Client Stories / Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement

Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement Q88 Case Study

Blog Header Unlocking The Ships Behind Data

About

Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement (TCM) S.A. is part of the Tsakos Group of complementary maritime business subsidiaries. Established in 2010 with principal offices in Athens, the organization combines the considerable management and operational expertise and professional skills in of the two groups, both in ship management and client service.

Company Type

Vessel Owner-Operator

Industry

Dry Bulk, LNG

Products Used

The Challenge

Managing vetting, crew certification, and questionnaires for a large, diversified fleet created complexity in maintaining safety and operational performance

The Solution

Standardized data, automated questionnaire completion, and integrated certificate and compliance tracking with Q88

Key Results

Improved operational efficiency and long-term client relationships through faster access to questionnaires, vessel data, and performance

Vetting at scale to support key long-term client relationships

The company considers vetting performance one of the main indicators of the effective implementation of the onboard safety management system and is pivotal in managing company’s safety and environmental performance.

With a fleet of 95 or so vessels to look after, the vetting department is an exceptionally busy operational hub. Anastasios Kartsimadakis, Vetting & Inspections Manager, says: “The majority of the fleet is made up of 67 tankers. We need to operate efficiently to support our long-term clients in the oil industry.”

Three key parts of this mission are managing all aspects of questionnaires, vetting and crew certification in line with best practice and compliance. To ensure this is carried out to the required standards, Tsakos Columbia has been using Q88 for ship management since the system launched in 2008.

“We upload all vetting related reports as well as preparing questionnaires for charterers and other third-parties. To facilitate management of crew certification we upgraded our subscription to let us access the Officer Matrix compliance manager functionality,” says Anastasios Kartsimadakis.

He continues: “The large scale of our operations makes data and analysis very important. Deep analysis of vetting performance with leading indicators, auditing and benchmarking all help us to understand where we are and identify any potential improvements.”

A thorough SIRE performance analysis is conducted based on qualitative indicators. Necessary corrective and/or improvement actions are taken for areas where weakness is identified. The results of the above process are examined during the management review committee meetings and are used for continual improvement.

Supports accuracy, speed and commercial efficiency

Q88 is the most comprehensive database of its type, allowing the upload and maintenance of all the required data to support the compliance of tanker operations. With approximately 1200 questionnaire templates available, vessel information is quickly scraped from the database, automating completion of questionnaires in minutes.

Widely trusted across the tanker shipping sector, Q88 is available in 4 levels of subscription to meet the vetting needs of any company with a commercial interest in tanker operations. The highest subscription level, Ship Owner, provides access to the Officer Matrix feature.

This meets all the requirements set out by the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF). Officer Matrix also has offline support, allowing vessels to maintain crew certification onboard without the need for internet connectivity, with support for email and automatic import into the system.

Whether for chartering or port and oil terminal vetting, a host of supporting features support accuracy, speed and commercial efficiency when using the information. Across the Q88 suite of cloud software and data services, system users enjoy 24/7 access on mobile devices, anywhere, anytime they choose to work connected to the internet.

Unique with benefits felt in a number of ways

Anastasios Kartsimadakis says, “The main benefits of Q88 are felt in a number of ways. Firstly, speed of data and analysis; it is immediate with no delay. Secondly, it is a reliable and stable platform, we see no bugs. Thirdly, the integration of all the other functions with Officer Matrix seems to be unique.”

He continues: “Overall, the correlation of data across certificate management, questionnaires and matrix data in a single platform is very good, because exporting it as a single data set makes analysis much easier. We’re dealing with perhaps 20 screenings a day which always contain questionnaire and matrix elements.”

“In general, for a company with our level of exposure, important relationships with oil majors and the number of screenings and vetting requests we see on a daily basis, it would simply be impossible for a company of our size to operate without Q88. There isn’t any alternative that integrates the database to support vetting and the questionnaire functionality,” says Anastasios Kartsimadakis.

He continues: “To help us with some parts of vetting analysis not supported by Q88 we use another 3rd party application, because no single application currently offers exactly what we need. However, future development of the platform looks very promising for us. Through Q88’s Athens-based Client Services Director we have been able to speak to the application development manager in the US. We hope to see new features that will eventually allow us to only need the Q88 platform for vetting purposes.”

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