Headquartered in Singapore with offices in India, Germany, and Cyprus, MariApps Marine Solutions, a Bernhard Schulte company is a digital solutions company offering state-of-art marine enterprise solutions for ship managers and ship owners. MariApps can bring key knowledge and expertise to its clients that can eventually help their organization to excel in today’s competitive and demanding environment. MariApps’ flagship product is PAL, a complete marine ERP suite which is fully web based, cloud supported and mobile compliant. MariApps is a Microsoft Gold Certified Development Partner and has been certified by Deloitte with ISAE 3402 – Type 2 certification for enterprise standard development and operating framework readiness to deliver systems. MariApps offers customized maritime application development, consultancy, data building and application testing and project management. With software development centre in Kochi, India, MariApps employs 200+ staff worldwide.
The Steadfast Leader
With more than two decades of experience in the IT domain, Sankar Ragavan thrives in the role of the CEO at MariApps. Previously Sankar has served as Corporate Director of IT for BSM and as a Director of Jumeirah International, and for various MNCs across the globe. While working for Bernhard Schulte Ship management as a director─ he could not find one system which could solve the company’s problems. It was not that solutions weren’t available, they were available, but in bits and pieces, and since it was a niche industry, there were only few monopolies. Due to the complexness of Marine Industry, till 2014, 90 % of the market share of ERP in marine industry was held by few large vendors. So, Sankar is on a mission to provide fully integrated marine solutions on web/mobile platforms built on innovative technologies and to stay ahead with continuous R&D. Sankar’s vision is to deliver quality and affordable end-to- end marine solutions and turn MariApps into a multibillion- dollar enterprise.
“There is a significant opportunity for ERP providers like us to develop applications for the non-IT familiar shipping industry. We continue our journey collaborating with more than 15 top notch companies around the world and aim to reach for more soon,” asserts Sankar.
Helping Shipping Industry with Great Products
The organization has developed a flagship marine ERP suite PAL which is entirely web based and mobile compliant. Nowadays, MariApps ERP is running in more than 800 ships, and the company is targeting to go beyond 2000 ships in the next two years. MariApps PAL is a completely integrated software and is a one stop solution for all the ship owning and ship management needs. MariApps follows SDLC and Agile methodologies to deliver its projects, and has dedicated PMO to manage projects for various customers. MariApps’ flagship product, PAL ERP is very exhaustive, covering the length and breadth of operations and is a runaway success. With customizable dashboards, high performance design, feature rich modules for owners and managers helps in faster data access and decision making. Additionally, the company has a “MariApps Innovations Hub” a dedicated innovation driven team that works round the clock creating new products and solving complex maritime problems through technology. MariApps offers common platform in order to integrate all application needs under a single umbrella and provide the necessary leverage from market offerings. With its initial partner/client BSM the challenge was to integrate the various locations into PAL ERP suite, as BSM has about nine ship management centers, 18000 seafarers and 15000 onshore staff. MariApps implemented all the modules for the customer by rapidly converting data. Meticulous planning and execution with no deviation on dates was made a mandate for smooth installations of data on vessels. It was complimented by flawless replication software that move data between office and vessel. Successive version upgrades and customer requirements were also implemented as per the need.
The brilliant team of MariApps delivers products with latest technology, thanks to key research and innovation to present advanced software solutions to market. Through the successive delivery of standard ERP product PAL, advanced features, extraordinary design, and modern UI MariApps have all those what its clients need. The new version of the software PAL 4 garbs in with the most modern UI, improved user controls and standardized icon sets. New PAL 4 brings with it different material design concepts which gives the users the most modern experience of shipping and digital solutions.
Standing Tall Amongst the Crowd
MariApps is a part of Bernhard Schulte Group based in Hamburg, which is eventually one of the largest ship owners on the planet, dating back to as early as 1800s, and the tradition of owning and ship management has given MariApps a much-needed edge while developing cutting edge solutions. Marine Solutions from MariApps works with a lot of industry and technology partners around the world. The organization is an independent software vendor of Microsoft Certified by Class DNV GL and Class NK PAL, which are end-to-end digital ship owning and ship management solution. Covering all functionalities needed from DryDock to New Building. Being part of Mobile first and cloud first world, which has become the key for today’s business success and adapting to mobile technologies is one striking element to take the business to new heights. MariApps also created history in the segment by being one of the very first companies to introduce mobile apps for the world of shipping. The organization consists a huge pool of expert mobile developers, who can build marine applications that runs on all platforms including Android, iOS, and Windows, empowering customers with the power to take decisions anywhere anytime. As an example: Seafarer app is a one stop information portal to streamline all information and data related to seafarers. Communicate with shore, know vessel and plan updates, review travel documents, look for pay slips, submit bill and others. The company is also engaged in developing applications for new building services and is now working on solutions for cruise and offshore industries.
Additionally, MariApps products come with a guarantee of being leakage-proof and the products are thoroughly checked and tested for any security risks. MariApps also provide continuous version upgrades to all of its clients & data and reports are made available to the customer to view anywhere anytime with 24*7 support service provided globally.
MariApps always follow employee first customer first policy! It is a young and passionate company, committed to provide the best solutions in the shipping sector. The brilliant team of MariApps has the right ‘can do attitude’ and it brings in a variety of skilled resources, including business analysts, project managers, marine engineers, nautical officers technology consultants and strong technical leaders that are part of a 200+ team in India, Singapore, Cyprus and Hamburg to develop, implement, and support MariApps’ software. The organization always tries to build teams that are high performing and MariApps does all these by providing a fun, and challenging work place that eventually caters to innovation and work life balance. The company believes that employees are its main strength and that’s why it invests heavily on them. MariApps allows flexible work hours; employees enjoy friendly HR policies ensuring that they get motivated continuously throughout their career. MariApps’ in-house training program is mentormentee based and ensures that every new joinee gets a mentor and is trained real time on a project.
“MariApps is been recognized as the 25 best companies to work for in Asia and as the best ERP solutions provider by different media groups”
Working Out to be the Best
Currently MariApps is working on rapidly growing technology segments like Big data, analytics, IoT, Digitalization, and smart shipping with key resources in MariApps Innovation hub. Additionally, the firm is setting its focus on key markets of Europe and far East and is trying to expand its footprint into new markets including North America, Australia, Africa, and China. The management of the organization is planning to run its software on about 2500 ships in the next couple of years, and MariApps has already launched and is enhancing the products for related market segments like offshore, new building and cruise ships as well.