ABS launches digital start-up with eyes on shipping’s decarbonisation challenge

The American Bureau of Shipping has struck a new course in the fast-growing maritime digital technology space by launching a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company to bring its products to more customers as shipping gears up to face a carbon compliance challenge.

ABS Wavesight is built on the Houston-based classification society’s Digital Solutions division, which had already brought together two flagship digital products that are installed on 5,000 vessels around the world.

The new outfit has become a separate SaaS company but remains affiliated with the 160-year-old ABS.

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But ABS Wavesight chief executive Paul Sells, a technology veteran who joined ABS in January, told TradeWinds that as a stand-alone company, the firm can augment the professional services of a classification society by providing a product-focused set of offerings.

He said the company is being launched in a digital shipping technology space that is still an emerging market in its early stages, with many smaller players providing individual solutions for specific needs.

“And eventually, as we are beginning to see, you’ll see more and more consolidation, and you’ll see more and more large players rise and offer a broad package of solutions,” he said.

In that environment, the executive said ABS Wavesight can leverage deep maritime experience and apply a product lens to provide solutions.

Also, key to its strategy is forging partnerships.

Seeking partners

“That’s not for consolidation purposes. That’s because we have tremendous access to a lot of really interesting technology companies that can complement our solutions as well and benefit our customers,” Sells said.

In addition to the long-standing Nautical Systems fleet management platform, ABS Wavesight’s portfolio starts off with My Digital Fleet as a key product.

The artificial intelligence-driven analytics and performance visualisation platform is especially relevant now, as it also has tools for compliance with the International Maritime Organization’s Carbon Intensity Indicator at a time when shipowners are gearing up to start gathering data for the new rule.

The platform includes voyage optimisation to help ship operators make routing decisions to reduce fuel use and emissions, as well as vessel performance optimisation.

Major Greek names Capital Ship Management and Diana Shipping are high-profile users of the My Digital Fleet platform to drive sustainability in their fleets.

“ABS Wavesight stands well above other maritime software companies by uniting the expansive offerings of Nautical Systems and the innovative performance and compliance tools of My Digital Fleet into one powerful new SaaS business,” ABS chief executive Christopher Wiernicki said.

Return to roots

When Sells joined ABS, he saw it as a return to his maritime roots.

The self-described technologist started out in the US Navy before embarking on a career in engineering that included stints in shipbuilding at Northrop Grumman and Newport News Shipbuilding.

Work on the warship USS Gerald R Ford, the first aircraft carrier to be designed entirely with 3D modelling, led to a focus on advanced visualisation technology.

Sells spent a decade of his career bringing augmented reality to industry. His most recent post was as vice president of customer experience at California technology firm Mira.

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He told TradeWinds that he was also drawn to the ABS job because of the decarbonisation challenge.

“It combined three things that I care a lot about: technology, maritime industry and an ability to have an impact on the world to create tools that we could use in achieving those greenhouse gas emission reduction goals,” he said.

And he believes there are few industries in which technologists such as coders, product managers and designers can make as much of an impact on GHG emissions as they can in shipping.

But, Sells noted, the maritime industry has a way of staying invisible, so people in the business tend to remain in shipping, whereas in the broader technology industry, there is more experience with other industries.

“As I like to say to our team, some of the most fertile fields for innovation are in the space between disciplines,” he said.

“And so, by bringing expertise from a broad representation of industries and applying technologies to those industries, and bringing in the 160-plus years of maritime experience from ABS, we have something really powerful.”