SET Maritime is pointing the way for digital decision-making in the shipping industry after a surge of downloads of the newly launched Software Evaluation Toolkit (SET) as more supporters seek to come onboard.

“This has certainly hit the sweet spot in an industry struggling with digitalisation and the level of interest we have seen shows there is a definite need for such a tool in shipping,” says David Levy of Get SET Maritime, a joint initiative of various stakeholders set up to promote it to the wider industry.

There have already been scores of downloads of the free open-source tool – essentially a workbook with benchmarking criteria to evaluate different software vendors – with a high conversion rate of around 36% from visits to the getsetmaritime.com website within a few weeks of the launch.

In addition, three other companies – software suppliers Dataloy and Ports+, and media firm Fathom World – have so far come onboard as supporters, in addition to existing backers Kongsberg Digital, DTN, SEDNA, OrbitMI, Stena Bulk, The Digital Ship, Marine Money and Blue-C.

‘Confusing landscape’

Fathom World owner Craig Eason says: “The time is right for this toolkit given the myriad number of maritime software vendors out there and the difficulties for shipping companies in making the right selection decisions to procure applications aligned with their business model.”

Levy explains SET Maritime is intended to help companies make the right software decisions to speed up industry adoption of new digital technologies that are necessary to meet decarbonisation goals, as well as stimulate cost savings in areas such as fuel efficiency.

“The problem is there are now multiple vendors touting different applications within categories such as voyage management, navigation and cargo & vessel tracking, and this makes the maritime technology landscape very confusing for software buyers,” he says.

“The number of software vendors has tripled to more than 550 in only three years so there are a lot of aggressive vendors looking to capitalise on market demand for digital tools and it is difficult to determine which of these has a relevant product – or just a Powerpoint presentation.”

“Software buyers can become confused over what type of technology is available in relation to what they really need and, consequently, bad choices are made. Ultimately, progress gets slowed down, and money and valuable time are destroyed.”

Screening and analysis

To tackle this pressing industry issue, SET Maritime functions as a screening and analysis tool that enables software buyers to assess up to six different vendors based on criteria such as company profile, solution architecture, and usage and extendibility.

The workbook has a 1-4 scoring system to rank vendors on a checklist according to these criteria and provides a final visualisation in the form of a radar chart showing the relative performance of each vendor.

Levy underlines the tool is provided as a blank workbook with no pre-set weighting or prioritisation of vendors, so companies do their own scoring and can also customise it according to their individual needs and preferences.

SET Maritime supporter Stena Bulk is already far along in its digitalisation journey, and its sustainability and transformation manager Peter Björkborg says: “Digital solutions will play a vital role in the decarbonisation of shipping as these can address inefficiencies in both fleets and individual ships. SET Maritime is a key enabler for companies to embark on this transition.”

Kim Evanger, who leads Maritime Partnerships at backer Kongsberg Digital, says: “We see SET Maritime as a liberating tool to make sense of a confusing software landscape for shipowners and facilitate informed decisions on applications to accelerate digitalisation of shipping.”