Executives surveyed for a new research whitepaper by maritime e-procurement platform ShipServ have rated electronic purchasing in the industry at “two out of ten” in terms of its evolution to date, though one third of respondents believe the market will change beyond all recognition in the next five years, driven by developments in advanced technology and applications.

Maritime e-procurement company ShipServ reports that it has completed the integration of its e-commerce platform with Francois Marine Services’ new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, to streamline the logistics company’s ability to process transactions and respond to RFQs.

ShipServ has released the results of a survey of 100 maritime buyers across different sectors, pointing to an industry-wide lack of structured data for analysis of procurement trends and optimisation of processes.

ShipServ reports that it has restructured its business to create two new divisions, respectively focusing on ‘Solutions’ and ‘Customer Engagement and Service Operations’.

Singapore-based Moscord has introduced a new procurement platform to connect buyers and suppliers in an online community, developed over the last year and a half.

ShipServ and fleet management software company IB have announced a partnership agreement, which will see ShipServ’s e-procurement system integrated with IB’s InfoSHIP maritime software package.

ShipServ has launched ‘Supplier Performance Report’, an addition to its monitoring and analytics tools that provides users with data on the procurement performance of every supplier that they transact with, enabling them to analyse trends and identify where improvements can be made.

ShipServ reports that it has signed a full integration agreement with Hanil-Fuji (Korea), a ship supplier and logistics company, to improve the efficiency of the Korean company’s transactions on the ShipServ e-commerce platform.

Kim Skaarup has been officially appointed ShipServ’s permanent CEO, having served as acting chief executive alongside his existing role as chief operating officer of the company since founder Paul Østergaard stepped down from the CEO position in 2016.

ShipServ reports that it has entered into a partnership with MarTrust, a Marcura Group company, to facilitate the vetting of suppliers and the completion of international payments by its ship operator and manager customers.