2018 May June Marina World

MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Changing the marina industry with
emerging software technologies
by Iaian Archibald
Traditionally, the marina industry has been slow to adopt emerging software technologies. Difficulties in providing
onsite wifi, the small size of the industry, older demographics dominating management and high industry fragmentation
have all contributed. Currently, we’re seeing this trend start to reverse. Industry consolidation, a new generation of
boaters demanding modern conveniences, better marina wifi, and the evolution of software development are all driving
unprecedented innovation in marina software.
Automation is central to any
discussion about emerging software
technologies. The automation of
everything from cars, to investment
decisions, to manufacturing, to
business processes, is well under way.
Whatever automated marinas look like,
and they’re coming sooner than most
think, marina automation will involve
leveraging multiple software based
technologies. General automation
in society might not be a bad thing
for marinas. One of the promises of
automation is that people will have
more free time. Sailing is an activity
that could experience a huge rebirth as
people look for fun, eco-friendly, nondigital
activities to fill their free time.
This article explores some of the
key software based technologies that
are, or will soon be, impacting marina
management.
Algorithms
Modern algorithms are computer
enabled frameworks that manage
complexity. They can include multiple
data sets or lists, and apply procedural
and statistical reasoning to provide
optimal outcomes. They’re all around
us and are used for everything from
deciding traffic signal locations and
timing, to managing what you see on
social media sites.
Algorithms and marinas are a natural
fit. Marinas are inherently complex with
different sized boats, different sized
slips, different uses for those boats, and
different types of customers. All of this
is in a dynamic environment where slips
turn over and people want their boats in
different places.
Cloud hosting
Cloud hosting is where software ‘lives’
on computers owned by companies like
Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Before
the 2000s, software was locally hosted
on a marina’s server. A strong, reliable
internet made it possible to have your
software hosted on big server farms in
a ‘timeshare’ of computing storage and
processing power.
Cloud hosted software is accessible
anywhere, and bug fixes or updates
can be applied remotely. Cloud hosted
software is usually a collection of
tools and features from other software
providers coded together to provide
increased functionality and services
far beyond the capabilities of software
developers servicing a small market like
marinas.
The downside to cloud hosted
software is that you need to have
a good internet connection to take
advantage of all of the potential
features and tools. Marinas in areas
with intermittent internet connections
will struggle with cloud hosted solutions.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
A new business model for software has
emerged to fit the nature of the Cloud.
Now, with software ‘living’ somewhere
else and accessed from anywhere,
software is a service provided to the
marina for an annual or monthly fee,
not a one-time off-the-shelf product.
Software components that make up
modern software products, and cloud
hosting companies like Amazon and
Google, charge regular usage fees.
SaaS aligns software developers’
product costs (COGS) with their
business model.
Initially, SaaS tended to be cheaper
than off-the-shelf solutions. Now SaaS
tends to be more expensive justified by
increased functionality and the ability to
integrate with other products.
Customer Relationship
Management Platforms
(CRMs)
A CRM is a communication
tracking tool that allows one central
location for customer interactions
and information to be stored and
quickly retrieved. Modern CRMs
allow people to send and receive
customer communications as well.
The sales and hospitality industries
have spearheaded the evolution of
CRMs. Current consolidation and
the professionalisation of marina
management will drive the demand for
marina-specific CRMs.
Language translation
Language translation is in the process
of breaking through. The ability to
communicate through email or text with
your customers and have it translated
in real time is now possible. Recently,
early stage earbud-sized speech
translation tools have been released
which will allow in-person verbal
communication across any language.
Language translation is a prime
example of a benefit of cloud based
hosting, and the value that a SaaS
based product can deliver.
Chatbots
Chatbots are algorithm driven chat tools
that have been designed to handle
basic, repetitive communications.
Currently, they can’t handle complex
interactions like organising a poker
run, but can be used to schedule
something like a pump-out. They’re
predominantly text or email based but
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