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15 min read
Alex
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Jan 30, 2026
For CFOs and operations managers at dry bulk shipping companies, selecting the right software infrastructure represents one of the most consequential decisions you'll make. The wrong choice locks your organization into years of inefficiency, high customization costs, and operational frustration. The right choice becomes the foundation for streamlined operations, accurate financial reporting, and strategic decision-making that drives competitive advantage.
The fundamental question facing shipping companies with 5-50 vessels isn't simply "Do we need software?"—it's "Which type of software matches our industry's unique complexity?" This decision typically comes down to two paths: implementing a generic enterprise resource planning system from providers like SAP or Oracle, or adopting maritime-specific ERP solutions purpose-built for shipping operations.
Understanding the critical differences between these approaches helps you make an informed decision that serves your company's needs not just for the initial implementation, but for the decade or more you'll live with that choice.
Before diving into detailed comparisons, it's essential to understand what fundamentally distinguishes maritime ERP from traditional accounting or generic ERP systems.
Generic ERP systems like SAP, Oracle, or Microsoft Dynamics were designed to serve broad business functions across diverse industries. They excel at managing standard business processes: general ledger accounting, accounts payable and receivable, financial reporting, human resources, and procurement.
These systems operate on a premise of repeatability and standardization. A manufacturing company produces the same product repeatedly. A retail business processes similar transactions daily. These workflows lend themselves to standardized software that can serve many industries with minimal customization.
Traditional accounting software focuses even more narrowly on financial management—tracking revenue and expenses, managing the general ledger, processing payments, and generating financial reports. Tools like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage provide solid financial management for businesses with relatively straightforward financial operations.
Maritime ERP systems like Veson's IMOS platform, Shipnet, or Marlo were designed from the ground up specifically for shipping operations. They understand that shipping companies don't manufacture widgets or process simple transactions—they manage complex voyages with unique economics, regulatory requirements, and operational characteristics that differ fundamentally from other industries.
Maritime ERP recognizes that a dry bulk operator's core business unit isn't a product or customer—it's a voyage. Each voyage has its own revenue structure, cost profile, timing, and performance metrics. Maritime ERP organizes all operations, accounting, and reporting around this fundamental unit of business.
The distinction matters profoundly because shipping operations don't fit standard business process templates. Attempting to force maritime complexity into generic systems creates the software equivalent of wearing shoes three sizes too small—technically possible but painful and limiting.
The most visible difference between maritime-specific and generic ERP lies in feature coverage. What capabilities does each system provide out of the box, and what requires extensive customization?
SAP, Oracle, and similar enterprise systems deliver robust capabilities in core business functions:
Financial Management: Comprehensive general ledger, multi-currency accounting, consolidation across entities, advanced financial reporting, and integration with financial institutions. These systems excel at financial controls, audit trails, and compliance with accounting standards.
Human Resources: Complete employee lifecycle management including recruitment, onboarding, time tracking, benefits administration, payroll processing, and performance management. For shipping companies with shore-based staff, these HR modules work well.
Procurement: Sophisticated purchase order management, supplier relationship management, contract management, and spend analytics. The procurement modules handle complex approval workflows and integration with supplier networks.
Project Management: Tools for planning, scheduling, resource allocation, and cost tracking across multiple projects. While useful for certain shipping scenarios like newbuild projects, these aren't optimized for voyage operations.
Business Intelligence: Powerful reporting and analytics capabilities with customizable dashboards, data warehousing, and integration with BI tools. Generic ERPs can analyze virtually any data you feed them—but only after you've structured that data correctly.
Purpose-built maritime ERP systems provide comprehensive functionality specifically designed for shipping operations:
Voyage Management: Complete voyage lifecycle management from pre-fixture estimation through post-voyage analysis. Maritime ERPs understand voyage economics including freight calculations, commission structures, laytime accounting, and demurrage/despatch. They handle the complexity of voyage charterparties, bills of lading, and shipping-specific documentation naturally.
Fleet Operations: Vessel performance tracking, bunker consumption monitoring, position reporting, and technical management. Maritime systems integrate operational data with commercial and financial information in ways that make sense for shipping businesses.
Chartering: Built-in chartering workflows including fixture management, cargo tracking, freight calculation, and charter party administration. These systems understand different charter types (voyage, time charter, COA) and handle the specific accounting and operational implications of each.
Compliance: Purpose-built modules for maritime regulations including EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime, CII ratings, and emissions reporting. Maritime ERPs track regulatory obligations at the voyage level and automate compliance calculations based on operational data.
Port Cost Management: Specialized handling of port disbursements, agent invoices, and the unique challenges of managing costs across hundreds of global ports with different currencies, accounting practices, and disbursement structures.
Bunker Management: Sophisticated bunker procurement, consumption tracking, and cost allocation at the voyage level. Maritime ERPs understand the relationship between bunker costs, vessel performance, and voyage profitability in ways generic systems never will.
Laytime Calculation: Automated laytime tracking with built-in understanding of charter party terms, laytime exceptions, demurrage rates, and despatch calculations. This specialized functionality alone justifies maritime-specific systems for many operators.
| Feature Category | Generic ERP (SAP/Oracle) | Maritime ERP (Veson/Marlo/Shipnet) |
|---|---|---|
| Core Financial Accounting | Excellent - comprehensive GL, AP/AR, multi-currency | Strong - shipping-focused accounting with voyage P&L |
| Voyage P&L Calculation | Requires major customization | Native - automatic voyage-level P&L tracking |
| Laytime/Demurrage Management | Not included - would need custom build | Built-in with charter party term understanding |
| Bunker Management | Basic procurement only | Comprehensive - consumption tracking, performance analysis |
| Port Cost Accounting | Generic vendor invoice processing | Specialized - port disbursement workflow, agent integration |
| Fleet Performance Tracking | Requires extensive customization | Native - vessel performance, consumption, positioning |
| Charter Party Management | Document storage only | Full lifecycle - terms, calculations, compliance |
| Maritime Compliance (EU ETS, FuelEU) | Not included | Built-in - automated calculations and reporting |
| Commission Calculations | Would need custom formulas | Native - address commission, brokerage, standard rates |
| Freight Rate Management | Requires customization | Native - market rates, fixtures, route optimization |
| General Procurement | Excellent - comprehensive P2P | Good - adequate for shore procurement |
| HR/Payroll (Shore Staff) | Excellent - full HRMS capabilities | Adequate - basic HR, focus on shore staff |
| Business Intelligence | Excellent - powerful BI tools | Good - maritime-focused analytics and dashboards |
| Multi-entity Consolidation | Excellent - complex corporate structures | Good - adequate for typical shipping structures |
The feature comparison reveals a pattern: generic ERPs excel at standard business processes while maritime ERPs excel at shipping-specific functions. This isn't merely a matter of having "different features"—it reflects fundamental differences in how each system understands your business.
Generic ERP systems weren't designed to handle the unique characteristics of maritime operations:
Voyage-Based Business Model: Standard ERPs think in terms of products, services, customers, and orders. They don't have a native concept of a "voyage" as a business transaction with its own revenue, costs, timeline, and performance metrics. Trying to represent voyages in SAP requires complex customization using project accounting or service order modules—workarounds that feel awkward and limit functionality.
Complex Cost Allocation: Shipping requires sophisticated cost allocation methodologies that change based on charter type, cargo characteristics, and operational circumstances. A single bunker delivery might need allocation across multiple voyages, time charter periods, and off-hire periods. Generic ERPs can theoretically handle this, but only through extensive custom coding that becomes a maintenance nightmare.
Specialized Accounting Rules: Maritime accounting follows unique principles that differ from standard business accounting. Voyage results need recognition using percentage-of-completion or voyage-completed methods. Work-in-progress calculations for incomplete voyages follow shipping-specific logic. Generic ERPs require significant customization to handle these principles correctly.
Regulatory Complexity: Maritime regulations like EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime, and CII ratings require continuous monitoring and calculations based on operational data. Generic ERPs have no concept of carbon intensity, voyage emissions, or regulatory penalties. Building this functionality from scratch requires substantial development effort and ongoing maintenance as regulations evolve.
Documentation Requirements: Shipping operations generate specialized documentation including voyage estimates, fixture notes, laytime statements, and bunker delivery receipts. Generic ERPs treat these as unstructured attachments rather than integral parts of the business process with structured data and workflow implications.
Maritime-specific systems were built by people who understand shipping and designed for the industry's unique requirements:
Native Voyage Concepts: Maritime ERPs organize all data around voyages as the fundamental business unit. Creating a new voyage automatically sets up the correct accounting structure, operational tracking, and reporting relationships without custom configuration.
Shipping-Specific Business Logic: Calculations for freight, commissions, laytime, and bunker costs follow shipping industry standards automatically. The system understands that address commission applies to freight and demurrage, that despatch is typically half of demurrage, and that certain charter party clauses affect laytime calculations in specific ways.
Integrated Operations and Finance: Maritime ERPs seamlessly connect operational events (vessel departure, cargo loading, bunker delivery) with financial implications (revenue recognition, cost posting, invoice generation). This integration happens naturally because the system was designed around shipping workflows.
Regulatory Compliance: Built-in compliance modules automatically track regulatory obligations, calculate compliance costs, and generate required reports. As regulations evolve, maritime ERP vendors update their systems to maintain compliance—you don't need to hire developers to rebuild custom code.
Industry Data Standards: Maritime ERPs integrate naturally with industry data sources including bunker price feeds, port cost databases, freight rate indices, and AIS vessel tracking. This integration happens through standard connectors rather than custom development.
No single system serves all business needs in isolation. Understanding how different ERP approaches integrate with other systems helps evaluate total solution capability.
Large ERP vendors like SAP and Oracle pride themselves on integration capabilities:
Strengths:
Challenges for Maritime:
Generic ERPs can technically integrate with anything, but maritime-specific integrations require significant development effort and ongoing maintenance.
Maritime ERP systems focus on integrations most relevant to shipping operations:
Strengths:
Challenges:
Key Consideration: Most shipping companies already use or need accounting systems like QuickBooks, Sage, or NetSuite for corporate accounting separate from voyage accounting. Maritime ERPs like Marlo provide strong integration with these accounting systems, allowing voyage-level detail in the maritime system while maintaining corporate financial reporting in the general accounting platform.
This hybrid approach—maritime ERP for operations and voyage accounting, generic accounting software for corporate finance—often delivers the best of both worlds for mid-sized operators.
The time from contract signature to operational system significantly impacts your organization's ability to realize value from software investment.
Large-scale ERP implementations are notoriously lengthy and complex:
Typical Timeline: 12-24+ months
Why So Long?
Generic ERPs require extensive customization to handle shipping operations. Every voyage accounting process, laytime calculation, or bunker management workflow needs custom development, testing, and documentation. The system doesn't understand shipping naturally, so you're essentially building a maritime system on top of a generic platform.
Implementation Costs
Beyond software licensing, implementation costs for generic ERP typically run 2-3× the annual software cost. For a mid-sized shipping company, total implementation costs can easily reach $500,000 to $1.5 million or more when including:
Purpose-built maritime systems implement significantly faster:
Typical Timeline: 3-6 months
Why Faster?
Maritime ERPs come with shipping functionality pre-built. You're configuring existing features rather than developing new ones. The system already knows how to calculate voyage P&L, track laytime, and manage bunker costs—you're just telling it your specific commission rates, accounting periods, and reporting preferences.
Implementation Costs
Maritime ERP implementation costs typically run 50-100% of annual software costs—significantly less than generic ERP. For a mid-sized operator, total implementation might range from $50,000 to $150,000 including:
The lower cost and faster timeline mean faster return on investment and less disruption to ongoing operations.
Software acquisition involves more than upfront licensing costs. Understanding total cost of ownership over 5-10 years provides clearer comparison.
Large enterprise systems employ complex licensing models:
Licensing Structure:
Estimated Costs for Mid-Sized Shipping Company (5-50 vessels):
Important Considerations:
Maritime-specific systems typically use simpler, more predictable pricing:
Licensing Structure:
Estimated Costs for Mid-Sized Shipping Company (25 vessels):
For Tier-1 Maritime ERP (e.g., Veson IMOS):
For Mid-Tier Maritime ERP (e.g., Marlo, Shipnet):
Advantages:
Beyond direct software costs, consider operational expenses:
Generic ERP Hidden Costs:
Maritime ERP Hidden Costs:
For most mid-sized dry bulk operators, maritime ERP delivers better total cost of ownership even before considering the operational efficiency benefits and faster time to value.
Software selection isn't just about features and price—it's about choosing a long-term technology partner who will support your evolving needs.
Large ERP vendors operate support organizations designed for global enterprise customers:
Support Structure:
Maritime-Specific Challenges:
Typical Support Experience: You encounter an issue with voyage P&L calculation. After navigating the support portal and waiting for a response, support determines the problem is in your custom code, not the base system. You need to engage the consulting firm that built the customization, wait for them to diagnose the issue, and pay for development time to fix it. Resolution might take weeks.
Specialized maritime software vendors structure support around shipping industry needs:
Support Structure:
Maritime-Specific Advantages:
Typical Support Experience: You encounter an issue with demurrage calculation. You contact support and immediately reach someone who understands laytime terms. They quickly identify whether it's a configuration issue, system bug, or misunderstanding of charter party terms. For configuration issues, they guide you to the fix immediately. For bugs, they prioritize a fix in the next release. Resolution typically happens in hours or days, not weeks.
Generic ERP vendors like SAP and Oracle offer undeniable stability—they've been in business for decades and aren't going anywhere. Maritime-specific vendors are smaller and warrant evaluation:
Positive Indicators:
For established maritime ERP providers like Veson (serving shipping since 1998), Shipnet (founded 1990s), and emerging vendors like Marlo with strong funding, vendor risk is manageable and outweighed by superior maritime functionality.
Understanding the landscape of available solutions helps inform your decision.
SAP S/4HANA
Oracle ERP Cloud
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Reality Check: Generic ERPs make sense for very large shipping companies (100+ vessels) with resources to invest in extensive customization and ongoing maintenance. For mid-sized dry bulk operators (5-50 vessels), the cost and complexity typically outweigh benefits.
5-15 Vessels: Maritime ERP is essential, but enterprise complexity isn't. Marlo or similar mid-tier maritime platforms deliver necessary functionality at accessible price points with fast implementation. Generic ERP is overkill.
15-35 Vessels: Strong candidates for full-featured maritime ERP like Veson IMOS or Shipnet. Organization has scale to justify investment in comprehensive platform. Marlo remains viable for operators prioritizing ease of use and fast deployment.
35-50 Vessels: Tier-1 maritime ERP (Veson) becomes more justifiable given operational complexity and transaction volume. Generic ERP is possible but only with massive customization investment.
50+ Vessels: Both tier-1 maritime ERP and generic ERP with heavy customization become viable options. Decision depends on priorities: maritime-specific functionality vs. enterprise-wide integration requirements.
When evaluating maritime ERP versus generic ERP, structure your analysis around these critical factors:
Questions to Ask:
Decision Indicator: If maritime-specific functionality is core to your operations (which it is for most dry bulk operators), maritime ERP delivers superior value.
Questions to Ask:
Decision Indicator: If you need complex multi-system enterprise integration, generic ERP offers advantages. If maritime integration is primary concern, maritime ERP is better positioned.
Questions to Ask:
Decision Indicator: Maritime ERP delivers faster ROI with lower total cost for most mid-sized operators. Generic ERP costs 2-3× more and takes 2-4× longer to implement.
Questions to Ask:
Decision Indicator: If you have limited IT resources, cloud-based maritime ERP is far easier to manage than on-premise generic ERP requiring extensive customization.
Questions to Ask:
Decision Indicator: Shorter maritime ERP implementations create less disruption and require less change management capacity than multi-year generic ERP projects.
Questions to Ask:
Decision Indicator: If you're planning major expansion beyond shipping (diversified business lines, complex corporate structures), generic ERP might make sense. For growth within shipping industry, maritime ERP scales better.
For the vast majority of dry bulk shipping companies operating 5-50 vessels, maritime-specific ERP delivers superior value compared to generic enterprise systems. The combination of purpose-built functionality, lower total cost, faster implementation, and better industry support outweighs the broader capabilities of generic ERP platforms.
Maritime ERP recognizes the fundamental reality that shipping is not a generic business—it has unique operational characteristics, specialized accounting requirements, and industry-specific regulatory obligations that generic systems simply weren't designed to handle. Attempting to force maritime complexity into generic templates creates ongoing friction, requires expensive customization, and ultimately delivers inferior capability compared to systems purpose-built for your industry.
The decision becomes clearer when you consider total cost of ownership over 10 years. Maritime ERP typically costs 40-60% less than generic ERP while delivering significantly better maritime functionality and requiring 30-40% less implementation time. That's not a marginal advantage—it's a fundamental difference in value proposition.
However, this doesn't mean maritime ERP is always the right choice. Very large shipping companies (100+ vessels) with complex corporate structures, multiple business lines beyond shipping, and substantial IT resources might find value in generic ERP's broader capabilities despite the higher cost and complexity. The key is honest assessment of your organization's size, complexity, and resources.
For mid-sized operators evaluating options, the practical path forward often involves:
This hybrid approach delivers maritime-specific functionality where you need it while maintaining simple corporate accounting without forcing everything into a single complex system.
Choosing between maritime ERP and generic ERP represents a significant decision with long-term implications. Rather than making this choice based on superficial feature comparisons or vendor marketing, take a structured approach to evaluating your specific needs.
Every shipping company is unique—your fleet mix, operational complexity, organizational structure, and growth plans create specific requirements that deserve careful evaluation.
✓ Your fleet size and composition
✓ Operational complexity and workflows
✓ Integration requirements
✓ Budget and timeline constraints
✓ Internal IT capabilities
✓ Long-term strategic goals
Get an objective analysis of whether maritime-specific ERP, generic enterprise systems, or a hybrid approach best serves your organization's needs.
Ready to explore Marlo? If our assessment indicates maritime ERP is your best path forward, schedule a demo to see how Marlo's modern, cloud-based platform simplifies voyage management, compliance, and financial operations for dry bulk and tanker operators.
About Marlo: Marlo provides integrated software solutions for dry bulk shipping companies, combining voyage management, compliance tracking, and financial operations in a single platform designed specifically for the maritime industry. Learn more at www.marlo.co
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