Why the supply chain needs federation rather than one more system, and why it all starts with the ship
By Dr. Marika Gillardo, Marketing Manager at Circle Group and Member of the Board of YoungShip Italia
I came to this industry through my studies, with a Master’s degree in Maritime and Port Economics and Management. Today I have almost eight years of experience in communication and marketing in my role as Marketing Manager at Circle Group, and I sit on the Board of YoungShip Italia.
Let’s start with the ship. For a shipowner, a cargo’s story feels complete when the vessel is alongside; for the customer it is only half told, because the container must still pass the gate, board a truck or a train, clear customs and reach an inland terminal or an industry.
The ship is where the supply chain begins to move, not where it ends, and what happens after the quay shapes the service the shipowner has promised.
Here is the paradox: almost all players in this chain is digital, and almost no one is connected. Shipping lines, terminals, hauliers, forwarders and customs offices all run systems that work well on their own. The disconnection lies in the handovers, at the nodes, where cargo changes hands, mode or authority: the quay, the gate, the rail yard,
the customs desk. Nobody is doing anything wrong, but each player optimises his own desk, and the loss happens between the desks. The same data (an arrival time, a container number, a dangerous goods declaration) is typed again at every node, and every re-entry cost time and risks an error that creates waiting.
Europe is working on both sides of the quay. At sea, the European Maritime Single Window environment, offers provides a harmonized framework for a ship’s reporting at port calls. On the cargo side, the eFTI Regulation on electronic freight transport information is building the same for freight documents. Two good frameworks, but they meet in one place, the port, and that is where the gap is most visible.
So, what does an “integrated” supply chain mean in practice? Not one giant platform that replaces everybody; that rarely works. It means a federated model: each actor keeps evolving its own systems, but all speak the same language, use open interfaces and follow European standards, so that data is entered once and used by all. This is the role Circle Group has chosen to play: the federator, the glue between the intermodal logistics nodes, the private economic operators, the industries and the wider world of logistics, building an ecosystem in which nobody must start from zero.
Another concrete example is the dematerialization of transport documents (e-CMR) that represents a new way to exchange information and data between different actors involved in the supply chain. No paper, and above all no retyping: the cargo moves, and the information moves with it.
That is also why I am cautious with the word “digitisation”. Turning a form into a file is not the goal: a scanned document is still an island, a digital island, but an island. What matters is the data inside it, reaching everyone who needs it, when they need it. Dematerialisation is a step; connection is the goal. Think of a ship with a perfect bridge and no radio: everything works, nothing is heard.
Connected data also lets us predict, not just react. With real-time visibility of cargo and vehicles, we can plan the gate and the rail slot and avoid the queue before it exists. Optimisation tools, from digital twins (live virtual models of how cargo and vehicles flow through a node) to AI applications, are only as good as the data beneath them: AI on top of late, fragmented, unverified data only accelerates confusion.
First the data, then the intelligence, and always people in control.
Behind projects like these sits a less visible question: how they get funded.
That is why Circle Group also has a business unit that supports public and private organisations in accessing European funding and in building the multi-partner, cross-border projects that these programmes require, with a presence in Brussels and Oporto. The digitalisation of ports and inland nodes often depends on it.
Technology is only half of the system. The other half is people, rules and trust. A new interface changes someone’s job, so it needs training; a new rule needs support for smaller players, so that digitalisation leaves no one behind.
For an island, a port is not one node among many: it is the door. This is why I joined the Board of YoungShip Italia, where we bring together young professionals of the maritime sector. They will inherit this system, and the sooner they help design it, the better. Our industry needs their digital fluency and fresh questions, and they need our experience.
The maritime world has never moved as fast as it does today, with regulation, technology and geopolitics all accelerating at once. We will never bring every actor to the same speed, and I do not think we need to: a large container terminal and a small island port will never run at the same pace. Think of an orchestra: different instruments, different parts, but one score and one clock. Shared data. Common rules. Real time exchange. A chain is not digital when every link is digital; it is digital when every handover is.
And whatever the speed, we must stay human-centric. Technology moves data, but it is people who build trust, take decisions and keep the chain moving. In shipping, as at sea, the human being must always remain at the helm.
