritime fleets. In fact, technology exists in the maritime industry, but these technologies have been utilized in disconnected and heterogeneous layers. Ships have been in service for decades, and during this time, equipment, sensors, software, and communication systems are collected from various manufacturers and different generations.
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This situation, along with coastal platforms, leasing systems, compliance tools, and corporate information technologies, turns any implementation into an integration project before it becomes an operational project.
Fragmented Data and Trust
Dr. Osman further stated that a large volume of maritime data remains scattered among equipment suppliers and operational environments. This data often uses different naming conventions and structures. Until standard, contextual, and reliable information is established, building trust will be difficult, and successful trials will not be able to expand among fleets.
Dr. Friedrich Hisse, CEO of ZERO٤٤, also referred to similar issues in carbon compliance. Information related to ship greenhouse gas emissions may arrive late or differ between various reports, necessitating manual reconciliation. This situation can have real financial consequences.
According to Philip Laward from Closelink, while the maritime industry has an abundance of digital systems, many of these systems operate in isolation. Standard APIs and integrated workflows are of great importance because an independent application cannot be considered a transformation; rather, it is just another interface for managing people.
These challenges are particularly acute in mixed fleets. Older ships cannot be treated like new ships designed based on modern connectivity and data architecture.
Ultimately, Dr. Timo Bimler, Vice President of Speedcast, emphasized that costs are decreasing and cloud systems are easily integrable, but a significant portion of the global fleet still operates with outdated technologies installed years ago. This issue can create limited upgrade paths and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
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