News from Royal Dirkzwager http://www.dirkzwager.com http://www.radioholland.nl images - Royal Dirkzwager ship monitoring room images - Shipat Sight tracking room images - F. van Hoorn, Managing Director and Mr. P. Smulders Dutch Director of Radio Holland confirm the co-operation. Radio Holland and Royal Dirkzwager, in a combined effort, have launched a ship security alert system. The package includes SSAS hardware from Radio Holland (Inm D+, mini-C, Inmarsat -C or SSAS). Immediately after announcing the product launch, the partners picked up an order for 28 units from shipowner Vroon. Royal Dirkzwager operates a manned 24 hour security alert monitoring service; on receiving the alert, it will pass on the message to security response centres and pre-definded ship security officers / management staff. It will also provide reports and arrange periodical testing of the "alerting" chain. Also in the package is the Radio Holland Ship@Sight online tracking and fleet monitoring service, enabling the customer to access information about his ships and send short messages to and from the ships, seeing the position on vector charts. SUBHEAD Internet port management system PHOTO [http://www.dirkzwager.com/nederlands/nieuwsbrief/nhis-E.html Picture online Signing a contract for internet port management system: left F. van Hoorn, managing director of Royal Dirkzwager, right W.H. Boneschansker, manager business operations Groningen Seaports] Groningen Seaports, comprising the ports of Delfzijl and Eemshaven, Netherlands, has upgraded to the internet version of Royal Dirkzwager's port management system. It uses the system to register incoming and outgoing ships, waste matters and dangerous goods, fix berth occupation and calculate harbour dues, for sea and inland shipping. The tool has modules for PortControl (application for the port authority), PortBooking (application for the ship agent) and PortView (application for service providers in the ports). Royal Dirkzwager will provide 24 hour support, maintenance and further development of the system as part of its contract, hosting the software at its head office in Maassluis, Rotterdam. SUBHEAD Ship information on barges Meanwhile Rotterdam barge companyVerenigde Tankrederij has installed Dirkzwager's "Shipinfo" tool onboard its barges, which provides information about all ship movements in the Rotterdam area [also Dordrecht and Moerdijk]. Information is also available about ship length, width, dwt and up to date draught as part of the service. The information is sent to the barges using 21.4 kbps GPRS (general packet radio service), which is transmitted over the GSM network, with users paying by the kilobit rather than by the minute. SUBHEAD Online ship agent tool Dirkzwager has developed an internet ship agent application called "Portcall," to handle operational and administrative activities for ship agents. They can input all data for ship arrival, shifts and departure; they can input cargo data for custom authorities; they can see characteristics of all ships in the world fleet, see an overview of incoming and outgoing ships in Rotterdam; access important phone numbers and addresses. The system will shortly be expanded to cover communications with Rotterdam customs, Port of Rotterdam and Portinfolink. Dirkzwager aims to create efficiencies with the service by allowing data to be entered once and used in many different applications, for example reports to government agencies, reporting to principals and internal use. The communication can be made by fax, e-mail or letter, with information arranged in many different ways. No special computer equipment is required because the service runs over the internet. Kongsberg launches bearing health monitor http://www.kmss.no Kongsberg Maritime has launched a wireless monitoring system for crank pin bearing temperatures in rotary machinery applications such as reciprocating compressors and large diesel engines. Kongsberg notes that serious malfunctions caused by bearing seizures in large diesel engines and compressors can develop very quickly - real time monitoring of temperatures is a very valuable indicator which can enable protection of machinery parts against expensive damages. There is an alarm function which triggers if the bearing temperatures exceed preset values, which then gives the operator time to stop the machine safely. The complete system includes a wireless temperature sensor with a stationary antenna, and a signal processing unit. == MTS launches electronic invoicing www.martranserv.com Online ship supplies company Marine Transaction Services has developed an electronic invoicing service, enabling suppliers to put together invoices automatically and send them encrypted to buyers by XML. The service was piloted during 2003, with over 3,100 invoice transactions already completed, and is now available to all customers. MTS has integrated its computer system with the back office systems of many suppliers; the invoice can be generated by the suppliers' normal back office system then converted into a standard format so that MTS can route it to the buyer's purchasing system. MTS says that in the pilot project, the re-invoice rate (amount of times incorrect invoices had to be corrected) was reduced by 40 per cent.