MAIN HEAD Posidonia report DECK HEAD At Posidonia, there were plenty of exciting developments in ship-shore communications and software. This is what we found the most interesting France Telecom Inmarsat Fleet software http://www.francetelecom.com France Telecom has a very innovative online interface to help shipping companies manage the amount of money they spend on ship-shore communications. Each user has a dedicated home page, which can be accessed by authorised users both onboard the ship and in the office, over the internet. From the home page, the user can filter the data protocols which can be exchanged between ship and shore; for example, it can be specified that the seafarers cannot exchange HTML data between ship and shore (which would prevent seafarers from surfing the internet). Users can access full traffic records for the past 3 months, and find out which data has been exchanged between ship and shore, who was using the service (if users have different authorisations). SUBHEAD Skyfile France Telecom has developed Skyfile, a free ship-shore e-mail software package for running onboard. It can send e-mails and mobile phone text messages to and from the ship; users do not have to pay for the software (as they do with other similar products such as AMOS), although the service does restrict them to only sending data by France Telecom. The software has functionality to send a short note over Inmarsat -C indicating when there is e-mail waiting to be collected over Inmarsat -B, to save the vessel from having to dial in over Inmarsat -B to find out if there is any e-mail waiting. The software can change HTML e-mails to text e-mails and remove viruses and attachments, if the user specifies. It is also possible to set up split billing, so charterers, owners and individual seafarers can all pay for the individual e-mails that they send. SUBHEAD Xantic and CEO manager http://www.xantic.net Maritime software and communications company Xantic has launched CEO manager, a tool for shipping company CEOs to monitor how much they are spending on ship maintenance. The software tool takes data from Xantic's maintenance and repair software packages, running onboard the vessels, which are also accessible by office superintendents. The CEO Manager tool takes only the most important information, such as the maintenance costs for individual vessels, or which engine components require the least maintenance, so this information can be used as a basis for purchasing decisions. They can see if any specific ships have particularly high maintenance costs and measure different factors. Vector Systems for commercial roll out http://www.vector.gr Vector Informatics Systems SA of Athens, Greece, is now putting its maritime software on general sale. The company has a fully integrated maritime software system which is used by shipping companies Eletson and Stelmar. The software was originally developed independently for Eletson and Stelmar, over the past three years; the company was originally established in 1997. Eletson and Stelmar did not, themselves, collaborate in the development of the software; Vector has produced software for them individually as separate projects. But now, as a result of the software development, it has put together a product suitable for general sale. Vector currently has 35 employees, of which 30 are technical and 5 are in sales. SUBHEAD What it does The software covers procurement, safety management, maintenance, messaging and shipping company administration, with modules both onboard ship and on shore. There are no accounting modules, because Vector considered that there was nothing particularly specific about maritime accounting software which justified the development of maritime specific software. The messaging system is a special feature, carrying telex, fax, filing and structural messaging. To reduce costs Vector did not build the software from scratch, it has just developed a plug in to Microsoft Outlook so it can put together all of these messaging forms. The software is workflow based, gearing around helping employees manage their business processes. Every body is provided with a series of tasks to complete. Vector has its own messaging and document management system called K-File. It can be used to manage all of the communications within a shipping company. Depending on user rights, individuals can see all the messages sent by other people in the shipping company, and the whole system can be backed up every night. SUBHEAD Shipboard application The shipboard module is used to display, enter and send data from the ship. Seafarers can manage their delivery of spare parts and receive changes to ISM data. They can order things, do the payroll and manage maintenance. The shipboard application weighs just under 1 megabyte; it is written in Javascript. The company put a great deal of effort into keeping all shipboard software as light as possible so it can be sent to the ship by satellite. "We turned every bite around before implementing it," the company says. Updates to the software can be automatically installed just by sending updates to the ship by e-mail; in a recent update, Vector deployed updates on 26 Stelmar vessels at sea over a weekend. Vector asserts that the software is so easy to install and use that there is really no need to have any information technology skills onboard. The ambition is to make the software as easy to use as a cashpoint machine. For ship-shore e-mail, the software integrates with Rydex and Xantic (AMOS) ship-shore e-mail software, which keep the e-mailing costs as low as possible. It can work with both IMPA and ISSA catalogues. Thrane and Thrane's Fleet scorecard www.tt.dk At the time of Posidonia (early June), Thrane and Thrane said it had sold around 100 Inmarsat Fleet terminals. So far, 50 to 60 per cent of these have gone into the yachting market, but there are also installations on bulk carriers, the US Coast Guard and military ships. Much of the interest is in the US; US customers are not yet using the ISDN connections so much, because the standard is less well known in the US, but are more interested in using MPDS, Thrane and Thrane says. SUBHEAD Maersk offers seafarers free e-mail http://www.maersk.com Maersk Data has developed its own ship-shore e-mail system, which is already running onboard 250 Maersk vessels. The software has also been sold to the Royal Danish Navy. The software avoids the set-up used by many other software systems, where the vessel is required to dial up into a shore side mailbox to see if there are any messages. Instead, the ship is telephoned from the shore when there are a specific number of messages, or messages noted as urgent. Maersk seafarers are gradually being given free e-mail services onboard ships, with their own e-mail address, their name@maerskcrew.com, which they can carry with them from ship to ship. Each seafarer can log on themselves, avoiding the problems of captains having to pin e-mails to notice boards around the ship. The service currently carries around 150,000 e-mails every month, which works out at 40 e-mails per user. Attachments are not currently allowed. SUBHEAD TeamTALK e-mails to snail mail http://www.teamtalksatellite.com UK company TeamTALK Satellite has developed a partnership with superletter.com, a company which accepts messages by e-mail and puts them in the post. Using TeamTALK ship-shore messaging products, seafarers can write messages onboard the vessel which are sent to shore over Inmarsat and then forwarded to superletter, from where they are printed out and put in the post. The service means that seafarers can communicate from onboard ship with family members who do not have e-mail and internet access. SES launches purchasing module http://www.vardakis.net PHOTO: Mr Vardakis.jpg Caption: Achilles Vardakis, SES founder Piraeus, Greece, maritime software company Shipmanagement Expert Systems (SES) has launched a purchasing module in March this year, to enable shipowners to talk to suppliers by e-mail. They can send request for quotes as Excel attachments, with the replies imported automatically into the shipping company system. Companies pay to purchase the software; they do not pay any transaction fee. SES is headquartered in Piraeus, Athens, and claims 60 per cent of its customers are outside Greece, with systems being used by 150 customers, running onboard 3,000 vessels. The company's CEO and founder, Achilles Vardakis, was previously director of Thenamaris Shipmanagement since 1973, which he left to set up SES in 1987, making it one of the first maritime software companies to set up business. SES claims to be the first maritime software company to build systems using Windows in 1994, and claims to have the first ISM management software in 1990. Greek maritime software company SES continues to grow. In December 2001, the company implemented a shipmanagement software tool for Flota Petrolera Ecuadoriana (FLOPEC), a shipping company in Ecuador, with the work including 6,000 maintenance jobs and over 35,000 spare parts. In July 2001, it announced that ship operator Suisse Atlantique of Lausanne was using the system. In July it also established an office in Limassol, Cyprus, to add to its offices in Piraeus and Hong Kong. The company has two divisions, one making shipmanagement software, and the other making logistics and defence software. The shipmanagement software runs both onboard the vessel and ashore, with systems for crewing, technical, financial, maintenance, managing spares and provisions. The company has had installations with the UK Royal Navy since 1996, providing logistics support. It has installations with the Hellenic (Greek) coastguard. SUBHEAD Maritime Chain http://www.maritimechain.com Maritime Chain, based in Singapore, is developing a business offering various different services to the maritime industry. The company currently attracts most of its revenue from acting as an agent for the Cambodian Ship Registry; vessels can register online. The company has just opened an office in China, and converted its website into Chinese. Other activities are acting as Inmarsat accounting authorities and providing IT support to shipping companies. It was recently appointed an agent to Greek maritime software company Danaos. SUBHEAD Bluefinger www.bluefinger.com UK company Bluefinger, is entering the market for provide satellite tracking systems for shipping companies. The company already has a software package for tracking fishing boat, and is an established UK business providing tracking systems for vehicles. The company bought satellite communications company Racal Thales. The data generated by vessels is delivered to the shipping company's data server, and from there they can do what they want with it, although Bluefinger does provide software they can use to manage the data, presenting ship positions on C-MAP electronic charts. The shipping company software can be configured to sound an alarm if the shipboard tracking unit is unplugged, or if the ship is out of a certain area, or if the ship stops moving or goes below a certain speed. It can be set up to send position reports every 10 minutes when the vessel is in a critical area. Alarms can be sent to superindendents by SMS (text) message so they do not need to be in the office. Bluefinger is investigating the possibility of satellite container tracking, what it calls a bit of a "holy grail," but does not yet have a solution.