DMS ensures smooth sailing for Great Eastern Shipping

Lost files, lack of proper systems for timely retrieval of documents and dealing with various document versions were some of the many problems faced by Great Eastern Shipping Company (GE Shipping). This was before the company made use of document management systems (DMS). Chitra Padmanabhan examines how DMS has brought about a complete turnaround in workflow processes at the company

According to R P Dumasia, GE Shipping is required to store large contract documents, which need careful security as well as ready accessibility

In an industry like shipping where every activity is based on elaborate documentation, an integrated system alone does not guarantee smooth workflow processes. At the grassroot level it is often observed that though an integrated system speeds up processes, it does not offer a fool-proof solution to handle important documents. Documents, especially in the shipping industry, authenticate every activity performed by the company. For instance, a ship, which traverses multiple seas requires different set of documents when it goes from one country to another. Such and other problems were faced by GE Shipping, which induced the company to turn towards DMS for better management of important documents and bring in all-round efficiency.

About GE Shipping

GE Shipping is in the business of chartering out vessels to major oil companies and running cargo services for companies. The shipping division of the company comprises of 35 ships, including a gas carrier. The company also carries out offshore drilling activities, like deep water drilling, development and production drilling. The company has an international presence through its offices and subsidiaries in London, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Over the years, the company has managed to build an enviable roster of clients like British Petroleum, Royal Dutch/ Shell, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals, Reliance Industries, etc. GE Shipping is bound to all its clients with elaborate contract agreements that need to be authenticated with several documents at every stage. While the company has a home-grown integrated system, due to the nature of the shipping industry it was not possible for the company to completely do away with the elaborate documentation work.

Need for document management systems

There are various facets to running a shipping company, wherein equal importance needs to be given to internal transactions as well as any form of communication with clients and various ships that are in transit. Even after setting up an elaborate internal system, all deals with companies would be void if not supported by proper documentation. In the shipping industry documentation for operations, technical, safety, quality standards, cargo handling and operating instructions for various equipment pushes the need for an exclusive IT system. Additional documents in the form of floating staff certifications and eligibility for sailing are also required to be preserved. This was precisely the dilemma faced by GE Shipping. “GE Shipping is required to store large contract documents, which need careful security as well as ready accessibility. Moreover, we realised that better coordination is needed between online and offline work,” says R P Dumasia, general manager-information technology, GE Shipping.

Typically, for the shipping industry, operating units are moving targets. This makes co-ordination with ships quite challenging. Ships keep traversing from one zone to the other, which requires a whole new set of documents each time it moves to a different zone. Each new zone is governed by different laws and regulations, which ships are required to comply with. There are additional documents in the form of processes, standards and reporting forms.

Accessibility of documents being the core problem other practical problems also needed an instant solution. For instance, even when documents were in a digital form, there were multiple copies of the same documents floating around, which created various versions of the same documents. “We wanted to set up a system that would ensure quick renewal of various contracts due to instant document access,” says Dumasia. Moreover each ship has about 200 drawings to be made accessible in the office as well as the ships. “For engineering activities in the ships a lot of drawings need to be shared with the office and the crew members on the ships. Without an elaborate document management system this was becoming cumbersome and time consuming,” says Dumasia. A need to store and retrieve documents effectively and to exercise version control on documents prompted the company to look for a vendor who would meet their requirements.

DMS implementation in GE

GE Shipping decided to go for DMS with a clear objective in mind. But it was also important to get the views of the users of this system. To carry out this exercise, the company requested its employees to send out a wish list that would serve as a ready reckoner for addressing problems that existed at a basic user level. Accordingly, the company started evaluating products

of various vendors and Hummingbird’s DMS satisfied most requirements. GE Shipping began implementing the product in the mid-2003 in all its departments—chartering, quality assurance and technical.

Challenges during implementation

The DMS implementation in GE Shipping directly integrates with applications like Autocad, which is used for creating diagrams and images. During implementation the company encountered various challenges, which had to be promptly tackled. To avoid issues between employees, the company carried out a detailed study on rights management. “Any application can be fruitfully used only when there are controls in terms of rights for users, avoiding personal junk and customising only at departmental levels so that the formats of all documents remain homogeneous,” says Dumasia.

Additionally, since all documents represent a vital link between various contracts and various processes—making provisions for the security of these documents was placed on the priority list. “In order to secure these documents, we decided to invest in security applications at the operating system-level as well as the server-level,” says Dumasia. The company also carried out brief training sessions for employees to make them familiar with the processes.

Future roadmap

The company has about 300 users who have access to DMS on a day-to-day basis. The company claims to have achieved better co-ordination between various work processes and envisages a host of benefits in future, like decreased use of paper documents and follow-ups, efficient document tracking and centralised back-up of all critical documents of each user. As a next step, the company plans to convert all legacy documents into a digitised format so that they can also be accessed as and when needed. In future, the company also plans to achieve an integration between the DMS application and its core IT system.

chitra@expresscomputeronline.com