Creatio-Based SaaS Platform for Maritime Project and Resource Management

Project: Custom SaaS platform for maritime project and resource management
Technologies: Creatio CRM & Workflow Platform, Microsoft Outlook Integration, Excel Import/Export, Word Template Manager, PDF Reporting, RBAC, Automated Email Notifications
Duration: 9.5 months

Century Ship Service is a global marine contractor specializing in electrical, mechanical, and technical installations aboard cruise ships during dry-dock and in-service periods, serving major cruise lines worldwide.

The Challenge

A significant part of the company’s daily operations still relied on spreadsheets and disconnected workflows. Information about technicians, project assignments, certifications, visas, and travel documents was scattered across multiple systems, making even routine coordination unnecessarily complex. As the number of active projects and field specialists increased, the company found it harder to maintain clear oversight of resource availability, project timelines, and compliance requirements.

The lack of automation created additional operational pressure. Teams spent a considerable amount of time manually tracking document expiration dates, preparing travel paperwork, consolidating timesheets, and supporting invoicing processes. This unavoidably slowed down internal operations and increased the risk of human error in an industry where compliance and timing are mission-critical.

At the same time, the client needed a more structured and scalable operational foundation that could support future growth and meet ISO 9001 requirements. Their goal was to move away from disconnected tools and manual coordination toward a centralized maritime operations management platform that would unify project management, technician scheduling, compliance monitoring, and reporting within a single system.

Having realized that digital transformation is unavoidable, Century Ship Service decided to act. After sorting through numerous SaaS options on the market and weighing the pros and cons, they selected a Creatio system as the foundation of their maritime solution. To implement it and integrate it into the existing processes, the client needed a reliable partner experienced in maritime tech development and proficient with the given SaaS software. Being a Creatio partner for years and having certified specialists on board, Velvetech was a perfect match for this endeavor.

The Process

Since the client was simultaneously managing multiple active maritime projects across different countries, replacing all operational workflows at once would have introduced significant risks for the business. That’s why, taking note of the client’s domain specifics and complexity, we suggested splitting the platform delivery into two phases.

Before building a complex technician management module, the team needed to make sure the core of the system worked the way the client needed it to, and that everyone had a real understanding of how the company’s operations worked from the inside. The first phase was intentionally limited in scope; we started from an MVP version that could be launched, tested in practice, and adjusted before the project grew into a full-scale platform.

Centralized Project Management Environment

At the first stage of the implementation, we focused on replacing disconnected project coordination processes with a unified operational workspace. At that point, maritime project tracking software was absent — project tracking existed separately from the rest of the company’s workflows, making it difficult to maintain visibility across project statuses, assignments, deadlines, and piles of operational documentation.

We built the platform on the basis of the Creatio CRM system and configured separate cloud environments for development and production to support controlled releases and future scalability. The new project management module centralized the full project lifecycle, which meant that project creation, status management, task coordination, reporting, and project archiving were all in one place.

Technician Scheduling and Resource Coordination

Once the operational project layer was stabilized, we moved to the second phase, focused on workforce coordination and resource planning. The goal was to build a fully functional maritime workforce management software layer capable of supporting the complexity of multi-project operations.

One of the client’s major challenges was managing a distributed pool of technical specialists working across overlapping international projects. Previously, technician allocation was handled manually, which hindered tracking availability, balancing workloads, and coordinating assignments based on certifications, visas, and project requirements.

To alleviate resource and workforce management, we introduced a centralized maritime resource management software layer that consolidated employee profiles, certifications, project history, availability, documents, and skills into a single system. This ensured significantly better visibility into workforce allocation and simplified coordination across concurrent projects.

On top of that, the platform introduced scheduling transparency that allowed managers to identify resource conflicts earlier and make staffing decisions based on real operational data instead of manually consolidated spreadsheets.

To support staffing decisions over time, we built a post-project evaluation module. Specialists are rated across different criteria after each assignment, with scores stored automatically against their profile. For cases where a specialist should not be assigned, the platform includes blacklist functionality with assignment warnings and a supervisor override option backed by a full audit trail.

An incident management module was also introduced to log operational issues by severity, root cause, and responsible specialist, giving management a structured record that previously didn’t exist anywhere in the system.

Automated Compliance Monitoring

Since the client operates internationally, expired passports, visas, or welding certifications could disrupt project execution and escalate into serious operational risks. Previously, these checks were handled by the back office, which became increasingly difficult to scale as the number of specialists and projects grew.

We implemented an automated expiration monitoring system that continuously tracked document validity and proactively notified responsible teams before credentials expired. Assignment restrictions were also introduced to prevent technicians from being allocated to projects extending beyond their compliance window.

ISO 9001-Ready Workflows and Operational Transparency

Beyond automation, the platform was designed to create a more structured and manageable operational environment. The client required workflows aligned with ISO 9001 standards, which meant processes needed to be fully transparent and auditable. To ensure these requirements are fulfilled, the maritime project planning software capabilities included structured project initiation and closure workflows, role-based access control, centralized reporting, and standardized operational procedures across the platform.

Timesheet management was formalized as a part of this layer. Hours are logged by day and week against specific projects, with structured reporting replacing manual consolidation. Excel import and export were supported to ease the transition, and archiving rules ensured data completeness before periods could be closed.

Outcomes

As a result of the project, Century Ship Service moved away from fragmented workflows and manual coordination toward a centralized operational platform that consolidated project management, technician scheduling, compliance tracking, and reporting into a single environment. Teams gained much better visibility into ongoing operations, while many time-consuming administrative tasks that previously depended on spreadsheets and manual communication became structured and automated.

The platform also helped the client significantly reduce operational and compliance risks. Credential expiration tracking, workforce coordination, document generation, and timesheet management became more reliable and easier to manage, allowing the company to support growing project volumes without losing control over daily workflows.