SUBHEAD Danaos Greek maritime software company Danaos has a new "Enterprise" edition of its software, "the first enterprise resource planning software designed for the maritime industry," the company claims, to be launched at this year's Posidonia exhibition in Greece in 2004. It will be made available to all existing clients free of charge, with a plan to upgrade all users to the new functionality before the end of the year. SUBHEAD Software-free ship If the vessel has a fast always on internet connection (such as a VSAT), then the software can be hosted in the office, with the vessel connecting with a web browser. This means that there are none of the traditional limitations imposed by the need to synchronise data between different databases or to visit the ship to implement software upgrades. Whenever anyone logs onto the system from wherever they may be, the vessel the office or an internet café, that person is using the same familiar interface with any personal settings preserved, and reading from the same identical database. The user is therefore not confined to a single computer to use the application, and even if the computer he is using crashes, he can simply start up again from another PC without losing any work or having to re-enter his personal settings. The disadvantage of this approach is dependent on communications cost and reliability. Danaos Shipping is pioneering the use of VSAT with the installation of the Broadband Maritime system on its 35 vessels. It is reselling the solution in a deal with Broadband Maritime, and the system has had further recent success in the Greek market with installations at General Maritime. At the recent Digital Ship Cyprus conference Dr John Coustas, managing director of Danaos Shipping, described the solution as 'a dream come true' and stated that the company had been saving from day one. The VSAT link is supporting the new software, which is likely to be optimal over this type of connection. The Enterprise Edition can be used over any other standard communications link, such as the Inmarsat Fleet pay by data (MPDS) service. For those customers who prefer to stick with circuit switched pay by the minute services, there is also the option of using the new functionality in a traditional client-server mode with data replication. The Enterprise Edition is certainly a forward looking application, and as such is going to appeal to the more technologically adept companies. But with the increasing availability of affordable fixed price always on communication via VSAT, the future may not be so far away. SUBHEAD Design and functionality The Enterprise Edition includes all the already comprehensive functionality of the existing Danaos suite of shipmanagement applications. However, it has benefited from a re-designed interface that improves appearance and makes it easier to use, and offers extended functionality including a wide range of reports and a graphical representation of vessel data. As Vasilis Avgerinos, research and development director, stresses, "the depth of functionality is very high and it is hard to get a feel for more than about 5% of it in a 1.5 hour demo." It uses a Windows-like interface with all open screens appearing as tabs in a bar along the bottom of the screen. A vertical task bar, that can be set to auto hide when not in use, reveals the available applications and control panels. A full range of functions is also available from standard drop-down menus at the top of the screen. When a user logs into the system, he is given access to those applications relevant to his role onboard. Opening a particular control panel shows various tasks to be performed, with information on each task including any alerts and a link through to the relevant screen to perform those tasks. A useful feature for navigating the software more easily is the "My favourites" panel, which allows you to create shortcuts to frequently performed tasks. Users can also simplify the display by deleting items from their view that are not relevant to the task in hand, without affecting the master database. These can easily be restored later. For example, the technical panel includes items such as the jobs record with deficiencies; check lists records and other information. The user can see a list of overdue tasks in each area, and can make changes to those tasks by clicking on an arrow that will open the relevant application. Individual tasks are kept track of through a system of job cards. These can be assigned to various crewmembers, who will be alerted to this when they next log in. External documents, such as an image or PowerPoint presentation, can be attached to each job to give further information or instructions. Jobs can also be communicated through the graphical interface, a powerful feature for highlighting areas of the vessel that need attention. A "Hot Spot" can be selected on the vessel image, the engine room for example, and this is linked to a part of the engine room such as the main engine, drilling down to a particular component. The image is then linked to a job card assigned to a crewmember, so that by clicking on the images the user can see work that needs to be completed in that area, whether in the entire engine room or on an individual component. Users onboard have a touch screen so they can select the relevant image. The same contextual filtering is possible also in text mode, using the component tree that lists all the parts on the vessel - selecting a particular component restricts the listing of jobs to those relevant to that component. However the graphical interface has the advantage of making it easy to see where work needs to be done. Requisitioning is served by an application that tracks the complete procurement cycle with selective visibility of different stages for the various personnel onboard and in the office. It supports functions such as warehousing, so that orders can be sent in a single consignment. The reports generator is a powerful tool for analysing fleet performance. To give one example, it can be used to implement predictive ordering. A report can be generated to look at spares usage onboard individual vessels or over the entire fleet. Through this, it can easily be seen which parts may be needed in the near future, and extras ordered in advance. If one vessel in getting through more items than others, this may be due to a problem and this can thus be investigated and resolved. It is also possible to look at the information for individual components, for example it is a simple matter to generate a report to see how main engine expenditure varies between different vessel. This can be drilled down to compare performance of individual components. SUBHEAD Teledata Marine Systems Teledata Marine Systems was founded in 1990 in India to develop marine, educational and internet software. As well as its flagship ShipManager product, it is involved with a wide range of software for crewing, flag state registry management, port security and port management, ship repair and construction yards and web-based training. The company has about 200 developers based in India, with offices in Singapore (now the worldwide HQ), United States, UK, Greece, Cyprus, Thailand and the Philippines and is listed on the Mumbai and Chennai stock exchanges. It announced an IPO in February of this year in order to raise extra capital for marketing, software development and a global network of offices. Teledata has been quietly developing one of the most comprehensive ranges of software in the business, and sees its position in the rapidly developing Indian IT market as a strong one. It has also worked closely with the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard and has completed a project for the Indian Navy in the computerisation of its weapon equipment depots. This experience, with different vessels being manned by mariners of several nationalities, led to the design of the user interface such that all information is selected out of drop-down lists, reducing the impacts of language barriers. Another major advantage is that Teledata provides a pre-populated database of equipment, spare parts and maintenance procedures, gathered from the manufacturers, that considerably speeds up the implementation procedure. ShipManager consists of eight interfaced modules that can be used together or purchased as stand-alone versions. These include planned maintenance (including inventory and spares management and condition monitoring), purchasing, fleet personnel, shipboard administration, ISM, ISPS, and accounting. There are also modules for managing breakdown and repair, dry dock and a fleet management system for the office. These modules can be added individually and integrated with the entire system at any time, allowing for scaling up of the system with changing requirements. One of Teledata's most recent new customers is Entrust Maritime, a Greek shipping company that is using the planned maintenance, repair and dry dock modules to manage two vessels. It says it will use the software to save time and money on preparing the dry-dock repair specifications, as well as in planning and executing the repairs more efficiently. Another addition is WW Overseas Shipmanagement based in Limassol, Cyprus, that is using the complete suite and hopes to enjoy significant benefits in the implementation of its ISM and ISPS compliance efforts. It has installed the software on five vessels, with help from the new Teledata agent in Cyprus, MIE Services, that recently joined the global network of offices and agents. SUBHEAD Logimatic Logimatic has been developing its maintenance and purchasing integrated solutions for the last 17 years in Denmark, and is now looking for a wider market. Although it has customers from industry, power plants, the educational sector, the military and service industries, it states that it is primarily dedicated to the maritime industry. So far, it has mainly received a following in Denmark and Germany, and has worked with companies such as J. Lauritzen and Dannebrog Rederi and BR Marine to develop its recent ePOS purchasing solution. The system was one of the first to integrate with Shipserv's TradeNet supplier network, and is currently in use on over 60 vessels. Its Logihold solution comprises purchasing (ePOS), PMS and office systems and each part can be used independently if desired. A recent customer, SvitzerWijsmuller, headquartered in Copenhagen, is one of the world's largest tugboat operators, operating a fleet of 240 sea-going units in 24 countries, and has been using ePOS since 2002 in its 25 independently operating purchasing offices. It was formed by the purchase of Dutch Wijsmuller by A/S Em. Z. Svitzer, part of the A. P. Møller Group, in 2001. Jesper A. Larsen, purchasing manager at SvitzerWijsmuller, comments on the success of the new software, "We moved from a situation in which orders were sometimes placed by phone to a local supplier direct from one of our ships to a system shared by offices in 24 countries. To save time and money and to create a better historical record, we wished to introduce a shared electronic purchasing system." "Another reason for choosing Logimatic's purchasing system is that it can relatively easily interconnect all the various financial systems we are using. In the long run, the change to an automatic and electronic method of endorsing and settling accounts will save considerable time in the payment of bills," he continues. The system is open and transparent, allowing everyone in the company to track the progress of an order, something that was not possible before with SvitzerWijsmuller's widely dispersed purchasing operation. The consolidation of purchasing also makes it easier to make deals with suppliers; an historic record of purchases and of prices can be send to A. P. Møller's common Group Procurement Co-ordination to be used in the negotiations of global contracts. ePOS is also fully integrated with the Shipserv procurement network, which has recently peaked over 200,000 transactions a month; as Shipserv comments, this is even more than many commentators were predicting in 1999 at the height of the e-procurement boom. ePOS uses the ShipLink purchasing tool onboard the vessels, and users can also gain access to information about purchase orders through the Internet. For several years, five of SvitzerWijsmuller's Danish vessels have been using another of Logimatic's software products, Logihold PMS, a program for the planned maintenance of a vessel, and this can communicate with the purchasing system. From next year, six new vessels fitted from birth with the maintenance system will be delivered and SvitzerWijsmuller has an option on eight more of the same type. Some modules in the PMS system are also web-enabled, allowing anyone with Internet access open, start, and close maintenance jobs without the Logihold software being installed. Logihold's third and final module, Logihold OS (Office System) co-ordinates the various databases involved in the office and on the vessels and maintains a record of activity. Logihold has an export function so that data can be exchanged between different units. Another customer, TransMar Supply, was formed by the merger of two shipping company's purchasing departments, German based Jüngerhans & Co., and Harren & Partner. It chose the Logimatic solution because the purchasing system could be implemented without prior installation of a planned maintenance system and because of its compatibility with Shipserv and the MTML language. It also cited the speed of installation of the system, which was accomplished in two meetings at the office, and its low training requirements as major benefits. Logimatic claims that users usually only require an 8 hour training session to get to grips with the system. SUBHEAD Resurgence Resurgence's Wave equipment analysis and maintenance planning software has achieved further success with the announcement that V.Ships is to integrate it with its own ShipSure planned maintenance system on a limited number of its technically managed vessels, in order to pilot the software. Wave uses a range of statistical analysis tools to identify maintenance trends and to increase the safety and reliability of equipment while reducing maintenance costs. Maintenance spending is linked to the criticality of the equipment, and prioritized according to the impact on operations, resulting in less chance of failure and downtime. Wave has recently been upgraded to Version 2003, Release 2 and has several new functions, including two more statistical equipment performance indicators, a risk matrix that allows customers to define the risk each piece of equipment poses, and a tool for assessing chronic failures. A key feature of Wave is its ability to compare equipment against industry benchmarks. The benchmarking indicators have been increased from one to seven allowing more detailed comparison of the same equipment across different fleets and different operation conditions. This makes it easier to predict failure and assist in identifying specific problems. James Bremner, VP business development at Resurgence, comments, "Industry benchmarking is coming along. "Companies are very interested in it and we are currently accumulating data in the Wave master database. It is not commercially available yet." Wave has been involved since the outset with the very important effort of trying to convince shipping companies to share their equipment performance data. "Only a handful of companies we have talked to have indicated a reluctance to share their data with the MDB," he says. "The security and confidentiality of their data is a concern, but they see the benefits." One of the new features, the risk matrix, is a tool for assessing the impact of failure of a piece of equipment. The various risks, safety, environment, mission criticality and financial are combined together with weightings determined by the user to give an overall risk coefficient. This value can then be used to determine how the maintenance budget is allocated, with the most mission critical components receiving priority. Combined with other statistical performance indicators, such as the estimated time to failure, this is a powerful tool for optimising maintenance allocation and spending. The new version also includes a standard Pareto Cost Analysis, giving the user the ability to view preventive maintenance, repairs and total maintenance cost drivers through the 80/20 Pareto distribution (80% of the spending goes on 20% of the equipment). This further helps with prioritisation of resources through identification of the most problematic issues that need to be dealt with first. Resurgence is also continuing its work on integrations with major maintenance packages, having already integrated with Maximo (market leader in industrial plant planned maintenance), Ulysses Systems' Task Assistant and several in house systems. SUBHEAD Xantic's AMOS Xantic's AMOS application has not received much press in recent years, but a new installation on the biggest passenger vessel ever built, and recently launched AMOS pocket, for interfacing with a PDA, may spark renew interest. AMOS is the most prolific maintenance and purchasing system, with around 7,000 installations worldwide, and this installation saw development of its largest ever database to track all the technical and hotel vessel equipment, suppliers, manufacturers and spare parts. The vessel installation is integrated with an office application that allows the QM2 to be operated as part of the overall Cunard fleet. According to Xantic, "This allows for a lower overall cost of ownership thanks to reduced maintenance costs, inventory order volume efficiency, reduced inventory requirements, 'just in time' delivery of goods (minimising warehouse costs) and cost savings in the purchasing and logistics processes." Cunard is also using Xantic's Hotel defects reporting system, part of the AVMS (Advance Vessel Management System) module, that allows problems onboard to be tracked. According to Steve Storey, director technical operations of Cunard Line, this, "facilitates efficient management of our maintenance schedules and coordination of resources. The minimum disruption to our guests that results is paramount to our operation." AMOS Pocket is a tool designed for officers onboard to be able to access data while on the move, and to make entries straight into the system without relying on notes that have to be typed in later. It has four main modules: Requisition Work, Report Work, In/Out Of Stock and Inventory Control. Xantic says it is very easy and quick to use, taking just ten seconds to switch on and be up and running. It claims that AMOS Pocket is likely to pay for itself in just four to eight months, through time savings and better accuracy of data. Synchronisation with the main database is achieved via the GSM/GPRS link or by docking the PDA at the office. SUBHEAD Shipnet ShipNet is launching its full-scale fleet management solution this year. It has been developing software solutions for the shipping industry for around 35 years and has over 300 installations. ShipNet also has a long history of implementing and delivering procurement software fully integrated with all the ShipNet solutions (accounting, invoicing, operations and on board solutions), as well as integration to the major world wide e-commerce portals like ShipServ. ShipNet provides several solutions, which can run in a fully integrated environment or as standalone solutions. The fleet management solution covers the full range of functionality including procurement, accounting, occurrences, safety, equipment, manuals, documents and forms. This is divided into onboard and shore systems as appropriate. The safety and ISM module handles non-conformance, with each vessel recording occurrences happening on board, in accordance with a company's procedures. Each incident is distributed to shore personnel, who the handle and evaluate the company's countermeasures. Existing manuals are converted into an electronic format, with structures supporting the requirements for handling and distribution. Manuals can be updated and distributed to individual vessels or across the fleet, and users can search entries on subject or keywords. ShipNet will host its 8th user conference this year in Geiranger on the west coast of Norway, 26 - 29 April. This will include interactive workshops, presentations and opportunities for discussions. According to the company, "All types of ShipNet users will have the possibility to learn more about their current ShipNet related work processes. Parts of the conference will also focus on the next generation of ShipNet software" Website List www.danaos.gr www.teledata-usa.com www.logimatic.dk www.resurgence-software.com www.xantic.com www.shipnet.no