"It’s about action in terms of organisation – perhaps organically, or through consultancy, if consultancy is available. I believe there will be communication in the industry for marina responsibilities.
Thanks to the Ben Taylor Podcast. This is the home of marine industry insight consultancy.
Hello everyone, and thank you for listening to the Ben Taylor Podcast, the home of marine industry insight consultancy.
We’re talking about technology. I’m here with Jemaine Campbell. Thank you, Jemaine.
Thank you, Sir. Thank you very much.
So, let’s begin with communication.
Yes. Who are you, what do you do? Let’s get the introductions.
Yes, Jemaine Campbell, Director of Elyg Dynamics. The organisation was established in 2015.
We provide technology-focused social solutions through Elyg Dynamics, mainly to the marina and industrial park sectors.
So let’s go a little deeper into Elyg Dynamics. How has it developed over time, and where is it now?
Yes, I was first introduced to the social sector in 2000. I was asked to design a platform for an industrial park that had five parks across Wales, each with different systems.
So, we built the platform on what is now Microsoft Dynamics technology – though at the time, it wasn’t called that.
Over 15 years, we delivered six clients on the platform for deployments involving 5 to 35 locations.
We spoke to the Welsh Government and said we need to take the development forward and roll it out. They said no.
They said their digital team was a total of six people. I approached five. I called them.
Took on Elyg Dynamics.
We are now 44 people in the business. We support 70 different clients across 450 locations.
We have over 3,000 users on our platforms.

Let’s talk about industrial parks. A lot of our audience might feel, well, this is industrial parks – this isn’t marinas and boats.
That’s fair, yes.
So what’s the overlap there?
So we had a lot of traction in the salt park sector.
Our solutions cover everything from retail to finance and everything in between.
So we support training clients, we support training units – or huts or buildings – and the management and movement of those units and the training of clients, both from a commercial and social perspective.
And a couple of our clients happened to have marinas – through conversations, trying to understand what the business model is behind a marina.
The comparison between a marina and an industrial park is tricky.
So I think it took around 18 months of practical research, talking to people in Wales, the trade world, talking to people like you, and so on.
I came back to the dev team and said: We’re very, very close.

Yes, there was a bit of insight, a bit of production knowledge, a bit of a sense of – hmm, maybe this isn’t just numbers on a screen and the way we think it works.
You saw it happening, you spoke to them and said – oh, this is a real issue, this is something that software could solve – but not quite yet.
Yes. I think what we’ve learned from the marina perspective – and more so from the park side – is that you need intelligent systems that connect across an interface screen so we can manage both the berth and the users who come to berth – whether they are transient or permanent, or even booking ahead.

What we do with our system – because it’s built on Microsoft Dynamics technology – is manage all parts of the customer journey.
So we can manage the berths, the bookings, and we can manage activities – such as sailing clubs, for example – if you’ve got a client, the system manages the client.
And what we’ve found is that with larger systems, you end up with more fragmentation, especially with the data.
With our platform – because it’s a single system – you can trace the journey of one of your customers from first contact to fulfilment, how they interact with your harbour, what activities they’ve signed up for, and get that data out in real time.
And then we can turn that data into insight, which naturally flows into decision-making.

And I think that’s a major difference – we’ve positioned our system as the platform that manages the customer journey – perhaps more than most marina services platforms.
We even have a module for boatyard services.

Yes, this is really interesting because a lot of what I hear about marinas and where they’re heading is about becoming more like resorts and destinations, like hospitality.
Yes.
But practically, from an operational point of view, it means it’s not just about parking boats and checking in and checking out.
There might be a restaurant, or you mentioned yoga studios, gyms, shops, whatever.
Hotels.
Exactly.

So it makes a lot of sense that what the modern digital estate needs to do is align with their strategy over the next few years.
That’s right.
So where we are – like we said earlier – is we’re trying to shape a platform that’s fit for emerging revenue streams that are coming out of marinas.
So our platform has been designed for training pathways.
So when we look at some of the nuances or aspects of the industry – specialised services like boatyard services – you end up with a platform that manages the entire business end to end.

It manages the revenue pathway end to end.
And I think clients are increasingly demanding insight – whether from a membership or operational perspective.
And it’s a two-way street.
Clients are pushing our teams to be more technical.
And we’re pushing back with practical demonstrations of what’s possible with the Microsoft Dynamics tech stack.

I think in the marine industry, our customer profile is interesting because they tend to be older, less digitally native, and the industry is broadly the same.
Yes.
They’ve been doing things the same way for years.

So you get this friction – they probably have enough tech like smartphones to engage digitally, but the systems marinas and marine businesses use aren’t designed around them.
Exactly.

And so there’s this disconnect – where there’s actually a lot of opportunity in smarter revenue, new ways of selling to people who are willing to spend more.
Exactly.
And sometimes you’ve got this tech leap – where introducing a new system to sell higher-value services might cost more to implement than the service value – so the marina holds off.

And I think that if you can understand your customer profile – again, back to data management – if we can turn data into information, information into understanding, and understanding into differentiation, that’s where all these revenue pathways become valuable.

One thing we focus on is delivering a unique value proposition –
While we have a marina management system for operators, we also provide a comms and content platform that marinas can use to publish to their website, showcasing berth availability, for example.
So we’re not just looking at one segment – we look at the industry holistically.
Because ultimately, we’re service-led.

And we’re always paired up with someone deeply technical.
I want to speak to the technical nerd, but I’m not one myself.
But I’ve found that makes for a great pairing.
And we’re going to talk about data.

We break it into two types:
– The technical intelligence: sensors, smart devices, etc.
– And behavioural or customer data: which is what you were referring to earlier – people behaviour.

So what kind of data can a marina business collect – and how can they use it from your platform?
What’s something a little deeper?
You know: these are your customers, their names, their contacts, this is how they spend…
What’s next?

I think it all depends.
I always work from the principle of: “what’s the art of the possible?”
And when you’ve got data, it opens doors.

With a platform that manages the customer journey end-to-end, you’re tracking customer touchpoints – when they interacted with the app, when they viewed their invoice, whether they signed the contract – you gain the ability to engage in a contextual way.
So it’s not just generic messaging – it’s specific to them, when and how they want to hear from you.

So there are lots of angles – but ultimately, it’s about personalisation and making the user feel uniquely recognised in the process.
And I think that’s key.
It’s about communication pathways – the data tells you the story.
If you can read your data and turn it into graphs and charts – and you don’t have to be a data scientist to do it – you can see the trend.

If you want to push, say, Michelin-star food on Wednesdays because that’s the busiest night – you can do that with our data.
Yes – it’s insight.
It’s magic.
Ultimately, it’s about delivering value at the right moment – and once you’ve had a customer and you’ve provided value – the real question is: how much more can you provide?
There’s obvious opportunity – but it’s also a framing exercise.

How else can we serve?
How else do they want to be seen by the marina?
You might be able to deliver in different ways – but you don’t know they want it until the data tells you.

And as we gather that data, we’re also providing insight.
And you know the demand is already there.
They want systems, they want automation, they want data.

Let’s embrace this digital estate.
It’ll increase efficiency.
It’ll give them insight.
They’ll know exactly where their customers are coming from.

And that’s where we’re going.
And as I’ve always said – the platform or IP we’ve developed sits on top of the Microsoft tech stack.
That gives comfort to investors – because people trust Microsoft.
It’s a solid tech stack.

So I think – yes – we’re a couple of years ahead with what we’re developing.
And we’ve noticed over the past few years that customer and project delivery velocity is increasing – whether it’s understanding or just expectation.

Covid helped – strangely – because people got used to working remotely and using tech.
I think there’s a natural acceleration toward digital engagement.
And that helps.

But we’re building something really special.
We’re working in the industry.

We’re not in a garage building some tech and rolling it out and saying “here you go.”
We’re speaking to people in the industry – from harbourmasters to marina managers.
We’re speaking to British Marine.

Because they understand the needs and challenges.
And we go back to the dev team and build real use cases.
And we get our customers to test it too.

So we’ve got early engagement from some who want to help – and we go from there.

And so now, you’re entering the British market –
How do you approach that kind of behaviour – how do you first penetrate the market and then scale it?
What does that look like today?

Yes, I think we follow.
We’re part of British Marine in the Tai Ha.

I mentioned earlier I was in Fort Lauderdale, I’ve just returned from Dubai International Boat Show.
We’re speaking to people, understanding the challenges – and we apply that to the tech roadmap.

As mentioned earlier, we’ve got a marina product already.
We’ve got several marinas on our books.

So I think we’ll follow that natural growth.
We’ll follow the marinas’ growth.
But I’d say we’ll remain agile – we’ll never be finished.

I always use the quote from Walt Disney:
‘Disneyland will never be completed so long as there is imagination left in the world.’
And it’s the same with our platform.

So the platform is modular – it includes modular licences – but we continue to iterate.
I’ve got a new AI team.
We’re looking at what we can do with AI to make the user experience better.
So instead of going through menus, you can just ask, “What’s my next job tomorrow?” and it just does it.

If we can get that to the website, so a customer can ask “Do you have anything available for this size boat?” etc.
The beauty is that Microsoft is the one building the AI tech – and we’re just shaping it around marina processes.

Yes – it’s that idea of, well, this will become 90% of businesses everywhere.
Yes.

Marinas are incredibly specific – and there are amazing nuances that can say, “That’s the play. That’s the magic.”
So rather than forcing marina businesses into a mould – you’re saying: let’s adapt the platform a bit, based on deep industry understanding –
And that customisation makes it almost perfectly tailored to the customer.

Yes – that’s what we’re designed to do as an organisation.
We take the tech that’s out there, customise it based on input and feedback from the people who’ll use it, and deliver it to operators.

We don’t have a mandate that says we only serve boatyards or only serve marinas.
The relationship continues as they evolve.

I want to look forward –
What does this look like going forward?
I think the future is always exciting to talk about – especially for a company like yours, because your opportunity is huge.

Yes.
Yes.""**"