Discover what ION can do for you
About Softmar
Simplify the full chartering, operations, and risk management needs of your shipping organization. Employ a comprehensive voyage estimator to optimize vessel and cargo planning. Make informed and proactive decisions to streamline day-to-day operations and protect profitability.
Why Softmar
In today’s volatile marketplace, complete transparency and fast access to information is the difference between sailing and sinking. With 90 percent of the world’s traded goods transported by sea, the ability for ship owners, operators, and charterers to control the cost and risk of transporting freight is key to profit optimization. Softmar empowers insightful decision making and automates back-office processes to reduce your operational costs and increase your profitability.
Improve chartering decisions
Increase operator productivity
Track your vessels
Streamline business processes
Manage enterprise risk
Gain operational transparency
Key features
Simplify ocean transportation
Manage straight-through commercial shipping activities for basic to complex bulk commodities.
Maintain full control of vessel operations throughout the entire voyage.
Manage hire and freight payments, invoicing, laytime calculations, and port disbursements in one comprehensive platform.
Take advantage of leading voyage estimation
Quickly assess bulk freight opportunities on a single screen for improved decision making.
Gain iron clad control of your commercial vessel operations.
Locate your vessels at any time with an advanced vessel tracking management system.
Translate risks into opportunities
Analyze positions of vessels, Freight Forward Agreements (FFAs), Contract of Affreightments (COAs), cargo bookings, cargo relets, and options.
Maintain a clear view of your physical and derivative positions’ exposure and mark-to-market valuation.
Gain full control of your freight risk position.
Enhance your solution with optional value-added modules
Unlike other shipping management solutions, Softmar is designed for shipping owners, operators, charterers, and commodity traders. Softmar’s modular structure allows the solution to be tailored to fit your business’ unique requirements. With integration to any of ION’s commodity trading and risk management (CTRM) solutions, Softmar eliminates the need for manually exchanging requirements and execution information between the trading and shipping departments.
Chartering manager
Quickly assess freight opportunities and quote freight accurately with Softmar’s comprehensive Voyage Estimator. Calculate voyage duration, voyage results, Time Charter Equivalent (TCE), and Arrival Pilot Station (APS) when you need to on a web-based platform.
Vessel management
Maintain technical and commercial vessel descriptions and catalog physical details including speed, bunker, and consumption. Track vessel commercial details like dates of purchases and sales.
Voyage management
Perform post-fixture actions in a real-time environment where any change of data will automatically adjust the current voyage, following voyages, and next open position or redelivery of the vessel.
ION CTRM solution integration
Integrate Softmar with any ION CTRM solution to manage straight-through commercial shipping activities. Cargo transport requirements will flow seamlessly into Softmar, with cost and other information flowing back to the ION CTRM solution.
ION Cloud
Lower your total cost of ownership and modernize your technology to optimize your operations and empower your business. Secure your data with ION’s multi-layered, trusted security stack.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do shippers need a commercial chartering and vessel operations solution?
A complete vessel operations solution like Softmar enables the commercial maritime community to make more informed and proactive decisions, streamline day-to-day operations, and protect profits by providing fast access to actionable information.
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