AMMITEC project to modernise maritime purchasing
www.ammitec.org

The AMMITEC Association has announced plans to modernise shipboard purchasing code systems.

The initiative is not an attempt to replace the current catalogues (IMPA and ISSA), but to modernize the existing coding systems in a manner that will make them easier to update by suppliers and easier to manage.

AMMITEC points out that the IMPA and ISSA catalogues do not include many new items coming onto the market, especially in the categories of computers, computer peripherals, navigation equipment, bolts and nuts, pressure gauges,  thermometers, etc.

The project was kicked off with a series of meetings involving a number of maritime purchasing managers and IT managers in Athens and is now being driven by the AMMITEC organisation, including IT managers which together manage IT for over 2,000 vessels.

"The purchasing managers who drafted AMMITEC's requirements told us that there is not a satisfactory way to insert new equipment in the catalogues when they get out on the market," says Dr Panagiotis Nomikos, president of AMMITEC.

The project aims to create a coding system (not a catalogue) which brings together the IMPA and ISSA catalogues, along with new items, onto a single framework. The modernization of the existing catalogues will be based on that framework.

The Purchasing and ICT Managers who participated in the team drafted a "requirements document" that describes the problems faced today by the Purchasing departments in using the existing catalogues. The requirements will be made available to anyone who is interested to propose solutions to those problems. Every interested party will be invited to propose solutions.
The AMMITEC committee will select which of the proposed solutions best satisfies the user requirements. That solution will become the framework for the modernization effort.

One possibility may be that the final coding system will be hosted on the Internet, so that suppliers can update entries about their products and everybody can always access the most up to date information. Interested parties are invited to propose ways to materialize this "vision", if practicable.

Dr Panagiotis Nomikos, president of AMMITEC, stresses that the system will not be proprietary and nobody will be charged license fees to use it.

However he hopes that software companies and others involved in ship supply management will be motivated to get involved in the development of the system, on the basis that they will benefit by adapting their systems to a more modern and widely-accepted standard that will facilitate the development of electronic commerce in maritime procurement.

Dr Nomikos stresses that AMMITEC will encourage the active participation of every interested party and organization, in order to fuse as many opinions and user requirements as possible from all sectors involved in that activity. This is the only way to ensure that this project will be completed successfully.