While the entire maritime industry is gradually shifting towards the digital era, with fully autonomous ships lurking just around the corner, the maritime certification process has remained unchanged. Safebridge took it upon itself to tackle this problem and see what can be done to take the certification ecosystem one step further into the future.
In this rapid era of technology, we need to use digitalisation in the midst of our businesses more and more often to achieve the best results. It is precisely from this motif that Safebridge has created and designed myCert, thus expanding the horizons of the maritime certificate industry to a point it has never reached before
says Capt. Ralph Becker – Heins, CEO Managing Director of Safebridge.
The traditional maritime certification environment vs digitalisation
Let us take into consideration the basic factors in creating a maritime certificate now and how this could be altered with a proposed professional digital solution.
- The current procedure for maritime certificates can be a lengthy process: creating, printing, shipping and maintaining a certificate. Going digital can be faster and more efficient, since everything is featured on a single online platform and can be managed instantly with just a few clicks and fewer people involved.
- Less time spent, means less costs. The traditional way of creating certificates involves money spent on paper, printing, shipping and communication whereas the digital approach proposes a more efficient and economic way of achieving the desired results. Certificates are securely created, saved and distributed online.
- Parties involved in the process are the issuers, the holders and the verifiers of certificates and communication between them can be slow and indirect. A digital platform delivers a complete solution bringing together all entities involved in one single unified platform: fast, easy and direct.
- The risk of losing, duplicating or faking information cannot be ignored when it comes to important documents such as certificates. On the other hand, online maritime certificates can be instantly verified which minimises any kind of fraud, thus ensuring their authenticity and validity. Electronic or digital signatures make the solution difficult to forge.
- Since, maritime certificates are produced in hard copies, there is a lot of waste on paper and ink for printing. Going from paper to digital, takes the maritime industry one step closer towards a greener future, consequently contributing to the protection of the environment.
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CIRM Members are always at the forefront of technology development in our worldwide maritime industry. New methods to contribute to safety and security are vital and so CIRM welcomes progressive innovation to help combat further erosion of the environment
states Frances Baskerville, Secretary-General of CIRM.
On 1 November 2018, Safebridge has taken the first step towards this goal and launched a new innovative product line, specifically designed to digitalise and secure this entire certification ecosystem. “myCert” is the first digital solution developed for maritime certificates and it utilises the blockchain technology to further boost the security aspect of the platform. It acts as a veritable digital platform for all maritime certificates, connecting the issuers, holders and verifiers who can be virtually anyone wishing to verify the validity of the certificates. This not only improves the overall workflow but also increases the overall trust levels with all certificates and people involved in the process.
We saw Safebridge’s myCert in action at INTERTANKO’s Seafarers’ Vetting Seminar, in the Philippines. Over 1,000 seafarers were in attendance and the system worked flawlessly. The system ensured that all delegates received their certificate of attendance in a very efficient, fuss-free and timely manner
says Dr. Phil Belcher, Marine Director of INTERTANKO.
It is worth mentioning here that an additional module will be included in the application in the near future, namely the “organiser”. This module will allow companies that need to manage certificates, to have a single point application in order to gather, organise and verify the certificates of all their ships and seafarers.
For more information regarding the myCert platform, please visit www.mycert.com.
