Empowering people with technology at Columbia

Good ship management is orientated around people who are trained and properly empowered by technology, supported by collaborative business practises and shared data. Arun Sankar explained how Columbia does it

Good ship management is about “getting the people in the centre, training them, sharing data, collaborating,” said Arun Sankar, Director of commercial and strategy development, Northern Europe, with Columbia Shipmanagement, one of the world’s largest ship management companies.

While digital tools give you speed and support, humans need to make the judgement, and success comes from bringing human experience and data together, including with shared data, he said.

“It’s not just technology alone, it is people empowered by technology.”

Data can provide insights which can be used to prevent future accidents.

“It is all about proactiveness,” he said. “Our industry has been reactive all the time.”

People can get over reliant on digital apps, he warned. Many crew have had situations where the chart system says they are safe, “you look out of the window, you [see] you are not safe.”

Similarly, some car drivers will assume Google Maps gives them real time updated data on the traffic situation, without realising it takes some time to update, he said.

Columbia brings its people-centric approach to other areas of its business. For example, it seeks to make its crewing process as human as possible. It rebranded the crewing department as the “maritime HR department” and looks for people who understand seafarers to work there.

There are people available for a seafarer to call around the clock, such as if they miss a flight or lose their luggage.

Columbia has worked with Mental Health Support Solutions (MHSS), a seafarer specialist service, since 2017. “A crewmember can call a clinical psychologist from their mobile phone, confidentially. A Filipino can call a Filipino clinical psychologist.”

Columbia has programs to support seafarers’ families in the Philippines and India.

As a result of these programmes, “we saw our crew retention rates going up - crew were much happier and we saved money,” he said. “The ships are better maintained because people are motivated, and work with much more passion.”

Technology at Columbia

Columbia’s subsidiary company OneLink provides vessel performance management services. It has control rooms in Cyprus, India, and the Philippines. It offers services for vessel routing, performance analytics, predictive maintenance, engine health monitoring, fuel procurement, lubricant management, and training.

The services are used by Columbia’s fleet of 550 vessels and available to other companies.

Columbia employs a head of AI, who sends out information to the whole company every 2 weeks, helping people learn how to use it.

Columbia has a joint venture called SmartSea with aviation software company SITA, providing digital platforms and IT services to the shipping and ports sector.

SITA itself is owned by a number of airlines, who formed the company for projects involving shared airline data, such as for ticketing, electronic gates and border control.