News

The landscape of the maritime industry has gone through a significant transformation in the past decade, driven by the rapid evolution of digitalization and the widespread adoption of digital solutions now becoming the norm.  

 Eitzen Gas/Evergas – now known as Seapeak Maritime, Denmark – is one of the largest owner-operators of liquefied gas vessels, boasting nearly 20 years of experience specialising in petrochemical gas carriers. Evergas became one of S5 Agency World’s (S5) first customers in 2006, at a time when only a few organizations had started their own digital transition. Evergas has always been ahead of the game, recognising that digitalisation is the future.  

Seapeak acquired Evergas in 2022 / Credit: Seapeak

As a prominent player in the maritime industry, the company has taken a moment to reflect on its extensive 16-year working relationship with S5 and the positive impact it has had on their operations. 

Challenges: 

The maritime industry is complex. With a huge network of interconnected players, what would seem to be a simple process can turn into a convoluted one. Organising relationships with multiple parties with different objectives can be a complex task and it’s important to identify efficient ways of working when so many different people and stakeholders are involved. Consequently, maintaining efficient operation is a challenge. For Evergas a key focus was ensuring processes and communication were as smooth and simple as possible as a clear line of communication is essential for a hassle-free and transparent running of operations between agents and operators. 

In 2006, the most of the shipping industry was still running on paper and whiteboards. Evergas wanted to simplify that standard, and planning between the technical, financial and commercial teams are always vital. Time spent on manually sharing port prospects, agency details and port costs meant highly trained experts would spend valuable time on sharing information rather than carrying out the jobs that they are specialised in. This should be made more efficient  

In business, achieving proven results is crucial. So, Evergas also wanted a precise and comprehensive report on savings to show the improvement in operations and the generation of efficiencies gained. 

Solutions: 

A close working relationship 

A close working relationship is the foundation of the success S5 has achieved with Evergas S5’s model means that; the client manager is the one-stop contact handling all needs of each individual customer. This level of continuity fosters a deeper understanding of every client’s business and their specific needs, and the client knows that S5 really is reachable 24/7/365. 

S5’s approach, which is founded on a complete integration into the client’s business transferring data to the client’s shipping and financial systems as an internal partner, can be demonstrated in monthly KPI meetings with every client. Each month the S5 team sets time aside to reflect on the client’s KPIs and to assess if they’re on track to meet them. This time allows S5 and the client to plan for the coming month. Once a year, a strategic deep dive is also held to go through and analyze the previous year of operations. For Evergas, this ongoing review process helped the company to work out an optimization strategy to develop further as a business.  

One stop solution  

Evergas wanted a way to organise information and documentation across multiple vessels, offices and crew changes, as well as coordinating best turn-around times at ports. S5 worked closely with Evergas to provide them with an innovative forward-thinking solution that would facilitate easier communications between locations driven by S5’s Simply5 software. 

The software provides one platform to host all their port data, which commercial, financial  and technical teams can access providing a live overview of all operations. Giving all teams access to the same data eradicated the frustrating back and forth and freed up valuable time.  

Having one home for Evergas’ port operational data was game-changing. Even as the business grew and evolved, it meant, there was no risk of data being lost. Rather than being filed across different platforms, it remains in one place. Regardless of any changes within the business, data from the past 16 years can always still be accessed by operational teams for learning and providing information. 

Enabling effective reporting  

Reporting is made infinitely easier when operations are digitalised. As an organisation, Evergas benefits from having all its port cost data and supporting documents in one place, as it ensures that all relevant information is available when creating reports, which cannot be overlooked. Furthermore, the process for reporting can be automated in the platform. For example,Evergas is provided with time and cost saving reports, which can be taken directly to management to demonstrate the efficiency of vessel operations coming in and out of a port down to the minute.  

Local knowledge  

The Evergas’ fleet covered many trade routes around the world. Each charter requires considerable time spent looking up local regulations and customs and learning how to work with the different quirks of each port. With 360+ offices around the world, S5 is able to translate in-depth local knowledge on a global scale. Evergas vessels receive information that not only helps them easily adhere to local regulations and customs, but also make the most of them. One tangible example of this is a comparison of the cost of garbage disposal in every port visited digitalization allows this information to be easily accessed and analyzed, allowing Evergas to strategize where to dispose of their garbage in the most cost-efficient manner.  

Previously when Evergas traded on routes with higher risks of bribery, it was paramount to ensure the integrity of operations and it was important to have assistance in place. S5 helped Evergas to identify at certain ports a pre-approved designated local person staying on the vessel to assist and ensure that transactions were overseen and taking place in an approved manner.  

Outcomes; translating efficiencies into cash and time savings 

Over the years, a close collaboration has enabled S5 to support and streamline Evergas’ operations. The early adoption of our Simply5 software has kept Evergas ahead of the game and delivered significant savings. Time and money have been saved by taking a systematic approach to certain tasks in the complexity of business and using integrations and data analytics in conjunction with optimizing the time taken to turn the vessel around in the port. 

Speaking on the long-standing partnership, the Director of Commercial Operations at Seapeak (formly Evergas) Nete Egebjerg said: 

“It’s been a pleasure to work with S5 who have had a professional and practical approach to our business. Over the years, they’ve become an integral part of our business, generating time, operational and cost efficiencies across NGL port operations. Their customer portal is unparalleled and as a result we’ve developed a very close working relationship. We look forward to continuing our relationship with S5 in the years to come.”