Technology Investments Need to be Contractual and Ongoing to Remain Productive

During the second session of TLME’s Future-Proof Technologies Conference held recently in Dubai, conference moderator Lars Jensen asked the panellists about the rapid advances and “leap frogs” in technologies like AI and how would these advances - and the resulting redundancies - affect their investments in cutting-edge technologies in the near future?

Dr. Yvo Saanen, Director of Portwise, said generally speaking the shipping and ports industry was very conservative in adapting to new technologies. And this was not because they were waiting for a better technology.

Instead, it was a “mix of things”, he said. Sometimes there was no business value and it was technology for technology’s sake, “maybe nice for geeks”.

Another issue was that a lot of technology was being sold as a “one time sale” and Dr. Saanen did not believe in that. Technology providers and vendors needed to enter into service contracts with their customers to keep the technology at the port or terminal up to date.

Therefore, customers needed to see their technology purchases not simply as a one-time transaction but as an ongoing service contract that can protect their equipment from rapid technological obsolescence, Dr. Saanen concluded.

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