MAIN HEAD Connecticut Maritime Association DECK HEAD The annual Connecticut Maritime Association conference and exhibition, held in Connecticut. USA on March 22-24 2004, is one of the most exciting and innovative events of the maritime calendar, always a hotspot for the maritime information technology world. Here is our preview of the IT companies exhibiting and what they will have on display. For further details about the conference and exhibition see www.shipping2004.com SUBHEAD C-Map www.c-map.no Booth 85 C-MAP is a provider of electronic charts and an essential part of its business is to work to gain co-operation with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to display its charts in their systems. So far has agreements with over 90 OEMs to support C-MAP charts, the latest addition being ICAN of Canada, a manufacturer of navigation and communications software including electronic chart display and information systems (ECDIS). ICAN supports the display of CM-93 Edition 3.0 data in it's Aldebaran and Regulus Electronic Charting System (ECS) products and will use chart data from C-MAP's CM-93/3 chart database to provide the updates. The benefit of supporting the C-MAP system is that users can update their charts automatically via the electronic Notices to Mariners sent to the vessel via e-mail, Internet HTTP, Inmarsat, GSM mobile phone. This can mean lower costs, less hassle and faster updates compared to other methods such as receiving a disk in port or accessing an Internet portal. C-MAP Commercial, the American division of C-MAP based in Norway, will be demonstrating OceanView, the CM-93/3 chart database and the real time updating service. OceanView is a geographic information system that displays vector charts and is designed for office use by shipowners to keep track of vessels. It can be used to link various sources of information to a chart to give a "single glance" view of the situation. ShipNet www.shipnet.no Booth 73 ShipNet is a provider of tailored solutions for shipmanagement including software applications for managing forms, databases and maintenance. ShipNet focuses on consulting with a company to provide a complete integrated solution rather than just selling software and its personnel includes former shipbrokers, charterers and operators. ShipNet will be holding a global user conference in Geiranger on the west coast of Norway, on 26-29 April, dovetailing in with the Digital Ship Scandinavia event in Oslo, April 29-30. Here they will be running interactive workshops, presentations and discussions, with a focus on the next generation of ShipNet software. During the CMA event the CEO of ShipNet, Sven Erik Dolvik, the business development Director, Neill Tomlin, the president of ShipNet USA INC, Tor Arne Berger and Aaron Bains, area sales manager in the region will be present. They will be presenting a private demonstration of the complete Fleet Management Solution with emphasis on the functionality of the Planned Maintenance module. This will take place at 12:00 on Wednesday 24th March. SUBHEAD Resurgence Software www.resurgence-software.com Booth 90 Resurgence has had some recent success with its Wave equipment optimization solution, with the recent announcement that V.Ships is to pilot the software by integrating it with its own ShipSure planned maintenance system on a limited number of its technically managed vessels. Wave tries to increase the efficiency of maintenance by predicting critical failures and prioritizing work schedules. The software uses a range of 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. Resurgence also released that latest version of its software, Wave 2003 Release 2, with two more statistical equipment performance indicators and up to seven benchmark indicators that allows a comparison of the same equipment with industry benchmarks across many different fleets and different operation conditions. SUBHEAD Globalstar www.globalstar.com Booth 67 Globalstar will be exhibiting its range of portable satcoms solutions. A recent development is the upcoming introduction of integrated compression services, provided through a third party manufacturer, that will increase channel capacity for common data uses such as email access. This will feature "on-the-fly" compression using software on the user's PC and at the server. It will be transparent to the user, and will analyse files to see which will benefit from compression. The service is capable of increasing data rates by up to eight times, giving something like the 64kbit/s offered by other satellite and VSAT services. SUBHEAD Broadband Maritime www.broadbandmaritime.com Booth 25 Broadband Maritime is a provider of VSAT communications solutions that give a guaranteed minimum 64kbit/s data rate and a permanent connection for a flat monthly fee. VSAT solutions provide the benefit of predictable communications charges and are applicable for customers requiring a constant connection to the company office or Internet, videoconferencing and voice services. They have had recent success with General Maritime installing a system on one of its tankers, and Danaos shipping, that has scheduled installation for 25 vessels over the next year or so. Danaos Management Consultants has also adapted its ship management software for use over VSAT. Broadband will be running a short demo in the Alder Room at 11:00am on Tuesday, March 23 and 4:30pm on Wednesday, March 24. SUBHEAD Weathernews www.wni.com Booth 42 Weathernews, formerly WNI Oceanroutes, provides a modular combination of services for security, voyage tracking & projection, vessel efficiency and safety and weather information. As a vendor of many different but related services, it sees itself as in a strong position to help companies realise greater efficiencies and manage costs. At CMA, it will be highlighting its ABS certified Asset Surveillance & Alarm Program (ASAP) ship security alert system, which works with Weathernews' other risk communication services to provide a single vendor for many needs. Director of marine business development, Gregory Cox, will also be presenting on how companies can use ASAP as a component for a fleet management solution, on Wednesday, March 24 from 10-11 a.m. in the Alder Room. To promote its ship routing services, it will be raffling off "3 free routes" each day of the conference to people who drop off their business cards at the booth. SUBHEAD Heidenreich Innovations www.q88.com Booth 17 Heidenreich Innovations has developed an internet-based questionnaire generator called Q88 for the tanker industry. This makes it possible to enter the information on a particular tanker just once into the system and then reuse it to generate over 250 different questionnaires. Questionnaires have to be completed quickly and accurately in the variety of current and constantly changing formats required by charterers and oil terminals in order to conclude a tanker fixture. Many parties need access to the details in order to ensure the ship specifications meet the requirements of the trade as well as the vetting criteria of the charterer, supplier and receiver. Q88.com allows tanker owners/managers to speed up this task and to distribute oil company and terminal questionnaires on-line. The Q88.com web site was launched in June 2001 and there are currently 255 questionnaires available, which are being used by over 125 tanker owners. Users can choose how to make the information entered on the site available to other parties. Firstly there is the public area of the website that gives anyone access to the questionnaires. Companies choosing to keep their data more private can either hand out a username and password that will give access to a single questionnaire for 30 days, or for other users of Q88, they can simply grant access through the site. Heidenreich recently concluded an agreement with INTERTANKO to integrate Q88 into INTERTANKO's range of services to members, making it available to members at a discount.