Approach for Decentralized Information Systems in Maritime Logistics

Digitalization is playing an increasingly important role in the information flow of today's supply chains. In particular, in logistics, the adoption of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, blockchain, or machine learning offers the potential to increase data availability and quality. Using inter-organizational communication systems, private and public stakeholders can integrate their information flows. Within this paper, we analyze with transport planning, tracking, and cargo monitoring three use cases for the adoption of decentralized systems focusing on maritime logistics. For this purpose, a software artifact was developed using the Design Science Research (DSR) approach. During the development process, four central design principles could be identified: user orientation, interoperability, data security, and decentralization. Based on these principles, a concept was developed for a decentralized information system that contributes to further automation and standardization of the information flow, while considering requirements such as confidentiality, neutrality, and accessibility.