A Q88 customer case study of Modion Maritime Management
Modion Maritime Management S.A. (M.M.M.S.A.) is a ship management company engaging in the operation of dry bulk carrier vessels. The company’s vessels trade all over the world conveying all types of bulk cargoes, such as grains, maize, coal and iron ore.
With a career stretching back more than, 40 years, the company Principal spent 5 years as a sea Captain and then became established as a Sale and Purchase broker, before developing an interest in ship ownership and operations.
Throughout the history of the company, the tides of the global economy may have been periodically stormy, but Modion has sustained a reliable and long-term presence, riding out market fluctuations and volatility.
Today, M.M.M S.A. employs 25 people ashore to support the sea-going operations of vessels under management and their crews. Currently the company operates eight bulk carrier vessels.
Safety needs to be a priority for any shipping owner and operator. Modion places a strong emphasis on providing safe working conditions and dignified environment to the people it employs. The company’s performance and its reputation are directly related to the quality of the fleet and the commitment of the team.
Capt. Stergios Nikolaidis , Director of Operations at Modion Maritime Management, says: “As a result, the fleet is properly maintained and all crews and executives carefully selected. This supports the high standards required for our fleet to enter ports with the strictest control regulations.”
With a complex regulatory framework governing operations, accurate completion and submission of Baltic 99 documentation is essential to finalizing fixtures. “With a total of around 800 questions across 300 different questionnaires, pulling all of the information together from source documents is repetitive. It is labour intensive and time consuming, especially when you have to start at the beginning each time and it needs to be done several times a day,” says Capt. Stergios Nikolaidis .
Q88Dry is a fully-featured cloud software system developed for the purpose of simplifying the completion of Baltic Exchange Dry Cargo Questionnaires. The system lets owners and operators maintain a centralized, up-to-date information store of vessel documentation. Using a library of templates, Q88Dry enables the automated creation of completed questionnaires.
Q88Dry is in the cloud so information to support chartering teams can be provided quickly and efficiently, even when system users are away from the office. Simple to use and fully featured on mobile devices, it lets users work flexibly, anytime and from anywhere connected to the Internet.
The core functionality allows documentation to be uploaded, and a comprehensive set of supporting features enable accuracy and speed in re-using and compiling the data. Ultimately, in today’s increasingly competitive market, this increases the ability of dry bulk carriers to maximize vessel utilization and profitability.
Powerful features such as reporting and weekly email notifications prevent problems like expired certificates or other compliance issues creating obstacles to making fixtures.
Simple, one-time upload of vessel information by importing a spreadsheet enables Q88Dry customers to start getting the benefit of the system right away. It’s turn-key without lengthy installation or complicated deployment processes.
Capt. Stergios Nikolaidis says: “The software is very easy to understand. And to make sure our move over to the system was as smooth as possible, the support team provided onsite training at our offices. We have 10 users and for us, it’s just a matter of logging in, downloading the requested questionnaire and then sending it to the chartering department.”
He continues: “Before, we were pulling information from Excel and hard-copy print outs to complete a Baltic 99. After one year of use, at the very least, we found Q88Dry to be saving us around 30 – 40 hours per month. Access when we are out of the office means we can conduct negotiations quicker and make fixtures faster. It’s fair to say it is accelerating our business.”
“As the database grows and with the addition of more features to the system, we expect Q88Dry to increase its influence. With reporting and search of all the information about our vessels in one place, we are going to get greater visibility of the bigger picture,” Capt. Stergios Nikolaidis says.
Fritz Heidenreich, President of Q88 LLC says, “Modion has proved to be a visionary in embracing Q88Dry. Their experience demonstrates mid-sized shipping companies can be just as successful as larger enterprises when exploiting technology and data in the cloud. It is well worth owners and operators of other fleets that wish to uncover efficiencies which boost performance taking a closer look at Q88.”
