Elevate operational risk management with Veson Nautical
- Introduction
- Our clients
- Commercial impact of operational risk
- By the numbers
- How IMOS helps
- Related solutions
- Frequently asked questions
- Relevant resources
- Featured experts
- Contact us
Struggling with the elements of risk you can’t control? Allow us to help you with the ones you can.
In the maritime shipping ecosystem, risk can arise from a variety of external forces outside of an organization’s direct control, like sanctions, freight and bunker fluctuations, port congestion, weather, and more. But these aren’t the only sources of risk. In addition, maritime shipping organizations must navigate a side of risk that is operational and financial in nature. The good news is this side of risk, which is within the organization’s control, can be dramatically reduced with a proper commercial solution.
The Veson IMOS Platform delivers the configurable workflows and high-integrity information maritime organizations need to address operational risk in a proactive and definitive way. With comprehensive capabilities for claims management, invoicing and approvals, P&L visibility, and more, IMOS allows maritime shipping stakeholders to eliminate sources of inefficiency and error in support of stronger financial outcomes.
Meet some of our clients.
“Thanks to Veson, we’ve saved the cost of hiring an extra person. Enhanced tracking has helped us receive significant additional claims. We now have more visibility into our voyage ETAs, which allows us to minimize operational costs.”
— Gary Ashton
Shipping and Trading Manager, Australian Rural Exports Pty Ltd (AUSTREX)
With complex maritime operations comes operational risk. The good news is, there is something you can do about it.
The maritime shipping workflow is a patchwork of thousands of decisions and variables that must be woven together in the context of a contract. With this level of complexity naturally comes a multitude of opportunities for error, inefficiency, and oversight. Let’s look at some sources of operational and financial risk that can be mitigated with a proper solution.
Poor operational agility in the face of change
While port congestion and other disruptions in the supply chain can be both inevitable and unexpected, maritime shipping organizations can control the speed with which they are prepared to adapt. Unfortunately, for many maritime shipping organizations, there is a significant delay between the operational disruption and the corresponding reaction that stems from poor information and manual workflows. Conversely, a connected, data-driven workflow can enable maritime shipping organizations to maximize operational agility and minimize the negative financial impact of a disruption.
Reliance on institutional knowledge
Many maritime shipping organizations have high levels of dependency on institutional knowledge that is possessed by some team members, but not others. This becomes a challenge when the team members with critical knowledge are unavailable, or during rapid organizational growth when new team members are being onboarded. Institutional knowledge is a greater issue for maritime shipping organizations that lack a connected workflow to standardize organization-wide information and processes.
Data gaps and errors
Maritime shipping stakeholders can only make decisions based on the data they have available. Unfortunately, much of the maritime shipping ecosystem’s data remains siloed and trapped in disconnected systems where it cannot impact daily decisions. Many maritime shipping organizations still have a high reliance on manual data entry, which is prone to both inefficiency and inaccuracy. The lack of a standardized data foundation leaves maritime shipping organizations vulnerable to costly oversights and errors that impact the P&L. But with a single, accurate source of truth for both current and historical data, maritime shipping organizations can account for every variable and better project financial outcomes.
Threats to the P&L
With volatile markets, high costs, and numerous variables at play, maritime shipping organizations must maintain their P&L in great detail to ensure every expense is managed and every invoice is captured. But the maritime freight P&L has become exceedingly complex and difficult to manage. Without dynamic visibility and alerts for costs and claims that deviate from expectations, expenses and invoices can easily slip through the cracks. Few solutions deliver the granularity maritime shipping stakeholders require to reconcile estimates with actuals and protect their financial position at every stage of the workflow.
Tell us about your operational risk
By the numbers.
Amid evolving industry realities, operational risk is on the rise.
$9 billion
Between 2017 and 2021, maritime claims reached over $9 billion in value.1
20,000
The global fleet is short-staffed by over 20,000 employees.2
2,000%
The average spot rate has risen 2,000% in the past five years.3
Contain your operational risk with the Veson IMOS Platform.
Select each feature below to learn how IMOS mitigates common sources of operational and financial risk, and see a video preview of the platform in action.
Data standardization
Timely and accurate data is integral to mitigating risk. IMOS brings together disparate internal and external data sources in one, centralized solution so that organizations can make decisions with confidence. In addition IMOS reduces reliance on manual data entry to increase efficiency and minimize errors that could translate to costs.
Robust and connected capabilities
Without standardized processes, organizations are left to rely exclusively on institutional knowledge across their team. IMOS delivers robust capabilities to serve every stakeholder in the maritime shipping workflow—from chartering, to operations, financials, and more. In turn, organizations can standardize their processes, maximize their continuity, and support organizational growth.
Customizable tasks and alerts
With many variables to manage throughout the workflow, it can be difficult to keep track of actual vs. projected performance. Ultimately, this results in a surprise P&L impact long after the chance to react has passed. Through IMOS’s integrated, customizable tasks and alerts, maritime shipping organizations can automatically notify relevant stakeholders when a potential concern arises or when action is needed. This capability can be applied to cost drivers, operational decisions, invoice approvals, and more.
Financial management
The maritime shipping invoicing and approvals process is complex, leaving significant room for error. For many organizations, the operational and financial functions are completely siloed, making the financial function even more challenging. IMOS ensures that your organization catches every invoice and claim with operationally integrated insight, easy invoice creation, configurable approvals, and the ability to manage and enforce SOPs directly within the system.
Discover related solutions.
Maritime Operations
Seamlessly connect your operational workflow with financials, claims, and more.
Frequently asked questions.
Frequently asked questions about maritime risk management.
Why does operational risk matter more now than ever before?
The maritime ecosystem is experiencing greater market volatility than ever before, lower margins resulting from higher costs, and intense competitive pressure. All of this creates added workflow complexity, and if not properly managed, these variables can represent significant costs to an organization. Addressing these considerations requires a commitment to operational excellence across the organization and strong visibility and predictability over the P&L, enabling greater efficiency and financial control.
What role does data play in mitigating operational risk?
Much of the data stakeholders need to reduce operational risk comes from within the organization and from prior stages of the workflow. For example, visibility into contract details is critical throughout voyage operations. And voyage performance impacts financials at voyage close. Each stage comes with implications for the following stage, and maintaining visibility into data from every stage over the entire course of the voyage is imperative for managing risk.
External data also plays an important role. When stakeholders are left to sort through disparate systems to find the data they need, it becomes all but impossible to make decisions with agility and confidence. Centralized visibility into all important voyage data, whether internal or external, is key to improving performance and mitigating risk.
What is the most important way a platform mitigates operational risk?
A commercial platform mitigates operational risk by linking every decision, action, and stage of the workflow back to the contract. This ensures that stakeholders remain aligned and that every decision is made in context. It also enables the organization to better discern the financial impact of every decision, so that they can maximize profitability or contain costs.
How can an organization measure its current operational risk?
Measuring operational risk in the form of outsized costs, missed opportunities, and error is impossible without a data-driven solution. This underscores the importance of embracing a proper freight management platform with urgency. With connected platform that supports every stage of the workflow, organizations can better identify sources of inefficiency and waste, then take decisive action to fix them and track improvements over time.
Do you have any additional questions that we didn’t answer here? We’d love to answer them. Contact us to connect with a maritime shipping expert.
Explore relevant resources.
Managing Financial & Operational Risk
4 essential factors to go from reactive to proactive.
4 Tenets of Proactive Financial & Operational Marine Risk Management
Four key areas where accurate, streamlined information and workflows are necessary to better manage marine risk.
Understanding and Managing Marine Risk
Five major risk factors at play in the marine shipping segment of your supply chain.
