Damen Digital Solutions
Turn real-time data from ships into reports.
Develop a scalable data platform and become a knowledge partner.
Investing in data quality pays off.
“I was immediately excited about the atmosphere and ambitions at Blenddata; a small club of guys my age who want to do cool stuff with data science and data engineering. I was unsure whether I wanted to start my own business. Now, I work in the vibe of a startup, but without the risks of running my own business. Blenddata wants to become the best in data engineering.”
“Damen Digital Solutions knocked on our door to convert real-time data from a ship into reports in the cloud. We implemented it and made it scalable in the next phase. We have since grown into a knowledge partner for Damen and are pioneering together in the shipping industry with data.”
Data Engineer | Marketer
Data Engineer | Marketer
“At Damen Digital Solutions I really feel part of the team, at the Christmas drinks, for example, I am also welcome. I work here within Damen’s data team with a few Blenddata colleagues. That creates a sense of camaraderie, and you can always brainstorm with someone who works with the same platform and engineering methodologies. Craftsmanship is an important pillar for us. We do proper research before building something. The fact that a platform works is not good enough. A Blenddata platform must be robust and future-ready.”
“Next year, I am going to focus more on knowledge transfer. How can I make sure their data team learns and has the right knowledge? We want to grow and put down more and more products. I hope we can enter other teams at Damen as well. So that we can think along from the beginning and get through to the strategic advice. We have around 750 ships on the platform, with an ambition of a 1,000 by the end of 2025. Because my role is constantly changing, it remains a challenging assignment.”
“We have built the data platform in such a way that users do not need any technical knowledge. We are now almost at the point where someone without an IT background can put a report live.”
“Our goal was clear: if you know about a boat, you can create reports. I myself don’t know about vessel but I find it very interesting to learn about a new world. In our work, a pitfall is that you quickly think you know how it all works. To understand a vessel better, we work with the engineers who connect sensors, design the vessels and maintain them. I have also been working a lot this year on emission reports for shipping companies in connection with European laws and regulations. There’s no way around diving into hundreds of pages of legislation.”
The balance between development and consultancy is now about 50/50. I take on development tasks and also try to include the complete architecture picture and see opportunities within Damen Digital Solutions. Together with client Toine, I went to sessions to create a five-year strategy with data. What is the problem and how can we address it with data? At the end of the brainstorms, you see that many departments are facing the same problems. Data confidence is low. Fast-growing organizations often experience exponential data growth, making it challenging to keep everything well-organized. That is precisely what we think is important. We want to show what the quality of the data is. IoT devices on ships can break down, for example. We need to make this transparent to stakeholders so they can act quickly.”
“What I find interesting now and what energizes me is giving presentations and teaching people something. That’s what I want to develop further in, so that soon I can give workshops at clients’ premises. While working, you discover what energises you. Blenddata gives you the opportunities to start walking that path.”
Growing in engineering and consultancy.
Working for SMEs and multinationals.
Blend your benefits!