“When you make an alliance it’s because you feel good, so we happily enter this cooperation supporting our publications extending to other markets with Alphaliner, Alphabulk and Alphatanker”, says AXSMarine CEO Jacques Goudchaux, who recently signed a cooperation agreement with Latin American digital publication MundoMaritimo on content and analysis.

The French executive feels that this alliance is an opportunity to optimize the talents of both companies. “We are equally happy to see the name of our publications spread to your [Latin America] markets. This is very positive and we believe it will be fruitful for both and it’s a win-win talent exchange: our content and your ability to reach many readers.”

Global reach

AXSMarine’s publications are on a global scale, depicting trends and information for the worldwide markets to deliver the most possible of the full picture. “It is impossible to have 100% of the information available, because there are just too many variables to consider. That’s why having comprehensive information is key for our clients. In the end, people care about information because it is fundamental for decision making. When you look at figures coming from international reports on ships trading patterns and commodity movements, the info is diferred. You can appreciate the trends but the info is not fresh enough. Our publications are add-ons to our core business which consists of on-line platforms; “AXSMarine is present on the 3 main verticals (Drybulk, Tanker, Containers) and offers now on online module called Trade Flows which generates immediate reports containing true intelligence with easy export functions,” explains Goudchaux.

“There are other companies trying to deliver comparable solutions, but there will never be a perfect solution because you can’t know everyting. We have reached 87% reliability in terms of knowing cargo that are on tankers. We are in excess of 90% on dry bulk markets and when it comes to iron ore in Capesize and Panamax ships we are in excess of 97% in terms of knowing what is onboard ships. Everyone wants 100% in real time, but this is not posible as it stands. With this level of percentage and almost no time lag, we call it ‘real time’. We monitor the market permanently to determine the type of cargo that is carried by ships. We have a proprietary ships’ database, with technical parameters, 50,000 polygons defining anchorages, ports, terminals, single berth, sailing corridors etc. Everytime a ship crosses one or the other line, we derive highly valuable info and deliver a number of analytics related for congestion figures so you can model time,” the CEO details on how AXSMarine works in order to access information and make it available for clients at all time. Goudchaux emphasizes that there’s no specific attention to any geographic location, as AXSMarine serves the industry globally.

AXSMail and other novelties

Since 2000, AXSMarine has been constantly developing digital on-line solutions to improve the user experience of clients, making information available to them in real time and delivering analytics and other data key for decision making. That’s how AXSMail was born. “When you are receiving large volumes of data and information, the challenge is to be fast and efficient in handling them. AXSMail is a collaborative solution, a real time saver that enables you to run your business more efficiently. All you need is an Internet connection,” says Goudchaux about the latest web-based tool. It is an extensive portfolio that optimizes email threads like never before, allowing users to manage and easily merge multiple email boxes, as well as to work in a private or real-time collaborative mode. “Also, we have a customer support team that expands the awareness of how much our systems can deliver and gives clients the opportunity to make work more efficient. AXSMail will be available to anyone on every part of the world,” says the executive, who reveals that the platform will be launched sometime during September 2018.

But AXSMail is not the only novelty the company is currently working on. Goudchaux reveals that the company is working on a solution for people to manage their parallel info on tanker, Liner, bulk and any type of ship, and it will be made available by year-end. “Some people like to have systems where they can manage their own ships data including plans, certificates, various documents, contracts, etc. We are going to come up with a platform available to anyone, completely open at very reasonable cost compared to today’s market as we want to serve people as much as possible with what they need. There are way too many people that store info in a very fragmented way and that is costly.”

Also there’s the re-inforcing and improvement of the analytical tools to offer more digital data analytics, so people can get the best possible data set downloadable from this interface to feed in their own system which they can enrich with private content.

The future

AXSMarine and Alphaliner were pioneers in 2000. Back when the ‘dotcom’ revolution hit the Internet, there were many start-ups promising to offer the solutions that only AXSMarine was able to deliver to the degree expected by the market. The 2018 scenario is similar: there are many online platforms, but none with the vast combined datasets and tools AXSMarine offers thanks to its expertise and understanding of what the market not only wants, but needs. So, Goudchaux predicts that in the next 5 years or so, probably 80% of these start-ups will disappear. “The survivors will be those able to deliver good, reliable data and the adequate tools to manipulate it. That’s where I see the trend. And then, of course, on the longer term there are many people looking for centralized info because they are all managing variable and disseminated info. There’s not a real comparable system to ours that includes all capabilities to manage private data as an extra layer of the one we deliver. In long-term we’ll be working for people for managing data of all types.”

By MundoMaritimo