17
Ship Efficiency Review In-Depth Insight
Educating The Industry
In Coles’ opinion, in order for more ship owners to invest in software products and services, technology companies need to stop trying to hard sell their software products and instead switch to trying to solve ship owner and operator problems and educating potential customers. This rule also applies to Transas, says Coles, and the approach that he will drive forward. Coles affirmed that Transas will be changing to selling services and solutions rather than selling simply hardware, software and products. He reflected upon a remark made by a ship operator delegate at a Smart Transas CEO, Frank Coles Operations seminar in Hong Kong last year that drove home the dire need for the industry to be educated and Addressing Market Fragmentation be supported to transform. This ship In Coles’ opinion, “fragmentation is probably our biggest barrier in this industry,” operator stood up and said to Coles who and there are many barriers to dismantle that Coles has set his sights upon. was on the speaker podium at the time, Price wars are one catalyst for fragmentation in the market according to Coles, “we know we need to change, we just and although Transas operates as a commercial company, Coles’ mission is to not need someone to show us how to do it”. suddenly drop the price of Transas’ products or make any big moves to remove This is a comment that Coles says has competitors from the market. stayed with him and a responsibility he As he reflects, there are always companies that can do it for cheaper but they does not carry lightly. threaten quality by creating the wrong type of competition that drives prices and He is determined to pursue the quality of products and services down. education path in his CEO role at Transas Taking ECDIS as an example he says “we see ECDIS price wars going on with and create regular opportunities for the people coming to the market but not really complying. But you get what you pay industry to gather, discuss their issues for and I suspect you will see a lot of the smaller players of ECDIS unable to keep together and also understand the power up with compliance and global customer service requirements”. of the technology through experiencing it Coles also emphasised how short sighted it can be to select such an option. first-hand. He stated, “ECDIS can be considered as being one of the stepping stones in to By working with the industry in the future ecosystem that is required for integration of maritime operations. So this way, Coles intends develop this unless you have the vision and capability to create the complete ecosystem then ecosystem that really does equip the you will be a side player in the game.” industry and its crew for the future.
Selling The Savings
Coles is also refreshingly honest about problems that exist in the relationship between vendors and suppliers, believing that inherent mistrust is a major factor that is negatively impacting the maritime technology sector and uptake of the solutions. He acknowledges, however, the responsibility that technology companies need to take in having created this relationship of mistrust. From the vendor side he also stated that there is a perception of “you’re going to try turn my price down as far as possible” and that is not a healthy relationship, in his view, to facilitating the investment in the development of a solution that makes sense to the industry. He described the reality of scepticism in the market, “I’ve always said ship owners primarily buy for one of two reasons, they are forced to by regulation or they think they can save money, and we haven’t yet, as a software solutions environment, found the complete solution to showing ship owners how technology saves them money. Ship owners and operators may be very sceptical, but actually they are sceptical because we probably haven’t done a good enough job of selling the savings.” www.fathommaritimeintelligence.com
Transas Means Business
As many will know, within the maritime field, Transas was once commonly referred to as Transas Marine. However, as Coles explained to Ship Efficiency Review, having in recent times divested of non-maritime interests, this distinction is no longer necessary. In his words, “Transas means marine”. Having the opportunity to understand the vision and direction Coles has for Transas coupled with his history in driving real change in the sector, it is obvious that under Frank Coles’ watch, Transas does not just mean marine….Transas means business. ∎