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INDUSTRY – SHIPMANAGEMENT - OPERATIONS
Finding the best
suppliers
Apurchaser looking for spare parts
for products from a certain
manufacturer will soon be able to
see if the supplier has been
verified by that manufacturer and is authorised
to sell genuine spare parts.
The purchaser can already see which other
marine purchasers that supplier has transacted
with recently, either the full name of the
purchasing company, or the name in general
terms (such as ‘a ship management company
in Germany’). He or she can also see reviews
from other purchasers who have actually
transacted with that supplier.
This should help improve confidence in
electronic commerce – a lack of trust between
trading partners is usually one of the biggest
obstacles to online trading - if a buyer is asked
to transact with a supplier they don’t know at
all, just on the basis of a low quote.
“We're building mechanisms where
trustworthy suppliers can float to the top,”
explained ShipServ CEO Paul Østergaard.
Marine purchasers often have to find new
suppliers, to provide a new product in a new
port and don’t have time to investigate them
fully. This service should speed the process
up, ShipServ claimed.
Volume increase
The total volume of supplies traded over
ShipServ during 2010 was worth $1.7 bill,
Maritime and offshore
e-marketplace ShipServ
has developed tools to help
marine purchasers learn
more about suppliers.
with 4 mill transactions (which included
requests for quotation, purchase orders and
order confirmations), a 31% increase
compared to 2009. ShipServ currently has
155 shipowners and 36,000 suppliers on
the system.
New shipowners signing up with the
company in 2010 included ABCmaritime,
Alpha Shipmanagement, BW Gas, Chellaram
Shipping, Mowinckel Ship Management,
OSM Ship Management, Pacific Basin,
Reederei F Laeisz, SeaCor Dubai, Tai Chong
Cheang Steamship, Tolani Shipping and
Wah Kwong.
Shipowners connected to the network put
on average 80% of all of their shipboard
purchasing requirements through the network.
Who are the customers?
ShipServ has developed a rating measure
called TradeRank to help buyers find new
suppliers they could trust, as well as help
suppliers promote themselves. Buyers
evaluating new suppliers can quickly see the
popularity of the suppliers based on
TradeRank’s 5-star grading system, helping
them to make better informed decisions. The
same buyers can also see customer reviews of
that supplier and their trading history.
Every supplier in the ShipServ pages
supplier directory has an indication of its
trading history based on how much they
actually trade via ShipServ, the size of the
orders and how many different buyers work
with that supplier. Also reflected is the
supplier’s ratio of orders won to ‘requests for
quote’ (RFQs).
So, for example, if you are considering
using a new Chinese supplier, “…if you see
the Chinese supplier is trading with 10
companies in Western Europe, that is telling
you something,” said ShipServ’s SVP product
management Stuart May.
Without tools like this, a top quality
supplier in a large market like China can be
buried – but on pages, “….the quality will be
exposed,” added Østergaard. The information
is fully verified, because it is based on trades,
which have actually been conducted over
ShipServ’s platform.
Ratings and reviews
After a trade is completed, shipping company
purchasing managers are given an opportunity
to score the supplier (from 1 to 5 stars), on the
March 2011 TANKEROperator 21