Group Nautical: Revamping Document Management through Blockchain

aritime’s status of being one of the highly regulated industries comes with a need for efficient management of documents pertaining to various aspects of compliance. However, the strenuous nature of onboarding and commercial operations involving voyage planning, loading, and unloading of goods in the maritime industry makes document management cumbersome. A large seaborne transportation company—Diamond S Shipping— that operates around the world had encountered similar challenges with regard to document sharing. They struggled to improve cross-office collaborations owing to security reasons. The architecture of confidentiality at Diamond S Shipping required their business documents to be shared within office hours. The absence of effective document management delayed collaborations while failing to address commercial opportunities at several offices. Thus, Diamond S Shipping consulted with Group Nautical, seeking its help to streamline their document sharing processes.

Group Nautical brainstormed with the client and determined that its blockchain-based DocuChain platform would aptly solve the aforementioned hindrance in a secured environment. The platform utilized dual keys—public and private key encryption—along with hash functionalities to safeguard information, which allowed the sharing of documents in real-time with specific employees. This eliminated the misuse of confidential information and assisted the client in centralizing different workflows at various offices. Leveraging the encryption merits of blockchain technology, the client improved their collaboration while keeping track of documents’ versions, expiry date, and other backend metadata.

In addition, the platform’s dashboard also enabled them to gain an overview of document statuses and be notified about any discrepancies in the information set.

In addition to its blockchain-based platform, Group Nautical offers several other applications such as VR Pal, e-Stow Plan, EpiCenter, and VR Trainer. While e-Stow Plan delivers 3D model based cargo planning functionalities to help clients devise their loading processes, VR Trainer enables ship owners to train their crews for various unforeseen circumstances. On the other hand, EpiCenter is a data analytics, modeling, and visualization business intelligence tool to monitor several business activities such as voyage management, vessel operations, and manning, in real-time.

“We offer standard as well as customized solutions to our clients and help them gain operational resilience by fostering innovation, collaboration, and transformation operations within the maritime industry,” says Bhupesh Gandhi, managing director of Group Nautical. The firm caters to disparate industry needs of its clients by continuously embracing latest technologies and providing bespoke solutions. Such a methodology has uniquely positioned the firm in the maritime landscape to assist various port companies in eliminating their operational setbacks. Case in point, Jurong Port—a port operator that manages bulk and containerizes cargo—struggled with lack of visualization across storage planning processes that resulted in enormous wastage of resources, succumbing to safety hazards and poor planning. Therefore, Group Nautical proposed an application based on 3D modeling and web graphics library (WebGL) that allowed planning, viewing, and sharing of resources on the cloud without the need for any installation. Such domain expertise has enabled the firm to build a portfolio of three products from scratch within 12 months.

Group Nautical is further exploring such opportunities to form an alliance with ship owners for mutual growth. “We have many new ideas and plans in our pipeline and are working with respective stakeholders to gauge clients’ pain points for devising new products,” adds Gandhi. In the future, the firm plans to deliver its solutions at different locations for geographical expansion and gain access to newer markets by continuously adopting emerging technologies.