Shipping’s Digital Ambition Is Outpacing Its IT Maturity, with Steven Hemmings

Steve Hemmings joins Nick and Raal to examine why maritime IT maturity still lags other sectors, what shipping can learn from cruise and banking, and why cyber resilience, asset visibility, data architecture and change management matter. They also explore AI, legacy systems and the organisational foundations needed for meaningful digital transformation.

CHAPTERS

• 00:27 Introducing Steve Hemmings
• 02:05 Why maritime needs to take IT more seriously
• 03:45 Insight’s evolution from hardware to transformation
• 10:34 Lessons from banking and open standards
• 18:38 What a mature maritime IT organisation looks like
• 22:52 Building an accurate vessel IT asset inventory
• 27:58 Turning maritime data into business value
• 32:58 What cargo shipping can learn from cruise
• 43:17 AI adoption and building a culture of innovation
• 45:51 The human side of technology transformation
• 50:40 Legacy platforms, AI and the future architecture

The episode opens with a fundamental question: why does maritime still struggle to treat IT as a strategic capability rather than a support function? Steven Hemmings, Client CTO for Insight’s EMEA maritime team, explains how Insight moved from supplying technology into transformation and integration work, including its experience supporting the AROYA project with Columbia Group.

The conversation then turns to what maritime can learn from other sectors. Drawing on his early career at the Bank of England, Steve argues that banking’s progress on standards depended as much on relationships, behaviour and sustained dialogue as it did on technology.

Cruise provides a useful reference point.

Better onboard infrastructure, stronger connectivity and clear revenue incentives have pushed cruise operators towards more mature digital environments. Those foundations matter increasingly for cargo shipping too, particularly as IT and operational technology converge and cyber exposure grows.

The discussion closes on two closely related challenges: AI and people. Legacy platforms may constrain what shipping companies can do next, but replacing everything at once is rarely realistic. Building around existing systems, creating stronger data foundations and introducing new capabilities incrementally may offer a more practical route.

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode is partnered with Insight, in partnership with SmartSea.

The most resilient fleets don't wait for a cyber incident to start thinking about security — they design it from day one.

Under NIS2, maritime is classed as essential infrastructure, and IMO's cyber risk rules already require security to be built into a vessel's Safety Management System.

Insight and SmartSea help operators meet both by embedding cyber resilience directly into everyday operational workflows — so compliance isn't a separate project, it's how the fleet already works.

Because the strongest fleets are resilient by design, not by reaction.

Future-proof your digital defences with Insight and SmartSea.