With a company history that spans more than 150 years, Moran Towing is one of the United States’ leading marine towing and transportation providers. Headquartered in New Canaan, Connecticut, Moran operates out of 17 ports along the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in Puerto Rico’s Port of San Juan.

In 2015, Moran initiated a search to find a replacement for the system used in the management of its near misses, incidents, and claims. Developed in-house more than 15 years prior, the reporting capabilities of the system were no longer sufficient for the needs of the business.

Furthermore, operating system compatibility with the outdated database software on which the system was built caused a number of issues, including:

• Limited organization-wide visibility into claims and incidents;
• Restrictions on the risk and safety team’s ability to effectively identify trends and target specific corrective actions;
• Difficulty extracting data from the system in order to meet demands for safety information and lost time records.

In addition to remedying these issues, the risk and safety teams at Moran were also interested in exploring how the capabilities of a new system might help streamline existing incident entry and communication workflows.

People are the Key Factor in Selecting a RMIS

When purchasing a Risk Management Information System (RMIS), it’s a given that the system capabilities of the RMIS platforms under consideration should be fully investigated. However, in today’s marketplace, it’s likely that a number of providers will offer features and functionality that meet an organization’s requirements.

According to Kurt Odell, who led the company’s search, while functionality and features were, to a degree, useful in narrowing the list of RMIS solutions that might be a good fit, it was the people behind the product that ultimately resulted in the selection of Origami Risk’s cloud-based platform.

In addition to the depth of Origami service team members’ experience, Odell and other decision-makers at Moran viewed the responsiveness of the Origami sales staff as an indication of the level of service they would receive going forward.

“When looking at a system, the critical factor is the people who are going to help you implement it,” says Odell. “To have that support is what really drives success.”

Implementing Tailored Solutions

As Odell began to work closely with Origami client executive Josh Singletary and his team to get the system up and running, it became increasingly evident that Moran Towing had made the right decision.

With Moran’s existing database as a reference point, Singletary and his team began the process of designing screens, setting up location hierarchies, and defining role-based security details. Using Origami’s flexible data tools, historical data was then converted and loaded into the new system.

Furthermore, to ensure that critical Moran employee, payroll, and vessel-related data is always up-to-date, implementation also required integration with a number of third-party systems. Secure, automated feeds were set up to encrypt and exchange data between Origami and six systems used by Moran, including the organization’s AP, HR, ERP, and fleet management systems, as well as its central data warehouse.

While each of these elements was tested and refined, the team turned toward the set-up of incident entry workflows.

Port Managers Readily Adopt New System and Workflows

According to Odell, it was this phase of the project that would be the true measure of a successful implementation—specifically, whether or not Moran Towing’s port managers would quickly adopt the new system and incident entry workflows.

Prior to the use of Origami for incident capture and tracking, incident details were taken down by hand or entered in a PDF template. Next, the forms were submitted by port managers to the home office, where risk management team members keyed the data into the system. Transmission back to the port manager for review, along with any subsequent follow-ups, were all conducted via email.

Today, the use of Origami Risk for incident entry has not only made entry more efficient, it is contributing to the quality of data available for reporting. In fact, the adoption of incident entry workflows was successful enough to prompt later development of a similar approach for the capture of near-miss data.

Anonymous entry links provide port managers and other users with direct access to incident or near miss screens. When a user enters an incident or near-miss record, images can be attached, if needed, to provide detail or clarification. Risk management and safety personnel can, in turn, request additional supplemental information that can be quickly supplied by a port manager.

With Origami, port managers have quick access to data that previously was either unavailable or difficult to gather. Upon logging into the system, a port manager can view location-specific dashboards with widgets that display a list of recently submitted records that require review. Other dashboard widgets provide a list of any corrective actions that have been assigned, OSHA reportable data information, and more.

Improved Transparency and Engagement

Odell credits Origami with playing an integral part in the risk and safety team’s efforts to mitigate risk and contribute to Moran Towing’s culture of safety. With improvements in the incident and near-miss data available, the system is used to generate monthly reports that highlight critical drivers in the company’s ongoing efforts to eliminate injuries, damages, and spills.

In these reports, Odell and Matthew Baker – Moran’s Mgr. Health, Safety, and Environmental – provide an array of risk and safety details from the previous month, including the overall number of incidents and near misses, ports, and vessels that lead in reporting, and recommendations for reducing specific injuries or accidents that data indicates has the potential to become problematic.

Ongoing Improvements and Next Steps

The collaborative working relationship formed during system implementation continues to thrive today. On a biweekly basis, Odell and Singletary meet to discuss action items, issues, and plans for upcoming work.

A central part of the ongoing success is the ability of the Origami Risk platform to accommodate on-the-fly configuration changes. “Even if it’s a minor change, we’re continually making improvements,” states Odell. “We receive feedback and suggestions from users, and we’re able to respond in a short amount of time.” Based on the successes over the past two years of working with Origami, larger-scale projects are on the horizon.