Marine Software Newsletter - June 2009
U.K. based Marine Software Ltd announces the supply of a new fleet procurement solution to Bluewater Ship Management Ltd. Bluewater currently manage ten RoRo vessels operating in the Mediterranean, between Italy and Turkey.
The Marine Purchasing System (MPS) module has now been successfully installed onboard nine vessels, along with the corresponding Office based System (OPS) at Bluewater’s Head Office in Maidstone, Kent.
Each of the nine vessels prepare various types of requisitions, which are then transmitted to the central OPS system for review, authorisation and direct purchase order placement. (Other clients, such as P&O Ferries, allow the placing of some purchase orders direct from their 20+ Vessels, but controlled by a specific maximum spend value per user.)
Once ship requisitions have been processed by the Bluewater central procurement dept, copies of their official company purchase orders are electronically transmitted back to the vessel systems, offering complete order transparency between ship and shore.
The procurement system also offers Bluewater management a full budgeting tool to keep annual budget forecasts on track with cumulative spending. This type of financial information is offered at the point of Purchase Order placement, which is the more effective way of knowing what the company is committed to spend, irrespective of whether the goods/services have been physically receipted.
Mr. Ian Buchanan, Managing Director of Bluewater Ship Management Ltd comments:
“In choosing a new purchasing system our objectives were the following:-Marine Software have produced an excellent package that fulfils all of these requirements and is also user friendly.”
- Reducing the amount of paper being filed and retrieved, along with sharing all information in one central place.
- Ensuring that the ship’s were fully aware of what was happening with regard to their requisitions.
- Recording amount spent on maintenance and spare parts every year and being able to break this down to each machinery item.
- Being able to accurately value spares held in stock and keeping the accountants happy.
UN Trieste overtaking UND Birlik on route from Istanbul to Trieste.
The Purchasing system compliments other Ship Management software available from Marine Software Ltd. These are Planned Maintenance, Stock Control, Project (Dry-Dock) Management, ISM Document Management and Safety Management systems.