By Xu Miaomiao

How do port and shipping enterprises

By Xu Miaomiao

U ndoubtedly, today’s world is surrounded by data. For port and shipping enterprises, how to promote the competitiveness of enterprises through information technology and big data technology is a problem that they must face and solve at present.

Sheng Zunkuo, the general manager of data product department of ELANE said that as regards the big data we are now talking about, the biggest puzzle for most of the enterprises is how to connect each independent module, break the information barrier between the systems to transmit the data from one system to the other.

Since the basic information of port and shipping enterprises is patchy and due to the existence of information islands, the efficiency of communication between them is not high. The success of the electronic supplier mainly depends on the collection of technical resources and data resources. The technical resources recruit experts through the society, whereas the data resources use construction of electronic businessplatform, logistics website, shipping service network. It has become the main way for the third party electronic business platform to “access” to data through these platforms which accumulate users’ “traces”.

Sheng Zunkuo said, judging from the port and shipping enterprises, information opening of shipping enterprises is the key to the industry’s big data applications, because a large number of data resources are in the hands of port and shipping enterprises. In the past over 10 years, major global shipping companies continue to advance booking, shipment and standardization of freight track, but it is not easy to connect due to different standard of a number of shipping company’s data. This can be best illustrated by INTTRA and CargoSmart, the two shipping electricity supplier giants, which have not fully integrated the schedule of the shipping companies. In this regard, Xu Kai, director of the information research of Shanghai Research Center for International Shipping believes that it is positive to realize standardization in the future. Many aspects of the whole industry will need to be standardized, such as ship components, model, system, many basic data etc.

How can enterprises realize the maximum value of these resources in the face of so many data resources in their hands? In this regard, Xu Kai said, enterprises are now increasingly aware of the data’s great value produced by operation and accumulation of the information system. Enterprises need to do the preparation as follows:

First of all, port and shipping enterprises need to manage their own data assets very well. Firstly, it is necessary to operate and manage the data assets well. Secondly, enterprises should strengthen the data integration, in the era of big data, only grasping the data in hand is not enough, it must understand and perceive the external data through other channels, and solve some data problems by combining with their data assets.

Secondly, the shipping enterprises need to understand and infiltrate the big data concept into the whole enterprise. Because understanding the concept of big data era is the only possible way to combine these ideas with their specif i c work. These front-line operators are really the innovators on the front-line.

Thirdly, port and shipping enterprises must have talent pool for big data. The key to this kind of talent pool is to cultivate compound type talents. This compound type refers to the talent not only understand the enterprise business, but also certain technologies.

Finally, port and shipping enterprises need to select large data technology solutions to suit their own industry characteristics. Big data is not the pursuit of the forefront and the most high-end technology, applications of big data should be gradually pushed forward by practical problems. In the early stage, we should reduce the cost of trial and error, choose appropriate technology, reduce risk, but also choose the point that can be easily solved, making big data produce actual benefit for us. The operation and maintenance cost of information construction is always a realistic problem they must face. If possible, companies should try to develop their own information systems in the cloud computing environment. In terms of the construction of private cloud, some domestic port and shipping enterprises have targeted solutions of big data, which can effectively reduce the initial cost of data acquisition and construction of data center, enterprises may have a try in this aspect.