Overview

Marine Tech Safety & Shipping Corporation (Marine Tech SS), a maritime certification and inspection company, provides vessel compliance services across major Indian ports. Their work involves conducting continuous inspections, handling documentation, coordinating with shipping agents, and issuing certifications promptly.

Before Zoho, the company relied on manual methods, disconnected tools, and inconsistent documentation, which led to operational delays. By implementing Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Projects, Zoho Mail, and Zoho WorkDrive, Marine Tech SS achieved faster turnaround, improved accuracy, and a unified workflow.

Executive Summary

Marine Tech SS specializes in maritime safety certifications, vessel inspections, and statutory compliance checks. Operating across ports such as Mumbai, Mundra, Hazira, Vizag, and Chennai, the team handles high volumes of vessel-related documentation and inspection activities.

“In maritime compliance, errors are not just costly—they can halt an entire vessel schedule. We needed a system that brings everything together in one place.”
— Harsh Bamnolia, Marine Tech SS

With growing operational demand, the need for structured workflow management, centralised storage, and a reliable inspection tracking mechanism became critical.

Initial Problem Statement & Key Challenges

Marine Tech SS previously faced the following concerns:

• 1. Fragmented operational workflow: Quotations, inspection scheduling, task tracking, and certifications were managed separately.
• 2. Document management issues: Certificates, reports, and photos were stored locally without structure, making retrieval difficult.
• 3. Manual inspector coordination: Allocating inspectors across multiple ports was time-consuming and lacked visibility.
• 4. Unstructured communication: Without a uniform email system, the communication history was scattered.
• 5. Equipment tracking difficulties: Inspection devices and safety kits rotated between ports without a central tracking mechanism.

Evaluation of the Problem

Post-process understanding across their operations. The key gaps identified included:

• Lack of workflow standardisation
• Poor documentation retrieval
• Dependency on manual communication
• Limited visibility into equipment movement
• Delayed invoicing and financial processes

Zoho’s unified ecosystem provided the ideal structure for solving these gaps.

Proposed Solution

A fully integrated Zoho setup was implemented:

Zoho Books – Financial System
Automated quotations, sales orders, and invoice cycles; GST and TDS compliance; Vessel-wise and port-wise tracking.

Zoho Inventory – Equipment Management
Port-wise stock availability; Internal equipment transfers; Alerts for low stock.

Zoho Projects – Inspection & Task Management
Vessel-wise workflows and templates; Inspector allocation based on location and availability; SLA and deadline tracking.

Zoho Mail – Central Communication Hub
Company domain-based communication; Vessel-wise email trails; Clear audit history.

Zoho WorkDrive – Document Repository
Structured folders for each port and vessel; Certificate templates stored centrally; Secure client sharing options.

Implementation

Milestone 1 – Requirement Study
Understanding with various teams & operations; Review of past inspections.

Milestone 2 – System Setup
Configure Books, Inventory, Projects; WorkDrive folder structure creation.

Milestone 3 – Migration & Training
Import old certificates and inspection data; Staff training for Zoho Projects and WorkDrive.

Milestone 4 – Automations & Go-Live
Set up automated invoice reminders; Equipment tracking dashboards; Final workflow corrections and support.

Results

After implementation, Marine Tech SS achieved:

• 40% faster certification turnaround
• 70% fewer documentation errors
• 100% centralised email communication
• 50% improved port coordination
• Fully audit-ready financial data