Finnish marine power and technology giant Wartsila is not relaxing its focus on digitalisation following a management shakeup.
Earlier this month, Sean Fernback, the head of its optimisation software business Voyage, left the company and the unit became part of the marine power division.
Wartsila blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine for Voyage’s struggles over the last couple of years.
Roger Holm, president of marine power at Wartsila, told TradeWinds that the turnaround had taken a lot longer than expected due to external reasons.
But he now foresees major benefits from combining marine power and Voyage.
“We are pretty excited on this one,” Holm said. “No one else in the industry can provide the power train like marine power does with engines and propulsion.”
The integration with Voyage will put the group in a “unique position” to offer an end-to-end solution for shipowners including route, port and operational optimisation.
“We have cooperated before, it’s not like it has been two different silos, but we can accelerate this combination,” Holm said. “This is definitely not to be seen, as the digital part is not interesting to us in Wartsila.”
A tough few years
Former Voyage boss Fernback has told TradeWinds that he will remain in the shipping software sector.
He has been replaced by Hannu Mantymaa, 45, previously vice president of performance services in the company’s marine power division.
“The last two or three years has been tough,” Mantymaa told TradeWinds.
He said a lot of good work has been done creating one team out of the five different companies acquired by Wartsila in the digital arena.
Wartsila took a €200m ($203m) hit from ceasing Russian operations earlier this year.
The provisions included €75m of impairments for Voyage, relating to goodwill and intangible assets.
As part of the pullback, the Wartsila Digital Technologies office in St Petersburg was closed.
The group has built new research and development capabilities outside the country to secure the uninterrupted delivery of customer commitments, with some key staff being moved out of Russia.
Mantymaa said the group had not yet been able to unlock the full value in its digital services due to the upheaval.
Talks with shipowners have reinforced his belief that there is a lot of waste in the whole marine ecosystem, relating to waiting times, excess fuel consumption and excess emissions.
But he added that this is what Wartsila can help tackle.
“Bringing all this together, that’s where the value is created for the customer,” Mantymaa said.
