Vessconn Maritime seeks to promote and strengthen the community using its own secure digital platform, Vesconet – a cloud-based digital neutral web integrated platform, which according to Vessconn, acts like a natural reef. It is built by industry insiders to empower the community with tools that automate the process of both identifying and engaging suitable providers that make up the operational maritime ecosystem, which includes vessels of all types and sizes.
According to Vessconn, this allows for a cost-saving and time-saving impact felt across the sector. Vessconn Maritime is helping connect service seekers with service providers offering greater transparency for both entities by facilitating the freedom to connect and exchange proposals with verified companies, bypassing alternate channels and offering a competitive advantage to all clients. For requestors, the platform simplifies the selection process by removing timeconsuming repetitive tasks and connecting the user directly with pre-vetted providers on demand.
For providers, the platform enhances business opportunities by connecting them directly with users. Suppliers, training and education providers, and maritime- based solutions experts can showcase their services through a worldwide network that connects them with global and local partners. Vessconn works with providers of marine services, suppliers, and maritime training facilitators to increase their visibility and reduce the likelihood of missed opportunities. The platform is fully cloud-based, meaning there is no need for software or hardware installation.
Vessconn Maritime is founded by Vikrant Bharat, a Master Mariner, who previously spent many years at sea and working ashore and is of the opinion that the industry has seen a pervasive waste of tangible and non-tangible resources due to inefficient processes. He believes this has led to unnecessary operational costs, which in turn make an impact on the profits. He told us, “As a result, there has been a rapid growth in devising innovative design approaches and solutions to counter these problems. Our focus is to seek cooperation on the improvement and further development of an existing chain and relationships for the benefit of the whole community where no one size fits all. “Like a reef which covers less than one per cent of the ocean floor, but supports an estimated twenty-five per cent of all marine life, our vision is to establish a digital reef of maritime providers of services, supplies and training. A network not unlike the ecosystem we see first-hand in our seas, our initiators and facilitators rely on each other to sustain our industry and move us forward.”
Bharat’s plan is to evolve Vessconn Maritime’s model further on the principle of a one-way multisided platform to cause a network effect as it attracts multiple users to become part of the reef. The goal of the platform is to create value by facilitating interactions between different groups of the same niche market, rather than having each group working in silos. “Recognising our oceans are the lifeblood of the marine industry. Vessconn has pledged support to the marine charities working to preserve our oceans,” says Bharat. “Some would say its biomimicry, I would call it innovation inspired by nature. “We are collaborating with high grade data solution companies that are helping us to unlock innovation and eventually to provide AI tools that would revolutionise the entire supply chain model within the industry. “The platform shall then create value by facilitating interactions between different groups of the same niche market as opposed to every group working in silos,” Bharat explained.
