148 INTERVIEW For over 50 years, Hawkins Family Group has been operating a ferry to Australia’s Moreton Island. The family company, now owned by Roz Shaw and run by her daughter and CEO Liz Hemmens, therefore has gained extensive experience with the many challenges operators face in delivering an efficient booking process. After trying several booking solutions to streamline the process, Shaw and Hemmens decided to take matters into their own hands. “We were hoping to get a solution off the shelf, as we thought our situation wouldn’t be that unique,” explains Hemmens. “But we had quite a few failed implementations. Instead, we decided to develop our own booking system.” FerryHawk, the booking system they created, was launched in 2018 following 18 months of development. Since then, the system has been continuously updated and upgraded. “We have continued to iterate the application, refining it as we use it,” says Hemmens. “Whenever we release a new functionality, we test it within our own business prior to releasing it to other iterations. As operators, we understand the reality of day-to-day operation and can develop solutions based on our experience, which makes us unique.” Today, FerryHawk provides a wide variety of features, including automated load calculation, customer communication tools, automated seasonal dynamic pricing and many more. The constant improvement of the platform is enabled by the company’s flexible approach to development, says Hemmens. “With the software-as-a-service model, we can release updates and features to customers anywhere around the world,” she says. FerryHawk prioritised the long term by creating a configurable model as opposed to an individually customisable solution. “We’re not seeking to develop customised applications for every single operator because that would be inefficient,” says Hemmens. “Customisation is time-consuming, and you end up with an incredibly complicated product that’s difficult to update. If you can’t modernise eight to 10 years later, you’ll have to throw the system out again and get a new one.” FerryHawk aims to expand the welltested system in future. “We were the first operator to use the system and we’ve refined our platform to anticipate the challenges that other operators are having,” says Hemmens. “We understand their pain points, because the things we do every day are very similar. We’re not producing a system for other forms of transport, or even for other areas of the maritime industry; we’re focused on meeting the unique challenges of passenger and vehicle ferry operators.” FerryHawk’s Liz Hemmens explains to Alex Smith how it has used decades of experience as a ferry operator to develop a new booking system The insider’s solution “ As operators, we understand the reality of day-to-day operation and can develop solutions based on our experience”
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