SPI Marine is an independent service provider of shipbroking, agency, logistics, and consultancy services. SPI Marine handles a multimillion-ton cargo portfolio annually, with a dedicated team focusing on the entire petrochemical and edible oils supply chain. From a highly complex chemical derivative through to simpler grades of biofuels, SPI’s team of global experts helps their clients achieve their supply chain goals. Their global office network and depth of intelligence are unrivaled, with a proven track record that offers successful data-driven strategies to customers.
Meeting Ship Brokers’ BI Needs
SPI Marine values data and the nimbleness of low code platforms to differentiate themselves in the shipbroking industry. As business scaled, their core QuickBase system did not have the business intelligence capabilities necessary for serving the needs of their customers. Ship brokers need to make quick decisions with real-time data latency, and ad hoc reporting from their central system is complicated. Shipping logistics data is intrinsically complex, especially in their core chemical tanker market, and requires several permutations for simple business questions.
SPI ship brokers heavily relied on their BI team to serve contract performance on ship voyages because they did not have the training or time necessary for investigating their core system. Providing contract performance was a manual reporting task that was extremely time-consuming. Each voyage for a single ship has multiple parcels with different products, visits multiple ports, and takes part in berth activities—sometimes for loading and other times for discharge. This is a data model’s worst nightmare.
