DIGITAL SHIP ATHENS REPORT BEGIN ME - s Anybody read the business book "crossing the chasm"? it demonstrates the "bell curve" of how technology - any technology - is adopted - from the early adopters, the beginning of the mass market, the end of the mass market, the laggards - and explains how the technology market place is different for all of them. To explain how this works in terms of cellphones - do you remember your friend's dad who had a cellphone in his car in 1980? He's an early adopter. Most people started getting them around 1996 - this is when the mass market started to take off - most people had a mobile phone by around 2000 - and then there are still a few laggards (your mother, your boss) you don't have one. The challenge, outlined in the book, is getting from one stage to another- there are always plenty of people interested in learning about new technology, but most wise shipping companies want to be at the start of the mass market - ahead of most of their competitors, but behind the people who used it first and discovered all the problems. At Digital Ship Athens, we got a feeling that there are some technologies which really have made it big time, and are really used or respected by the mass majority. Names which came up a few times were ChartCo, the data broadcast service for ships for chart corrections and weather information; Purplefinder, the ship tracking and ship security alert service; Q88, the tool to automatically fill out questionnaires; and Newslink, the seafarer news service. V-SAT communications is moving along the curve from the innovators to early adopters, with bigger customers, including BP, seriously considering it for their whole fleets. Broadband Maritime entered the maritime industry two years ago with an innovation many found shocking, or even unbelievable - VSAT for just $2,000 a month including equipment lease, service and satellite airtime. Broadband Maritime has been slow to sign up real customers - so far it counts Danaos, General Maritime and Global Marine Systems - but the reaction it has received from the industry has changed from being ignored to being paid large amounts of attention. Digital Ship understands that some of its competitors have been quietly trying to convince shipping companies that the system does not work - surely an indication that Broadband Maritime could be a compelling answer to shipping's communication needs. A new development at Digital Ship conferences - there were widespread attacks from all sectors of the maritime community about the prices they are expected to pay for software, particularly for small requested upgrades; in particular software companies were accused of relating their prices to the size of the customer, not the amount of work required to make the software. On the other hand, most shipping companies want software built just for them show little patience with off the shelf products - and customising software to one specific client is extremely expensive. Probably, there are too many maritime software companies and none of them particularly profitable, and there is a clean-out just around the corner. There is plenty of frustration from shipping companies about software companies which sell them stuff then come up with a bunch of hidden extra charges; there is also frustration from software companies about shipping companies which buy just on price, not looking at the total lifecycle cost of owning the software, which quality software houses say they can reduce. TOM REKLITIS - HEWLETT PACKARD We are here to support you in your aspirations. We are looking forward to being part of your team. We some of you we are already partners - with the rest of you we'd like to just compete with the other technology vendors. The technology should meet your needs and help you with your different roles. Your role is very difficult. This is a very traditional sector of the market. We are proud of our shipping. Only a small part of the market is investing in computers - but a large part is investing in communications. Your ole is very difficult for someone to come up with a variety of needs. Investing in this fast moving sector is The industry you are working for is moving in big sudden steps. It comes to you to implement new technology, new solutions, reliably and very fast. We will be with you - we want you to be a reliable source of services for your company and we will help you big shipping clients: P+O, superfast ferries, Eletson. The oil and gas market is overlapping with shipping HP has spent many years offering services around the world. IBM guy - experience and cost reduction is becoming a culture in Greece Change in business, change in technology open source, XML, web services architecture. Business and technology are converging to produce innovation. This is an enabler for new business designs. On demand business. A new business model for the dynamic enterprise New business design/. Needs business flexibility and IT simplification. Business flexibly around integration. IT simplification - dynamic infrastructure management. Interoperability and open standards - make all these things work together Companies are asking for new flexible ways for deploying technology MICROFOFT HELLAS We believe AMMITEC is a forum that can shape the needs of our industry. We strongly believe that IT and comms are a core element of progress in this sector We are committed to remain at the forefront of IT development - We can help you reduce operation expenses. We can enable new offerings. Web services and wireless technology. Barwil - moved 250 offices from a paper forms system to an electronic system. and 1700 customer companies. Cost has gone down by 25 per cent. US navy - has systems to do telemedicine in real time. Newport News Shipbuilding - have developed dot net application - it manages the whole cycle of building out of one application. GEORGE- OTESAT - Otesat is INMARST - Fleet 128 kbps - starts around Q1 205. Uses Fleet 77 hardware - spot beam service. Fill gaps in the spot beam - eg South America, ships going from Suez eastwards. With new spacecraft, the I4 is ready to go Thermal vacuum testing completed F2 is under text. I-4 - F3 - being put together. 1st Q1 2005, 2nd Q2 2005. 432 kbps packet data - simultaneous voice and IP. Should be able to evolve for fleet to maritime B-GAN should be benefits within 10 weeks of satellite launch MARY ELLEN - Can we afford not to be connected? IT is our competitive edge The challenge is trying to get Not being connected - slow response too changes - more fuel consumed - more vessel visits- more "workarounds" in the office - excess inventory and spares - high bills. The goal is to have all of the vessels joined. P&O Nedlloyd Caracas has a Broadband Maritime antenna - one of the Danaos vessels 2.4 m dish in C-band Totally global - no holes - 70 degrees N to 70 degrees South. Redundant satellites- can look at the vessel from 2 directions. We guarantee the service level full maintenance contract installation takes 6 hours - don't have to interrupt the schedule 24 by 7 remote support strong severe weather performance3 Real time shipmanagement - note optimisation Reduce fuel consumption, part clearance, spares management, equipment monitoring - one of the favourite of our customers Live vessel positioning Show position of all vessels in the fleet. Crew retention is a very good reason to use the system - cheap crew calling cards. Internet and private e-mails sent at no extra cost. Danaos - installed 7 vessels - so far out of 32. General Maritime - we've installed 1 and doing the next 5 Global Marine Systems. Monthly fees = 5 years $1995, 3 years, $2500 Customer owns the equipment at the end of it - then its $950 per moth. Ours is a very simple package - 10.30 - Yiannis Serafim - Marlink - Inmarsat is largest Inmarsat airtime provider for the 5th consecutive quarter - VSAT pyramid - cost decreasing comms maturity decreasing - market size increasing. Oil - cruise/ferry - naval ships - yachts / fishing in 2003 - installed 75 Ku, 12 C band has 56 C band and 255 (755 check?) Ku bands in total Get assistance of onshore specialists whenever you need to We are constantly monitoring and enabling different market segments integrate central database We want to give an answer to every request. Use it to send DGPS data. Cellular roaming trials - taking place with Brittany Ferries, P+O, Minoan Lines Antennas from SeaTel, Orbit, DMS C-band 2.4m - Ku 1-1.2m Everything is well thought out - there are solutions for everything - Reference Color Line, Fred Olsen. All Minoan Lines vessels have VSAT. Anders Utkilens. 17 vessels trading in Europe Things become predictable in cost Sealink access - to address the mass maritime transportation market. 4 phone and fax lines Receive 256 kbps = transmit 32 kbps - pepaid service. 15 installations in the last 5 months. Equally shared between Ku and C band Budget control - operation efficiency. Global $4800 a month. Europe $3000 a month. RICHARD NORDSTROM real time centralised data All of this needs real time, robust communications to make it work really well Boeing has come to the maritime market and we are here to stay we are adding a new aircraft every 2 weeks. Munich to LA, Tokyo, Vancouver and San Francisco Some of us like to get in an aeroplane, pick up a book and say don't bother me that is getting harder to do in today's global market We've been listening to you a lot We have not done the talking, we have done the listening we are here to provide solutions Teekay trial will end mid December We will put together an honest report I hope they will say, its going to be tough to get it off the boat.. once they have it they will not give it up 128 kbps video conference - the quality is nasty - you really have got to go for 384 We will offer a standard VOIP package. We're going to provide web management tools. Almost totally real time billing - you know what vessels are doing what when. These are tools we're going to provide you We’re not GMDSS capable - we will go 72, 73 degrees N, and quite far south. will have northern hemisphere by mid 2005. Early 2006 southern hemisphere - to bottom of Africa and around Australia. Should cover 95 per cent of vessel movement as per Amver data Not sure about south pacific We have our own customised waveform. Antenna will be 1m - we're doing trial with 0.6m. We're able to pump 1.5 mbps in heavy weather. We're talking about comms cost. For same $, you get more data, more time, TV, good quality management tools crew access rebates Voice and crew call pricing will be extremely competitive Sat As are going away. People want to do condition based monitoring You get told you have an issue before it happens POPPY Crew communications - as the rest of the world has moved to e-mail - so should shipping Cheap voice capability is vital - not all crew family have access to e-mail. Messages should be secure from outside interface. We were looking to replace our crew communication privacy was not considered a major priority at the time. Enhancement of quality of life at sea - we looked at systems to connect crews with the outside world, eg sending them news. Cost effectiveness - the system has to be cost effective, pay only for what you use Most of the messages between ship and shore were quite small. Most ship shore messages are 3-5 kb Crew said - the important factors are cost - $1.5 per minute is considered reasonable. No hidden usage costs. Usability - they wanted a system easy to use. Private - they wanted to know no-one else onboard could access e-mails and make calls in private. We were happy to allow crew access to ships equipment - so long as it did not have an undue burden. We discovered there were very few products that could fulfil our needs. Telaurus did not seem to meet most if not alll of our communications needs - for real time communications, total transparency of pricing, full virus checking of 484 messages sent in September - 37 were sent by the crew. Crew email is 21 per cent of total messages sent by ship.- 22 per cent of total bytes sent. No of bytes always increasing. 43 mb in September. We are currently evaluating the Newslink service - this education side of Newslink fits in with our politics to support crew training. FRANCE TELECOM first in Iridium prepay - 2nd on post paid, in the market we sell mainly through channels Crew calling - calls made from crew to family crew feels less stress - can avoid the problems on the ship shipowners want to control costs You can receive a virtual PIN within an hour Seafarers request - billing per second, flat rate, announce the remaining time in mins and second, not in unit. No call setup, no handling fees. Connection fees clearly announced Crew can choose how many minutes he wants to reload. Seafarers request their family can get in touch with them Voice mail- family can leave a message on the seafarers' card - they have to leave a pin code. Crew can see if they have a message - they are not just charged if they listen. Crew can check if family have left a message without being charged. 70 per cent of calls are made on super quiet time. Crew wants to understand what they what they are told - we have cards in English, Spanish and French - we could implement Greek if we were request5ed - costs 30 seconds of call time, you can leave 20 second message people pay cost of calling France PAUL JOLLEY when at sea, I was most concerned with getting news from home - most post calls (42 per cent) are 12 - 24 hours most voyages (27 per cent) are 10-20 days long 51 per cent of voyages are 10- days and over average length of stay on ship for crew is 8-12 months - for offices 4-6 months crews spend 75 per cent of their time at sea. Top concerns are loneliness, morale, stress and pressure. Multinational crew -heightens cultural isolation - Methods of communication - letter, voice, data. Until today - systems with no privacy - Administration -set up system when seafarer starts, delete it when he leaves vessel. A few companies provide crew e-mail free of charge.. the majority provide no crew communication at all. SMS - text messaging is the fastest moving message format worldwide We have system simple to use by crew Rydex system - no administration - special e-mail address and GSM number for crew they keep for eternity. Not HTML, no attachments. services is simple to sue. Send text message for as little as $0.05 cents. NEWSLINK - 32 newsletters issued every day international news is different for different countries - eg the pope having a slip has differing importance to seafarers from the Philippines to Indonesia. STEPHEN B I want to discuss the viability of GSM at sea. GSM is 3/4s of the 3world People want to use GSM everywhere. BT did fit GSM on ships with P+O cruises - I was with BT> Altobridge is a cost effective way using GSM. With our IPR - the cellphone can see the remote site, but the satellite link is down. GSM base station is A4 size - GSM cloud around ship. GSM is viable - 1.1 bn users can't be wrong. Proven technology - systems arrived in aero industry. From GSMs point of view - we are a vendor not a service provider. System knows exactly where it is in relation to license areas it switches off. What ever you can do on land you can do on sea - eg blackberries. PANEL - RICHARD N - with 1 m - you get a good efficiency - 1m isn't seen to be a large size. other vendors are using a more commercially available technology Some of our items are very specific to what we're doing YIANNIS- its Ku and C band - we're talking about regional Ku - mm wavelength - there's a limit to how much RICHARD N our long term approach is bandwidth on demand. As you software demands greater rates - to provide high quality service on demand. Bandwidth on demand - keeps the cost down. J LAURITZEN OPERATIONS MANAGER - from an operations point of view, we want to communicate seamlessly with our ships. We have to send as much time controlling - checking people received stuff - that wastes a lot of our time - we want a positive response that its been received at the other end. We want to be sure our ships can communicate with one another. ADONIS VIOLARIS - with current communications cost, we don't wish to have the bandwidth. BP guy - I disagree - although we didn't need 2 mbps to ships, I think to have always on is very important. We're probably already spending more than always on and not getting the benefits. That kind of service is of benefit to BP. I believe the ship should be part of the office. get the same benefits that we have. We haven't realised the full benefits A lot of benefit still - ANOTHER GUY (AB maritime I think) - for simple e-mail - mini-M is more than enough VIVIAN - do you need more bandwidth or more reactivity? you can have the reactivity on MPDS. BP - the problem is managing the vessels - remote auditing gets too difficult. ADONIS - its not the technology - its the cost. RICHARD N - I would rather say - always available - like a cellphone - if you're not talking, its not on, but you're available More bandwidth going to the vessel and back - you can hook at ERP systems if you have You can start to use more common programs J LAURITZEN GUY - I don't want messages saying I received it - I want to see the ones they haven't acted on - I don't want more e-mails CHRIS INSALL - will the 432 kbps MPDS be enough? to what extent will this be required? The packet capability has not been exploited by the maritime market. Most engine manufacturers aren't aware of the different possibilities out there MARINE SOFTWARE AESM use the system Based in Calcutta, India Maintenance - noon reporting. Used on the Anglo Eastern vessels. Most of the ships in Hong Kong and Singapore. KUMAIR NAIR not the ships managed out of the UK User friendly - I designed the whole thing myself - I do a bit of programming. Not condition based - just preventative maintenance. send reports back by e-mail - Program running in the office- automatically updated - save on the ship also. PMS - $2,500 per ship, ship data is $1,000 per ship, or$3,000 per ship for both. Noon reporting - log abstracts Monthly performance report. Part of the 4log. We have a system - you can put in the previous data - just change a bit here and there Straightforward system Data tool that runs on the ship. Engine log, operation data, engine performance report, noon report, sea passage report. port log 10 days operation report, engine performance report, main engine calibration report, PMS status report. Monthly maintenance - work that's being done. Spare part inventory These are the things they want on the ship. log abstract PMS data included in the cost. main engine pumps are more or less the same for all ships. PMS is ready within 7 days to use. Staff hardly has to do anything. We've started trying to sell to other customs. APJ SHipping in India - Varun Shipping Bombay- Pratibha shipping - Transworld (Dubai) - Nev Shipping in Hamburg - all installed in less than 6 months. TELEDATA SPYROS - AB MARITIME we use the software they have 250 people I said this is my needs can you make it I was a small size company - they did it. we have managed to develop a completely paperless vessel and office. Starts with ISM - all my formas was with DHL - now it comes all online - puts me in full control of my fleet. Re a special system - it is very difficult to familiarise people Ships is based on experience - I was not trying to do only my job. But combine the experience with the technology. Procedures, tasks are the same. There is nothing new for us. The information I got is unlimited. Mr Nagajaran showed all the technology on the vessel. MR NAGAJARAN - we do develop standard products. it is also the need of the customers It was a challenge 5 ships AB maritime has been using it for 8 months. There is room for improvement - but this is what we do - we develop this software for any company. AB GUY It works the way I want it to work We were talking about if you have a Pilipino master, you sign him to go to China, its quite hard to familiarise him We have a manning agent - but you can never be shore. We 're talking about a learning module - it could be useful, we don't know - we just put some ideas on paper. NAGAJARN - Teledata has agreement with Seafarer Maritime Academy - the seafarer gets a certificate of competency Web based product - certificate of competency - we develop the content and give them the exam management system People can train remotely structure based around the STCW regulation We had educational products - lots of different solutions New customer - adria maritime, Italy. TRANSPARENCY - ACHILLES CHOURSOGLOU 5 VLCCs, 8 tankers, 6 bulk carriers. OCIMF - is a voluntary association of oil companies From the early 90s, when inspection of tankers began. SIRE - ship inspection report vIQ - vessel inspection questions - 175 questions The only way to send comments to OCIMF is by fax operator comments are related to the VIQ - after the receipt of the operator comments OCIMF says - reports lose their value after 6 months - I can't understand why they don't have a specific number of inspections per year, or specific expiry time. Eg 2/3 inspections per year. Vessel Particulars Questionnaire (VPQ) - avoid repeated questions and reduce inspection times VPQs are submitted electronically to SIRE. Submission of VPQs by tanker operators - looks to be almost obligatory At a first glance this concept looks to be working well. I can think of a number of improvements. VPQs are submitted by analogue dialup modem. Operator comments are submitted only by fax. OCIMF content is accessed through a website using necessary logins. Why don't they use a safe internet connection than use a dialup system? Have a special interface applications - avoid duplicate questions. 700 questions is a very large number of questions to submit and update. Our staff are not very happy to type it in. Why send comments only by fax? If we have to transmit so much fax - ship operator has to spend time and money. He must be sure all comments are received correctly. The information technologies are here. MIKE K - we have the same technical problems as you do - we wonder why we have to put the same information in multiple databases. DIMITRIS? OCIMF - how it effects us in the industry. We have to assess ourselves on parameters OCIMF thinks is important. Its a self assessment guide- aimed to prevent oil companies from visiting the office. OCIMF is not stating what IT you need - only one part of it says what IT you need. That's planned maintenance. OCIMF is asking you to prove you're competent. In a spill / class action claim - they want you to show you're a competent operator. The material has to be there, it has to be there promptly. Ian Hunter - head of Exxon Vetting, has been on roadshow - he ask the trick question - do you have a compliance culture in your company? Greeks are smart and they didn't answer. But he said -"that's not what I Want - I want a continuous improvement culture." There's a lot of confusion saying that OCIMF requires more software But the answer is the decision to install software is the biggest of all - you need an IT department, servers and hardware. Even if you have an IT department OCIMF is pushing you to install a planned maintenance system. That's a compelling reason to use software There's an element of efficiency in instant having something which helps all the different department. Most people who understand their processes - say software helps the industry. Why is it not there in shipping. If you are going to take a software decision you have to analyse the gains you're going to make from it you have to know what process you're trying to improve before you start installing software. A lot of the benefit from software is not actually from the process itself you have a bunch of human beings involved in the process - how do they perform better using software If you want a superintendent to get involved you've got to consider he's a risk manager and opportunity manager. he's managing resources in a very complex way. The superintendents don't give much credence - to software - they don't believe its going to change their day. if they're going to use the system - it had better be up to speed for them. Estimating ROI - look at the process ROI is never done in the shipping industry. ROI helps you determine the appropriate budget. Determine which sets of functionality need the most refinement. Who are the highest risk users. explain what the ROI is. My belief is we need best of breed software That's integrated perfectly. That's the holy grail. In shipping - people can get by without software - it has to be liked by the department. SHipping is not K-MART it is performance of human beings you are applying. If you are using A PMS system - you have to embrace it. onboard users are expensive. A lot of bank managers are only just starting by e-mail. Consider what fits a person's working pattern - no vendor in a competitive environment will produce the best of everything. I don't think any software is a very good performance report tool. EG Microsoft e-mail destroyed filing in the company. it does a good job. integration within a department is important. Difficult if the same person has to use 2 separate modules. You get a whole suite of products from SAP - doesn't mean they all work together. In manufacturing, software is used to direct the process. Reports and trailing indicators the thing is to have data that's real and true. software lifecycle costs - license fees, data, deployment, training, maintenance, in house maintenance. usage costs are the most costly. Watch how long it takes someone to use the software. software is a very complex system. Its like the specification of a ship. You can't decide what you’re buying from the specification. You don't buy a ship from a ship specification. Choose on reputation - you have to have a reputation. The question is - how does it roll out in use. You have to ask specific questions to users of software - eg concurrent user experience. Does the manufacturer upgrade. OCIMF - means if you don't use any software - its harder to comply. You need t be able to demonstrate that you did it will - you need PETER A - clients never give information to calculate ROI - maybe to talk about KPIs - if you can measure if you can measure how long from requisition to goods arriving PETER A - is there any consensus on what transparency is? some of the benefits of transparency just more information - a way to catch a party out - or indiscriminate disclosure of business information to anyone with a web browser. transparency - is full, accurate and timely disclosure of information to the right people - Wallem used definition a way to ensure that all parties are working with the same information. Transparency should enable joint ownership of data and process. TransparentSea - the system has 3 competents - Condition reporting over a vessel's lifetime - you need to show where the various photos were taken on the ship's plan. By viewing condition reporting over a vessel's lifetime public key infrastructure - only the owner of the data Transparent Sea - there are a lot of stakeholders with different objective. Nicholas Saverys from Exmar called for a harmonised inspection scheme. Peter Swift mentions the industry should work together to avoid problems of competition. LISRC say - this has helped the administration make better decisions. Port state control will become more proactive to come up with a raison d'etre of their existence when funding is going to EMSA. At a recent meeting they called on industry to sponsor a scheme to harmonise PSC inspector standards through training PSC announces crackdown in advance - it has panel to review contested detentions. If PSC inspections were based more on harmonised antenna - they had a better idea of what to look for - it would be better at killing substandard ships. ANDERS Airs is a good tool to enhance safety onboard - Meteorological organisations are starting to put out live data in real time. Makes entrances in narrow ports safer and a lot easier to handle. Collision is a major part of all accidents that happen. Panama Canal - makes it less time consuming - easier to handle passage through the canal. St Lawrence seaway - you have some kind of systems operation. AIS Live see ship movements in real time on the web AIS receivers are put all along strategic places. Get the identity of the ship Is this something really terrible My neighbour who is a shipbroker says, this is nice, it helps me, but its not vital. operation managers on front line say - this is OK - but we know where our ships are and we know where our competitors are without this system. AM Nomikos put information on there home page anyway. How ports can make their operators more efficient. The systems being built up along coastlines AIS data - gets statistics about ship movements Use of AIS in aids to navigation the real place to present AIS data is together with electronic charts the time when shipowners will start to benefit and see the use is when they implement the systems the way it was intended. Training - the AIS training requirement is not cl3ear - it has to be addressed lots of problems with AIS are that it is not working in the proper way installation costs more than equipment. There is not sufficient training for crews In Persian Gulf are many female operators who don't get response on radio because they are women - this might sound silly but its the truth. MIKE K - if I didn't have information about my competitors in the area, I might see myself as at a disadvantage in negotiating ANDERS - it will definitely change - I’m not saying its right or wrong. Frontline say its not a big concern. DIMITIRS - I asked an oil trader what he was doing before he installed Reuters - he said we were making money - when we installed Reuters he had 3 people looking at the screen all day. Mike K - I would like a level playing field. Peter A - one company gives al visitors Purplefinder positions on the website but it showed 65 per cent of the fleet. MARION FROM INMARST - AIS is always resisted by shipping companies for security reasons - is that a valid concern? ANDERS B - the answer for me is clear- AIS definitely provides an advantage for pirates. In Malacca Straits you can see where there are ships on your radar without AIS. Its easier to target pirates. In some areas I would shut down my AIS - eg South China Sea. MIKE K -= our company instructed masters - they could switch it off if they wanted for whatever reason. Eg areas with not so much anti-piracy protection. ADONIS - I have an example with AIS - charterers want access to the monitoring system - DIMITIRIS - big brother is watching you. Big brother (the oil companies) is going to impose this. Big brother can get lucky and unlucky - transparency works both ways. I'm not in favour of commercial transparency - it disrupts the industry and doesn't necessarily favour the most competent company. ADONIS - OCIMF needs some web connections that's it - I don't know if they listen. J LAURITZEN GUY - container lines have transparency - we ought to be able to live with transparency. PAUL A - carriers only track it when its right. HELLESPONT - being transparent is giving information to people. DIMITRIS - the relevance of information - too much relevance- people will completely. Fit for us - it has to be the stakeholder that's receiving it. MIKE K - one response I get is TMSA is another cover you ass by the oil companies. A lot of transparency has the ANDERS B Training - that's a big problem - ships have ETAs that are in the past. There's a lot of ships going around with the wrong heading. Its difficult to have a system that works in the proper way. Learning how to handle the system. ACHILLEAS - we must emphasise what we want to be transparent Have the biggest number of validators to prevent erroneous data being entered. I recently had a massage saying a ship was going to arrive in 2007. How many degrees of freedom we must leave the personnel to fill in the forms. MIKE K - I’m involved in a couple of lawsuits - they send lawyers in and open all your files. One of the things I find going back through historical data - someone gives you trouble because of a problem 3 years ago. T DIMITRIS - there is a cultural change going on - the industry is forced by circumstances to be more overt in its competence. We have to prove that we're competent operators. Technology has made things more visible to everybody. the consumer has an option and wants to be shown that everybody is doing the best they can. AMMITEC Decision not to allow Piraeus Port Authority. Eyvind Klewe is co-ordinating the Scandinavian branch of AMMITEC PANOS - should we say voting should only happen electronically or governing body with members from different areas - or form organisation around individual branches - eg BoD for Greece - similar structure in Hong Kong, Singapore, US then international governing bodies MANOLI (Eletson) - we want to create an international organisation. I propose to study this - DAY TWO PANOS - Mr Lekatsas - we are on the users side - we have our own criticism of the technology - these days it is imperative to use as much technology as possible - some people say my company is advanced - I disagree - I would like to adapt more. From the managerial and operator's point of view - what we are looking for I'm not so educated on hardware and software The technology must be as user friendly as possible - it must be cost efficient These are 2 very important parameters. There are occasions - we are given a technology for xyz pdrice - for minor customisations - the price is becoming double This is something it is not possible to imagine - the cost must be reasonable - this is our evaluation. I am trying to be a good user of the technology. We are the management company of 29 tankers, 17 VLCCs, 6 suezmax , 6 aframax, 3 wide beam VLCCs on order. We are happy with the market - I don't think that every in my life I can se such numbers - this is the life. 5 years ago, we decided, a big shift improving our IT policies. The need for prompt communication and response to 3rd party requests. The need to reduce the cost compared to traditional telex and fax even today- there are shipping companies with the traditional telex The need for close follow up of ships - activities doing weekends, holiday The company invested in available IT Installation of PCs, emails, for use for all seafarers for private messages Remote access of company servers from home - close follow up of new products. Training of personnel - improving staff knowledge. soon after Kristen made these changes -the results were obvious - our response time to owners, brokers and charterers was reduced to a couple of minutes only. For chart corrections etc. It is recognised our business efficiency has expanded. One most break the barriers on conservatism - young personnel are by nature more prone to adapt new technology - they can train and familiarise the rest. With the right guidance they can become familiar. Establish the right teamwork where all contribute according to their ability and knowledge. Not all personnel are required to have technical expertise. We can feel confident Kristen is performing to high standards. The office is not paperless but performing on less paper. I am not the expert but I am demanding every day that more technology is used. I am fulfilling questionnaires - within seconds we can fill it in. Tankers are becoming day by day more difficult - we must be ready to react to the industry requirements. Governments are very sensitive about what tankers are doing or performing Onboard - we use GPS, GMDSSS, ARPA, VDR, SSAS, AIS, LOADICATOR, Loadicator The Loadicator is a very good module - We are very sensitive about which way the vessel is going to rock. Tankers have inspections in every port. People pick up on things which are unbelievable. for years now - we use electronic charts. we have adopted the ChartCo We are very satisfied with both applications. Some minor tuning problems due to ChartCo - due to technical problems communication with shore was very important. Inmarsat -A, -B, C- F, mini-M, e-mail. We use scanners, DVD, Newslink I had a call from a Paris broker who couldn't understand why it takes so long to get a response. Without communications we are dead It is the most important technology for the shipping industry. DVD - another important technology. In our house we have more than one. Shipping is conservative but we have to proceed forward. Newslink - we are customers for some years now - we are using the service for Greeks and Philippines. The cost is minimal. For humanitarian purposes we adopt the technology and we don't regret it. Newslink are doing tremendous good work. They provide CDs every 3/4 months - entertainment, training and so on. Ashore - all departments are using technology - operation, technical , accounts, crew, spares. I wish to be more advanced - I need the information now- I have charterers demanding the information now. We're improving thanks god. Some other technology we are using - the internet, Purplefinder, Q88, Equasis, SIRE, Intertanko, Worldscale. We are searching for something - from a simple telephone number. PurpleFinder - we adopted the technology more than 3 years - we are tracking our ships - for the latest security and terrorist threats The charterer does have the right to track the vessel. We need to see what he can see. Apart from that - its a technology very friendly for visitors - for all our customers. even for crewmembers its very attractive - the investment is reasonable. Nowadays, for terrorist threats, we can prove we are efficient managers. Within a couple of seconds I can find out the wind speed. Its a very useable technology. Q88 is very friendly, quick to respond, efficient. We have saved a lot of time. There is no installation that can accept out tanker without completing a detailed questionnaire. Some are over 10 pages. Day by day it is increasing. You can imagine if we keep traditionally hard copy files and its tie to start scratching. How much time to complete all these formalities. Sometimes we have to fill out a couple of questions to fix a vessel. The owner says - why is the vessel delayed. Equasis is well known. Worldscale - we can easily obtain any rates. Class societies - we can retrieve ship status. Ship certificates are another headache. We have to append a couple of class certificates. Its a massive work. FOBAS- a Houston based laboratory we use for analysis of all bunker prices. We are receiving Bunker prices are sky high today - last week it was $236 a tonne - a year ago it was $136. Cargo particulars - its another headache Libyan heavy - We have to follow up as well - to load 2m barrels on the vessel. USCG have their own website. Purplefinder - the way we are tracking our ships. We get our position every 12 hours. Q88 - there are 15 Graphs about our sulphur qualities - monitor the sulphur. IT in the office department. BP distance tables Strategic Software - communications with Danaos - for crew, accounts, provisions. modern auditorium, conference facility - in house seminars . ANKO is a local program which meets our requirement - the same program is used onboard. In case of an accident . BP distance tables - I was the first Greek customer - we still continue to use it. Strategic Software is functioning quite good, improving day by day. Voyage performance - we are doing some short cuts. In house bunkering software. Whether we like it o not we face some accidents - oil majors ask why, how, what you will do to avoid recurrence. We decided to simulate any accident. We carry out thorough investigations, exchange options, try to meet 3rd parties. Look at what we can do. We are doing a kind of simulation. We are retrieving data stored electronically onboard, briefing pilots, whatever. We are distributing the simulation onboard the vessels. We do DVD and send onboard to show them what happened so they can learn. VDR - we had accident in the Suez Canal - with 2 pilots - the Egyptian pilot managed to run the vessel aground. The Egyptian authorities did not permit us to visit the place or send a superintendent aboard - they alleged it was a military area. The Egyptian way is well known to seafarers. Another accident - an Italian vessel overtaking in the channel. IT was the day of a famous football game - the Italians were focussed on the TV. They managed to collide in the stern. We were fully laden in the channel. Venezuela. New challenges - US is implementing technology to track vessels 2000 miles from the coast. It is true, it is coming. Security on the internet - charter party editing. There’s a lot of technology on the way for us as tanker men. I have been informed - whoever is on a tanker is supposed to have identification. Need to technical support - its endless Those being over 50 we need technical support. I don't know how, but we're asking our IT person, come here and fix it. Proper training also is endless. Training is all over the world, all over the industry. We have to choose which way we want to proceed. I would like to be Say you invest in something - you expect you investment to be productive. Any additional costs come out of the budget. Personally, I feel very disappointed, if I invest in xy technology, after a couple of years the cost will be. I can accept it - but I’m not the owner of the company. TI spent 10m drachmas -this is real money. For everything there is a cost - whether it is reasonable remains to be seen. The more cost efficient, the more attractive. Personally I am introducing any technology which makes my life easier. Sometimes these costs are a little bit excessive. We get costs $2000 each time extras This is not so friendly to the user. I can accept you spend a lot of money on sales, Technical problems - you must be close to us an realise - when a supplier proposes something he has responsibility. How cost efficient any software will be remains to be seen. We are thinking 5-10 years. If it will be cost efficient and beneficial to me. Everybody is thinking what I am paying now. This is the real problem for the introducer of the technology. The owner wants simple, quick, decision. MIKE KENNEDY Technical and IT manager of Hellespont - in charge of newbuilds since 1999. 2004 to 2007- building 6 vessels in China - Panamax. Newbuilding project is unlike any shipping operation. People talk - how many dollars per day is operating expenses. New build project is totally separate. Process begins with contact - bankers and yards. Sometimes an owner is rich - or they put it together part financed. The key to all these things is communication. If you have a design component. In Korea we brought in a lot of people for design. In China its a very standard ship. You have to have very good record keeping and files. There are mistakes. I'm in the middle of working with class as we try to fix mistakes. In the shipyard - once you get to the yard You have lots and lots of inspections - each is a little regulation - things must all be negotiated often right on the spot. You have to track that. Know what the status is. In the yard you have standard budget problems. Normal resource people problems. Final step - sea trials. In our negotiations we found very helpful - GPRS and wi-fi. We found scanning is better than non scanning - you can carry it in your laptop. Our company has a very good filing system - some things are not so easy to file. during the negotiation process your files rapidly grow. Plan approval and design time - can be long or short. You have to confirm it meets the specification. There's cash rebates, long term guarantees. Finite element analysis should be support. There's a lot of enabling technologies - Safe Hull, ShipRight. There's a lot of hardware and software platforms. Once you're in the yard, you have to consider the time differences. We found synchronisation of files almost essential - a couple of times a day - files would be synchronised. Going back to inspection - filing is very important Would get different inspectors for different things. When we did vendor inspections synchronisation was very important. You can't expect LAN connections in a hotel. I'm reviewing VoIP to try to cut comms cost down in China. Final steps - shore and sea trial - 24 hour test periods of system integration onboard - Approval request, approval al these things going on around the clock Put your own LANs, synchronise them if you can. You have to have e-mail to offices. SPAM - synchronisation between entrusted sites is very important. People are putting out spiders to harness peoples e-mail address. In are reading e-mails. (government). I find it repugnant and I recommend encryption. OCR is ok for high quality scans. EMPROS LINES PAUL I have been working in shipping for 6 months - before that I was in trading. I must congratulation AMMITEC - it is a powerful union I think. We have a lot of differences in the software market. We want to do everything with no money. SHipping companies don't want to hear the word "pay" Possibly for shipping companies: in house development - combination of in house development and different programs, or buy all modules from one company. Build you own - takes many hours of development - you may not have time. We try to tack something ready. We only buy modules specifically required. Purchasing cost smaller, customisation time is less. We need to build bridges for communication between different modules from different companies. We have to risk of losing control. We have complete solutions - same philosophy applies to all modules. Compare a shipping company with 10 cargo vessels, with a trading company with 10 ships. Compare cost - $150,000 to $180,000, compared to $100,000 at a trading company. 1.5 to 2 times more money. We have very few software companies - we have limited competition. And large profits for the supplies companies. What happens when a shipping company asks for support - I found out that the cost was very high. Is the pricing policy determined by the software complexity or turnover of the client. They say - we are the shipping company, we must have money. I have some suggestions. Smaller software companies that develop complete solutions, not specialised modules. Co-operation between two or more software companies - if they don't have the money - they can do a co-operation. Co-operation between the IT departments of different companies. The target is better software at lower prices. I used to spend 2 hours building software - the company would sell it for euro 6,000. I know how much it cost to develop the program. WASIM - Its exactly where I was when I came to the shipping market. There is a limited market - people charge what they wanted. There is a need for more standards. How IT managers work together to try to leverage the market. CHARIS NASSIS - Recent development - we implemented SAP in our company. Go back to basic and IT strategy. We think there are 3 areas - back office, maritime applications, access infrastructure. PMS - planned maintenance system. Back office - financial - accounts payable, receive, budget, cash flow, HR, corporate travel. Access infrastructure- how end users get access to information. PC, PDA, cellphone, lotus notes, networks, helpdesk, knowledge management ,security system. IT strategy, before and after. Everything must be anchored on the company IT strategy. We changed from the shipowner to maritime service provider. Our infrastructure had to be flexible. We can't say - we're going to give this handy for 5-10 years (?) Systems used to be mixed - legacy systems. Now is the best fix. We select the solution and the equipment follows. It may be Linux, windows. We want to be just above the average IT functionality. We are around because we felt we are the best in what we are doing in maritime. We want to place Ceres in the "early majority" of the crossing the chasm curve. shipping is conservative but there is still room to innovate. In 191 we created BIMCOM global e-mail maritime network - get all the ships off telex. Is was 4/5 years before the commercialisation of the internet. In 1996 we became the poster company for Lotus. We did w spend 11 months to implement? We wanted to adopt the best business practises. We wanted leading customer services. We wanted to be able to say to customers - we have this peculiar system. We wanted to expand our infrastructure with minimum development effort. We wanted to lower total cost of ownership. Focus on the life of the equipment - the solution. We implemented the financials - we had a maritime user base. We involved end users. We make 20 users interviews. We started with computer based training - we have 49 user manuals covering 200 business processes. We created CERES ERP internet site. We found out people don't like to read manuals. IT department is a heavy user of the help files. Its like a living thing We had 700 user calls in the first day - we didn't want to delegate it. CBT - people can do it in their own. SAP Extranet - the first page tells people what is in the cafeteria today. The specification was 7 months - what we deployed almost every module of SPA> From the day we said lets start to the day we started the live support. W were on time from exactly the day we selected. We were exactly on budget. What is I know companies doing SAP implementation - 2 year, 3 year. MANOLI - you mentioned 20 key users. ADONIS - looking back over 10 years - shipping software has completed a full cycle. It took time to convince people to use it. Progress has been designed with disregard to a company's means of operations. Managers designed their own IT departments. Today's IT shipping industry has matured and can offer us the best technology. Today we are not able to have the best. Inmarsat Fleet is almost 3 years old and has established itself in the shipping industry - I don't see how 128k will apply on any vessels apart from cruise ships. How hard is it for Inmarsat to apply a fixed monthly rate for data in their existing infrastructure? Inmarsat is as important A challenge to Inmarsat Fleet is VSAT. It offers fixed advantages. Flat monthly fee of $2,500 to $3,000 Including equipment lease. There is an appeal to a flat monthly rate for guaranteed bandwidth. We started analysis of the market offering. We realised there was no solution that could address all our needs. Fleet technical management -vessel maintenance quality management - software and hardware - daily information to seafarers. Communications system. Vessel module had to be created based on existing infrastructure. Fleet communication issues - upward spiral costs of e-mail and data communication. We standardised our vessel communications software. Always have a system in backup. Close monitoring of usage. Anticipate the problems before they occur - remote access to vessels we deployed a consistent system across the fleet - enhance reliability for our IT and communications system. Lets to beyond the price issue and see what difference Faster and more detailed communications are now available. We can deliver faster and more accurate support whenever we have a problem. If you have a problem with Shore staff will know as fast as ship staff We can offer 89 min voice Hanseatic gives in we pay $1400 / month per vessel. TAKIS VARELAS Shipping companies are becoming conscious of the need to Recently OCIMF has launched TMSA –tanker management self assessment program System for ship operators to support a continuous improvement cycle. Goals and targets must be clearly identified – assessing risk. A mechanism must be operated to measure results and make sure things are corrected with new controls and re-assessing risks. Shipping systems have a __ on the complex structure. An integrated system within one database. Enterprise system – Management triggers based on e-mails and management defined KPIs. A risk assessment module most be integrated with all risk assessment for several security scenarios. IT system operators on shore or onboard. Risk must be assessed. You have information about the operators. Management considers possible hazards with IT are inadequate solutions, data population, data communication and user training. We can see where all the hazards are. Risk assessment in ICT operations – all likely – And extremely harmful or intolerable risk. We need a treatment plan – the company needs serious controls. Inadequate data communication. Data communication harmful – everything else extremely harmful. It is time to improve software to continuously improve our activities as part of the business environment. The prepaid solution is Areas for outsourcing – data entry, data manipulation. All issues concerning IT infrastructure. Areas of collaboration are changing. Outsource data collection from onboard the vessel. The best control to the risk manager proposal, to reduce the problem of inadequate data collection is broadband maritime. The requirement for a permanent communication link between ship and shore is a must. Doing old things with new technology is as bad is doing new things with old technology. SHIPNET We have opened an office in Greece – OLUF – 3 years at sea, 15 years at shipping companies, 7 years with ShipNet People asked, why did you go to a computer company, from an industry where you know what you’re doing to an industry where what you know today is wrong tomorrow. I think of myself as a shipping man. I have seen lots of improvements in shipping Also developments for much better data. Management can monitor the business much better. When I was at sea – commercial people passed the file to operation, who tried to do the best what they’ve got, and passed the file onto accounting. Integration does not only mean flow of data – from one department to another. It means flow between departments, talk to suppliers and talk to vessels. Main focus – you need to do the right business – what evaluation, operation – efficient and economic. Accounting – the need to reflect the correct result. Evaluation – business starts with evaluation of options –need correct vessel details and the correct starting point. We say- data should only be at source and never rekeyed. The main hassle with tankers is getting the flat rate. We are trying to get Worldscale to give us the rate directly into the system but Worldscale is showing us the cold shoulder Because this is the only revenue they have You have to go on a website. We hope to see all the shipping software companies, maybe Danaos, to go together to Worldscale and get the flat rate directly into our system. All details from evaluation should be available to the operation people. I would like all data to be validated at this stage. When we run reports we don’t have problems with data consistence. We should be able to get all information onto one e-mail to the caption. The position in the application anywhere should be the one typed in the agent. We need translation tool between the agent data. Accounting – we need an integrated system – it has made daily business for accounting much easier. As a joke to the accounting departments, we say when you have integrated systems you will have time to read TradeWinds. Lack of integration – I had one customer – the charter party said 15 knots, but the ship went at 14 knots based on the ETA – got claim for $30,000. Disbursement account – one company had 6 operators- took 4 months delay - $800 credit was outstanding . Yearly loss of $250,000 just in interest. Thought it shouldn’t be too hard to get them to use excel They all had excel. We took this excel into our software – posted it as an estimate – we would post it to accounting. The company lost 6 operators and had just one accountant, who took care of all disbursement. Loss was reduced to $1,000. All disbursements were paid upfront. Scheduling – moving 2 cargoes in 2 vessels – should not be too hard to work out which cargo goes in which vessel. If you have lots of cargo and vessels – people solve it with a 10am meeting. But need to consider cargo size, vessel size , cargo layman, ETA, vessel cost, One company did a computer program the same time as the 10am meeting – they found the computer program came up with a scenario that the ships could carry 2 more cargoes – saved $250,000. My feeling is that integrated systems are the future. KPIs – I think it is necessary you have an integrated solution. FOTIS Document management software – the software is getting better. 1 DVD can contain 80,000 documents. All paper on a ship can fit on 1 DVD People back up stuff on paper – there can be a fire risk. Where do you back your paper up? Paper filing costs money Documents cost Euro 20 to file Other benefits – you can save space. You can access documents anytime and anyplace. You can quickly find the information you want – even information you didn’t know you have it. We want to integrate Paper is not just paper – we may have CHARIS NASSSI_ how do companies start off with document management? FORITS – you go to the cupboard and you say, I want this wall scanned. 2 experienced scanners can scan 15,000 pages per day. If there are 300 pages in a file, this is 50 files you can scan in one day. I scan everything, then I start to search Knowledge management – that’s integration of our PALANTIR – Assen Shipping, Utkilens Rederi, Wilson Shipmanagement, Simon Mokster, Solstad (should probably check this) Aber Kvaerner .. We offer A-Z for all shipboard computing. We take the guarantees If we deliver a whole package they don’t have to call 10 to 12 companies to get support. 25 (85?) vessels use the keep up system. We never had a single support phone. Keep up system – if people mess up their computers onboard, eg delete system files, it will bring everything running. We make a source for each program, a company official source. If you take a demo CD and put it in We can remove programs safe, we can build the source, test it. One system wanted to change e-mil addresses on the system – the IT manager could go to each vessel. Our programmer did it by sending a fix to all the vessels. Dualog Communicator: within seconds it is running like it should be. We have antivirus definition -200 kb a month. We can implement whatever program We can do all the maintenance from shore. We have set up a keep up server on shore – all official software for vessels – it can be distributed. We have programmes distributed. We have 4 programmers 85 vessels Company in Denmark. De delivered 40 vessels – none of us were onboard – we sent it through ship chandlers. They installed it and we wee up and running. AB MARITIME How management view the usage of IT to enable a more efficient operation. The industry is a fast moving industry burdened by too many regulations. There is a need to automate tasks and create standards. He’s asking providers of technology to know about shipping. The same ifs true for seafarers who lack knowledge about computers. Sometimes they download harmful files – sometimes it ends up damaging the computer. People are not aware of the problems – viruses enter the system in e-mail Vessel cannot be shutdown in the middle of the ocean – the need to create reliable software is the biggest issue. Also the lack of training and the lack of software protection. Flag states do not recognise alternatives to formal procedures Sometimes during purchasing transactions over the automation system doesn’t result in cost savings. Masters have to learn new tricks and new tools every day. Communication costs – people are trying to budget the cost but that is not always easy – I don’t know which is the best system to use Mini-M and Iridium have communications speed too low – there needs to be further compression. E-mails with multiple addresses should be free of charge. Crew calling expenses for owners must be kept to a minimum. ISP companies are making long term offers which make crew prefer them to crew calling. Software on vessels should split .dll files for updates and corrections. Lite version software tools like Newslink could be used. Simplicity and compatibility – things to make the lives of crew easier. Get software simpler to use and maintain. Get user friendly software focussing on critical tasks – workflows and schedules. Need software to deal with forms flow between hip and office. Company should have manuals covering full operation, not just initial set-up. Software houses should develop CBTs for training of their software. Remote maintenance – how to perform upgrades and corrections.] Can there be an alternative to data replication. Create a common framework – standard. Tools for fleet monitoring – AIS combinastyion software. PAUL A – it just take someone to put their hands in their pockets and pay for this stuff – its available today. ARIS IGLESSSIS – bridge log – what we have done over these years. 1980 – we had the first discussion to evaluate the possibility of automating accounts. 1981 – we decided to buy an apple computer with a 2 7 inch disks. We wrote a lot of programs – the accounts department were happy not to have ledgers. We bought a 10 mb disc. We worried if we would ever reach the capacity. The most stable OS ever – MS-DOS 3.3. X-tree – you could to wonderful things you can’t do with windows 2000. We purchased a mini-computer for GBP 200,000 – it did nothing. 1988 – I bought 2 brand new Pcs, Intel 8088, with 640 kb ram, 40 mb hard disk – word perfect is the main word processing software – we had a laser printer. 1980 – we had a serer and LAN software to receive and send telex and fax. No more distributing telexes around the office. 1990 – new programs for loading vessels – first PCs on vessels Mostly they played games. Most vessels had sat C and a few sat C. 1991- communication on the vessel was starting to get more important. There was a big argument about what do to with the radio officers – sac him or keep him onboard and let him do other things. In the end the person was sacked. Winds 3.1 – I couldn’t believe my eyes – when n I installed it everything in my vision changed. We always tried to do modules. 1993 – Pentium I is finally here. Most computers are based in the windows environment. 1995- mini-M was introduced along with Iridium. Internet e-mail was starting to emerge. We were spending more time tacking problems than finding solutions. 1996- software on vessels We didn’t succeed – we had to rethink it. Windows NT was coming – but we still retained Novell server. We tried to retrain seafarers the basics of IT purpose built modules for crewing spares. 1998 – ISM, ISO 9002 – we have to support them. We need training standards. 1999 – a very special year – everybody was thinking and talking about the 2k bug and Melissa virus. Started giving us thoughts about what to do about it First antivirus software. By end 2001 – we made some decisions – we changed servers, we changed PCs. We made new programs. Our goal was to go to paperless office. 2002 – we introduced we based databank – web services for vessels / technical / operations 2003 – AMMITEC was launched – we have done some integration on all our communication systems. 2004 – first Fleet 77 on newbuildings – Newslink. VOIP – least cost routing, office security. GPRS – thinking about broadband. TASSOS MAKRIS I was in search of offline incremental antivirus update – there is no answer so far – I believe it is a problem – shared by nearly 1000 vessels. Threats from viruses increase every day – some are benign, some can be devastating. There are nearly 7000 viruses in cyberspace – other people say around 500. Updating antivirus frequently is hard for vessels with slow communications links- best case is sending a CD with new files. Most virus files cost around $190 to send to the ship per vessel. I.e. $10,000 per year for weekly updates. Some products have web based updates – 10 -100 kb – needs a web connection. Should theoretically be possible on mini-M. I don’t know anyone who has done it. There is delayed discovering of new viruses – false positives – inability to detect variants of a virus. We need to alert crew about the dangers of viruses. Make sure e-mail provides use AV software. I found that many of them did it but didn’t advertise it. Use e-mail providers that can filter out unknown senders. Should be possible for the master to download headers only. Update AV software frequently. Vessels should have software that can sort out FAT, FAT32 and NTFS partitions. Captains should know how to do system restore. We hope the AV software industry will provide a special version of software for users with low communications speeds – update small, incremental and offline. If you miss an update the whole thing is destroyed. It would be beast one the whole list only. Usability – software should be effective, efficient. Engaging, error tolerant, easy to learn. I believe we have come to a point where we can say functionality of marine software has reached an optimum point. We have more than enough functionality, what we lack is usability. Those are the main factors to consider when we want to achieve productivity. Functionality of marine software has reached an optimum point. The issue of how it works has a long way to go User interfaces should be designed to give best possible performance. I often overlook this usability and go for functionality – not the right questions. Is the software easy to use ? Does it prevent mistakes? Is everyday work satisfactory WASIM – antivirus to us is a key reason to develop a broadband solution PAUL Rydex has a trial to do virus updates – 38kb files. Paul J – we can send virus updates while the ship is sending data to the shore. Rydex- has full spam and virus filters we can have a 7 stage control levels of different sends – all the way to up to approved sender =- say these are my trusted senders. There are moves in the market place to address flat rate data. CHARISO – it should be broadcast like ChartCo. RICHARD N – McAfee – you can select e-mail you want and don’t want. 126m users. ASAD – World link – if you want to outsource e-mail protection, you give that responsibility to the hub. We do antivirus, ADONIS – problems people coming on ship with their floppies PAUL J – viruses don’t just come from e-mail. OTESAT – You asked for something and you don’t seem to trust it too much. Fleet goes from 400 in Jan 03 to 2500 in sept – Inm A from 18500 to 15200. Fleet 77 – where we use MPDS, where we use ISND> To increase your trust in MPDS we came up with 2 solutions. VPN from ship to office. Firewall at OTESAT Use Hermes messaging, basically the Rydex product. Full encryption of the satellites. This is the best security solution we could come up with Antispam, antivirus, data filing If you supply a simple solution as we do DISCUSSION Panos – is software too expensive? WASIM – we notice – companies come into BP and think they can pitch at whatever rate they like. Also people know they will be forced down on price so deliberately come in too high. The price variations in shipping astound me – you get big variations if you shop around. The BP name can be a disadvantage. AIRS – I’m afraid the market is good – if there is a less than fair case – if the provider feels you cannot pay so much he will ask for less. CHARIS – if you shopped around you get a fair price. What bothers us is the hidden cost. I’m willing to pay any amount of money if I know what I’m paying for. What I want is transparency. I want to know what I’m buying. The ultimate way to avoid cost is not to do anything. The primary way people measure us in our company is on cost. PAUL A – If you multiply all the ships in the world by the price of software no-one is going to be a millionaire. DIMITRIS – I think the lifecycle cost is the real cost – beyond the lifecycle cost, people don’t know the benefits. They’re looking at the bill We all know lifecycle cost as very important – but benefits are important as well. CHARIS – I’m not ready to disclose numbers – but the biggest cost is the cost of the license. What we paid for is to refurbish our business process – rethink how we are doing our business. This is most of what we paid for. 15 percent is about hardware. If you get what you were expecting A new customer said – this is how we want to give you the costs. We did it in ¾ months. Then another customer had a completely different incompatible way. It took nearly 15 man months first time, 2nd time another 15 man months. Now we have a flexible way of reporting to customers. We’re happy if the customers want reporting in a specific way. We know our competitors can’t do it ARIS – A program not working is very expensive. PROF NIKOS – this is not a perfect market –problem of standardisation. There are a lot of different economies f scales. PANOS – now we have higher bandwidth what steps are you as software companies doing to take advantage of this bandwidth? WASIM – we’re quite excited about the possibility of ship online. We’ve developed a company intranet and we’ve developed something completely different for ships. I don’t know ho reliable these companies are (VSAT) – we’re looking at it. DIMITRIS – at Danaos – we are strong believers in broadband systems. At the time this was not good enough. Vessel must be part of the corporate network – real time alerts, real time validation. This is the big benefit of systems design. Ship company can drastically minimise their cost. You have the great benefits of crew training. ADONIS – what about ship managers that cannot make this decision. DIMITRIS THEO – I think requests of shipowners and managers are totally different. If you look at the shipmanager and owner – these requirements are different. PAUIL A – broadband is coming – but there’s still 15,000 Inmarsat As. E have to live with the legacy communications that we have. Shipowners are not going to change. Our software works over Ip – its broadband ready. PAUL J – we’re in quite a different market – some of the facilities enabled by broadband. How can we use We’re implementing systems that will work over the narrow bandwidth. P{people are asking how they can do remote management of computers. But they’re still using B. ELECTRONC PURCHASING SESSION. Panos – in 200 several software companies formed the maritime e-commerce association. This standard is not 100 per cent finalised. AMITEC has been asked by purchasing managers to assist in finishing off MTML. PAUL A In 1996 I started it talking to Fuji Trading. Within IMPA the original standard was developed based in EDI – fantastic if you are a banker. When XML was given to the world. The contractual ownership is by IMPA- it was given to all of us to use on an as to use basis. Today it is being used on a daily basis. They merged into the ShipServ system because to MTML It took a long time to finalise MTML 2 due to lack of interest. We would welcome input from AMMITEC to finalise MTML 2. NEIL 2 – I don’t think there’s a n issue to finalise MTML 2. I’m in touch with a consultant that’s doing it. I don’t think there is specific need for a system It doesn’t need to move faster than the implementation. There’s no pressure from customers to go beyond MTML 1.0 AMMITEC can help shape this thing. PANOS – something is missing – that’s my perception. It has to do with decoding content – perhaps I’m wrong. DIMITRIS T – MTML is a format which enables communication between systems – so these RFQs can be recognised and input into the system. We decided in MECA on a standard format. Covers requisition from the vessel, quotes, ordering. Systems can handle information saved in a standard format. Danaos stopped participating in MeCA because there was no interst. The standard needs to be developed. MTML standard has t4o be extended. This is my point of view on how MTML should be extended. AMMITEC made certain enquiries – the main concerns of procurement managers. Those enquiries have been passed to us. One was in coding – this is a simple thing to fix. We have a format. PAUL A – we need proposals to IMPA to extend the standard. To extend to computer consumables is a proposal which should be made to IMPA and ISSA. PAUL – an active role by AMMITEC members in IMPA/ ISSA is great. PANOS – it is an official decision of AMMITEC to pursue this project. There is very broad support – we are in contact with many purchasing managers who want to stay in touch with this. We are not purchasing managers we are IT –it is really purchasing managers PAUL A – IMPA represents purchasing managers already. DIMITRIS LYRAS – shouldn’t we ask ourselves we IMPA is stalling – I think there’s an obvious reason. PAUL A – its apathy – p[people assume that people on the committees get p[aid. DIMITRIS – ShipServ transferred MTML onto MECA because it had interest. Is there interest in IMPA to do it. PA – IMPA / ISSA are very protective of their interest. PANOS – we also talk to the university of the Aegean, which is happy to put students on the project to assist with manpower. We addressing ways to solve the resources problem. Its I am going to send proposals to everybody who wants to get involved in it – ask for proposals. NEIL F I welcome the creation of AMMITEC and what it is trying to achieve as a forum for shipowners to represent their views – ShipServ developed mTML and gave it back to the industry – MECA would repent software companies – MTML 2 standard should be completed. Dimitris T – MTML is an open system. NEIL F – if MeCA continues to exist representing software companies, those people are not developing content. AMMITEC could not set about doing content. What you’re trying to do in codification is hugely ambitious . Red paint = red pain – what type of paint is it? A lot of this you can’t general code – the code is the manufacturers code. In that respect I believe some of the answers are commercial answers – someone Willing to host the catalogues. That’s different to a committee defining the coding system. SPRINGFIELD GUY – 1 The problem with coding was the biggest problem The first catalogue was mainly an advertising catalogue – the mariners annual. Communication with suppliers was made by telex. We had issa catalogue. That enabled us to start implementing the system we had. Then we had impa catalogue – suppliers need another standard with more digits – we bought it to evaluate it . We decided to switch to the 6 digit IMPA catalogue . It helped us to improve our purchasing for 10 years. The main problem in purchasing is consumables – not spare parts. AS a purchasing manger – my main goal is to get right things in right place at right price. A system should be effective and efficient. The main problem m I see is we have overbalance of materials – we have materials onboard which are not needed. This is the problem we try to solve. There are 3 players – vessel, office and suppliers. As office we are brokers. Mr Choursoglou told me AMMITEC is starting a discussion about new standards in supply I didn’t see we need new standards – its very difficult to administrate new standards. IMPA catalogues is used for many years. OTHER SHIPING UGY – I think a system with universal coding would be unmanageable. PANOS – we have a version of enabling movement of information from vessel to office. S Stelmar we did it to save. IT was structured. When we go to the supplier it is unstructured. DIMITRIS T – we are approaching the same problem with a different view. MECA developed an industry standard. DIMTIRS – what are the biggest problems? Buyers had a set of issues. PAUL A – IMPA and ISSA control the catalogues, they are the only people who can make changes to their catalogues. PANOS – AMMITEC is going to ask software companies to put forward proposals. We are talking about proposal for methodology. Enter new codes in a more efficient way. PAUL A – if you go to IMPA and ISSA asking for new things to be input, they will add them. DIMITRIS T – inventing coding is very difficult – eg red boiler suits, blue boiler suits – how many boiler suits do we need. RH SHIPPING GUY – sellers have the same problem – they want to know what is in their warehouses. LH GUY – I would suggest a meeting between AMMITEC and IMPA PANOS – we asked – can anybody give us answers to points DIMITRIS – we could propose to ISSA that the codes a relational not hierarchical But we shouldn’t go and propose not knowing what we are proposing.