MAIN HEAD Capital Shipbrokers DECK HEAD London based Capital Shipbrokers has an interesting approach to its IT system. It's based on Microsoft Outlook. We found out about the system BODY Capital Shipbrokers, based in London, has in excess of 25 employees, in tankers and sale and purchase. The company treasures its freedom to run its business in the way it chooses, taking its own view of its development and of client relationships without external pressures. Clients require from Capital a high degree of experience, technological support speed and reliability, which can make the difference between the business succeeding or failing. So should such a company solve its IT problems? SUBHEAD A Microsoft Outlook system Early in 2001 Square Mile Marine, which was developing a new communications system based around the popular Microsoft Outlook and Exchange packages, approached the company. At that time Capital had become disillusioned with its existing e-mail system, although it was the most widely used generic shipping software product at the time. Capital entered into an agreement with Square Mile Marine to get involved in the design of a new system, and to commit to its implementation when it was felt to be developed to a sufficient degree. Square Mile Marine wrote plugins to Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange, which perform tasks not covered in the software off-the-shelf. Plugins include: giving each message a unique referencing number; enabling the software to receive and send faxes and telexes as well as e-mails; allowing a quick preview of faxes; a new editor and sending program and a hierarchical contacts database system. In addition, Capital wished to protect its existing data, so Square Mile Marine was asked to develop programs to allow transfer of data from existing message and ship information databases to the new system. The programming of all these elements took 12 months, and the new system was then installed in early April 2002. SUBHEAD Describing the system The company sticks to the messaging management that the maritime industry is so fond of, of messages coming into the company mainly routed into a common inbox. All brokers at Capital wade through the same inbox. It's quite a headache but then its relatively easy for someone to flick through 600 messages an hour to see if there is anything useful in any of them; it is replying to the messages that takes time. Only certain users can delete messages, although each user's computer will indicate whether or not the particular broker using that computer has read that message already. SUBHEAD Contacts database The contacts database is where Square Mile Marine has put in most of the work itself. It is much more structured than the standard Outlook system. A "tree" system is used to find contacts; companies first click on the company name, then the department or individual's name. They can indicate if the message should go directly to the individual or to a company-wide mailbox. They can indicate if the message should go by e-mail, telex or fax. The database has fields to input vessel telex numbers, and user's individual MSN or Yahoo instant messaging screen names. Everybody in the office contributes to maintaining the common database, which everybody can access. So for example most vessels have telex numbers only, and many offices still have fax numbers and no e-mails. But as soon as one broker obtains this information and types it in, it is accessible to everyone. All of this data is immediately available when sending messages. The messages are mainly typed in raw text format (not HTML, though this is possible); the sender can indicate who the message is going to, how it should be sent (e-mail, fax, telex). The sender can indicate if the message should appear as coming from the sender's personal e-mail account or the company, and indicate if the reply should go straight into the sender's personal account or be accessible to everyone in the company. There is functionality to manage lists, for example all brokers working on a certain type of vessel, enabling messages to be sent to all of them at the same time. About 30 different list databases have been set up on the system. The contacts information can be viewed through Microsoft Outlook, which makes them very easy to download into handheld computers (Portable Digital Assistants), which most of the brokers use, particularly for doing business when out of the office. Nearly all PDAs (portable digital assistants) on the market can integrate with Microsoft Outlook, although they are unlikely to be able to integrate with dedicated shipbroking software, or if so, at a price. So to sum up, any contact detail amended or entered by one broker in the office is automatically available to all brokers in the office, connects directly into their office messaging systems and can be downloaded quickly into their PDAs. Powerful stuff. SUBHEAD Telephones The telephone system has to be very resilient being the lifeline of the business. The business is heavily reliant on the telephone and any down time could be very costly in lost business. Capital has configured its phone system on two separate ISDN30 circuits through two different external telephone exchanges, with the ability to choose routing through five different carriers. This not only gives the business foremost reliability but it is also cost effective. Working with Square Mile Marine, the telephone supply company, Trustel, is also developing ways to integrate the phones with the computer system. For outgoing calls, it can automatically telephone people whose contact details are displayed on the broker's screen. For incoming calls, the computer system can recognise who is calling from the caller ID. Using this information it can route the call to the broker most suitable to answer it (a broker who knows the client, is actually at his desk and not talking to someone else). When the call comes through to the broker's headset, information about the client's ships or ship requirements can come up on the screen. The office, which has 25 brokers in it, has 3 telex lines and 3 fax lines, for sending telexes and faxes generated by the messaging software, and receiving telexes and faxes and diverting them through the software. Most traffic of course is email via a firewall protected leased line. SUBHAD Square Mile Marine Alan Johnston, managing director of Square Mile Marine, began supplying computer systems to the shipping industry in 1979, following a chance meeting with a relative who was a sale and purchase broker. The broker told Mr Johnston how much he was being quoted for his company's first computer system; Mr Johnston said he could do it much cheaper and found himself in business. Originally supplying systems from his native Scotland, Mr. Johnston then moved full time to London in 1985, forming Square Mile Marine in 1987. Since then Square Mile have supplied some 200 different companies in 15 countries. It has never extensively advertised but gained business through word of mouth. It provides a complete range of services from consultancy through to total system supply and maintenance. Its products are all based on Microsoft platforms, such as Exchange 2000, SQL Server 2000, Windows 2000 and XP, and Office 2000 and XP. The company feels that this gives the customer a wide range of options and other products that can be integrated, rather than locking clients in to a proprietary solution. Editors note: Capital Shipbrokers was involved in the writing of this article. Capital Shipbrokers as a website at http://www.capital-shipbrokers.co.uk; Alan Johnston of Square Mile Marine can be contacted on alan@smmco.com.