Any buyer you talk to will tell you the same thing: "My ERP just doesn’t cut it." And they're right. But the problem isn't what most people think it is. It's not poor implementation or inadequate training - it's that we're using the wrong tools entirely for maritime procurement.
After years of working with shipping companies across the globe, I've seen the same frustration everywhere: procurement professionals reduced to glorified administrators, clicking buttons and routing requests without adding any real value.
Most of the time, buyers use multiple systems, one for finance, one for procurement, one for supply management. It's a fragmented mess that forces manual coordination at every single step.
AI procurement orchestration. See it in action.
Saurish Nandi will be demonstrating Marcura’s AI procurement capabilities at IMPA London
Why maritime breaks every ERP assumption
ERP systems operate on beautifully linear assumptions: RFQ leads to PO, which leads to invoice, which leads to payment. Neat, sequential, predictable. These systems were designed for businesses with fixed locations, stable suppliers, and consistent processes.
Maritime doesn't work like that. At all.
Vessels constantly change location and operational status. We need dynamic supplier selection based on port availability and vessel schedules. Regulatory compliance varies by jurisdiction and flag state. Multiple parallel processes require real-time coordination.
When I see a procurement professional spending their days selecting suppliers, they're forced to make decisions based on memory and gut feeling because their systems can't handle maritime's complexity.
They're not evaluating contract compliance, comparing supplier performance data, or leveraging market intelligence about new suppliers. Instead of strategic sourcing decisions that could save money and reduce risk, they're just routing transactions based on what they remember worked last time. Maybe.
Even the most experienced professionals are often sending RFQs to the wrong suppliers because their knowledge is limited by personal experience rather than comprehensive data analysis. The systems force them into gut-instinct decisions, and those gut instincts can be wrong.
Why the obvious fixes don't work
You might think the answer is better ERP implementation, more training, or sophisticated procurement software. But these traditional approaches miss the fundamental issue: they still try to force maritime's non-linear complexity into linear systems.
Even with better systems, you're still coordinating between disconnected platforms. Even with more training, professionals are still making gut-instinct decisions with incomplete information.
There's also what I call the control paradox: the more control we have, the more trust we need to develop. When something goes wrong, procurement leaders need clear accountability. As one executive put it to me: "Whose neck is on the line when it goes wrong? You can’t hold AI accountable."
This is why so many AI procurement initiatives fail. They promise automation without building the systematic intelligence and trust infrastructure necessary for adoption.
The orchestration layer your ERP is missing
At ShipServ, we've taken a completely different approach. Instead of asking companies to rip and replace their systems, we work as an orchestration layer on top of existing infrastructure.
We come in as a layer on top of all the systems, and then we integrate, taking data feeds from each system and then orchestrating your workflow on our platform.
Here's where AI changes everything: because we have so much data running through our platform - historical transactions, supplier performance, contract terms, and market conditions - we can build what I call augmented procurement.
Instead of relying on one individual’s 25-year memory, AI analyses patterns from thousands of transactions to understand which suppliers actually perform well for different vessel types, routes, and operational conditions.
When an RFQ comes in, the system automatically routes it based on a systematic hierarchy: contracted suppliers first, then preferred suppliers, then historical relationships, then approved vendors, and finally marketplace recommendations.
This transforms basic transaction facilitation into intelligent coordination that adds insight to every decision.
It also ensures that when that 25-year procurement veteran in your team decides to retire, the institutional knowledge built up over that time doesn’t walk out of the building with them.
Building trust through transparency
The key to successful AI adoption is maintaining human oversight. We always keep humans in the loop. AI recommends, humans approve initially. The system learns from corrections and feedback, gradually building confidence.
We're currently running a pilot with a large ship management company where they've essentially outsourced their entire sourcing process to us. Our orchestration layer handles the workflow based on historical intelligence and performance data, but there's always human governance ensuring quality and handling exceptions.
Users can see exactly why specific suppliers were selected, what historical data influenced the decision, and what alternatives were considered. This creates the audit trail and decision transparency that procurement leaders need.
The strategic transformation
What gets me excited is how orchestration transforms the role of procurement professionals. Instead of spending their time coordinating between systems and managing manual processes, they can focus on strategic supplier relationship building, complex negotiations, and market intelligence gathering. The role evolves from system coordinator to strategic partner.
Companies implementing AI orchestration gain several competitive advantages: faster procurement cycles measured in hours rather than weeks, systematic intelligence that replaces unreliable individual knowledge, and strategic focus on relationship building rather than transaction processing.
Lead or follow?
Our vision for maritime procurement is complete workflow orchestration where systems communicate intelligently, making coordinated decisions based on historical patterns, real-time conditions, and strategic objectives. Procurement teams manage hybrid workflows of human expertise and AI intelligence, focusing on the strategic relationships and complex decisions that truly drive value.
This isn't about eliminating jobs, it's about eliminating the manual coordination that prevents procurement professionals from adding strategic value.
Orchestration isn't just a better way to handle transactions. It's the foundation for a completely different way of thinking about procurement's strategic role in maritime operations, one where systematic intelligence, not individual memory, drives every decision.
The companies that embrace AI orchestration now will gain sustainable advantages in efficiency, systematic intelligence, and strategic capability. The technology is ready. The business case is clear. The question is simply whether your company will lead or follow.
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