Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco), one of the largest shipping organisations in the world, has launched an innovative solution for editing contracts. The solution, called SmartCon, makes contractual work easier and more secure.

The world's top maritime trade group with headquarters in Copenhagen, Bimco is best known for drafting standard contracts and clauses for the maritime and offshore industry.

The key innovation in SmartCon is that the features are built into a Word document, which will
integrate and merge seamlessly with the normal workflow of shipping professionals and legal
staff. The contracts can be shared until it is fixed, without security risks, as everything is
protected and authenticated by Microsoft’s Cloud security infrastructure, said the company after its recent launch at an industry event in Singapore.

“SmartCon is a brand-new approach to contract editing, we believe that it will significantly ease
the work life of our current users and will attract new users to Bimco’s contract universe,” remarked
Grant Hunter, the head of contracts and clauses at Bimco.

“Our contracts are widely used around the world, which provide greater certainty of the
intended commercial outcome - helping the users manage their contractual risk,” remarked Hunter.

The SmartCon contract editing software has all of Idea’s software features, but is now based on
an encrypted Word-document, which provides additional security, significantly enhanced
editing functions and dramatically reduces complexity.

“We see it as a full ecosystem for shipping professionals working with contracts,” remarked Hunter.

On the new product, Bimco said the authentic contract can be opened using the software, and then edited and changed as required. However the editing does not compromise the integrity of the document.

The changes can be seen by both parties and the core features, which make it a binding legal document, cannot be removed, it stated.

According to him, 35 of Bimco’s most popular contracts are available in SmartCon today, with more to be added.

The company has used a suite of Microsoft’s Cloud technologies to offer a ‘solution as a service’
product, which eliminates existing internet bandwidth issues and increases the number of potential users, he stated.

"With today’s focus on cyber security, we believe this tool is very timely. It provides the best security possible and ensures users always work on authentic BIMCO documents," remarked Hunter.

SmartCon customers can use multifactor identification, for example through Microsoft’s app, where opening a document requires an additional code to be sent to the user’s phone.

In SmartCon, Bimco does not store user information - everything is in Microsoft’s cloud and protected by Microsoft’s technology, said a senior official.

“Bimco has wrapped our technologies into a creative and novel package to offer a valuable
service to its subscribers, and it potentially shows the way for other industries that frequently
use standard contracts,” remarked Lasse Svane Ryby, the business group lead, cloud and enterprise at
Microsoft Denmark.

SmartCon is based on Microsoft’s Rights Management System (RMS) exposed via Microsoft
Azure Information Protection in its cloud solution. RMS enables Bimco, via SmartCon, to offer a
distributed contract editing environment while preserving authenticity.

"SmartCon will be further developed with new features as the technology becomes available," he added.-TradeArabia News Service