Most shipping companies should not build software themselves. The key is choosing when to buy, when to partner, and how to retain internal ownership of outcomes while leveraging external expertise. The organizations succeeding with AI understand what business they are actually in.
Maritime operators face constant pressure to modernize. Vendors promise transformation. Competitors announce digital initiatives. And internal teams, often frustrated by legacy systems, advocate for building new capabilities in-house.
The question of whether to build, buy, or partner is not new. But AI has added urgency and complexity. The technology moves fast. The skills required are scarce. And the gap between what vendors promise and what they deliver remains frustratingly wide.
The most important principle is also the simplest: understand your core business and focus resources there.
"To be fully transparent, we realized that our core business isn't really developing software. That's not our strength. We are good at operating ships in a safe way."
— Nils Israelsson, Head of Operations, Stena Bulk
This is not an admission of weakness. It is a strategic clarity that many organizations lack. Stena Bulk started what became OrbitMI as an internal project. When it grew beyond a certain point, they recognized that continuing to develop it in-house meant diverting resources from their actual expertise. The decision to spin it out as a separate company was not a retreat from technology—it was a recognition that building world-class software requires different capabilities than operating world-class fleets.
"Stick to your own business in principle. Don't try to be a software company if you are in shipping."
— Felix Jan van den Bos, Independent Digital Transformation Consultant
Buying or partnering with technology providers is not without challenges. One of the most common failure modes is misalignment between what the business needs and what technology delivers.
"I think it's really important to have an internal team who can make the translation between the business and that IT company because that is very important—that you understand each other. If you don't understand each other, it's one of those broken dreams where the delivery is not meeting the expectations."
— Felix Jan van den Bos, Independent Digital Transformation Consultant
This translation function—bridging operational reality and technical possibility—is a capability worth building internally. Even when the software comes from outside, the understanding of how it needs to work must come from within.
What has changed in recent years is the nature of the vendor relationship itself. The old model—here is our system, this is what it does, take it or leave it—is giving way to something more collaborative.
"I really like the way the new systems work—that they want to hear about your problem. It's not like, 'okay, this is our system, this is what we do, do you want to pay for our service?' It's not like that anymore. Now it's, 'we want to partner up with you, we want to do this, we want to do that,' which is beneficial for both parties."
— Nils Israelsson, Head of Operations, Stena Bulk
This shift matters because maritime operations are too varied for one-size-fits-all solutions. Effective technology partners adapt to operational context rather than forcing operators to adapt to software limitations.
For problems where established solutions do not exist, working with startups offers another path. The engagement level is different—startups are typically more responsive, more willing to customize, more eager to prove value.
"It's really fun working with startups. You see the engagement that you lack if you work with very big companies. These startups, you really want to have that engagement. It's almost like that engagement you need to have yourself when you work with innovation."
— Nils Israelsson, Head of Operations, Stena Bulk
The tradeoff is risk. Startups may not survive. Their products may not scale. The relationship requires more management attention. But for the right problems, the upside justifies the uncertainty.
One of the most significant changes AI enables is resolving an old tension in enterprise software: customization versus scalability.
"For a software vendor, it was a challenge because we used to do SaaS—one size fits all for everyone—which in maritime never worked, never will. AI is helping us provide more—it's like custom software development with the price of a SaaS software."
— Alexandre Lapointe, Chief Product Officer, OrbitMI
This is a meaningful shift. If AI can enable software that adapts to each operator's specific context while maintaining the economics of a shared platform, the build-versus-buy calculus changes. Partners become more attractive because they can deliver tailored solutions without bespoke costs.
This series is based on a webinar from Digital Ship. Watch the video here