A Sea of Data

In data we trust

As more and more companies are adapting services such as Google and Facebook for their advertising capabilities as well as other functionalities, vast amounts of data are being collected, ideally providing immense value to both companies and customers alike. However, while many are aware of the value of data, it is rarely utilised to even a fraction of its potential and in some cases the data is left completely unused. There are many ways of making sure this doesn’t happen, and in this short article we will look at minimising the hassle by outsourcing your data collection and analysis to professionals.

Data at sea

While it is theoretically possible to manage all your own data, this is only true for the most massive of companies, and is highly impractical. Instead of the tired example of outsourcing your SEM and SEO to consultants and agencies, we will instead be looking at analysing different kinds of threats at sea that the shipping and oil and gas industries have to deal with.

Maritime risk analysis is essential when sending large shipments goods or resources across vast distances at sea. First, it is vital to ensure the safety of the crew, and second the valuable cargo and the vessels used to transport them - but where and how do you begin to collect data that can help you accomplish this? It isn’t just about looking at piracy reports in the sea zones your cargo will be passing through. Considerations have to be taken regarding port security, supply chain threats, political and economical unrest in the territorial waters of nearby regions and even actual maritime piracy - which is far more common than you’d think, and has experienced a rise in 2018 compared to the previous few years.

You could of course put some serious effort into gathering relevant reports and collecting data on all of the aforementioned things, but you would very quickly find yourself running an entirely separate company centered on data collection, parallel to your shipping company. While these two would certainly complement one another, it takes a long time to collect large amounts of relevant data and to build the skills needed to analyse it properly. The prudent thing would instead be to outsource this task to someone who is already specialised in the specific field. Risk Intelligence could in this case be used as an example of a company that could fill this niche, as they deliver comprehensive maritime risk analysis reports, which allows you to plan your shipping routes accordingly.

Determining what is relevant

The unique thing about something like the maritime risk analysis systems and reports offered by Risk Intelligence isn’t merely the amount of data you gain access too, but the fact that the most relevant data points are highlighted. If a company had decided to handle this in-house, they wouldn’t just have to collect mountains of raw data, but analyse it as well, in order to determine what is relevant and what can be safely ignored. For a more mundane example: most companies have access to data regarding their online domains through Google Analytics and a multitude of other tools. This doesn’t mean that every single data is relevant to you, or that a specific business knows what to do with said data.

When outsourcing this to experts in the field, they can guide you by delivering the data most pertinent to your particular case. If you are plotting a course from Nigeria to somewhere in Europe, reports of piracy on the east coast of Africa aren’t going to be of much use to you. With Risk Intelligence, you can even single out the specific ports that you will be interacting with. It is easy to get lost in large quantities of irrelevant information, and therefore more important than ever to have a clear and manageable view of relevant data in order to optimally accomplish a task.

In short, when outsourcing tasks such as these, it’s important to know what to do with the reports you are given. This is best done by both knowing what the specialists doing work for you are delivering and having someone in-house who in turn knows how to turn that data into something profitable - in the case of maritime threat avoidance, keeping crew and cargo safe through risky straits.