ShipServ and IMPA have been collaborating since 2001, when the e-commerce provider started offering the IMPA Marine Stores Guide to use in its onboard electronic Catalogue tool and this relationship was strengthened last year, when the use of the IMPA Code was extended to online supplier directory ShipServ Pages to simplify and speed up product sourcing even further.

Under the agreement officially signed at the IMPA conference in London in September, IMPA product codes are now displayed automatically to purchasing managers using ShipServ Pages to source suppliers.

“The fact that we see continued growth in the use of IMPA codes on both TradeNet and Pages illustrates the importance of data quality when sourcing products by using the industry’s recognised standard. We will continue to work closely with IMPA to ensure that purchasing managers see the full benefits of using the IMPA code”, said Kim Skaarup, Chief Operating Officer.

Buyers save time in locating specific parts or products when using either Pages or TradeNet by automatically-suggesting IMPA codes for product searches. Buyers can also use the IMPA code where known, to search for specific products directly.

The use of ShipServ Pages continued to grow in 2011 with over one million visitors coming to the site to source supplies from over 39,000 ship suppliers – a 72% rise in traffic from 2010. For further information about using IMPA codes in Searches please contact your Service Delivery Manager.

AS highlighted on the front page, Dorthe has now taken charge of the new Service Delivery and the Manila Customer service centre and is looking forward to the challenge of working even closer with ShipServ’s buyer and supplier community.

“We are continuously looking to take our service delivery to next level with new initiatives such as e-invoicing and developing our existing tools such as our KPI benchmark reporting so that it is even more user-friendly.”

Since Dorthe joined ShipServ in 2000, she has seen a huge change in the Client Relations service stemming from a small team of a couple people based in Copenhagen to a team of more than 20 people across the world.

“As our buyer base has grown we have continued to develop the customer service team and it is amazing that we now have a team in Manila handling over 3,000 support cases per month.”

She has also been instrumental in developing and running major buyer and supplier integration projects with large engine manufacturers such as MAN B&W and Wärtsilä. Dorthe’s joined from Danish shipping company Progress A/S, where she was a purchasing manager for two years having joined from Knut I.Larsen where she had been a trainee in the purchasing department.

Away from the hustle and bustle of maritime e-commerce, Dorthe enjoys nothing more than relaxing with her two children and if time allows busying herself with the interior design. She also keeps herself fit by biking into work  and before she entered the industry was a talented ballroom dancer at various competitions in Denmark.

Bergen-based Utkilen, Wilson Ship Management, Seatrans, Solstad and Mowinckel will all go live in the next few months with the ability to receive e-invoices from connected suppliers.

In addition to the Norwegian owners,  a further five major ship suppliers including leading ship chandlers EMS, Seawave and HMS have recently also signed up to use the e-invoicing service.

Over the last few months,  thousands of invoices have been successfully transferred through the platform using an MTML translation service, with many more suppliers and buyers set to come on stream over the next few months.

By using e-invoicing, buyers are able to process invoices quicker into their back-office system, and align with purchase orders and eliminate manual errors. It gives buyers the ability to replace a paper or PDF invoice sent from their supplier with an electronic document capable of loading directly into their purchasing/accounting system.

One of the key benefits of the e-invoicing solution for a buyer is that it provides 24/7 visibility on all its received invoices so a purchasing manager can see exactly when an invoice has entered the system and its progress through the system.

“It makes real sense for us to offer e-invoicing as we can seamlessly integrate it with all our other services such as the KPI reporting dashboard so it gives clients complete transaction visibility,” said Kim Skaarup, Chief Operating Officer.

SHIPSERV is pleased to announce that it has launched a new Global Service Delivery division to provide all clients – both maritime buyers and suppliers –  with pre-sale, implementation and post-sale support throughout the entire lifecycle of their relationship with ShipServ.

The new division will be headed by Dorthe Nielsen and will combine the previous Client Relations team and Manila Customer Service Center, which will be renamed the Service Delivery Center. With the launch of the new division, Senior VP of Client Relations, Mikael Weis moves over to manage the integration of Charles Kerr Enterprises into ShipServ and also take on the role of Head of Legal and Key Accounts.

“We would like to thank Mikael for all his efforts over the last few years in putting together a well-groomed global Client Relations and Customer Service, but we require his expertise on new strategic initiatives, so felt that Dorthe was a natural replacement as head of our new division,” said Kim Skaarup, Chief Operating Officer.

Ms Nielsen joined ShipServ in 2000 from her previous role in purchasing with Danish shipping company Progress A/S.“I would personally like to thank Mikael for all his support as Head of Client Relations and for developing our Customer Service Centre, it has been a pleasure to work for him and see the team grow as our buyer base has increased dramatically,” she said.

“He will not disappear completely from the client side and will still be visible in his new role.” The Service Delivery division will retain its coverage of the key regions with teams based in Hong Kong for the APAC region, New Jersey for Americas and Copehagen for EMEA.

“My team will continue to work very closely with all our clients to ensure that the ShipServ service matches and hopefully exceeds their expectations,” said Ms Nielsen. Under the Spotlight P.5

Owners from the city were among the first to use the TradeNet platform over a decade ago and ShipServ now has nine clients from the shipping capital of Norway including such illustrious names such as Utkilen, Grieg, Seatrans, Wilson, Westfal Larsen, DOF and Mowinckel.

“We are a close knit purchasing community and spend a lot of time talking to each other about the advantages that e-commerce can bring, so it’s no surprise ShipServ has a hub of owners in Bergen,” said Knut Ove Thuland Hansen, purchasing manager of Utkilen. Utkilen was amongst the first wave of those early adopters to consider e-commerce and began looking at potential partners back in 2000 when the maritime market was awash with companies claiming to offer such services.

“We saw e-commerce as vital over ten years ago and the main problem we wanted to overcome was to avoid retyping and save our purchasing managers vital time so they could concentrate on sourcing, logistics and supplier negotiation,” said Knut Ove Thuland Hansen.

“But the big challenge for us at the time was the number of different players in the market – at one time we counted 72 different players – and we needed to be sure that the company we chose as our e-commerce provider was here for the long term.” After considering the options Utklien signed up to ShipServ in 2001. “ShipServ had the right people behind it, with extensive experience not only in the shipping industry but most importantly within the purchasing department of shipping companies. They knew the business and this was important for us.”

Utkilen operates vessels on coastal trades where quick turnarounds are necessary with a large number of port calls, so supplier information provided by e-commerce has become a vital asset. “In our line of business, supplier response rates are critical so it was also important to get better data reporting so that we could enter talks with suppliers armed with hard facts,” said Mr Thuland Hansen.

Fellow Bergen operator Grieg Shipping is seen by many as one of shipping’s most innovative companies with its adoption of technology and push for green initiative, but when it came to e-commerce it took a slightly cautious approach before signing up in 2008. “There were a lot of companies saying what they could do but actually they couldn’t so we waited for a while to assess market – we are normally one of the first to react – but watched and listened to others.”

For Grieg one of the most important features of e-commerce is the benchmark and KPI data, which can be used for both internal and external discussions. “We had internal KPIs implemented through the company, but it was hard for us to establish purchasing KPIs, so this gives us an automatic KPI dashboard that we can now show at corporate level,” said Roar Misje.

“We also show our KPIs to our key sup-pliers and we have been able to bring down our quote time from 7-10 days to now around 4 days, which is a big change,” said Mr Misje. One of the most recent companies to sign up is Wilson Ship Management, which now has around 80 ships trading on the  ShipServ platform.

“We had previously used a solution that did not provide us with everything we needed, but ShipServ gives us the complete chain of purchasing with our supplier base and that the supplier community is already very active,” said Nikolai Berget, purchasing manager with Wilson Ship Management.

As to be expected from a community that has been at the forefront of e-commerce, Bergen-based owners are now leading the way in the adoption of new features such as e-invoicing. “E-invoicing is an important asset for us and we are happy that ShipServ has this ability now covered with its new module,” concluded Mr Thuland Hansen. Connect talks to some of the leading shipowners in Bergen about how they have adopted e-procurement

I would like to devote this product management update to discussing content.

ShipServ moves millions of pieces of information each year between you and your trading partners through TradeNet.

In addition, ShipServ Pages helps you find new suppliers by presenting extensive results to search queries.  But let’s take a closer look at the information itself, and what ShipServ is doing to improve the quality of that information. In 2011 we released the ability to send attachments to suppliers through our partner integrations.  We are pleased to announce that you may now receive attachments as well.

Not all partner purchasing systems are equipped to load attachments yet, but the most immediate benefit to this development is in the area of e-invoicing. Suppliers will now be able to include a PDF copy of an invoice together with the electronic version, delivery and other supporting documents, all of which can be delivered automatically into a document management system.

We are also encouraging suppliers to publish more catalogs on ShipServ Pages.  This will make it easier for you to find new sources of supply for specific items.  We hope you have also tried the new IMPA Code search feature which not only checks catalogs, but scans transaction history to help find a match for your query. An increasing number of suppliers are attaching supporting documents to their Premium Listings.  These documents are fully searchable in Pages whether they are PDF, MS Word, etc.

As you know ShipServ publishes Mariner’s Annual and now all sponsored product content that appears in the Ordering Guide is duplicated in ShipServ Pages as searchable content, and is shown in Thumbnails in the premium listing. Mariner’s Annual is part of ShipServ’s strategy to provide Vessel-based content and we hope you have distributed your complimentary copies of the most recent Mariner’ Annual Ordering Guide CD and/or book to your fleet.

We are pleased to announce some very exciting changes for the 2012 edition, which will be released this summer:

-  Content Sections: The information has been divided into nine logical sections: Deck, Electrical/Lighting, Safety, etc.  This will make it easier for the users to find related content.

- Catalog Pages: Many of the formerly black and white catalog pages have now been colorized to make the products easier to see.

- iPad: It is now possible to view the Mariner’s Annual Ordering Guide on an iPad or tablet.

It is based upon their activity on ShipServ TradeNet, online customer reviews & ratings and agent authorizations verified by the brand owner. A high TradeRank indicates that the supplier is known and trusted by the ShipServ TradeNet buyer community.

Trading Performance

A strong track record of trading indicates a supplier is being trusted by the community with many repeat orders. Trading Performance is not just about number of orders – it’s a complex calculation even including a supplier’s quote-to-order ratio.

Reviews

Every supplier trading on TradeNet can share customer ratings & reviews on Pages. Positive reviews give a boost to TradeRank. On completion of an order on ShipServ TradeNet, buyers can use Pages to rate a supplier (from 1 to 5 stars), on the basis of delivered as described, on time and customer service. They can also leave fuller reviews and further comments. Together, ratings & reviews are a a powerful tool to inform you about a supplier’s capabilities.

Verification System

The ShipServ Verification System gives you the peace of mind that a supplier’s authorized status is valid. That’s because brand owners (such as manufacturers or industry associations) approve all authorization statuses, ensuring that those claiming authorized status are accurately representing themselves. Verified suppliers also get a boost to their TradeRank.