A captain’s day doesn’t end when the vessel docks. They often stay late to document the day’s work, relying on the tools they trust: usually a logbook and a pencil. Why the manual process? It's not always stubbornness. It’s the system they've been given.
If technology prioritizes corporate structure over practical use in the field, it will be ignored. It’s time for modern tools built for the people who keep the business moving. They need tools that respect their time, their expertise, and the realities of working on the water.
Modernizing how information is captured offshore (billing a customer, running payroll, or tracking project costs) can help the business scale, reduce overhead, and prevent revenue leakage. When done right, it's a win for everyone.
Here are a few ways to help field teams embrace a digital ticketing system:
Don’t throw a complicated enterprise system at someone who's been jotting notes in a logbook for 20 years. Choose a digital ticketing platform with an intuitive mobile interface that mimics how they already work. Focus on clean screens, noticeable buttons, and the ability to work offline.
A great example of this is a recent software selection. The entire project involved input from accounting, operations, and leadership, but a core requirement was ensuring the final product for the field was incredibly simple. We prioritized a vendor who could provide a user experience that felt familiar to the captain’s—because if they wouldn't use it, the whole effort would be a waste.
Operations leadership plays a critical role in how work actually gets done in the field. Bring them in early to help shape how the system is configured, define what “good” ticket data looks like, and ensure expectations are aligned from the top down.
We saw this firsthand when a new system was being designed. The Accounting and Payroll teams’ requirements were at odds with how Operations wanted to capture data. By bringing a customer-facing operations leader into the process early, he was able to act as a bridge between the departments. When leadership champions the system, the captains will follow.
Captains aren’t motivated by accounting efficiency or dashboard metrics. But they do care about fewer back-and-forth calls, less paperwork at the end of a 14-hour shift, and not getting blamed for payroll errors. Frame the benefits of digital ticketing around their pain points, not just the back office.
At a recent client, we demoed a system with drop-downs that limit selections to only what is applicable to the job. No clutter, no confusing options. Just the relevant information needed to complete the ticket. This small feature eliminated common errors, which meant fewer calls and less paperwork at the end of the day. What seemed like a small technical detail turned out to be a major win for both the field and the back office.
Captains have a demanding job. A digital ticketing system isn’t about making their job harder. It’s about making the entire operation run more efficiently. Change always comes with an adjustment period, but when a digital ticketing system is implemented thoughtfully, it's one less thing they need to worry about at sea. The long-term gains are worth it.
At Trenegy, we help maritime service companies establish processes and systems that streamline operations, reduce manual work, and ensure field activity translates into accurate, timely business results. To chat more about this, reach out to us at info@trenegy.com.
Trenegy is a non-traditional consulting firm based in Houston, Texas.