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Marina Master©’s intelligent systems, designed for marina specifics are changing the way marinas operate. Global marina industry trends and environment are rapidly changing. Marina Master©’s cloud based platforms and supreme development agility help marinas stay ahead of the game.

Changing Tides in the Marina Industry

The latest pandemic developments have forced many marinas to manage their properties from home. Luckily some countries and regions are already recovering. Marinas are already welcoming new and existing boaters while ensuring all necessary social distancing precautions. Fortunately boating is conducted in the right way and can be a good place for isolation with family & friends. The nature of marina services is indeed changing and customers are becoming more and more demanding in digital area. These changes have had a positive turn too as businesses have leaned their operations by implementing advanced digital solutions.

Boaters around the world have embraced this new reality by utilizing mobile apps. They are eager to use personalized and automated solutions that enable them to monitor, dock on their own and review their statements on the go. Marinas are also aware that swift and regular communication between staff and customers significantly improves long term customer relationships.

Whether you are a marina owner, manager or staff member, Marina Master©’s intelligent systems enable you to manage marina from the comfort of your Home. If you are a boater, myMarina© mobile app enables you to communicate with the marina, book a berth, pay invoices and review your statements anywhere and anytime. “Visiting a marina shouldn’t be just an urgent duty to find a berth, fill up fuel and tank water, but unforgettable holiday experience”, says Vesna Pavlovic M.Sc., CEO, Marina Master©”.

A Leap Forward for Marina Owners, Managers, Staff and Boaters

Marina owners and managers take advantage of having complete control and management capabilities in their home office. Personalized Marina Master© interface offers adaptability and customizability for every marina, shipyard, boatyard and dry storage facility. Marina Master© intelligent system enables them to inspect marina property in real time, manage berth occupancy, reservations, invoicing and agreements on mobile app. Business overview of critical data (auditing trail, cash flow, statistics and more) is enabled for present & future or history. By automating and streamlining the processes marinas increase productivity and Income.

Marina Staff benefit from having complete real time overview of customer data, reservations, notes, alarms and task management. They can communicate with customers via app, email or text messages. All communication is done on a single platform and is saved on customer’s CRM tab. Enquiries, quotes, invoicing and contract signature is processed easily and swiftly with a few taps on their smart device. Therefore staff is able to regularly update boaters about what is available and open in marina and more. They can easily organize online event and other marketing activities and get confirmation. Marina surveillance and dock walks are done automatically – either by CCTV or by dock sensors implementation. Customers can check in and plug in to shore power on their own in our smart marinas.

Being that these time-consuming tasks are now automated and controlled remotely, marina staff have more time for added value activities. They can finally tend to their main objective: taking care of customers by supplying customized services and products. This is of the utmost importance in order to gain loyal and valuable customers.

As a result boaters have improved boating experience through peace of mind knowing that their expectations will be met. They are free and flexible in communicating with marina and ordering services remotely. Additionally they can manage possible business relationship with marina, as boat sharing, berth sharing and more simply from the comfort of their boat or home.



It’s all app-ening in the marinas

Soldiers Point Marina was the first marina in Australia to implement Marina Master© and take advantage of managing its facility remotely. “The Marina Master solution enabled our key office staff to work from home, keeping them safe during this difficult time while still ensuring the marina is running as normal. The software not only improves the day to day operations but is saving us $1,000’s of dollars a year in operational costs.” says Darrel Barnett, CMM, Marina Manager, Soldiers Point Marina, NSW.

Communicating and managing marina services remotely helps not only the owners but marina customers as well. “The Marina Master platform has driven the professional perception our customers have of our business through the innovative use of technology. This has been absolutely central to our ability to operate the Marina remotely and without interruption during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Everything from responding to berth enquiries, to billing runs and back-end financial reporting we’ve been able to facilitate from home which has been terrific for the health and freedom of our staff whilst staying engaged with our existing and prospective customers”, says Scott Marshall, General Manager, Breakwater Marina, QLD.

Moments of truth in a typical day in most marinas managed remotely start when new or existing customer visit marina. Marina staff essentially response few days before the customer is expected to arrive. Within the action of marina staff there are considered all necessary new social distancing measures. An auto email is sent to customer with their myMarina© registration link and a brief outlining the check in process. The customer downloads the app and logins upon arrival to the marina. He can view their berth on the marina map and once docked, just clicks on the check in button. Meter is automatically assigned to his berth and notification is sent to marina staff advising that the customer has docked and checked in. This allows marina staff to click on the berth (either web or app) to view a live feed of the camera covering that berth so that they can see that the customer has docked in the correct berth. Staff then calls the customer to welcome him to the marina and advice where he can pick up their preprogrammed access fob. This could be located in a secure lock box near the gate of the jetty or potentially on the pedestal next to their berth. The customer can always check information about available services and activities in marina using myMarina© app. They can order basic services or individual extended services according to their individual needs (for example newspaper on arrival) simply from their mobile or tablet. Orders for café, restaurant or chandlery items can be placed for delivery and automatically invoiced to account.

Gold Coast City Marina & Shipyard (GCCM) is providing world class marine services to boat owners and has automated the majority of manual operational processes by utilizing the Marina Master© platform.” The Marina Master team know their business well which helps with timely updates and system developments that we can efficiently roll out to benefit the customer experience”, says Luke McCaul, General Manager, GCCM, QLD.

Marina Master© also made a breakthrough on the other side of the Pacific Ocean – in North America. A group of marinas from New England area have taken charge in implementing the latest state of the art modules to manage marina remotely. The marina group is forward-thinking and its main objective was to automate reservations management, eliminate dependence upon individuals and to provide all functionalities on mobile devices. „We wanted that the system could be as “future proof” and flexible as possible and Marina Master© program has exceeded in all our expectations.” says its regional manager Kevin Lussier, CMM, Ocean Havens.

It’s all app-ening also on the whole in Europe where Marina Master© helps to boost marina management intelligent solution in D-Marin Portonovi Marina, Montenegro. “We implemented Marina Master not while ago, but already see its huge advantages. The reliability and Smart specifications are making remote controlling very simple. Everything is just a click-away, and very easy to access. This software gives us an opportunity to interact with customers through CRM, and to refine internal communications’’, says Nikola Banovic, CMM, D-Marin Portonovi Marina.




Marina Master© intelligent system enables marinas to use their chosen payment gateway (FreedomPay FreeWay, Merchant Warrior or other), accounting an ERP systems (QuickBooks, TechOne, MYOB, Xero, Dynamics 365 etc.), automated meter readings, fuel consumption tracking, access control system, wireless vessel tracking systems and more.

Marina Master’s consulting approach

Marina Master© agile support and development team is guided by professionalism and expert knowledge. Within their 28 years of experience in providing state of the art marina management software solutions worldwide they see consulting as important part within implementation of marina management intelligent systems. “We always listen to each customer need and utilize requests in a custom-tailored solution”, says Vesna Pavlovic, M.Sc., CEO, Marina Master©. Consulting on best practices in marinas worldwide is shared through Marina Master Academy©, currently conducting free webinar series on how to Manage Marina from Home. You are welcome to join!

“Every experience with our customer is goldmine for our strategy,” says Tone Britovsek, M.Sc., President and Owner, Marina Master©”.

https://library.marinaworld.co.uk/may-june-2020-marina-world/63481667/44

In this ever-changing world, Marina Master© acknowledges the importance of being agile and adapting to the ‘new normal’. With COVID-19 bringing many industries to a standstill, there are several industries (marina for example), fortunate to remain open. In weathering the storm, a raft of changes have come into effect to maintain physical distance, remove cash payments, giving higher priority to cleaning maintenance and implement various cost reducing measures.

Marina Master©’s main goal is to assist customers and marina owners/operators through this period and into the ‘new normal’. Therefore Marina Master© team focus closely on new range of modules and upgrades to existing system functions, releasing in the coming months.

Marina Master© team believe that by introducing new modules such as Bank Feed module, Purchase Order module and Asset & Maintenance Register module including Cleaning Maintenance module, businesses can be facilitated in lowering their overall yearly fees, staff training costs and resources by combining them all within Marina Master©.

The new Bank Feed module will be released with two options, the first being a manual upload of the bank statement file and second, an automated daily upload from your financial institution to Marina Master©. The module will allow for faster reconciliation of payments and allocation of BPAY, cheque & EFT payments.





For Boatyard businesses, the new Purchase Order module will interact directly with the existing Stock Management module. Businesses will now be able to input/load their suppliers’ details and stock into Marina Master© and (from the system) staff will be able to generate Purchase Orders. Purchase Orders can then be sent directly from the Marina Master© system and when stock is received, staff can enter, close the Purchase Order and mark it as ready to process by Accounts Payable. In addition, this module can also be configured to create automatic Purchase Orders for each supplier based on minimum stock levels (pre-programmed in the system) and will sit ready to be sent or modified by staff.

The last of the new modules is Asset & Maintenance Register, designed to assist businesses in streamlining both scheduled and unscheduled tasks. This module will enable storage of details on all owned assets, allowing staff to schedule maintenance, safety checks and ensure that registration and insurances are kept up to date. It will also allow for the creation of in-house work orders based on dock walk or seasonal site checks such as storm/cyclone season preparedness. A relevant addition to this module is the ability for sites to track Cleaning Maintenance, this will enable marina managers and marina staff to ensure that the regular cleaning tasks have been completed, by whom, when and when is it due next. These tasks can be scheduled to occur every hour, 6 hours or daily etc.




In aiding Marina Master© sites to continue with business as ‘unusual’, they are implementing some changes to existing modules also. These changes alongside existing Online Booking module and Marina Master© Apps allow staff to deliver the highest possible level of customer service while limiting close contact and maintaining recommended physical distancing. Changes include:
- introduction of remote dock walks utilizing the CCTV system,
- remote check-in at the click of a button with automatic meter read functions,
- the ability for customers of the marina to load and save preferred payment methods through the myMarina© App (setup DDR & CCA)
- changes to ordering systems allowing marina customers to order take away food and drinks, billing directly to their account with the ability to pay with (in system) saved card details.

As the needs of Clients and Business evolve, Marina Master© team is committed to making the transition of New Normal as seamless as possible. The introduction of these modules is a first step in the right direction to simplified, minimal contact processes for staff and clients, made possible by Marina Master©.

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https://marina-master.com/Waterline2Q2020.pdf