StrategicIMX tie up with e-Jan http://www.strategicimx.com UK-based e-chartering venture StrategicIMX (www.strategicimx.com) has announced a tie up with Japanese internet shipping group e-JAN (www.e-janworld.com), to set up a joint venture in dry bulk e-chartering, dubbed e-JAN/DrybulkIMX. e-JAN was originally established by Japanese shipping giant NYK Line. Strategic holds 60 per cent and e-JAN 40 per cent of the new venture. Users pay for the service by fixed-cost subscription. The two organisations will build functionality to share data between users of their respective systems, building a set of tools for pre-fixture chartering and post-fixture voyage management. The ambition is still to create tools which help shipbrokers, keeping data private when they want and sharing it when they want, reducing the amount of data re-typing which goes on with management and communication of vessel positions and cargo orders, as well as helping sort and manage incoming information. Tools to be developed in future include online voyage estimators, distance tables and post-fixture support tools. There are further ambitions to connect the site into trading sites for dry bulk commodities, including coal, iron, grain and steel. The business is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Naotake Kondo, president of e-JAN Corporation has been elected as chairman of the new company, while Peter Rygaard Andersen, business development director of IMX at Strategic Software will assume the position of president. The partnership works very well geographically. e-JAN has been targeting its service in Japan and Asia markets, while Strategic has met most success in Europe and America. "The geographical split was one of the main appeals of the partnership," comments Mr Andersen. StrategicIMX employs 5 people in London (4 developers and Mr Andersen) with a further 2 developers in South Africa. The technology development follows Strategic's work to develop TankerIMX, a system for tanker brokers to communicate, which was launched in August this year and is actively being used. SUBHEAD About e-JAN e-JAN was established in April 2000 by NYK line and five Japanese shipbrokers. e-JAN currently employs 6 people at an office in Tokyo. It currently has 27 shareholders, including ship operators NYK Line, Mitsui O.S.K., K Line, Taiheiyo Kaiun and Shoei Kisen; trading houses Marubeni Corporation, Marubeni Logistics, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co, Nissho Iwai Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation; Other shareholders are brokers Daido Shipping & Trading, Houn Shipping, JASBO & Co, Matsui & Co, Yamamizu Shipping, Brix Reefers, Kawahata Marine, Meiwa International, Penta Marine, Reefer Shipping Service, Sanki Kaiun, Sunbeam Shipping, Toshin International; news services Tramp Data Service, The Japan Maritime Daily; and investment company Mizuitech. SUBHEAD The new organisation Strategic owns 60 per cent of e-JAN/DrybulkIMX; e-JAN owns 40 per cent. This 60-40 shareholding split is a result of different investment made by the two parties, both in terms of money and technology. The two parties will not be establishing a new organisation, but instead will work with their existing technology teams. "We're a company on paper, but we have two teams on opposite sides of the world," says Mr Andersen. The two organisations first met in May this year and signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the system in June. The system was first launched in November this year, with post fixture functionality to be launched in January / February. E-Jan is committing money, organisation, specification and users to the joint venture; Strategic is committing technology and all of the development work. The service will be hosted in London with a backup of everything in Tokyo. The two companies will continue to work independently on the main aspects of their business (E-JAN building an e-chartering platform, Strategic developing communications software for brokers and shipping companies). The companies have signed an agreement not to compete on activities in this regard. SUBHEAD The functionality The system will be developed organically. "We will have a pretty extensive platform by spring 2002," says Mr Andersen. "We'll have full integration coming on very shortly, exchanging data between desktop systems. We'll have a fixtures database and charter party programs." With direct integration between shipbrokers' internal computer systems, brokers will be able to use the system without ever seeing a web browser. But they will be able to access data from the system and communicate whilst travelling over the internet. The system has direct links to MaritimeData, a maritime information provider owned by Strategic, which provides information about the specific vessels. When logging onto the system, users are provided with information about other users which have signed up over the last 7 days, so they can indicate what data sharing rights they would like these users to have. The most important tool is the matching engine, where the system matches together information about vessels required to vessels available, to alert the broker to a possible deal. Users can configure what "pop-up" and screen alerts they would like to have; for example, they can indicate that they would like an alert if a vessel becomes available with a capacity up to 20 per cent greater than the cargo to go in it. When placing cargo postings, they can indicate if it a definite requirement, or the broker is only looking for some kind of indication of what vessels might be available and how much they might cost. Brokers get complete control over which other brokers they work with and share data with. "You build up small communities of interdependent business partners," he says. "You're not setting up a system which requires the whole world to be on the system. It's more like an extranet type of application." It is likely that ultimately StrategicIMX will start sharing data with other broker and e-chartering systems, he says. "Otherwise its like setting up a telephone company where you can only phone people using the same telephone company." ==================== MAIN HEAD Chinsay develops Recap manager Chinsay, an e-chartering venture based in Sweden formed in January 2000, has relaunched out of the ashes with a Recap workflow management tool for tanker brokers. The tool can be used by brokers to negotiate and list the changes which have been made from standard charter party agreements, sharing this information with their principals. It can then be used by the charterers broker to compile the final Recap document, which is then stored online for future perusal by authorised parties. In August, Chinsay announced that shipowners Stena and Gulf Agency Company (one of the largest ship agents in the world) had joined as shareholders, in the company's third round of funding. Other investors are Boston Consulting Group, Meridium Technology (an IT company) and SEB Group (the third largest bank in Sweden) and shipowner Stena. The first round of funding was made personally by Dag Sundén-Cullberg, Chinsay's CEO. Future developments include developing tools for post fixture, cargo planning, bill of lading and payments, and also to expand the product for the dry cargo industry. Chinsay currently has 10 employees. The system was developed by 11 test customers, including shipowners, charterers and brokers. The company stresses that this is not a tool to actually edit the charterparty, but to produce the recap, which lists the changes which have been made to standard charter parties. Brokers pay to use the tool on a monthly subscription basis. The first month is provided free of charge, and subsequently the fee is $1,500 per month per company, with no differentiation in fee between large and small companies. Crucially, if two brokers from separate companies work together using the tool (as it was intended) then both of them need to purchase subscriptions. The phrase "collaborative workflow tool" is almost a cliché, but there's no denying the usefulness. It essentially means that people around the world can work together on the same documents, communicating over the internet. There is only one copy of the document, and it is edited directly on screen, as opposed to multiple copies of the same Word document circulating around the world with people making amendments of various different versions, making it a nightmare for someone to come up with a final version which everybody is happy with at the end, incorporating all of the different changes. It is simple to put in different editing rights for different people and track the changes they make. For example, it might be easier if only the two brokers are allowed to actually modify the document, although both principals can view it. If one broker makes changes, the other can see exactly what has been changed and make decisions about whether or not to accept them. Employees in offices of the same company around the world can see how the negotiations are developing, and managers can keep track on what is happening. Automatic reminders can be sent to tell brokers that a certain field needs filling in. The brokers can indicate whether a document is still under negotiation or completed. When both brokers accept that it is completed, they can indicate this and suppress functionality for either of them to make further changes. When the time comes to make the next deal, they can use the recap from the previous deal as a basis. Overall, the accuracy of the final document is very much increased, and the time taken to produce it is reduced. Brokers can spend time doing deals rather than doing documentation.