New Product Release

Osiris Consultants Ltd. are pleased to announce their latest product release as part of their Laytime Suite.
DEMeXchange is the quickest way to convert a Statement of Facts (SOF) to an invoiced demurrage claim. By being able to import and transform the SOF from SOFeXchange the demurrage Analyst can avoid all the tedious copy-typing that takes place today. Instead, they can focus on the task in hand, namely
optimising the demurrage (or despatch) claim. It works for all water-borne trades.

The most Advanced Statement of Facts exchange

Our Full-Package features

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see how SOFeXchange
can improve your demurrage claims

A completely Digital Statement of Fact

WORKFLOW OPTIMISATION MADE EASY

digital Statement of facts

Statements of Facts have traditionally been delivered from Agents, Masters, or Inspectors in a variety of formats. These differ from port-to-port and vessel-to-vessel with little or no consistency. Transcribing these into a Voyage Management System (VMS) or a Laytime Calculator has long been a troublesome process, fraught with typographical errors. This results in slow processing, delays in collecting demurrage and calculation errors. SOFeXchange changes this. One single place to enter events, in real time. Intelligent processing of events assists in speed and ease of entry. A shared resource between all parties. A common location to upload Letters of Protest.

SMART Laytime Events®

SOFeXchange uses Smart Laytime Events® in order to assist the user to add laytime events easily and in a logical order. We have built this function into SOFeXchange to make selecting certain events easier for Masters, Agents and Inspectors. For example, if the Master has added the event ARRIVAL AT ANCHORAGE, the Smart Laytime Event recognises that at some point the event ANCHOR DOWN and ANCHOR UP will be added to the SOF and it automatically adds this prompt. All the master has to do is click Complete when this event takes place, and a time stamp is added to the event.

Data Collection

As the Master enters port events with time stamps, we can build up a picture of what happens at particular ports/berths. This data can be used to make commercial decisions as times spent at port differ considerably depending on many different factors.

Digital Signatures

Once the SOF has been completed and agreed with Masters, Agents and Inspectors, and Smart Demurrage Documents have been added, the last stage before Start Of Sea Passage is the signing of the SOF. When signing the documents, we provide a Cryptographic Digital Signature to add a level of security and validation to the documents.

Smart Demurrage Documents

Just like the traditional SOF, we allow parties to add a Letter of Protest when necessary. We also include the ability to add further documents that may need to be attached to the SOF, such as Draft Surveys.

Period Events

As well as the chronological Statement of Facts, we can also convert the events down into a laytime statement so that the Charterer and Demurrage teams can see exactly where time has been used by period. SOFeXchange records all time as local time and with its use of AI technology we automatically adjust time when the vessel is in port and Daylight Saving takes place - for example when BST takes affect - which may result in the loss or gaining of time in a day.

Real Time data recording

As SOFeXchange is an internet-based application, data can be accessed by everyone involved in a particular voyage. Hence Traders, Charterers and Vessel Owners can see in real time what cargo activities are currently taking place. We also allow users to set up a custom alert system for events that may be of interest to the parties involved, such as a Cargo Stop Due to Shore Breakdown. Giving people notifications of an interruption of port activities in real time, provides Charters and Vessel Owners an opportunity to resolve issues as they happen.

seamless integration

Currently SOFeXchange has integrated with Stratumfive and HubSE, so that our Statement of Facts can be easily be exported for use in their individual systems. With the use of API’s we make integration to our product a simple and seamless process thus limiting the barrier to adoption.

About SOFeXchange

01.

Problems with traditional statements of facts

Statements of Facts have traditionally been delivered from Agents, Masters and Inspectors in a wide variety of formats. These differ from port-to-port and vessel-to-vessel with little or no consistency. Transcribing these into a Voyage Management System(VMS) or a Laytime Calculator has long been a troublesome process fraught with typographical errors. This results in slow processing, delays in collecting demurrage and calculation errors. SOFeXchange changes this. It provides one single place to enter events in real time. All parties who enter the events can see them in real time. Intelligent processing of events assists in improving both the speed and ease of entry. SOFeXchange is a resource shared between all parties.

02.

Whos involved

The users of the SOF – the Owner, Charterer and Trading Partners – can all see the SOF as it is created. This means that demurrage processing can commence as soon as the SOF is signed. It is not necessary to wait until the SOF is sent to you by a hub agency, or until you receive the SOF as part of a claim. This means that accurate demurrage costs can be included in trading Profit and Loss accounts, rather than estimates. The SOF can be downloaded in any format that suits the business needs. SOFeXchange will do any conversion in format or event coding for you. SOFeXchange will provide the data either as a list of events, or as a laytime sheet. SOFeXchange can also add weekend periods into the laytime sheet, in any one of 37 different SHEX definitions.

03.

Integrations so far

SOFeXchange is fully integrated with CMS from HUBSE, meaning that users of CMS can directly import the Statement of Facts with no additional steps necessary. SOFeXchange has a full Application Programming Interface (API). This allows customers to create the voyage set-up direct from the Voyage Management System (VMS). The events can be pulled from SOFeXchange or SOFeXchange can push these to your application. Osiris Consultants will assist in integration work and can add client specific RESTful API calls.

04.

Free for users

For people who fill out and supply the SOF, such as Masters, Agents, Inspectors, and Surveyors usage of SOFeXchange is totally free. There is no requirement to sign up to the application. There is no software to download. You will be invited via email to port calls by the Owner or Charterer. It will run on any standard web browser, on a desktop, mobile phone or tablet. Custom application for iPhones, iPad and Android devices are in product plans.

05.

Consumers of statements of facts

The consumers are people who make use of the Statement of Facts to compute or verify demurrage claims. There is a single fee for using the SOF at each port, but you can download the SOF in as many formats as many times as you choose.

Cost Saving

SOFs have traditionally been rounded to the nearest 6 minutes. There is no reason for this other than the fact that it is industry practice. SOFeXchange encourages accurate recording of event times. Even with a low demurrage rate of, say, $10,000 PDPR, a saving of anything over 7 minutes per port call will result in a pay back. For larger vessels, where port stays are much longer, the potential savings are substantially higher.

Real Time Data

Having the completed SOF available via SOFeXchange, immediately the port call completes, allows the demurrage team to complete a claim without the delay that they experience today. This results in trading PnL’s being accurate, instead of relying on estimated demurrage data. That improves management reporting of trading positions.

Improved Cash Flow

The timely availability of the SOF allows for invoicing to happen faster than at present. This means the estimated returns can be actualised and the counter party becomes a trade debtor far sooner. Being able to collect the money earlier results in an improved cash flow position.

"The addition of SOFeXchange to Podium meets a number of our objectives with respect to solving real day to day practical problems with innovative solutions whilst generating valuable data for longer term benefit.”

Ross Martin - StratumFive COO