NYK has choosen ShipServ web-based trading platform to spearhead a move to a fully automated purchasing process on 75 ships. After several years of streamlining internal fleet management systems within the company and evaluating e-commerce in relation to its procurement requirements, NYK Ship Management (Singapore) has signed an agreement to use ShipServ's services and process all purchasing transactions with suppliers through ShipServ's web-based trading platform, TradeNet.

NYK's existing BASS purchasing software has been integrated with ShipServ's TradeNet allowing for all transactions to flow through from NYK to their suppliers electronically. This will result in higher quality procurement at lower costs due to elimination of manual tasks, time saved, and improved quality of data.

The handling of all suppliers in a standardized manner will fully automate the purchasing process connecting NYK's suppliers electronically to the NYK Ship Management offices.

NYK staff will continue to work with the existing Bass purchasing software and will not need re-training, but will have a simplified process where old-fashioned fax, paper transactions and emails are replaced with electronic trade.

NYK Shipmanagement Managing Director, Aswin Atre, said: "Our evaluation was thorough and we are pleased with our choice of ShipServ as our e-commerce platform. The fact that ShipServ is a totally independent e-commerce provider, has a 24/7 technical customer support operation with key offices in Europe, Asia and the US and have had practical experience in integrating most of the shipping industry's procurement software, were key factors in our final decision to go with ShipServ."

According to Paul Ostergaard, CEO of ShipServ, "NYK Ship Management (Singapore) is the latest in a number of major global ship managers that have chosen ShipServ's e-commerce platform and electronic Ship Supply Management (eSSM) solutions to streamline their purchasing processes. "I believe that 2004 was a watershed year for e-commerce and after many years of doubts the progressive and innovative ship managers are realizing the value and long-term benefits of e-commerce to simplify and be more cost-effective and cost-efficient in their procurement tasks," said Ostergaard. "Past studies from existing customers have shown that using ShipServ's TradeNet trading platform can reduce order cycle time by 30% and increase number of quotes per purchase order by up to 50%."

ShipServ has successfully integrated many of the existing purchasing software programs with their TradeNet trading platform and can now clearly demonstrate how their e-commerce trading platform is complementary (not competitive) to the many in-house purchasing software programs available; taking away all previous doubt and hesitation companies used to have about introducing yet another new system.

Currently, ABS, AMOS, BASS, Consultas, Logimatic, Shipnet, SIS and several home made purchasing systems are fully integrated with ShipServ's trading platform.