What is a maritime ERP?
A maritime ERP (enterprise resource planning system for shipping) is one software platform that runs the operational and administrative work of a ship manager or owner: technical maintenance, compliance and safety, crewing, purchasing and reporting. Instead of a separate tool for each department, ship and shore teams work on one shared record.
The term overlaps with ship management software and fleet management software. In practice, people use “maritime ERP” when they mean a suite that covers most departments, and “ship management software” for any system that helps manage vessels. A planned maintenance system or a crewing tool on its own is usually called a point solution.
What a maritime ERP usually covers
- Technical: planned maintenance (PMS), defects and breakdowns, dry docks and surveys.
- Compliance and safety: certificates and surveys, HSSEQ incidents and corrective actions, permits to work, risk assessments, inspections and audits, controlled documents.
- Crew and manning: crew records and assignments, recruitment and placement (RPSL), MLC rest hours.
- Purchasing: requisitions, quotations, purchase orders and inventory on board.
- Operations and reporting: noon and voyage reports, fleet dashboards and management KPIs.
Some suites also include accounting, chartering or commercial operations. Others connect to a separate finance system.
Maritime ERP vs separate tools
Separate tools can each be good at one job, but the gaps between them are where records go missing: a defect that needs a spare, a certificate that depends on a survey, a seafarer whose rest hours sit in a different system from their contract. A single platform means data is entered once and every department sees the same version.
The trade-off is scope. A large suite can take longer to roll out, which is why many fleets start with one or two modules, such as PMS and certificates, and add the rest department by department.
What matters most at sea
- Offline operation: ships lose connectivity. Crews must be able to keep working and sync later without conflicts.
- Ship-to-shore approval: records drafted on board, reviewed and approved ashore, with a history that can be shown to inspectors.
- Built around the conventions: SOLAS, MARPOL, STCW, MLC 2006 and the ISM Code shape what has to be recorded.
- Role-based access: the Master, Chief Engineer, superintendent and management each see what their role needs.
- Usable on board: screens that crews learn quickly, on desktop and mobile.
How to choose a maritime ERP
- List the departments and pain points you want to solve first, and check those modules in a live demo with your own kind of vessel.
- Ask how offline sync works and what happens when two people edit the same record.
- Check how records move between modules, for example from a PMS job to a requisition.
- Ask whether you can start with a few modules or a pilot fleet and expand later.
- Understand the pricing model: per vessel, per module, per user, or a fleet quote.
- Ask for references from fleets of a similar size and type.
Where MarinaVex fits
MarinaVex is a maritime ERP and ship management software from SaiDam Techsoft Solutions with 20 modules in five suites: compliance and safety, marine operations, marine and technical, crew and manning, and reporting and communication. It works offline on board, records move from draft to office approval with their history, and Vex, the built-in AI assistant, answers questions from your fleet records. Fleets can start with one module and get a quote shaped to their scope.