JiBe ERP, a software company set up by venture capitalist Yariv Zghoul, has made further inroads into the Greek market by signing up tanker company Kyklades Maritime.
JiBe started a full installation of its enterprise resource platform (ERP) at Kyklades, a company managing 19 ships in the water and having a further six under construction.
TradeWinds is told that the ship-by-ship software-building and installation process should be completed by July.
ERP systems are business management software suites that allow companies to oversee multiple elements of their business. They are a key pillar of the digitalisation of shipmanagment, as modules cover safety, quality and other matters including crewing, finance and chartering.
JiBE says it has already assembled a digital fleet of more than 1,200 ships, most of which contributed by Anglo-Eastern Shipmanagement. Before winning over Kyklades, its only other known Greek client was Angelakos.
The company, however, is clearly targeting the Greek market. Athens is one of the bases it entertains worldwide. TradeWinds is told that other Hellenic players are close to adopting its platform.
Digitalisation, big data and integrated information management are spreading in Greece’s rather traditional shipping scene. Athens is already home to a small hi-tech cluster providing such services.
"We are excited to begin this project with JiBE,” said Kyklades chief executive Dimitris Patrikios said in a statement. “We strongly believe that the future of ship management is in big data, machine learning and powerful industry-wide networks for risk management”.
