As one of the busiest ports in the world, it’s not surprising that
Captain Mike Meade chose Singapore as the headquarters for his company,
M3 Marine Group. Meade worked as a ship’s captain before trading in his
sea legs for senior management positions in the corporate world.
However, his experience dealing with major oil companies and offshore
marine engineering service providers is just one reason for M3 Marine’s
success.
“Our brokers are veterans in the industry who use their experience to
broker deals that build lasting customer relationships,” says Meade. “On
the consultancy side, we are well-known for our expertise in designing
computer-controlled ship positioning systems and the relevant
documentation, especially FMEAs [failure mode effects analysis].
Defining a Vision for Growth
Today, Meade envisions M3 Marine as a global company. “I want to broaden
our base, first by opening an office in Australia and then expanding to
the Middle East,” he says. “We will populate those offices over time,
always with a focus on delivering best-in-class service and gaining
repeat business.”
To achieve this goal, Meade needed to reevaluate the technology his
staff uses every day. “I looked for productivity tools that would
amplify the core competencies of the brokerage and consultancy sides of
the business,” he says. “We need communication and collaboration tools
that work on any device across any time zone so that we can function as
productive, virtual teams. That means we need easy access to corporate
data and customer information, no matter where we are in the world.”
Choosing Microsoft Office 365
Meade knew that cloud-based IT services would be the most cost-effective
computing platform for his company. “We tried Google, but we didn’t
like the interface and it didn’t do what we wanted; we tried a ship
broker’s proprietary database and messaging service, but it didn’t
perform to contract,” he recalls. “Then, in 2012, I went to a luncheon
hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce Small Business Group. I met
our
IT provider, and I learned about
Microsoft Office 365. Things at M3 Marine haven’t been the same since.”
Business Tools that Just Work
M3 Marine worked with
IT provider to migrate to
Office 365
and the seamless transition for all 30 employees was the first
indication that the new cloud-based business communication and
collaboration tools lived up to Meade’s expectations. Today, all M3
Marine employees are using the same up-to-date Microsoft Office programs
as part of the cloud-based suite of services.
“Each of us can deploy
Office 365 ProPlus
on up to five computers and devices, saving me licensing costs,” says
Meade. “And with Office Web Apps, we will be able to work with Outlook,
PowerPoint, Word, and Excel programs on the go, using any browser.”
Meade begins his day by checking
email
on his PC at home. On his way to work, he stops for coffee and logs on
to the corporate network using his laptop. Then, he’ll use a PC at the
office during a meeting. Later, he’ll take his laptop to talk to a
consultant about a report. “It’s that seamless transfer from one
location and one device to another and knowing that I’ll always have
access to up-to-date information that’s made me productive, no matter
where I go,” he says.
Reliable Email, Better Customer Service
Today, brokers are negotiating better deals in chartering, ship
building, and sales and purchases. They are also building better
customer relationships. That’s because with
Office 365, brokers gain reliable, ubiquitous access to
email, contacts, and shared calendars. Now they can search
archived emails to benchmark indexes so that they can provide better advice to customers about market trends.
Weekly downtime due to someone’s overflowing archived
emails that blocked the network is a thing of the past. “If staff can’t work because
email is
down for two hours, that’s a massive cost to me; almost as much as my
annual IT burden,” says Meade. “So maintaining that reliability and
productivity—with
Office 365 we haven’t had a moment of downtime—is key to growing my business and saving money.”
Effective Virtual Teams
M3 Marine consultants provide a range of technical and commercial
consultancy in the oil and gas space along with concept design of
computer-controlled ship positioning systems called Dynamic Positioning.
The team can deliver their reports quicker thanks to improved virtual
teamwork using
Office 365 sophisticated
document versioning capabilities and cloud-based document storage. In
this data-centric business, these reports are a key deliverable that M3
Marine customers rely on for FMEA of their computer-based ship dynamic
positioning systems.
“Four or five consultants can contribute to a single 1,000-page marine
report, including drawings, schematics, and charts,” says Meade. “Using
team sites in
SharePoint Online will streamline
virtual teamwork and document collaboration to more quickly deliver the massive reports that they develop for our customers.”
Business Platform for Growth
With
Office 365,
it’s easy to simplify the process of hiring new employees. When Meade
hired a new general manager for the brokerage business, all it took was a
few minutes to furnish him with a laptop and an
Office 365
account. Today, everyone at M3 Marine is well equipped to help Meade
achieve his vision of expanding from one of Asia’s largest independent
ship broking and marine consultancy houses to a global operation.
“I’m using Office 365 to build a global network that supports real-time
collaboration through web conferences, instant messaging, desktop
sharing, emails, and calendaring, and breaks down the barriers of time
and space to boost productivity and customer service,” concludes Meade.
Singapore
Originally published on http://arbirage.blogspot.my/2015/10/m3-marine-group-marine-consultancy.html
