To survive and stay com petit'rve in the current economic climate shipping companies must find innovative ways of working by embracing modern

To survive and stay com petit'rve in the current economic climate shipping companies must find innovative ways of working by embracing modern technology. Ina complex industry known for being conservative and slow to adapt to new technologies, are companies aware of the possibilities? Outside the industry technology is causing the biggest shake up of processes and ways of working since the industrial revolution and shipping companies arebeginning to understand its potential. Global management consultants McKinsey recently highlighted: "Over the past few years. rapid technological advances indigitization and data and analytics have been reshaping the business landscape, supercharging performance and enabling the emergence of new businessinnovations and new forms of competition and business disruption." Many technologies used in other sectors can be applied to shipping. There is now a huge opportunity to accelerate the digital transformation of the shippingindustry. Technology enables shipping companies to optimize the management of their entire fleet, automate processes, increase their business performance, improve operational efficiencies and drive down costs. We see enormous potential for further progress driven by technology. Already. there's been commitment from the industry to bring the internet on board andmake it available constantly. This will bring great advances in terms of real—time data exchange. integrating the fleet directly into all processes and enablingoperators to gain a 360 ° overview of all events that are happening within their fleet. This is a major step forward. Currently most ships are hardly integratedinto the internal processes of the companies. As an industry with such complex management processes, this lack of ability to collaborate and poor visibility of operations is risky and can lead to decisionsand forecasts being made based on minimal information. But even without the option for constant internet connection on board — the use of modernmanagement solutions, potentially cloud—based ones which offer one central source of information for the office and the fleet is already bringing great benefitsin terms of improved data and information exchange, as well as reduction of communication expenditures There will also be great advances in terms of data analysis Starting in 2018, the new EU MFl‘llr regulation will become effective. This will force shippingcom pani es to monitor a variety of parameters. This also marks the first step towards actual performance management and should lay the foundation for anincrease in the use of data analytics, leading to better predictions for optimal routes, fuel ccnsumptions and the maintenance of machinery. The result will be a massive saving of costs. Other potential game changers include mobility and cloud —technology. which are expected to have a significant impact on the way shipping companies operatein the future. There have been considerable advances in these fields. The benefits of using cloud technology, as well as mobile deviws, are numerous. Theyinclude the ease of data access and the availability of information regardless of time or location. Additionally, the cloud makes it much easier to integrateexternal systems and processes, through interfaces (APlsl, e.g. web hooks into each other. The cloud is being embraced by some of the world's leading shipping companies who are taking advantage of increasingly affordable and accessible cloudplatforms to implement smarter, faster and more effective processes. What role does data analytics play in shaping of an industry’? Refer the text above and offer your understanding of it from the perspective of shipping industry.