90-vessel software deal for van oord

DD utch dredgingand marine con-tractor Van Oord

has agreed a contract withStar Information Systems(SIS) of Norway for thesupply of software sys-tems to Van Oord’s fleet ofmore than 90 vessels.

Under the terms of thecontract, SIS will providea package of software sys-tems to manage all aspects

of the technical manage-ment of the fleet, includ-ing maintenance, purchas-ing, logistics and assetmanagement.

In another addition tothe software and standardservice package, whichincludes quality assuranceand product management,SIS will also provide VanOord with process map-ping services.

The process mappingwork will be carried out tohelp establish interfacesbetween legacy and opera-tional systems, and devel-op conversion tools tofacilitate a smooth transi-tion of data from old tonew systems.

The agreement of thiscontract is the result ofmore than two years ofdiscussions and trials as

Van Oord searched for asystem that would bestsuit its requirements,according to Henk Jan vanDijk, project manager forbusiness development atVan Oord.

“In 2008, we put out atender to a number of fleetmanagement softwareproviders,” he said.

“We ran a pilot pro-gramme on two vessels withSIS, and got a lot of positivefeedback from onboard per-sonnel about the quality oftheir solution.”

“In addition to meetingour software demands, wefound that SIS softwarewas more user-friendlyand easier to upgrade thancompeting systems, whichis critical for a project ofthis scale.”

Ruud Lendfers, VanOord’s IT project managerresponsible for the imple-mentation, notes that VanOord was particularlykeen to implement a sys-tem that could improveefficiency in its mainte-nance, purchasing and

IN THIS ISSUE

January/ February 2011

electronics and navigation

software

satcomsGC Rieber to installdual C-band and Ku-band VSAT - 4Innovation at Beluga Shipping – theSEMICS project – 6

IT infrastructuremigration for GulfMarine Management- 10

Managing purchasing withERP data at Costamare – 18

New moves in regulatory reporting – the EuropeanAdvance Cargo Declaration – 20

Electronic documents – the end ofpaper? – 24IT security – beating the hackers – 27

90-vessel software deal for Van Oord

New Inspection Regime to target poorperformers – 34Radar and ARPA – ignorethem at your peril – 36

Satellite positioning – a revolution underway – Dr Andy Norris – 38

Norwegian software provider Star Information Systems (SIS) has agreed a major new contract whereby the company’s package of applications

will be installed across the 90-strong fleet operated by Dutch company Van Oord – the biggest contract in SIS’ history

Van Oord has agreed to install the system on its vessels after two years of discussions and trials continued on page 2

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“Now I can enjoy the day” - Thomas Dinter, IT Manager, Seaarland Shipmanagement

Seaarland Shipmanagement in Hamburg has recently focused on the strategic importance of ship-shore data communication and have ultimately selected Dualog® Connection Suite™.

"Dualog Connection Suite provides us with a real time overview and the ability to respond quickly and efficiently." says IT Manager, Thomas Dinter. "The software includes an integrated firewall so there is no additional hardware to worry about and no unexpected or unauthorised traffic." says Dinter, conclud-ing “Dualog Connection Suite has improved our everyday situation.”

(+47) 77 62 19 00 or [email protected] Meet us at Digital Ship Bergen 2011

2-3 February 2011, Scandic Bergen City Hotel, Norway

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SATCOMS NEWS

Digital Ship January/February 2011 page 2

Vol 11 No 5

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continued from page 1

transportation departments. “SIS software has good backward com-

patibility and is easy to integrate withsome of our existing systems,” he said.

“It’s a big job, but because SIS systemsare intuitive, we expect training will go smoothly.”

Mr Lendfers says that while it will taketime to implement the system over thewhole fleet, the process has run well so far.

“We congratulate SIS for winning thecontact, but for us in the IT department,the contract represents the beginning of along relationship with SIS to help VanOord reduce costs and improve efficiencyacross our fleet,” he said.

“We look forward to the next phase ofthe project.”

Major dealAccording to SIS CEO Per Anders Koien, thecontract with Van Oord is the largest everwon by the company and is among thebiggest ever awarded in the fleet manage-ment software industry, measured by value.

“We welcome the opportunity to workwith Van Oord, a company with extensiveexperience managing big, complex proj-ects,” he said.

“The scope of the project represents agreat opportunity for us to develop newservices and software enhancements, andwe are confident that by working in part-nership with Van Oord, we can deliver onexpectations.”

Due to the number of vessels involvedin the fleet-wide installation SIS says thatit will modify its usual approach to theimplementation process, and will estab-lish an on-site team of four senior person-nel for assistance early in the cycle.

After the first four vessels have been

successfully fitted with the software,efforts will turn to training Van Oord'sown implementation teams so they cancomplete the implementation process forthe rest of their fleet.

As an additional component of theagreed contract Van Oord has also con-tracted SIS to develop additional softwarefunctionalities, which will be integratedinto the SIS software and made availableto other customers in the future.

Martin Karlstad, chief commercial offi-cer at SIS, notes that the two companieswill work together to develop these newenhancements.

“While developed in cooperation withVan Oord, these are not intended asbespoke solutions,” he said.

“These new features will become a partof SIS' standard software package, so VanOord and our other customers will haveaccess to improved functionalities,upgrades and support over time.”

“The project enables SIS to expand ourservice offering, giving us critical experi-ence to manage larger, more complex proj-ects in the future. It is a great opportunityfor us to show what we can do.”

Legal issuesThe announcement of this new contracthas been joined by a further 'win' for SIS asit reports the conclusion of a long-runninglegal wrangle over a minority sharehold-ing in the company held by maritime soft-ware competitor BASS.

SIS says that, following the resolutionof a lawsuit involving the parties con-cerned, the shares held by BASS have nowbeen bought by original SIS shareholdersand their various companies.

“We are delighted with the legal out-

come and now have full control over ourown destiny,” said Mr Koien.

“We have continued to operate in verytrying circumstances, because the BASSshareholding constituted a direct conflictof interests. However, we have neverstopped in our constant drive to fine-tuneexisting product lines and develop newones. Now we are in a position to advanceto the next stage of our development with-out further interference.”

The anomalous situation arose as aresult of Barber International's sharehold-ing in SIS, originally established in 1999.

Barber's shares in SIS were subsequent-ly transferred to its IT subsidiary, BASS, inthe hope that the two companies couldwork together to mutual benefit – howev-er, competition between the softwareproviders resulted in termination of theco-operation agreement in 2003.

The dispute was further complicated in2005 when Barber divested itself of its ITsubsidiary, which was subsequentlybought out by BASS management. Thissale included the Barber-held shares in SIS,and coincidentally took place just one dayafter a court settlement between the twosoftware companies concerning a breachof intellectual property rights.

“In spite of the BASS shareholdingwhich has been a hindrance to our corpo-rate activities recently, we have developeda first-class suite of software products tar-geting both the maritime and oil rig man-agement sectors, both on- and offshoreand on- and off-line,” said Mr Koien.

“Our success can be gauged by thenumber of blue-chip names amongst ourclients in both the shipping and energysectors. The divestment of the BASS share-holding is a key watershed for us .”

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www.globalstar.com

Globalstar has announced that it has com-pleted pre-operational testing of its firstnew second-generation satellite, and thatthe spacecraft has successfully processedits first commercial telephone call.

The new satellite is the first of six thatwere launched in Autumn 2010 to comeonline, and Globalstar says that it is nowready to fully support voice and duplexdata services.

Four of the satellites are planned to bemade operational up to the end of January

2011, with the remaining two expected tobe deployed near the end of the first quar-ter of 2011.

Globalstar has also announced that it is making final preparations to acceptdelivery of two additional new second-generation satellites from manufacturerThales Alenia Space, with the deliveriesscheduled to take place around the turn ofthe year.

The second batch of six Globalstarsatellites is due to be launched from theBaikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan,using the Soyuz launch vehicle, similar to

Globalstar satellite up and running

Globalstar's second generation satellites have been constructed by Thales Alenia Space

the company's other recent launch.“Following successful intensive testing

of the new spacecraft by our satellite oper-ations control centre and engineering per-sonnel, we are pleased to announce thatthe first Globalstar commercial call usingour new second-generation satellite wasprocessed for a customer calling in Koreaand we are proceeding with testing anddeployment of the remaining five satel-lites,” said Tony Navarra, president ofglobal operations for Globalstar.

“(This) announcement and the antici-pated deliveries of our new spacecraft forour second satellite launch represent fur-ther milestone achievements for our sec-ond-generation satellite operations.”

“Once more I applaud our highlyskilled global operations employees aswell as those at Thales Alenia Space, whohelped make (this) possible.”

Globalstar plans to integrate its 24 newsecond-generation satellites with eight first-generation satellites that were launched in2007, to form a 32 satellite constellation.

As each new Globalstar satellite becomesoperational, the company says that serviceavailability and reliability will improve forusers of its voice and duplex data services.

The new constellation and ground net-work, expected to be installed by 2012, isdesigned to provide increased data speedsof up to 256 kbps in an internet protocolmultimedia subsystem (IMS) configuration.

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SATCOMS NEWS


Ship Equip has announced the open-ing of two new Network OperationsCentre (NOC) facilities in Houston andSingapore, which will support the compa-ny's primary NOC in Alesund, Norway.These facilities will provide 24/7 networkmonitoring and management for vesselsoperating with the company's VSAT tech-nology.

Ship Equip also reports that it hasopened a new office in Rotterdam, TheNetherlands, which will be fully opera-tional from the 1st of February, 2011. TheRotterdam office will primarily handleservice issues, and will be run by servicemanager Kenneth Borgen and on-site sta-tion manager Roger Sandnes.

SatCom Global reports that it hasreached a milestone of 1,000 activations ofInmarsat’s IsatPhone Pro, one of onlytwo Inmarsat Distribution Partners toreach this number in the first six months of

the system's commercial availability.Thuraya has expanded its partner-

ship with telecom service providerEtisalat, appointing the company as adistributor of Thuraya IP and ThurayaMarine in the UAE. Etisalat will be mar-keting and distributing Thuraya’s satellitedata and maritime services to verticalmarkets throughout the country.

KVH has appointed Linda Riggs tothe position of marine marketing coordi-nator. In this new role Ms Riggs, who waspreviously employed by the company as amarketing specialist, will be working withthe KVH marketing team in the US andinternationally on a range of projects.

www.marlink.com

Marlink reports that it is to provide dualC-band and Ku-band VSAT services to GCRieber Shipping, a global operator of ves-sels within the subsea, polar expeditionand marine seismic segments.

As part of the new three-year contract,Marlink will deliver and install its dual9797 C/Ku-band Sealink antennasonboard five existing vessels and fivenewbuild vessels, ensuring both C-bandand Ku-band coverage is available to GCRieber Shipping's ships.

"The availability of a robust satellitecommunications solution is critical for usto efficiently relay customer data ashore,"said Tom Christian Tveita, ICT consultant,GC Rieber AS.

"The flexibility of Marlink's Sealink

VSAT ensures that we are able to swiftlyswitch from C-band to Ku-band to satisfyour customers' demands, allowing us tooffer the optimal solution for cost, cover-age and stability."

This new contract is an extension of anexisting relationship between the twocompanies, as Tore Morten Olsen, CEO,Marlink, notes.

"(We have) provided VSAT services tothe company for several years, but this is the first formal contract for its fleet," he said.

"Operating in a wide range of oceanenvironments requires a flexible and reli-able system to maintain continuous com-munication. I am delighted we have beenable to satisfy GC Rieber Shipping's require-ments with the provision of the SealinkC/Ku- band dual antenna solution."

GC Rieber to install dual C- and Ku-band VSAT

GC Rieber will enjoy global VSAT coverage with its dual antennas

www.caprock.com

CapRock Communications has secured afleet-wide contract with Atlantic BulkCarriers Management for 15 C-bandSeaAccess VSAT solutions, in cooperationwith its Greek partner Setel Hellas.

The companies report that this is thesixth VSAT contract they have agreed inthe Greek market over the last year.

CapRock notes that it has placed specif-ic emphasis on growth in the Greek marketover the last twelve months, which it sees

as holding "significant opportunities" forVSAT penetration as an operator of one ofthe largest shipping fleets in the world.

CapRock began the first installationunder the contract onboard the bulk carrierMV Desert Melody, at a shipyard in Tuzla,Turkey. The next two vessels in the instal-lation schedule were expected to have theVSAT system installed by end of 2010.

Atlantic Bulk Carriers Management,with offices in Piraeus, Greece, is an oper-ator of Handymax, Supermax andPanamax size bulk carriers.

Greek carrier agrees fleet-wide VSAT installation

Ship Equip's new office in Rotterdam will be operational from February 2011

www.satcomglobal.comwww.inmarsat.comwww.thuraya.comwww.ship-equip.comwww.kvh.com

www.bluemarblenetwork.net

Blue Marble Network has launched a newmaritime VSAT service for deep sea com-mercial vessels, initially serving the PacificOcean Region.

The service will cover shipping routesand major ports between North America,Asia and Australia, via Blue MarbleNetwork's wholly owned and operatedsatellite-based communications network,supporting data traffic, file transfers, voiceand other IP applications.

The company says it will be offering aturnkey communications equipment pack-age, including above and below decksequipment, VoIP phones, installation andtraining.

“For the past 30 years, the VSAT indus-try has focused on communications solu-tions for the third of the planet covered byland," said James Grandahl, CEO Blue

New VSAT service for Asia PacificMarble Network.

“Great advances have been made in thattime, allowing people and businesses tocommunicate more effectively. Blue MarbleNetwork has created a purpose-built, nextgeneration VSAT designed to address theother two-thirds of our 'blue' planet.”

“We are extending the power of VSATcommunications and tools to deep seavessels and their crews, so they can effec-tively work and live while at sea.”

John G Smith, VP of sales and market-ing with Blue Marble Network, noted thatthe company has completed beta testingand is now working on marketing theservice in the US and Asia.

“We’re open for business,” he said.“We have leveraged best-in-class vendorsand built a wholly-owned maritime-spe-cific network, designed to meet thedemanding needs of deep-sea shippingcustomers.”

www.iridium.com

Iridium Communications has introducedthe latest version of its Direct Internet soft-ware package, making it easier and faster toconnect to the internet using its handheldphones and L-band Transceiver (LBT).

Direct Internet 3 takes advantage of newdata compression, caching and networkoptimisation techniques to enhance inter-net connectivity through the Iridium satel-lite network.

Powered by SlipStream SP6.0 withNow!Imaging compression technology, thenew version of the software uses concur-rent object delivery functionality to acceler-ate page download speeds for image-richwebsites.

Iridium says that this makes internetbrowsing up to 5.4 times faster than withno acceleration or internet optimisationtechnology installed, or 20 per cent fasterthan the previous software version, DirectInternet 2.

These figures are based on independ-ent testing conducted by appLabs

Iridium handheld software updatedTechnologies, commissioned bySlipStream Data Inc.

Direct Internet 3 supports WindowsXP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and any64-bit version of the Windows operatingsystem, as well as Mac OS. The new DirectInternet 3 installer guides the user step-by-step through the installation and con-figuration of the software.

“Iridium subscribers are increasinglylooking to use their Iridium devices toconnect their laptops to the internet fromremote locations to send and receive e-mails, upload and download data files,transmit text to blogs and social mediasites, and browse websites,” said JoelThompson, vice president of productmanagement, Iridium.

“Direct Internet 3 will greatlyimprove user experience by speedingpage download times and data transmis-sion through the Iridium network. It’snow easier and faster than ever to con-nect to the internet from our Iridium9555 and Iridium 9505A phones, alongwith the LBT – everywhere.”

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SATCOMS


Initiated by Beluga Shipping, and supported by the German Federal government and a host of technology partners,the SEMICS project aims to create an integrated electronic information and communication system that

will improve operation at sea through the application of technology. Peter Wramling, head of ICT with Beluga Shipping, told Digital Ship about this exciting initiative

Innovation at Beluga Shipping – the SEMICS project

BB eluga Shipping is closing in on thefinal phase of a comprehensivetechnology infrastructure project

that aims to revolutionise the way it usesinformation across the company by theend of 2011.

SEMICS (Smart Electronic MaritimeInformation and Communication System)is a research project initiated by the Beluga Research & InnovationDepartment and co-funded by theGerman Federal Ministry of Educationand Research.

Specifically, this project allowed for thedevelopment of what Beluga calls a 'holis-tic' electronic information and communi-cation system, reducing administrativework for officers, creating transparentand partially automated processes, andenabling significantly improved commu-nication between shore and sea.

Over the course of 2011 BelugaShipping will implement the prototypeSEMICS system onboard two test vessels,both multipurpose heavy lift project carri-ers from the new P2 series, to ensure thatthe system can be integrated into the shipinfrastructure without any problem,structurally and equipment-wise.

As Peter Wramling, head of ICT withBeluga Shipping, describes it, this isessentially a project to “make it easier tooperate at sea through the use of technol-ogy, and support crew welfare”.

“We are connected around the worldby our global network, and support all ofthe IT from our headquarters in Bremen,”he told us.

“We started this project at the end of2008 with the analysis, and then came up with the requirements. Then we had to develop a concept and process setsmodel, and now we are in the middle of designing a portal for the project. Weplan to finalise the project at the end of2011, hopefully everything will be doneby then.”

“It’s a project we are working on withseveral different partners, such asGermanischer Lloyd, Interschalt, which isdoing the automation onboard for us, andLufthansa Flight Training, which is work-ing on training for the seafarers.”

Other partners include Itemis andMerentis, which will work on softwareaspects of the project, the Jade Universityof Applied Sciences and Institut fürInteraktive Medien, which will also beworking on training, and design companyNikdin & Partner.

Further associate partners includeVerband Deutscher Reeder (the GermanShipowners' Association), and The

German Naval Command and ControlSystems Command based inWilhelmshaven.

Project stepsSix distinct steps are involved, designatedas 'work packages', with the first begin-ning in 2008 as mentioned, and the lastscheduled to be completed in the autumnof 2011.

Work package 1 involved analysis ofexisting business and communicationprocesses (at Beluga headquarters, on thevessels, and between the headquartersand ships), with emphasis on the chal-lenges of managing the various businessunits (offices and vessels) at a distance.

Work package 2 included the creationof a list of requirements, taking intoaccount the impact of current and poten-tial future regulations, such as theInternational Safety Management (ISM)code. A requirements management soft-ware tool by Polarion was used as part ofthis process.

The creation of a SEMICS concept andprocess model was work package 3,including an examination of the needs offuture business and communicationprocesses, such as loading, discharging,bunkering, and ship delivery.

Development of a maritime SEMICSportal as a central communication plat-

form for the system was also part of thiswork package, followed by the develop-ment of an electronic communication por-tal to optimise workflows under workpackage 4.

The project partners are currentlyworking on the development of this portalahead of the commencement of workpackage 5, which will see the SEMICS pro-totype implemented at Beluga's headquar-ters and onboard the test vessels in thecoming months.

The final work package will then testand evaluate the performance of theSEMICS portal with its modules on boardof the Beluga P2-Series test vessels.

Development work is split between var-ious teams, to make use of the particularcompetencies of the project partners. Theproject teams of the individual work pack-ages perform the operational project work.

“There's a technology team, which ismade of the different partners andincludes programmers and automationspecialists,” Mr Wramling explained.

“We have a team for process develop-ment as well, that will go to the vesselsand document the procedures and seewhat can be done.”

“We have a team for training, which isa big area, that will look at online trainingthat can be assessed both on site and onshore. Other partners will support us in

the process and offer guidance.”A Steering Group, headed by Beluga

and composed of representatives of thenetwork partners, is responsible for deci-sions taken on the specific direction of theproject. The heads of the project teamsreport to the Steering Group on progressof work in the individual work packages.

Beluga also heads up an AdvisoryBoard, composed of representatives of theGerman Shipowners’ Association (VDR),the Naval Command & Control SystemsCommand and, if applicable, other inter-ested organisations, which is able to offersuggestions and criticisms from expertsand interested members of the public.

Centralised dataOne of the main areas of work underSEMICS has been centred on the creationof an intranet platform for the digital pro-cessing of administrative tasks and docu-ments on board, with centralised dataadministration to increase data availabilityboth on shore and on ship.

Up until now most of the communica-tion with the ships has typically been by e-mail or by phone, but as Mr Wramlingnotes, sending an e-mail is still manualwork, with those in the office having tomanually send requests to ask for informa-tion before they can get information back.

Centralising the required informationin a way that would be accessible asrequired, increasing automation in thetypical multi-step process, was therefore akey requirement. Overhauling the com-munications systems onboard the vesselsplayed a major part in this process, withBeluga investigating what kind of trafficwould be necessary to run the SEMICSinfrastructure.

“This was not even part of the project inthe beginning, but one way or the other weare going to have to have some kind ofcommunications, though we might nothave understood all we would need whenwe started,” said Mr Wramling.

“There's a lot of information that willneed to move between the vessels and theland side, so that's the puzzle we have toput together in terms of the infrastructurewith the satellites, the systems on the ves-sels and the systems in the office.”

With this in mind, the team proceededto implement VSAT technology on the twovessels earmarked for testing under theSEMICS project, getting the communica-tions systems up and running in the sec-ond half of last year.

“We started with the first vessel inAugust 2010, the MV ‘Beluga Shanghai’,”said Mr Wramling.

The SEMICS project aims to create an electronic information systemlinking people and networks on ship and on shore

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SATCOMS

“This was a newly built P2 class multi-purpose heavy lift project carrier, and wesupplied a first communication solution,which was a VSAT system from MTN.Shortly after that, in November, the nextvessel was under-way, the MV ‘BelugaLondon’.”

“As a primary system we used Ku-band VSAT, with a Sea Tel 4009 antennaon the MV ‘Beluga Shanghai’ and a 4010antenna on the MV ‘Beluga London’. Wewanted to have some difference betweenthem to see how they would compare.”

Beluga has contracted with MTN for aCIR (committed information rate) of 128kbps on the VSAT service, burstable up toa maximum rate of 384 kbps.

“That was a place to start, with band-width we know that it's a difficult area to

decide what you really need, you canalways have a lot of theory behind it butmany things will only really show upwhen you start to use it,” said MrWramling.

“As a back-up we are using InmarsatFleetBroadband, the (Thrane & Thrane)Sailor 500. As we know, there are going tobe moments where we don't have full cov-erage so we'll always need some kind ofback-up.”

“We chose the FB 500 over the FB 250 asit is a research project, it’s difficult to esti-mate the true bandwidth needed in thebeginning and we wanted to have somepower behind it. What we do for the restof the vessels later on, now we have expe-rience with it, might be different. It's allabout collecting information, learning

from it and deciding how to proceed.”Beluga has split its communications to

run to over two different kinds of net-works, with an admin network to doeverything that is relevant for the vessel'sbusiness running side by side with a sepa-rate crew network.

The crew network is typically used tooffer internet access or e-mail, and haslower priority on the channel so it willonly be able to use the bandwidth that isavailable above the admin networkrequirements.

“We have a complete VPN connectionfrom the vessel admin network so that ithas a constant connection to the landside,” Mr Wramling explains.

“That's one way in which we want tohave the vessels just like the land offices,where we know we can always get a con-nection and always get onboard and sendsomething over there, do updates, andallow support to check for problems.”

Voice calls are managed via a VoIPinterconnection with the vessel's PBX thatis connected directly with Beluga's cen-tral PBX in Bremen. A Siemens Hipathsystem is used in Bremen with an IP-Gateway on board.

“This means that onboard the vessel wehave a separate phone network that com-municates directly with us on the landside, and you can just dial an extensiondirectly on the ship,” said Mr Wramling.

“They could actually make externalphone calls from the vessel as well, whichare routed by the satellite to our land office,and goes out as from a land-line phone.”

The VPN over which these systems runis constantly connected, whether the ves-sel is operating with VSAT orFleetBroadband. While it could potentiallystart to become expensive to maintain aconstant connection with the Inmarsatservice, Mr Wramling says that this hasnot been the case in his experience so far.

“This is within the research project, andwe may decide to do it another way lateron, but for the moment we keep the VPNup all the time,” he said. “For the timewe've been running with the VSAT theuptime has been 90-95 per cent, so it's onlybeen a very short time that we've beenrunning FleetBroadband.”

“It was important to have two ways ofdoing this, with the VSAT and theFleetBroadband back-up, but both of themneeded to be able to provide the type ofservice we wanted them to provide. As wehave a flat rate on the VSAT connectionwe don't care that much about how it'sused, but the FleetBroadband costs moreto use so we needed limitations on that.”

“If the FleetBroadband is connected ithas to be 'sorry crew, you can't surf theinternet, you have to wait until we get aVSAT connection again'. The people withaccess to the admin network, like the cap-tain, can still use the internet, but not thecrew.”

Beluga uses the Riverbed communica-tions management system for traffic opti-misation onboard the vessels, provided aspart of MTN's VSAT package, and hasautomatic switching between differentVSAT beams, as well as between the VSAT

The SEMICS set-up will see two separate networks run on the vessels – one for business use and one for the crew

p1-13:p1-14.qxd 13/01/2011 17:17

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and the FleetBroadband system when outof Ku-band coverage.

“We have a complete failover systemworking, with separate VPN connectionsfor voice and data, it works seamlessly -you really wouldn't notice the point whereit switches over,” said Mr Wramling.

“It takes just a few seconds as it recog-nises that one system isn't available any-more and goes over to the other system,and the same to switch back. The auto-matic beam switching is also an advan-tage, no one has to bother about whereyou are, what footprint, what satellite – nomanual adjustments need to be made.”

“Since we are doing the VPN tunnelsourselves at the back end, we go viaMTN's land station in the States, and thenback to us on the land side. This meansthat we have everything in our ownhands with the traffic, and there's securi-ty in there.”

Reduced burdenThe development of the SEMICS systemand the stronger connection betweenship and shore are expected to result inan enhancement of ship safety and secu-rity, by freeing up more time for the sea-farers to concentrate on their nauticalduties rather than paperwork, MrWramling explains.

“As we see from looking at other sec-tors, like the medical sector let's say, doc-tors nowadays hardly have any time fortheir patients because they have so muchpaperwork to do,” he said.

“Sometimes it's similar with seafarers,

there are always new products comingout, new regulations, and everyone needsto fill out a form or use a program some-where. We'd like to reduce that burdenonboard the vessels, making it more trans-parent and using some automatedprocesses.”

“Some of that might be to transfer dataover to the vessel or back to the land sideso we can compare the vessels with eachother in areas like fuel consumption orhow they operate. We could look at infor-mation from the engine and diagnoseproblems before anybody else knowsabout it on the vessel itself. If we can havepeople dedicated to that on the land sideand leave less for them to do on the shipsit will help them to work better.”

The SEMICS partners estimate thateffective implementation of the systemcould contribute to a reduction, simplifica-tion and digitalisation of the administra-tive process that could save three to fourhours of administrative work daily.

It is envisioned that crews will be ableto order in needed supplies like fuel, spareparts and catering online directly at theBremen headquarters, while checklistsand documents for ordering procedures,maintenance checks and signatures atinterfaces can be entered and recorded viaPC on a touchscreen.

Portable PCs are also planned to beintroduced, connected to the shipboardnetwork via a WLAN link for use acrossthe entire ship.

Support teams on shore can connectdirectly to PCs on the vessels via the VPN,

which offers another option in reducingthe crew's burden in relation to mainte-nance of the IT networks.

“We now have the ability to completelyreplace what's on the computers on thevessels without anybody being there, wecan do it all remotely,” said Mr Wramling.

“With a new computer we just getsomeone to connect the cables and thenwe can handle the rest. Windows updates,

virus updates, or anything else that needsto be done can go via the tunnel, and wecan also verify that it's really there and it'sreally working. Support teams can lookdirectly at the desktop of a PC, movethings around, and find any kind of prob-lem and solve things directly.”

“So do we really need the bandwidth? Icould probably say that we don't reallyneed it for surviving, but since we have itwe've saved quite a lot of money on savedtravelling and not replacing equipment aswe can access it right away from shore.”

As the SEMICS project enters its finalphase, Mr Wramling is hopeful that theintroduction of the prototype systemonboard Beluga's two multipurpose ves-sels will produce some definitive answersas to the potential impact of these tech-nologies, and reward the hard work thatthe partners have put in over the preced-ing years.

“With all of these types of projectsproblems can always occur, and on boardthe ships they are normally more difficultto solve” he said. “There are things thatare new in the beginning and you getsome surprises.”

“But you never give up. There's alwaysa solution and you can always find a wayaround it, change things and make it bet-ter. That's the only way forward.”

“The dream would be to be able to han-dle all of our vessels exactly in the sameway as we handle land offices. That wouldbe the ideal solution – we're not reallythere yet, but we're definitely workingtowards getting there.” DS

'We now have the ability to completelyreplace what's on the computers on thevessels without anybody being there,

we can do it all remotely' – Peter Wramling, Beluga Shipping

p1-13:p1-14.qxd 13/01/2011 17:17

GG reek shipping company GulfMarine Management, whichowns and has the commercial

management of 12 VLCC’s, together withtwo to be delivered during 2011 and twomore scheduled for 2014, has spent the last18 months working on a radical overhaulof its IT infrastructure, moving from anoutsourced support model to full in-housemanagement of its network.

Assigned to manage this project wasEfstratios Arvanitidis, chosen to head upthe IT department at Gulf Marine at thebeginning of the process and asked todesign and implement a programme thatwould introduce new technologies inareas like satellite communications, e-mail, and remote maintenance.

As Mr Arvanitidis recalls, Gulf Marinewas, at that time, making changes to itsoverall way of working, and was lookingto update the process by which its landbased offices in Athens and Hamburgwere integrated with its fleet of vessels.

“At that period the company was per-forming some complicated internal reor-ganisation, and this needed a lot of ITrelated tasks to be performed in a reallyshort period of time – as happens to a lotof people, the deadline was 'yesterday',”he told us.

One of the first tasks involved in thisprocess was to initiate a handover of theIT management from the external compa-ny that Gulf had been using for support,a job which required a careful examina-tion of the systems and workflows cur-rently in use to avoid complications inthe handover.

“There was another company alreadyproviding support for both the offices andthe vessels, so we had to arrange a properportfolio handover from that company tous,” said Mr Arvanitidis.

“We had to go on board to perform adetailed audit and take any urgent actionthat might be needed, which also includedupgrades or providing service to the ITinfrastructure in some cases.”

“We had to design and install thewhole infrastructure for our new build-ings being built in DSME in South Korea.Three VLCCs have been included in thisproject, which currently have been sold.”

Changing satcomsThe new infrastructure installed on theseVLCCs and to be introduced to the exist-ing ships, developed over the course of the18 month project, is based around anupdated satellite communication set upwhich could handle the vast increase indata traffic that Gulf Marine was antici-pating.

With that in mind the company decid-ed that it would look at installing VSAT onits vessels, and initiated a trial retrofitinstallation of the SEVSAT 128 kbps Ku-band system offered by Ship Equip.

“The three-month trial period, whichwe ran before we decided to proceed withinstalling the whole fleet with VSAT, wascompleted successfully. After analysingthe results, financial and technical, thecompany decided to proceed with theretrofit installations,” said Mr Arvanitidis.

“Why VSAT? This is a question that allof us, or most of us, have already

answered or need to answer in the nearfuture. For us, the owners want to keeptheir 'good' officers happy in order tokeep them in the company and workingfor them for a long period of time. Oneway we saw to make that happen wouldbe to provide them internet access whilesailing.”

“We still use a combination of commu-nications though, as the vessels rangefrom one to seven years old and the tech-nologies have changed over the years.Some have FleetBroadband and somehave Inmarsat-B, and even mini-M as athird back-up whenever the first or secondfailover system fails.”

While the company was not looking toopen up every conceivable website tothose onboard, Gulf Marine saw thisincreased internet availability as offeringaccess to a blend of social connectivity andoperational data.

“The internet is, for all of us, the biggestfree information database, you can findinformation ranging from the nearestpizza delivery telephone number to themost confidential documents of the USgovernment,” said Mr Arvanitidis.

“Our fleet's needs lay in between thesetwo – they didn't need pizzas deliveredon board or to read Wikileaks, but theyneeded to have the ability to downloadthe latest weather updates or route cor-rections on demand. Why shouldn't theybe able to find machinery spare partnumbers and exact details if needed,whenever they are needed?”

Mr Arvanitidis notes that installation ofthe system for the retrofit vessels after thetrial had been completed was not quite asstraightforward as the subsequent new-build installations, particularly when itcame to integration of existing computernetworks, though the team's earlierpreparatory work paid off in this respect.

“Most times this meant that we had torun cables, and had to send information tothe vessels on how to run a new hard-wired network in order to extend orreplace the existing one,” he said.

“We faced vessels with two or threeswitches in the same network, but only tosupport ten computers. This was notacceptable so in many cases we had toreconstruct the whole network.”

“Our audit documentation was veryhelpful for this, and provided a lot ofinformation to us while building andsending the pre-installation list of tasks tobe performed to the vessel.”

Once the network is in place GulfMarine has also been able to manage someof the further configuration of the onboardsystems from its offices by remotelyaccessing the network from shore, in con-trast to the non-VSAT enabled vessels.

“For the vessels getting VSAT wemake a few initial adjustments to theserver to prepare, and then when theVSAT is live we do all the rest remotely,”said Mr Arvanitidis.

“This can be done easily after installingVSAT to the vessels. For the others we hadto follow strict schedules and attend ves-sels when loading or discharging at ports,and work many hours a day.”

“Now we are trying to implementWSUS (Windows Server UpdateServices) from Microsoft, so the updateswill be downloaded once and then dis-tributed across the network offline. Thisis the same as what we do for the anti-virus. For the vessels that don't haveVSAT we try to follow a strict schedule ofabout one day or a day and a half whenthe vessel is loading or discharging toupdate the computers.”

Management of the communicationslink and access to and from the onboardnetworks is managed by the CommBoxsystem from Virtek (now part of KVH).

“If we say that the VSAT service is thelungs of our project, then the heart is defi-nitely the CommBox,” said MrArvanitidis. “When we started designingour solution we needed an appliance thatcould deliver secure ship-to-shore connec-tions, fast and reliable data transfer, andtrouble free cooperation with all the typesof satellite carriers and their devices.”

“We proposed to test the CommBox, asit was covering all of these needs, and Iwas happy with the fact that it was aLinux box since this meant that it could betailor made to follow our exact needs ifany would pop up while testing it. Thiswas done once when Virtek built a customdriver to connect to our JRCFleetBroadband 500 and 250 devices.”

“We also needed to have reliable fire-walling policy enforcement, based on thetype of carrier being used. And, of course,the internal mail server and the roamingcrew mail option, which we haven't usedyet but are now designing a system to useit, were good features for us. As an addi-tional task currently we are running aproject installing CommBoxes on the restof our vessels in order to start using theembedded e-mail server option, throughthe use of a Private Hub.”

New infrastructureWith this new satcom system in place asthe basis of the new infrastructure, theGulf Marine team then set about updat-ing the way in which it communicatedwith the vessels, starting with telephonevoice calling.

“By installing VSAT we were able toreduce the communication costs of thevessels in two ways,” said Mr Arvanitidis.

Digital January/February 2011 page 10

SATCOMS

Gulf Marine Management of Greece is close to the end of a major migration of its technological infrastructure,moving from an outsourced support model to full in-house responsibility for the network and introducing

a completely new infrastructure that is bringing the ships closer to shore. Efstratios Arvanitidis, Gulf Marine, told Digital Ship about how his team managed this complex operation

Managing an IT infrastructure migration

Gulf Marine Management is currently implementing the Windows Server Update Servicessystem from Microsoft, so updates will be downloaded once to the ship's server

and then distributed across the network offline

p1-13:p1-14.qxd 13/01/2011 17:17

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p1-13:p1-14.qxd 13/01/2011 17:17

SATCOMS


“The first was with VoIP telephonelines, with the vessel able to perform busi-ness calls from two dedicated businessVoIP lines to the shore with low rates. Ouroffices can also call the vessels on two UK(for us) land line numbers, that are basi-cally free of charge, eliminating the callcost to the vessels.”

“At the same time we added two addi-tional dedicated phone lines for the crewattached to the vessel PBX, they could calltheir families from the privacy of theircabins and didn't have to be on the bridgeusing the mini-M phone with all the oth-ers. These lines have low rates usingscratch cards.”

The second method through which thecompany cut its communications costswas in its ship-to-shore e-mail and dataexchange services.

“(For e-mail) we had been asked tomove from Rydex and choose a new sys-tem that would be easy to distribute to all

of the vessels and easy to install, while atthe same time being reliable and cost effec-tive,” said Mr Arvanitidis. “For this wehave chosen AND’s RapidoMail solution.”

“The entire vessel’s correspondenceand data synchronisation of PMS (plannedmaintenance system) and purchasing plat-form data won’t add a single cent to thevessel’s communications costs.”

Remote accessOne area where Mr Arvanitidis believesthere has been a significant cost savinghas been in remote maintenance of the onboard systems, which has dramati-cally reduced the amount of time andeffort required to keep the ships up andrunning.

“There has always been a need for thecompany to reduce the actual cost of thefleet's IT maintenance related tasks, eachtime there was a need for support we hadto give them a phone call and spend a

long time talking, or even arrange to goon-site, which would cost a lot of money,”he explains.

“Now we have got that down to onevisit per year to the vessels, with every-thing else done remotely. To do that wehad to establish a system that would pro-vide the ability to provide remote supportand at the same time help the IT depart-ment monitor the vessels’ networks on adaily basis, and keep the system up todate. For that I'm talking about operatingsystem patches and anti-virus updates,things most people will be doing.”

“We also wanted to be able to monitorbackup tasks and any other server-siderunning services without bothering thecrew. With the VSAT we were able to dothis at no additional cost above the fixedmonthly fee we pay for the service.”

The IT team has additionally tried to upgrade the information resourcesavailable both to those on shore and to

the crews on board, to help the remotemaintenance process to run as smoothlyas possible.

“When visiting each of our vessels wehad to update the existing documentationon some, but in most of the cases we hadto create it from scratch,” Mr Arvanitidisexplained.

“However, a thorough systems auditand creating that documentation has nowprovided us with the ability to find sup-port information about any of the equip-ment and software installed on our vesselsin less than five minutes.”

“For example, if a hard disk fails on avessel and needs to be replaced we don'thave to send e-mails to the captain and askhim to pull out the disk to find the serialnumber, and then wait for the reply, wecan check the documentation. This is thealpha and the omega for our job.”

Annual vessel visits are now muchmore focused and straightforward toschedule, with Mr Arvanitidis estimatingthat 90 per cent of support jobs can be han-dled from shore.

“Each engineer is dedicated to a num-ber of vessels and follows the vessels’schedule, attending the vessels once peryear. This is an additional way to keep theIT infrastructure in its best working condi-tion,” he said.

“We also do this to make sure that thecrews are following our IT policies, as wellas our support there are also tasks thatneed to be done onboard and the vesselhas to do it following certain rules.”

“The entire vessel’s correspondence and data synchronisation of PMS (planned maintenance system) and purchasing platform data won’t add

a single cent to the vessel’s communications costs,”

- Efstratios Arvanitidis, Gulf Marine

p1-13:p1-14.qxd 13/01/2011 17:17

Digital Ship


“Over the last year and a half of ourproject a lot of tasks needed written infor-mation to be delivered, and we are now ina position where we can provide a full'how-to' manuals database to the ships. Ina case where they need a written proce-dure to follow they can refer to the How-To manuals and don't even have to sendus an e-mail.”

These advances in IT maintenancecapabilities have been welcomed on boththe shore and the ship side – though theoffice-based IT department of four peopleis now tasked with offering instant sup-port to the ships via the communicationsnetwork.

“We have six vessels per engineer, andone dedicated to the office side,” said Mr Arvanitidis.

“We had to create a 24/7 IT supportteam that would cover and support thevessels at any time, over the phone orremotely wherever available. We had tofind well qualified IT engineers and trainthem on the specific business.”

“They have their BlackBerrys and theirmobile phones and have to use them!Hopefully the vessels can think aboutwhere Athens is and the time zone so theydon't call during the night, but in caseswhere they do we always reply.”

Ship Equip has also provided GulfMarine with a ship tracking tool as part ofits service, which it can use to monitor the status of the communications systemfrom the office and be instantly notified ofany problems.

“With this you can see that a vessel isunder coverage but appears offline - thisis not good and we don't want this to hap-pen,” said Mr Arvanitidis.

“When the vessel is under coverage itshould be online, so we know that thisspecific vessel has an issue. One of the bestthings about having this tool and theremote access is that we can start trou-bleshooting and often resolve an issuebefore the vessel even realises that there isa problem.”

Into the futureHaving seen the benefits of some of thewide ranging changes Gulf Marine hasmade in the way the company supportsand communicates with its vessels overthe last eighteen months, Mr Arvanitidisand his team is keen to leverage the newinfrastructure to introduce new and differ-ent applications to the ships that were notavailable to the company previously.

“There are many times in differentcompanies, and I'm sure this is a fact formost people, when new systems areinstalled on board without the crew hav-ing been trained on how to use them first,because of time pressure - being able toperform training sessions over video con-ferencing with officers on board has beenanother positive aspect,” he said.

“We have a saying in Greece that a pic-ture equals 1,000 words, but we don’t havea saying for streaming video! Sometimeswe need to send live video about some-thing that happened on the vessel in order

to get immediate action from our servicecompanies. This will be something we canrun on the VSAT as well.”

“Then there's telemedicine – wehaven’t used it yet and hopefully we willnot have to use it either in the future. Butthe ability to perform telemedicine ses-sions gave added value to the project.”

As the project draws to a close, MrArvanitidis is satisfied that he and histeam have met the challenges put to themby the management and delivered a betterway of working to the company.

“We couldn’t predict the amount ofdata that would be transferred to and from

the vessel over VSAT, but looking at ourusage statistics we are talking about 20gigabytes being downloaded (per month),with 10 gigabytes uploaded,” he said.

“We couldn't do that on a vessel thatdidn't have VSAT, and would not haveallowed it to happen.”

“We have seen some results that we wanted to see, we've had captains tellus we've done a great job, some are say-ing they've seen benefits from the newinfrastructure on a day to day basis onboard the vessels. I like this, this is whatwe wanted to happen and this is what we got.”

Unlock the Potential of Internet On Boardwith Dualog® Connection Suite™.

Contact the Maritime Communications Experts today about what really concerns you.

(+47) 77 62 19 00 or [email protected] | www.dualog.com

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Though the company hopes never to need it, telemedicine technology could allow scans and other medical data to be transmitted from the vessel to shore

p1-13:p1-14.qxd 13/01/2011 17:17

SOFTWARE NEWS


www.linescape.com

Linescape has launched FRESCOTM, anonline Freight Rate Exchange for shippingcontainers used for purchasing and salesin the freight forwarding sector, and forbuyers of freight services.

The company has previously run anonline search engine for container sailingschedules, hosting schedules from morethan 120 shipping lines, and will supple-ment that service with this new offering.

FRESCOTM connects the two maingroups of visitors in Linescape’s user base,giving both sides access to each other forthe purpose of initiating bookings and cre-ating business relationships.

“We bring together shippers and for-warders requesting and offering freightrate quotations, all seamlessly tied in toour sailing schedule search engine,” saysLinescape’s co-founder, Dimitrios Sogas.

“Users can now leverage the huge userbase Linescape has assembled, and simpli-fy the task of gathering quotes or findingnew customers.”

“With just a few simple steps, a shipper

can request quotes from a much largergroup of forwarders than would previ-ously have been feasible. And similarly,forwarders can reach a much wider customer base, all made possible by the broad appeal of Linescape’s simpleand powerful sailing schedules searchengine.”

FRESCOTM users seeking to book ashipment on a specific route can seek aquotation from a number of logisticsproviders at one time with a singlerequest, which Linescape says should helpusers to get the most competitive prices.

“Since FRESCOTM does not representeither party, users can be sure that they aregetting the best possible offer, directlyfrom the logistics provider,” said MrSogas.

Prospective users need to establish aFRESCOTM membership, select the coun-tries from which they wish to offer quota-tions, and can then start receiving raterequests by e-mail.

For forwarders, their company contactdetails are included in Linescape’s directo-ry and appear in Linescape search results.

Online freight rate exchange launched

Linescape aims to bring together shippers and forwarders requesting and offering freight rate quotations

Electronic documents trial at Russian terminal

www.essdocs.com

Balt-Forward LLC has agreed a deal totrial the CargoDocs eBill of lading servicefrom e-documents provider ElectronicShipping Solutions.

The system will be used to facilitate thetransport of Russian Export Blend CrudeOil (REBCO) crude and refined productshipments by tanker out of Primorsk.

The CargoDocs system aims to allow forwarders, shippers, carriers, sur-veyors and agents to replace all papershipping documents such as the Bill of Lading, Certificates of Quality,Certificates of Quantity, Time sheets andUllage Reports, with original electronicdocuments.

These 'eDocs' are originated, reviewed,signed, endorsed and produced back tothe carrier online, through the ElectronicShipping Solutions eDocs Exchange.

Primorsk Oil Terminal and PrimorskPetroleum Product Terminal are togetherthe largest hubs for exports of REBCO

and Russian petroleum products, withPrimorsk reporting throughput in excessof 79m tonnes of crude oil and productsservicing 935 vessel calls in 2009.

“We are very enthusiastic aboutCargoDocs,” commented LolitaSavchenko, operations director of Balt-Forward.

“We estimate that using eDocs willeliminate up to six hours per voyagewhich are currently wasted on printing,signing, stamping and distributing paperoriginals.”

North West Customs Point for EnergyCargoes, which services Primorsk, hasofficially informed Balt-Forward that ithas no objections to accepting CargoDocs-originated Bills of Lading and CargoManifests for customs purposes.

Electronic Shipping Solutions says thatit is also currently in the process of rollingout its electronic documents service atother crude and gas terminals across theNorth, Black, Baltic, Norwegian andMediterranean Seas.

Balt-Forward estimates that eDocs will reduce the document management process by hours on each voyage

www.shipserv.com

ShipServ has announced the signing ofABCmaritime to its marine and offshoreelectronic purchasing system, ShipServTradeNet.

Headquartered in Nyon, just outsideGeneva, ABCmaritime is the secondSwiss shipping company to sign up toShipServ, and will use TradeNet tosource spares and supplies for its fleet ofchemical, oil and bitumen tankers andoffshore vessels.

The company manages around 30 ves-sels, with part of the fleet owned by theABC Group and part under managementfor third party owners.

ABCmaritime vessels are already

E-commerce for ABCequipped with BASSnet purchasing software, which is directly integrated toTradeNet.

Using the BASS system, the ABC ves-sels can connect to the ShipServ Pagessupplier directory, raise requests for quo-tations and place orders via TradeNet inco-ordination with shoreside offices.

“ABCmaritime operates in specialisedniches but with a global scope,” saidDaniel Wolf, CEO of ABCmaritime Group.

“We like to work with partners likeShipServ who understand our businessand have a track record of delivery tohigh standards. We foresee considerablepotential for our fleet and managementoperations from this partnership withShipServ.”

www.bassnet.no

BASS reports that it has won a new soft-ware contract with a company in thecluster of tanker managers on the islandof Donsö in Sweden, its first contract inthe area.

BASS has agreed to deliver itsBASSnet Fleet Management Systemssoftware to Rederi AB Veritas Tankers, a Swedish family-based business, undera contract which BASS hopes will pave the way for further deals within the cluster.

Implementation of the softwareacross Veritas Tankers’ fleet and at itsshore-based organisation is scheduled totake place in January 2011.

"This software will help us furtherimprove the safety on our vessels andfacilitate the work for the crew," said

BASS agrees contract in Swedish clusterJoakim Franzén, safety and vetting man-ager at Veritas Tankers. "It will alsoimprove verification control ahead ofinspections."

Mr Franzén notes that the companywill also examine the possibility ofexpanding its use of the software follow-ing the installations, should it see fur-ther opportunities for operationalimprovement.

"If we need additional software forour office and vessels, then additionalmodules from BASSnet will be consid-ered," he said.

The small island of Donsö outside ofGothenburg, with a population of about1,500, hosts 12 shipowners, whobetween them own a total of 47 vessels,mostly chemical and product tankers. Inaddition, there are eight small supplyvessels that operate out of Donsö.

p14-28:p15-25.qxd 13/01/2011 14:42 Page 1

20 years experience. 1 simple solution.• Type Approved PMS

• Minimal Training Required

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• No ‘Per Seat’ or any Annual License Fees

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• Complete Package or Single Modular Components available

• PMS, Stock, Procurement, Dry Dock, Safety & Document Management Solutions

From ship to shore,simplicity is the key to success.

Visit www.marinesoftware.co.uk or email [email protected]

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ABS Nautical Systems has openedoffices in Vancouver, Canada andShanghai, China as part of the compa-ny’s efforts to expand its global foot-print. The Vancouver office will serve local clients including Teekay,Seaspan Ship Management, and Valles,and handle all Pacific Northwest operations. Both offices’ operations will be overseen by Tom Blenk, VP ofglobal operations.

SOFTWARE NEWS


www.abs-ns.com

www.onemaritime.com

A new electronic ship supply procurementportal, backed by the InternationalShipsuppliers & Services Association(ISSA), has come online as of January 1st2011 with the aim of allowing ship own-ers, ship managers and ship suppliers toselect and order ship stores from bothonboard ship and ashore.

The One Maritime initiative will allowmaritime stakeholders to access the ISSA Ship Stores Catalogue and otherinformation sources, online or on CD, intheir search for provisions, bondedstores, pantry and deck and engine storesworldwide.

Catalogues immediately available foraccess from the time of the launch includethe ISSA Catalogue and the One MaritimeProvisions and Bonded Stores Catalogue,as well as other catalogues detailing cargoaccess equipment, engine spare parts and medicines.

The ISSA Catalogue forms a major partof the One Maritime offering, thoughother main-line industry catalogues arealso included which the companies saymakes One Maritime "the most compre-hensive maritime catalogue search engineavailable on the market today".

Users of the system will be able to issuerequests for quotations (RFQs), ordergoods and deal with invoices, directlyfrom the application. Further computerplug-ins are also planned to allow the userto track goods, draw up supply contractsand return items should they need to.

Ship owners, managers and suppliers

will also be able to search for vessels, byname and vessel position, by accessing aVessel Master database, incorporating AISinformation and information on ports and agencies.

Ships' stores and provisions suppliescan be searched generically or by producttype, or through the individual port of delivery.

The One Maritime initiative has a num-ber of project partners, including ISSA andShipCentric, and will offer e-commerceconnectivity via specific maritime e-com-merce systems such as MarineLink fromEDB ErgoGroup.

Under an arrangement with OneMaritime, MarineLink will connect its e-commerce system to the application toallow access to the catalogue service fromthe MarineLink trading platform.

The partners are expecting that differ-ent types of users will be able to takeadvantage of a variety of available servic-es relevant to their own needs.

Ship owners and managers will be able to access an overview of their ownships' ordering details, search by part ormanufacturer, see service equipment due for survey and upload relevant serv-ice reports.

Suppliers will have an overview ofships in their own ports with estimatedtimes of arrival and departure, and will be able to search for particular owners or vessels.

Suppliers can also upload their owncatalogues, as well as service items on cer-tain vessels and customers, prioritisingequipment due for survey. These features

Maritime electronic purchasing portal comes onlineare in addition to the basic ordering, orderconfirmation and e-invoicing functions.

Equipment manufacturers will also beable to upload their catalogues for accessby marine purchasers, which they canupdate as required along with their profileand contact information.

Torben Brammer, One Maritime co-founder and CEO, believes that the com-pany's mix of multiple informationsources and the latest technology willprove to be beneficial to those involved inthe process of managing ship supplies.

“Our technology products haveallowed us to think of data sources and theuse of data in a much different way thanever before,” he said. “With its uniquesearch engines and data migration tech-nology, One Maritime has managed tobuild an online platform that gives itsusers access to a mix of data from multipledata sources at the same time.”

“It changes the way that catalogues, forexample, will be used in the future. It willallow users to search across multipleinformation sources faster than just open-ing one printed catalogue and then to startbrowsing the pages one by one for theright information.”

“It ensures updated information atyour fingertips, something that the currentprinted catalogues cannot deliver, and itgives subscribers access to downloadupdated data into their back office sys-tems in a much simpler way. We havemixed the different catalogue data withspecific data for vessel, supplier, owners,managers, vessel locations, industry KPIsand much more.”

www.seagull.no

Seagull reports that it has updated its CESOnline service, a Crew Evaluation Systemused to measures a seafarer’s knowledge dur-ing the recruitment and promotion process.

CES consists of a knowledge databasewith over 5,000 multiple choice questionsspecific to seafarer knowledge, as definedby STCW.

The system is structured to use pre-defined test types, with a built in question ran-domisation feature to maintain test integrity.

Own company-specific questions canbe created using the CES Test Editor tool,drawing on the entire CES library of ques-tions and allowing them to be edited asper the company’s own requirements.

Access is available via the internet, withno special software needed. Users canhave test results stored in their own cen-tral training database, can pre-schedulethe start of a CES test in advance or start iton demand, and can print test certificatesand reports.

AVEVA increasessecurity options

www.aveva.com

AVEVA, a producer of design softwareused by shipyards, reports that it hasincreased the choice of security optionsavailable to its AVEVA Global customersthrough the implementation of Microsoft’sWindows Communication Foundation(WCF) standard.

AVEVA Global is integrated with otherAVEVA software systems to enable compa-nies to workshare and to collaborate onprojects with their partners, suppliers andcontractors, wherever they are in the world.

WCF is a security standard that willgive users an interoperable platform forsecurely exchanging data. This improve-ment is configurable, with differentparameters that can be adjusted to theuser's unique security requirements.

Options such as authentication, encryp-tion and a selection of suitable transportmechanisms for data are all included,while combination with Microsoft .NETcompatible security features makes it pos-sible to adapt the configuration to thecompany’s IT policies, whether this isLAN, WAN, internet, or a combination.

In addition, AVEVA says that usingWCF can help reduce costs for global com-munication by replacing the need for con-nections such as VPNs.

"Effective workshare and collaborationis dependent on the ability to keep the sys-tem agile, by transmitting only changes,rather than large and cumbersomedatasets," said Thierry Vermeersch, prod-uct strategy manager at AVEVA.

"This demands an equally agile securi-ty strategy, and one that is flexible enoughto meet the changing needs of the cus-tomers’ evolving environments. We havelistened to our customers and included theflexible security of WCF into AVEVAGlobal in order to take the benefits that itoffers to the next level."

Seagull updatesonline system

Swedish cargo vessels get PMS www.marinesoftware.co.uk

Swedish based Rederi AB Uman is toinstall Marine Software's MPM (MarinePlanned Maintenance) system on threeGibraltar flagged self-discharging generalcargo vessels, which operate mainly in theBaltic and North Sea regions.

A central OPM (Office PlannedMaintenance) system has also been deliv-ered for Rederi AB Uman’s Karlshamnoffice, which provides all shore side tech-nical staff with the ability to monitor fleetmaintenance status ashore.

"For us, the choice of planned mainte-

nance system was simple; a user-friendlyprogram with a lot of module functionsthat can be built on to fit just our organisa-tion, and a great support function as well,"said Björn Holm, fleet manager at RederiAB Uman.

"The main reason for us to go from afile based maintenance system to comput-er based was flag requirements, but that isa step that we don’t regret. Next step forus is to implement this system in ourSwedish flagged vessels as well."

Reederei AB Uman says that it was par-ticularly interested in the 'PM Job Lock'module available with the system, used to

The planned maintenance system will operate on the ships as well as in the office

ensure that, once the MPM database wasoperational on-board, no crew memberwould be able to make Job Card amend-ments to job instructions or interval peri-ods, even as the system administrator.

The central office OPM users can control these changes ashore and submitsimple job card update files to the vesselsfor the reflective changes to be made, as required.

Marine Software says that this type ofcontrol feature is becoming increasinglypopular across its client base, as it ensureson-going database integrity, especially forsame-class sister vessels.

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SOFTWARE


Managing purchasing with ERP dataEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology helps companies to integrate operations and share data more easily.

The Costamare Group has introduced such a system, and has used its capabilities to improve its management ofpurchasing expenses, as Haris Antoniadis, CIO with Costamare, explains

OO ne of the most common goalswhen implementing a new ITsystem is to try and reduce the

operational costs within an organisation,whether through increased automation orimproved efficiency.

The Costamare Group, a company spe-cialising in container shipping, hasattempted to gain these kinds of benefitsby using Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) technology to create value frominformation gathered in the operation ofits fleet of 43 vessels, managed from itstwo management companies located inAthens and one in Shanghai.

One area that the company has particu-larly focused on in this regard has beenmanaging its purchasing, where HarisAntoniadis, CIO with the CostamareGroup, says that investment in technologyhas helped in controlling costs by allowinga greater level of analysis of real timespending.

“In general, items for which a companydoes not have an inventory in its books areconsidered as an expense as soon as thecompany takes possession of the item –meaning when the spare part is deliveredto the vessel, or the service is completed,”he said.

“So it is the delivery date that actuallydefines when the expense is recognised bythe company.”

“These are expenses that, although theyhave already occurred, for things likespare parts or consumables that have beendelivered onboard the vessels and servicesthat have already been completed, do notoccur in the books of the accountingdepartment as no invoice has yet beenprocessed.”

This discrepancy between the actualstatus of the company's purchasing andwhat appears in the accounts is somethingthat Costamare wanted to eliminate, toensure that its management of costs couldbe as accurate as possible.

According to Mr Antoniadis, approxi-mately 25 per cent of invoices related todeliveries in the preceding two months atany particular point would typically nothave been processed by the accountsdepartment, and up to 50 per cent ofinvoices relating to the last 30 days.

“The general practice as everyoneknows is that, after the delivery of an item,the supplier issues an invoice and sends itto the customer,” he said.

“It takes some time for the document tobe delivered to the customer and then,according to the company's practices,some more time is needed for the docu-ment to be processed and recorded by theaccounts department. It usually has a lifecycle through the departments forapprovals, and in a typical scenario ittakes a couple of weeks or even more fromthe delivery date of an expense for it to berecorded in the accounts departmentbased on that document.”

“There are also expenses that are origi-nally covered by agents, and then for-warded to the shipping company throughdisbursement accounts. These expensestake a lot more time to be processed by theshipping company. So at any givenmoment there is a part of the expenses for

which an invoice has not yet beenprocessed by the accounts department,and these expenses do not appear in youraccounting software package as invoices.”

Costamare's solution to the issue was tochange its focus from the data availablefrom the accounts department to the pur-chasing module of the ERP system, wherethe data from actual deliveries would givea more complete picture of the expensesaccrued for any given period at anymoment in time

“The ERP can be updated with a deliv-ery event, either the same day if the ves-sels are equipped to do that, or after a cou-ple of days by the office personnel,” saidMr Antoniadis.

“This means that, at any time, the fullpicture of the expenses can be present inthe ERP. This picture will change very lit-tle when the invoice comes, and will onlyhave to be updated with minor changesand charges that might not have beenincluded in the delivery record.”

“If the ERP users have the discipline torecord the expenses accurately and in atimely way the company will have in theirERP system a lot of information that canhelp in managing costs in a more efficientway. This information is very rich becauseit can show the expenses that occur in theprimary cost elements like spare parts,consumables, and services, and can deliv-er this information in a timely manner tothe person in charge.”

Monitoring expensesMr Antoniadis says that the benefits that acompany can achieve from a more preciseand timely analysis of its expenses can be significant.

“The ERP company gets an idea of theperformance for Q1 sooner than in othercases, when it might be too late to react,”he said.

“Another major advantage from moni-toring costs with ERP data is that the levelof analysis of an expense categoryexpands in a natural way relative to theprimary cost elements. ERP informationrelates the cost data to the actual items, thecost elements, which is then linked tooperational data like running hours, main-tenance actions, and all of these things.”

“The data stored in the accountsdepartment software is not structured inthe same way, so it cannot be analysed tothe same depth.”

As an example, Mr Antoniadis illus-trates how a hypothetical set of quarterlyexpenses would appear in both sets ofreports, with the ERP system providingadditional layers of metadata that can beapplied to cost analyses.

“For example, for the first quarter youmight have main engine spare partsexpenses of $10,000,” he said.

“This $10,000 would be recorded in theaccounts software as a series of invoices123 or ABC, but in the ERP they corre-spond to real life spare parts. So the analy-sis is far more meaningful when we areusing the ERP.”

“The secret is to make the total expens-es in the two systems coincide – this is thedifficult part.”

Mr Antoniadis notes that the IT depart-ment can play an important role in thisrespect by providing a way of reconcilingthe data entered in each area and creatinga workable system.

“One has to be sure that the picture ofthe expenses in the two systems is accu-rate, otherwise the accounts department's

data will be the winner and the rest willnot be very useful,” he said.

“The cost element of the purchase mustbe recorded with the accounts department'scoding standard, it must be categorised cor-rectly and everyone has to respect theaccounts department's rules for recognisingthe cost of the delivery, and so on.”

“Usually it can be hard to convince theusers and the different departments of theimportance of having that discipline whenthey record expenses.”

In this sense, one of the biggest chal-lenges to using ERP in this way is in themanagement of the human element of thesystem, as Mr Antoniadis explains.

“There are a couple of difficulties, oneis that the ERP must be updated on time toreflect the actual status of purchases. Insome cases this means extra work for thepeople who will be the users of the ERP,”he said.

“To ask the ERP users to maintain therequired discipline to justify the use of theERP, the company must take advantage ofthe richness of the information stored in theERP system. In my view there have to bereports, financial and operational reports,bringing in all this information and reflect-ing the analytical power of the ERP data.”

Mr Antoniadis notes that Costamarehas been fortunate enough not to havehad many problems in getting its peopleon board with the system, and says thatthe accounts department has even wel-comed the changes once it had seen howit could benefit.

“If you give the tools to the accountsdepartment to verify the figures and makesure that they are going to publish the cor-rect results, then usually it will be wel-come,” he explained.

“And when the guy in the accountsdepartment has the ability to verify his fig-ures against the ones produced in the ERPby the different departments, then he isassured that he has the correct figures andit is good for everybody.”

“Another thing that is very helpful inthis kind of situation is not to have anypressure from the management on theaccounts department to produce more andmore reports and Excel spreadsheets, andcompile more figures. The managementhas to, as far as the operational expensesare concerned, make use of the data in theERP so the accounts department can seethat they benefit from the situation and arenot just pressed into even more reports.”

With these results, Costamare believesthat its investment in this technology andthe changes in its way of operation havebeen vindicated. With faster access to itspurchasing data and a more accurate pic-ture of its spending, the company will con-tinue its efforts to improve its efficiencyand drive down operational costs.

Using its ERP system Costamare has been able to eliminate the grey area of missinginformation, where goods have been received but the invoice has not been processed

DS

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Human Resource Management SystemsTailor-made for the maritime industryAdonis offers a wide range of modules covering the complete cycle of human resource management and payroll systems, starting with web-based recruitment that is fully integrated with the HR system.

e complete cycle of human resource management andnt that is fully integrated with the HR system.

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Adonis launches release 3:

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An applicant can create an account and apply for a specific position or just upload his or her CV. This is standard procedure for most web recruitment services. What is unique about Adonis, however, is that, once an applicant is accepted for further processing, it is possible to seamlessly upload all the information from the applicant’s account, including enclosures, to the Human Resource system. This cuts out manual work and saves having to retype information, which means that the recruitment process is to a large extent rationalized and streamlined.

- A Web Crew Portal will be launched later this year, says Product Director Erick Meijer of Adonis AS. This is a new service that will enable employees to administer their own accounts relating to the Human Resource system. They will also be able to read their own data and upload information to the core system. One of the many features of this portal is electronic registration of working hours by swipe card or PIN code, with an automatic alert when the regulations relating to rest hours are about to be violated. It is also possible for employees to upload travel expense

claims for reimbursement, register overtime and have read and write access to parts of their own data such as personal and family information etc.

“It is very challenging to tie together a protected in-house database containing very sensitive crew information with web-based ser-vices that by nature are vulnerable,” says Erick Meijer. Adonis has found a way of doing this that satisfies the most stringent requirements for data security. Only the least sensitive tables of information are replicated to the services that are available via the internet. In this way, we can combine the availability and flexibility of a web-based service with protection of sensitive infor-mation such as payroll data, social security and account numbers and similar information you do not want to risk being hacked and misused.

- We foresee that our Windows-based main HR and Payroll system will co-exist and interact with new web-based services for many years to come. But Adonis is committed to innovation and front-end technology. As we continue to develop our .net solutions, we naturally keep in mind that Windows-based applications will one day be his-tory, says Product Director Erick Meijer.

From offshore to cruiseOne of the major improvements in release 3 is the possibility of tailoring the Human Resource solution to suit different industries. Adonis provides solutions for a range of sectors in

the maritime industry, from crew management companies and traditional shipping to cruise companies, the offshore sector and oil rigs. The portfolio consists of modules for office use as well as a range of modules for shipboard use, such as Crew Station Bill, Cabin Allocation, Crew Effects, Masters Cash Account and Timecards Registration. The central database ashore is kept in sync through a powerful built-in database replicator.

The solutions are also very scalable, and they are suitable for small and medium sized companies as well. This enables customizing of the user interface to match the various roles in a global organization, such as crewing agents, branch offices, inspectors etc. As companies grow, they can be sure that Adonis has the capacity to grow along with them.

Another of Adonis’s distinctive characteristics is its philosophy of interfacing with other systems.

- Our willingness to provide interfaces and interaction with other systems has been one of the success factors behind our growth. We may have the best Payroll or the best Crew Rotation module, but that doesn’t mean that the customer needs to replace his whole Human Resource system to use some of our modules. Instead it can be interfaced with the Adonis modules of the customer’s choice, says Product Director Erick Meijer.

Adonis recently launched release 3.0 of its maritime Human Resource

Suite. At the same time, the company announced that it plans to increase

its focus on web development based on the .net technology. A Web

Recruitment service, integrated with the Crew Management System,

is already on the market and has been introduced by a number of

customers. Customers administer a register of vacant positions linked

to job requirements on their websites.

Product Director Erick Meijer, Adonis AS

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Headquartered in Norway and with a large development unit in the Ukraine, the company has built up an impressive list of references. See http://www.adonis.no

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SOFTWARE


TT he new European Advance CargoDeclaration has taken effect as of 1January 2011, a regulation which

requires ships carrying goods in and outof the EU, Switzerland and Norway toalert customs authorities prior to theirarrival by submitting an Advance CargoDeclaration (ACD).

Inspired by similar requirements intro-duced in the US following the terroristattacks of 9/11, the EU regime aims to giveMember States a clearer picture of the move-ment of goods in its surrounding areas.

This will be facilitated by the introduc-tion of an electronic system to which ship-ping companies will be obliged to connectand submit information on their cargowhen approaching EU waters.

To assist its members in identifying therelevant sections of these rules as they willapply to their own companies, the EuropeanCommunity Shipowners' Associations(ECSA) has issued an explanatory note thatoutlines a number of the key provisions.

One point to note is that the rules apply

to the import and export of goods to andfrom third countries to one or more EUMember States, with shipping companiesneeding to submit cargo information inadvance to the relevant customs office.

This applies solely in the case of importor export of goods, so consequently theadvance cargo declaration is not relevantfor shipping in the case of transit of goods.

In the case of import of goods, a shipoperator will also have the additional obli-gations of having to submit an ArrivalNotification (AN) and a 'summary declara-tion for temporary storage'. In some casesof diversion of the ship, a ship operator willhave to submit a diversion request.

The EU rules also differ from the USversion in respect of their application to the short sea shipping sector. While US rules apply to deep sea container car-riers, in the EU short sea shipping com-panies will also be subject to new regula-tions, though these will vary among thesectors, particularly in relation to thetime-frames involved.

In its explanatory note ECSA identifiesthe specific sector requirements for thesubmission of information as follows.� Deep sea container shipping: 24 hours

before loading of the cargo onboard a ship in a foreign (non-EU) port in case of import; or 24 hours before loading of the cargo onboard a ship at the EU port of departure. In case of import, the declaration obligation applies to each foreign (non-EU) port of loading and not just to the last foreign (non-EU) port of loading before entering the EU.

� Deep sea bulk shipping: 4 hours before arrival of the ship in the first EU port of arrival in case of import; and 4 hours before departure of the ship in an EU port in case of export.

� Shortsea shipping and combined transport: 2 hours before arrival of the ship in the first EU port of arrival in case of import; and 2 hours before departure of the ship in an EU port in case of export.

The distinction between 'deep sea' and'short sea' is a geographical one, withECSA describing ships coming from orgoing to neighbouring countries of EUMember States located either in the BalticSea or in the Mediterranean Sea as beingqualified as short sea shipping.

Information requirementsInformation requirements for entry (withthe Entry Summary Declaration or ENS)and exit (with the Exit SummaryDeclaration or EXS) vary, as one mightexpect, with entry requirements beingdecidedly more comprehensive.

In both instances numbers of items car-ried and all applicable product and con-signment codes are requested, with detailsof numbers, volumes and weights ofgoods carried, as well as information onvarious parties involved with the cargo.

Entry requirements include specificquestions on the when and where arrivalis expected, and the names of parties at thereceiving port for notification.

A full outline of the required informationis laid down in Annex 30 A of the Regulation1875/2006 (link available below).

The ENS is used by the relevant cus-toms office to carry out a risk assessmentof the cargo to be imported in the EU.

ECSA's explanatory notes point outthat the ENS does not replace the tradi-tional manifest in each port of discharge,however it is possible that the traditionalmanifest will include all relevant informa-tion for an advance cargo declaration.

Nonetheless, the manifest must alsoinclude further specific information asdetermined in the national trans-port/customs legislation of each EUMember State that the ship is calling at.

For maritime transport, an ENS is only

required if originating from a port outsidethe EU, and does not have to be submittedfor intra-EU shipping services.

The EXS is also used by customs forrisk assessment purposes, and is subject toa number of rules and exemptions apartfrom normal customs declarations (out-lined in the regulation and ECSA's notes).

For example, where a customs declara-tion for export, re-export or outward pro-cessing does not have to be submitted inaccordance with the normal customs rulesan EXS may still have to be submitted tothe customs office of exit in advance.

Computer systemsECSA notes that the obligation to declarethe required cargo information electroni-cally to the customs office is one majorchange resulting from the EU legislationon advance cargo declaration.

As it points out, the result of this moveis that all economic operators (e.g. ship-ping companies) that are importing goodsto or exporting goods from the EU areobliged to establish a computer system toallow them to interface or connect with thecomputer system of that customs office towhich they have to submit the requiredcargo information in advance.

In its notes ECSA is critical of the lackof standardisation between the systemsbeing used by the customs authorities inthe implementation of the new system,and regrets that the EU “did not have thecompetence to establish one single EU-wide computer system that would applyfor all 27 EU Member States.”

Instead, the computer systems that willapply in all 27 EU Member States to man-age electronic advance cargo declarationswill differ in each individual country, asituation which compares poorly with thesingle system used for similar purposes bythe United States.

ECSA describes three different levels ofelectronic information exchange for theadvance cargo declaration, as follows.� A 'common domain', which will allow

information exchanges between EU Member States and the European Commission;

� A 'national domain', which is made up of the different national customs com-puter systems, and will allow customs offices to exchange the results of their risk assessments with each other;

� An 'external domain', which will enable the interface/connection between the economic operator (e.g. shipping company) and the relevant customs office, which is needed for the submission of the relevant cargo infor-mation within the required timelimits.

ECSA suggests that, in order to establishwhich electronic system a shipping com-pany (or its representative) needs to devel-

New moves in regulatory reporting - the European Advance Cargo Declaration

The European Community Shipowners’ Associations has issued an explanatory note to assist its members incomplying with the new regulations of the European Advance Cargo Declaration, which have come into force as of the start of this year – Digital Ship examines some of the key provisions that will affect vessel operators

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op in order to be able to have a workinginterface/connection with the computersystem at the customs office, the companyshould contact the relevant IT manager atthat office.

Each individual Member State hasappointed an IT manager under the newregime who will act as a contact personwith external shipping companies and theirrepresentatives. For reference, lists of theseIT Managers per EU Member State (forimport and for export) is available fromECSA, via a link in its explanatory notes.

ResponsibilitiesUnder the terms of the new regime thecarrier or his representative carries theresponsibility to declare the required

cargo information in advance to the cus-toms office – in maritime this is the shipoperator, or typically the ship’s agent as itsrepresentative (though exemptions are inplace for combined transport and vesselsharing scenarios).

ECSA also notes that third party filingof information is likely to occur frequentlyin container shipping, both deep sea andshort sea. In shipping, the third party thatwill file will typically be the freight for-warder or NVOCC (non vessel operatingcommon carrier).

The involvement of third parties canmuddy the waters a little when it comes tocorrectly determining allocation ofresponsibility, which can also have seriousliability repercussions, so ECSA has

attempted to clarify the situation for itsmembers in the following outline.

“A third party can only do advance cargodeclaration provided that he has advised thecarrier (ship operator) thereof beforehand(knowledge) and the carrier (ship operator)has agreed thereto (consent).”

“The 'knowledge and consent' arecumulative requirements in order to pro-ceed with a third party filing. How the car-rier’s (ship operator) knowledge and con-sent to a third party is to be evidenced andunder which conditions and terms, aresubject to contractual arrangementbetween the carrier and the third party.”

“The customs office may assume,except where there is evidence to the con-trary, that the carrier (or ship operator)has given his consent and that the declara-tion by the third party was made with thecarrier’s knowledge.”

“However, in case of third party filing,the carrier (ship operator) remains the ulti-mate liable person. This means that the car-rier (ship operator) will have to be sure thatan advance cargo declaration was made.”

“It is for this very reason that he mustbe advised beforehand of and have agreedto a third party filing. Indeed, in case a

third party would have failed to submitthe relevant cargo information in advance,the carrier (ship operator) will be heldliable and a penalty will be imposed uponhim and not upon the third party.”

“For this very reason, it is suggestedthat a carrier (ship operator), if he agreesto advance cargo declaration done by athird party, he has evidence (be it in elec-tronic or paper form) of the fact that thatthird party has eventually done the neces-sary declaration in advance and in time.”

“In case of an unintentional double fil-ing, i.e. the carrier (ship operator) andthird party file together but separatelycargo information in advance to the cus-toms office, the computer system of thisoffice will only be able to handle one of thetwo declarations. The declaration by thecarrier (or ship operator) will prevail.”

When the cargo information (ENS orEXS) has been successfully declared inadvance to the customs office the submit-ting party will receive a confirmationreceipt containing a unique 18-digitMovement Reference Number or MRN.

The MRN is automatically allocated bythe customs office immediately afterreceipt and validation of the declaration.

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Digital Ship

Shipping companies importing or exporting goods at European ports such as Rotterdamwill be subject to the new declaration regulations. Photo: Quistnix

ReferencesShortlinks to:EU Regulation 1875/2006 - http://bit.ly/fHrCRhAmended regulation 312/2009 - http://bit.ly/hHAIJHECSA explanatory note - http://bit.ly/dQ2Drn

The ECSA Secretariat notes that it is happy to answer any additional questions that members may have on this issue by contacting Christophe Tytgat at the Association.Contact details are provided in the explanatory note.

DS

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SOFTWARE


TT o the readers of a magazine dedi-cated to information technologyin the maritime industry, the

opportunities offered by electronic ship-ping documents (eDocs) must be obvi-ous. The fact that eDocs have been avail-able for some time in most business sec-tors raises questions on why the shippingindustry appears so traditional andresistant to change.

In fact, Digital Ship readers know ship-ping is far from being the luddite it issometimes portrayed as. It employs everfaster and more sophisticated satellite,Wi-Fi and terrestrial communications aswell as high-powered monitoring andoperations hardware and software.

Computer networks onboard shipsare becoming commonplace and theneed for commercial advantage is driv-ing ever more sophisticated fleet man-agement, procurement and trackingsolutions. Even in shipping within a lim-ited arena, eDocs have been widespreadfor over a decade in the form of e-mailcharter party recaps.

So why, when there is such progress inadopting new technology in these areas,does the industry persist with an out-moded, inefficient, error-prone andexpensive means of sharing shippingdocumentation?

Shipping documents comprise some ofthe most important data required to movecargo – bills of lading, safety data sheets,customs declarations to name just three –data which cargo owners, traders,shipowners, agents and inspection compa-nies alike rely on for contract performanceand regulatory compliance.

Clinging to paper-based processes ismore than inefficient and old-fashioned,it’s both irresponsible and highly riskygiven the value of the cargoes and potential legal exposure when things go wrong.

Granted, there has been some progress.Container lines have been among the ear-liest adopters of shipping eDocs and anumber of shipping and trading compa-nies are evaluating their use, but the ship-ping industry continues to create andmove mountains of paper during thecourse of a single voyage.

Wider adoption of eDocs is far from azero-sum game. It is a process that canbenefit the whole supply chain, not justthe terminals, shipowners and agents butcharterers, banks, cargo owners, customsand forwarders too.

It is clear there are structural problemswith sticking with paper at a time wheneverything else is already digital. Indeed,using paper in shipping actually increas-es costs due to printing and couriers, timelost in shifting physical documents, prob-lems due to illegibility of copies or loss of originals.

Often the data on shipping documents

is entered separately into distinct IT sys-tems run by multiple parties involved inthe shipping process or trade chain. Thismeans that up to 90 per cent of the infor-mation which overlaps between docu-ments needs to be retyped, resulting indelays, duplication of work and a highlikelihood of errors and variances.

Research by Forrester estimates thatimporting a single cargo using traditionalpaper means will require an average of 36original paper documents and 240 copiesfrom up to 27 parties. That is a significantamount of documentation to create andhandle per shipment.

Digital benefitsUsing eDocs offers a number of immediateadvantages. Some are purely administra-tive but most have the potential toimprove the bottom line for trading part-ners, their suppliers and service providers.

Taking bills of lading as a single exam-ple, the benefits of eDocs are numerous.

For shipowners, eB/Ls (electronic billsof lading) offer faster vessel turnoverthanks to improved document processing,minimising time spent at the load portdealing with documentation or any delaysat discharge port while awaiting docu-mentation. They offer reduced outstand-ing freight payments because freight issettled on receipt of documentation by theshipper/charterer.

eDocs also offer the ability to dischargecargo against an original eB/L rather thana letter of indemnity (LOI), therebyenabling the carrier to remain within itsP&I cover.

For ship agents and cargo inspectors,eB/Ls offer faster document review andhandling and reduce travel time due tothe ability to review eDocs remotely from the vessel.

For traders and cargo owners, theyoffer a reduction of the costs associatedwith purchasing a bank guarantee for anLOI. The time that trade credit facilitiesare tied up as collateral is reduced,through the receipt of original documenta-tion which in turn allows the cancellationof LOIs and the turnover of credit linesmore quickly.

Valuable time spent on managingpaperwork is regained and can be used formore productive endeavours.

For terminals, eB/Ls mean improveddocument creation processes, reducing thetime and effort involved in preparing orig-inal documentation and handling amend-ments, as well as eliminating the need toattend the vessel to distribute and signdocumentation.

For all these parties, the potential riskof cargo fraud is eliminated because sign-ing eDocs is limited to authorised usersonly, and digital signatures ensure thatthe content of these eDocs has not beentampered with.

Regulatory movementSo why the resistance to change? Broadlyopposition can be characterised as argu-ments against the use of new technologyand the issue of legal equivalence to paper.But in both cases, the wind has changed.

The most recent revision to the WorldCustoms Organization’s KyotoConvention requires signatories to applyIT solutions to support their customsoperations. New or revised national leg-islation increasingly provides for e-com-merce methods as an alternative topaper-based documentary requirementsand employ electronic as well as paper-based authentication.

Under REACH rules for hazardouscargoes, trading counterparts arerequired to send pre-registered SDSs andtrack them, ensuring receipt by receivingparties. If changes to the SDS details areneeded, the sender must resend originalsto all previous recipients within the lastyear, a process ideally suited to an elec-tronic solution.

In the maritime sphere, theInternational Maritime Organization’sFAL Committee is shadowing these devel-opments and working towards the ‘singlewindow’ concept. This is broadly definedas a facility that allows all parties to lodgestandardised information and documentsat a single entry point to fulfil all trade andtransit-related regulatory requirements.

Both the IMO’s work and the WCOconvention have also been helped bygrowing international recognition of thelegal equivalence of electronic signaturesand electronic documents by governmentsworldwide.

Perhaps the most obvious progress forshipping companies is the recognition inthe Rotterdam Rules of electronic bills oflading. The new standard for contracts forthe international carriage of goods whollyor partly by sea, the Rotterdam Rulesmake it clear that electronic bills of ladingare the legal and functional equivalent ofpaper bills.

The methodology has gained furtheracceptance with the recognition by theInternational Group of P&I Clubs thatelectronic bills of lading issued on anapproved system are covered under mem-bers’ P&I insurance and that risks associ-ated with cargoes shipped under eDocsare covered within members’ standardterms of cover.

There is further impetus as the sup-posed vulnerability of the maritime sup-

ply chain continues to occupy the mindsof regulators keen to tighten ship and portsecurity. Regulatory pressure can beexpected to continue, mainly throughincreased demand for pre-filing of shipand cargo information for security.

The 10+2 Rule introduced in 2009already requires importers and vesseloperators to file advance notification forall ocean vessel shipments inbound to theUnited States.

The European Union 24 hour advancedmanifest rule came into effect on January1, 2011, requiring ocean carriers to elec-tronically submit an Entry SummaryDeclaration (ENS) for all ocean containershipments from outside the EU to be dis-charged in an EU port including tranship-ment cargo and foreign cargo remainingon board (see page 20 of this issue).Carriers must also file a pre-departure ExitSummary Declaration (EXS).

Finally, it must be remembered thatarguments against new technology disap-pear over time and when properly under-stood, this is more likely to happen soonerrather than later. A clear example of this isthe IATA led project to rollout eTickets forpassenger flights, which leaped from 0 percent use in 2004 to 84 per cent in 2009.

The ubiquity of e-mails and the steadymarch of always-on broadband on vesselstoday means that it is hard to defend theuse of paper when an electronic alterna-tive is available.

Often these arguments are not againstthe technology itself, but rather the fearthat a third party provider is attempting tore-shape the process to their convenienceinstead of moving paper processes intocollaborative working online.

In fact, development of eDocs in ship-ping has frequently been industry-led,with leaders like HeidenreichInnovations working with bothIntertanko and the Baltic Exchange todeliver its Q88 and B99 solutions andChinsay developing a system for elec-tronic recaps with major shippers.

This approach overcomes concerns ofprocess-reorganisation as parties con-cerned, from vessel’s master to cargointerests, can be satisfied that eDocs wereevolved from existing best practices.

And like most technological improve-ments, when users have worked witheDocs, they do not want to revert to piles ofpaper. After all, when was the last time youbought an airline ticket and had to go to thetravel agent’s office to pick it up? DS

Alexander Goulandris co-foundedElectronic Shipping Solutions(ESS) while studying a MBA atWharton School of Business, andhas been CEO since it was estab-lished in 2003. ESS offers services

to enable trading partners to useelectronic documents includingBills of Lading, Safety Data Sheetsand Customs Documentation foroperations and compliance pur-poses. www.essdocs.com

Electronic documents – the end of paper?Shipowners and operators need to understand the forces driving the adoption of electronic shipping documents

and accept that the use of paper for a wide range of shipping documents bills of lading, safety data sheets and documents for customs forms is drawing to a close, writes Alex Goulandris, ESS

p14-28:p15-25.qxd 13/01/2011 14:42 Page 11

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IT security - beating the hackersOne of the downsides of IT evolution and the digital age is the consequent upsurge in hackers’ ability

to use your own technology against you and profit from your private information. Asterios Voulanas, from thePriceWaterhouseCoopers’ technology governance and security division, offers some advice on managing IT security

CC omputer-based digital informa-tion technology systems havehelped to transform the modern

company's ability to store and transmitbusiness and operational data over thecourse of the last couple of decades, withemployees in offices around the worldable to share documents and informationinstantly and at a negligible cost.

However, taking advantage of thesegrowing opportunities means that compa-nies also have to live with a growing num-ber of threats to the precious business datathat lies at the core of their operations.

In an increasingly connected world,making sure that those connections areonly made with people you can trust is aconstant battle, and as Asterios Voulanas,partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers' tech-nology governance and security divisionin Greece, notes, this is a battle you shouldnot be too confident about winning.

“I don't like to be pessimistic, butthings aren't good from an IT security per-spective,” he said.

“Incidents are occurring on a minute-by-minute basis, and IT departments are struggling to keep up with the challenge.”

Worryingly, the threat landscape thatbusinesses are working in and trying toprotect themselves against is constantlyevolving, making that task all the moredifficult.

Mr Voulanas points to recent researchfrom Forrester, an independent technolo-gy and market research company, as anexample, which claims that the gapbetween hacker threats and securitydefences are widening, while other avail-able statistics do not offer any more causefor optimism.

“Symantec's Intelligence Quarterlyreport (for July – September 2010) saidthat, just for that quarter, there were 14.6trillion spam messages,” he said.

“This represented 91 per cent of all e-mail messages observed – so only about 9per cent of e-mails were real, legitimate e-mails. Then there are phishing attacks,with attackers using brands in the finan-cial sector for 73 per cent of these (accord-ing to the Symantec report).”

“Another important source is the 2010Data Breach Investigations report byVerizon Business, which tells us thatthere has actually been a slight decreasein external threats, things like hacking,but there's been a significant increase insecurity incidents caused by insiders –employees, other third parties, and serv-ice providers. (The Verizon report shows)that 48 per cent occurred from 'involvedprivilege misuse' – that means that it'susually from the IT department somewhere. IT guys have the keys to the castle.”

Emerging trendsSome of the other interesting statisticsfrom the Verizon report have showedthat, while there has been an apparentdecrease in traditional computer hacking,there has been a marked increase in theuse of 'social tactics'.

This includes the use of social networksto harvest data, with hackers workingamong groups to steal identities and infor-mation about the users.

“We see this ourselves in our company,the techno-generation or Generation Y.They're entering the workplace, or arealready in the workplace, and they have adifferent view of how they use data sys-tems,” said Mr Voulanas.

“There's a blurring of work and per-sonal lives, there are a lot of people work-ing from home now for instance – thatcan cause a lot of security issues. Socialnetworking causes a lot of problems forcompanies with data leakage and identitytheft.”

PWC conducted its own research oninformation security breaches in April2010, commissioned by InfosecurityEurope, which also found that staff misuseof the web and e-mail remain the mostcommon occurrences.

There has also been a noticeableincrease in staff data loss incidents, whereemployees lose or misplace laptops orUSB sticks containing company data.

These changes in the threat landscapepose a problem for IT departments in theirquest to protect the company network.Recognising how these threats are evolv-ing will be a key key factor in devising asuccessful security strategy.

“We see hackers, and even novicesnow, moving away from being motivatedby ego and being able to boast howthey've hacked into so-and-so organisa-tion and sharing those exploits in forumsand usergroups – now profit is becomingthe new motivator,” said Mr Voulanas.

“Organised crime has started to hiresome of these hackers, and are reallyfocusing attacks on high ranking targets –intellectual property, financial data, secu-rity credentials and access to e-mailaccounts, those sorts of things.”

“The attacks are becoming moresophisticated, and the attackers arebecoming more patient – they could hackin and leave malicious code in your busi-ness and let it sit there for a month, twomonths, or a year just harvesting infor-mation. To put this in some perspective,they're saying in the US that cyber crime costs the economy up to $8 billion(per year).”

Other emerging trends include a growing movement from manualattacks to more automated system-basedactions, and an increasing threat-base

where even people with basic computerskills can use the internet to develophacking capabilities.

“The tools are now much better, thereare crimeware kits that allow people tocustomise a piece of malicious codedesigned for stealing, which are freelyavailable to novices,” said Mr Voulanas.

“One of these is the ZeuS tool kit, whichyou can get online, that helps you to createa trojan to steal passwords, credentials,those sorts of things. This, together withthe creation of 'botnets', so-called compro-mised computers or zombie computers,are used by organised groups to launchdistributed attacks. You might even have abotnet in your business and you don'teven know it.”

Mr Voulanas notes that even the onsetof the global economic downturn of thelast few years has changed the IT securitylandscape, with recession driving anincreased insider threat in organisations.

“With the downturn it's affecting

employees pay, promotion prospects, jobsecurity, and in many places morale is cer-tainly not the best,” he said.

“Personal debt problems can also moti-vate an employee and lead them to insidercrime, theft or sabotage where there issome financial gain for himself. These aretrends that we are seeing that haveincreased as the recession has taken hold.”

“Another thing that has not helped inthis regard is a reduced investment insecurity in the downturn, and cost-driv-en outsourcing, where you give connec-tions to external service providers –those connections could be exploited byhackers or even by the third party serviceproviders themselves.”

The evolution of the technology in usealso poses another issue, as new types ofequipment or innovation in businessapplications will change the infrastructurethat the IT department is trying to defendand may require a strategy rethink.

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SOFTWARE


nate – iPads, iPhones, BlackBerrys, thesethings have web 2.0 functionality built inand can be targeted by hostile groups,while mobile storage devices are becom-ing cheaper and smaller and easier tomove – they're not encrypted and theydon't have anti-virus in most cases,” MrVoulanas explained.

“The proliferation of wireless andmobile networks is not helping the situa-tion, you have employees going to cybercafes and using wireless networks. Theyare not very secure but people are sendingbusiness information over these networks.”

“Then there are other emerging tech-nologies like cloud computing, embeddedchips, quantum computing – the list goeson. The way technologies are convergingeveryone will be connected to everything,and from a security perspective that willcause a big headache.”

Implications for shippingWhile most of these threats will applyacross all industries, Mr Voulanas notesthat in the shipping industry there are par-ticular areas of focus that should be con-sidered when assessing IT security.

“We all know that data is being sent,stored and processed across various net-works, both onboard and on shore. There'sa lot of communication going over andback – how much of that is sensitive andhow much of it poses a risk?” he said.

“In shipping companies, often bydefault, it seems that the IT departmentusually has responsibility for IT security.If a breach occurs the owner or the boardwill be looking at the IT department forexplanations.”

“Shipping company security require-ments have also primarily been driven bythe sensitivity of the owners to protectionof their privacy, and perhaps also by the'pro-activeness' of the IT department itselfor as a result of past security incidents.”

Mr Voulanas says that, on the shoreside in particular, potential threat agentswill asses a particular company as eithera target of choice, or a target of opportu-nity. It is advisable that the companylooks at its systems from both of theseperspectives to try and anticipate poten-tial problem areas.

“As a target of choice there is some-thing of value in your business whichwill lead you to be targeted at some stageand someone will try and break into your systems – so ask yourself what doyou have that someone might want to

steal from you,” he said.“As a target of opportunity someone

may just be scanning the network and findthat there is a response, maybe you've leftthe default passwords on, and in they go.It's important to distinguish those two, asthey will be different threats.”

IT security threats on board ship havenot, up until the last few years, been anarea that has traditionally been of greatconcern for shipping companies, due tothe limited communications available.However, Mr Voulanas notes that the evo-lution of onboard technology is likely tolead to increasing interest from potentialattackers.

“There'll be more IP connections, andso there will be greater risk of attack,”he said.

“I haven't found any instances myselfwhere there has been a report of a ship-board network being hacked, but unfor-tunately I think it might be just a matterof time.”

“What does the future hold? I don'tknow. Taking over the system – whatcould that mean? One thing is for sure, wewant to keep the computers out of the con-trol of the pirates, that combination couldbe lethal. If they could start hacking rout-ing information and know exactly wherethe ship will be it will make it much easierto attack.”

Response strategiesSo what are the key steps to take to ensurethat your business is as prepared as possi-ble to protect its valuable data sources? MrVoulanas suggests that the first thing to dois to conduct a realistic risk assessment tosee exactly what state the company's ITsecurity is currently in before looking atwhat can be done about it.

“A lot of companies, maybe most com-panies in shipping, have never sat downand actually looked at their crediblethreats and what could go wrong from asystems perspective, both in the office andon board the ships, and the potentialeffects on the business if something goeswrong,” he said.

“You need to understand the level ofsecurity you already have and see what isthe likelihood that these events or threatscould happen and what would be theimpact on the business.”

“If there's an event where the likeli-hood of it happening is high and theimpact on the business would be high,that's where you need to focus your atten-tion and focus your response.”

That response might be to accept therisk and continue, try and transfer the riskto a third party through managed servicesor outsourcing, or look to take internalsteps to mitigate the risk.

One simple set of steps that MrVoulanas suggests can be taken internal-ly is to concentrate on building 'defencein depth'.

“Basically you take all of the layers ofyour IT systems, starting with the externalnetwork perimeter, and you make surethat you are securing each of those layers,”he explained.

“Some layers will be more secure thanothers, depending on your people, yourprocesses, and your budgets, but it's veryimportant to get a balance between therisks, the costs and the performance.”

“For instance, operating systems – it'seasy and cost effective to harden themand remove unnecessary services andcommunication ports, to make sure thatyou are communicating more securely.Make sure your servers are patched.These are easy and effective ways ofincreasing your defences.”

Once any defences are put in placethey should also be continuously testedin light of the changing threat landscape,with Mr Voulanas suggesting that suchtests should be performed annually at thevery minimum.

“Particularly you need to be looking atyour 'internet facing' external networkperimeter, where you have exposure tountrusted networks. Hire vulnerabilityscanners or employ someone to do pene-tration tests, and see how your IT defencesas they stand today would stand up to amalicious attack,” he said.

“Social engineering is another area for

testing, focusing on the human elementsin the network. For instance, we do testswhere we will send an e-mail to your endusers with malware attachments, and findout who has responded and could theoret-ically have infected their computers.”

“This kind of testing is a good demon-stration of proof of concept. When you goto the management or owner of the busi-ness and can say 'here is all your e-mailwhich I took from your e-mail server, andall your payroll data', then it's a goodway of showing the weaknesses in thesecurity.”

In conjunction with this testing of secu-rity defences it is also important to edu-cate the end users of the company's com-puter systems about where potentialattacks can come from, to help thembecome aware of how their actions canunintentionally compromise the securityof the company network.

“Humans are often considered as theweak link in the chain, but if they are edu-cated properly they can become your firstline of defence. If the staff are trained andconcious of security it's one of the greatestweapons you can have against a threatmaterialising,” said Mr Voulanas.

“It's then important to supplement thiswith more intensive training for your ITstaff. They have to be more concious thanthe end users, as they're at the forefront ofany attack.”

However, even with a firm strategy andthe greatest will in the world thwarting adetermined attacker is an incredibly diffi-cult task. The most important piece ofadvice that should be taken, in MrVoulanas' mind, is to never take your eyeoff the issue.

“Information security requires vigi-lance, you need to be watchful for thethreats and following the trends, andunderstand how they are applicable in thecontext of your business,” he said.

“Focus on preventative measuresrather than detection, and regularly test allof the measures you have taken.”

“Most importantly, you need to sustainthese efforts and continually adapt to thechanging threat landscape – becauseunfortunately it is only going to get worsebefore it gets better.”

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p14-28:p15-25.qxd 13/01/2011 14:43 Page 15

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS Digital Ship


www.kongsberg.com

A new Dynamic Positioning (DP)Operator Training Facility has opened inNorthbridge, Western Australia, ownedand run by the Australian MaritimeCollege (AMC)

The facility features a simulator suitedeveloped by Kongsberg Maritime, whichincludes the K-POS Basic DP Trainer forclassroom arrangement, with four DPModels, and the K-POS Advanced DPTrainer with instructor station.

A dual redundant DP control system,complete with four DP models, is alsoincluded.

All equipment has been designed anddelivered in accordance with NauticalInstitute requirements. The Basic andAdvanced Trainers can be used to practise

DP operations on four DP models: GenericSupply Vessel, Generic Drill Ship, GenericSemi Submersible and Generic Tanker.

The availability of this new facility andanother recent simulation centre shouldmake training for vessel operators in theregion much more convenient than waspreviously possible, notes John Foster,AMC Search CEO.

"Prior to opening our first DP OperatorTraining Facility in Tasmania last year,which is also based on KongsbergMaritime DP simulators, Australiantrainees would have to travel to Europe orthe US for DP courses, so we are delightedto be expanding our capacity for DP train-ing already," he said.

"The new facility strengthens our abili-ty to support the demand for skilled DPoperators by providing high quality train-

ing using serving DP officers as instruc-tors and sophisticated simulators able to

exactly mimic the operation and mainte-nance of complex DP systems."

www.osukl.com

Offshore Systems has introduced a newmultifunction display, a 95mm sq screenunit with a high resolution sunlight read-able colour display for showing data fromall ships' tanks, DC sources and ACsources.

The 3340 MultiFunction Display unitcan connect to an NMEA2000 network

with a single cable, with flexible functionselection controlled by user selectablescreen layouts.

The unit can accommodate up to 16each of fuel tanks, fresh water tanks, greywater tanks, black water tanks and oiltanks, and can also provide informationfor up to 16 DC sources such as batterybanks and wind generators, and up to 16AC sources including shore power gener-

ators and distribution bus bars.The user can set the tank sender dis-

play to suit individual requirements, bychoosing different tank types on eachpage of a multipage tank display, forexample. Each tank, AC or DC sourcecan have a user selectable descriptivename to aid identification.

The display is rugged and waterproofto IP67 for marine environments, and is

suitable for monitoring resources on com-mercial vessels.

"This new product adds to our corebusiness of manufacturing tank sensorsand displays," said Offshore Systems man-aging director, Bruce Coward.

"The 3340 MultiFunction Display is thefirst in a rapidly growing new range thatwill provide full digital monitoring of allthe essential services of a vessel."

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"This marks the beginning of aground-breaking collaboration betweenthe University of Southampton and oneof the world's leading knowledge-basedorganisations," said Prof Don Nutbeam,vice-chancellor of the University ofSouthampton.

"By locating the cornerstone of Lloyd'sRegister global research and developmentnetwork alongside the university's inter-nationally renowned engineering scien-tists, we will create a research and innova-tion hub that is unique in scale and ambi-tion for the UK. Building on our history ofcollaboration in marine and energy-relat-ed projects, we will extend our coopera-tion to create new technologies."

"Research and innovation are key driv-ers for building a strong knowledge econ-omy, and we know that governmentsaround the world are looking to collabora-tions such as ours to help secure a strongeconomic future."

Initial research activities at the grouptechnology centre are expected to centreon marine and energy-related projects, ini-tially those which could improve environ-mental and safety performance and opera-tional efficiency.

"We plan to expand into one or twomore commercial sectors and we knowthat Southampton will be able to supportus with any technology we require," saidRichard Sadler, chief executive, Lloyd'sRegister.

"This is a long-term collaboration andwe look forward to developing thisunique concept into a programme thatothers in the marine and energy industrieswill want to join, and one which othercountries will be tempted to copy."

www.fugawi.com

Canadian software manufacturer NorthportSystems has been bought out by its existingpresident, Robin Martel, who has acquiredthe company with immediate effect.

Mr Martel will succeed chairman SamRea as owner of the Fugawi desktop andmobile software manufacturer and the X-Traverse.com online chart subscriptionservice.

Mr Martel has worked on NorthportSystems’ GPS-related land and marinenavigation software brands and onlineservices for the past six years.

“Purchasing Northport Systems is athrill and the realisation of a long-timegoal,” said Mr Martel.

“I have a fresh vision with exciting newdirections for the company that will ele-vate us from a software producer to a truesolutions provider. I look forward to intro-ducing our stakeholders, partners andcustomers to the new Northport Systems.”

Prior to joining Northport Systems, Mr.Martel co-founded and led New Zealand-based GPS Control Ltd., and held posi-tions with Pico Data, Expressway Group,and Geo-Systems.

Northport Systems began operationsfifteen years ago. Its first product was aFugawi-brand mapping software for GPSreceivers, which allowed customers toscan and calibrate their own map imagesfor use with early GPS handheld devices.

The company has since expanded tooffer a selection of GPS-related softwareproducts, digital maps and charts.


www.lr.org

Lloyd’s Register and the University ofSouthampton are to move forward withthe £116 million first phase of a technolo-gy and training campus at the UK univer-sity, designed to create new technologiesfor maritime and other industries.

Among the new facilities to be built onthe university's old Boldrewood campuswill be the Lloyd's Register GroupTechnology Centre, a purpose-built build-ing which will be the cornerstone of theorganisation's global research and devel-opment network.

Technical staff from across the Group'smarine division will be among the first to

transfer to Southampton from Lloyd'sRegister's offices in the City of London,followed over time by experts from theorganisation's other business streams.

Research activities at the centre, whichhas been secured by Lloyd's RegisterEMEA through a 20-year lease with anoption for another 30 years, will be co-ordinated with other projects undertakenby the Group at academic institutions incities such as Singapore, Seoul, Londonand Beijing.

Many of these facilities are sponsoredby the Lloyd's Register Educational Trust,with the Group currently sponsoringresearch and development and scholar-ships at 17 universities worldwide.

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION NEWS

Tech development centre to open in Southampton

www.mpri.com

L-3 MPRI has announced the release ofversion 5.0 of its Liquid Cargo HandlingSimulator (LCHS) software, Safe Cargo.

The company says that this new releaseincorporates improvements to the per-formance, instructor features and configu-ration options currently available in thesoftware package.

The release is compliant with the latestWindows operating systems and incorpo-rates a new network communicationsinfrastructure to improve the speed andstability of the simulator, as well as systemdiagnostics and recovery.

“Version 5.0 of our Safe Cargo soft-ware capitalises on L-3’s extensive expe-rience in liquid cargo simulation andfeedback from our valued customers,”said Dennis Corrigan, senior vice presi-dent and general manager of L-3 MPRI’straining systems group.

“This latest release provides our cus-tomers with the broadest, most flexible andeffective system available, and includes allthe tools required to meet the training andassessment requirements of the forthcomingrevision to the Standards of Training,Certification and Watchkeeping and otherspecialised training applications.”

New version of Liquid Cargo Handling Sim

The new centre in Southampton aims to develop new technologies for use in maritime and other industries

Northport Systemsbought out by

president

L-3 MPRI says that the redesignedinstructor interface should ensure that theamount of training required beforeinstructors can use the system effectivelyis kept to a minimum, with a 'configura-tion wizard' which allows an instructor toquickly define the required simulator con-figuration for the training exercise.

This includes the ability to select frommultiple ship types, and assign the stu-dent stations to be operated independent-ly or in groups. Once defined, configura-tions can be saved and reloaded in the

The new software release provides more flexibility for training students in the particulars of handling liquid cargo

future with a single click. New tools are included to simplify the

monitoring of each of the student stationsand the recording of student actions, withintegration into the company's WISEVirtual Instructor and CompetenceAssessment tools.

The new software additionally featuresthe option to incorporate real hardwareconsoles or virtual panels with the appro-priate gauges and controls, allowing simu-lation of a fully operational Cargo ControlRoom environment.

www.jeppesen.com

Jeppesen has donated a classroom supplyof its C-MAP OceanView office chart androute planning systems to AENMakedonias (the Merchant MarineAcademy of Makedonia) in Thessaloniki,Greece.

The academy trains more than 100 offi-cers yearly, and students will now be ableto use the C-MAP systems on their PCs forfamiliarisation and route planning.

Planning routes using electronic chartswill help the students to improve theirskills in determining optimal routings,taking into account depth, speed and nav-igational aids, as well as overlayingweather data into their plans.

"We have close ties to the Greek ship-ping community and this donation is fur-ther evidence of our commitment to thenext generation of high-quality Greekdeck officers," said Willy Zeiler, marketingmanager – commercial marine atJeppesen.

"With the mandatory ECDIS deadlineand associated training requirements fastapproaching, Greek shipowners need toget more and more key staff trained inhandling ECDIS and planning and navi-gating routes in an electronic context."

Jeppesen makes chartsoftware donation

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“The offshore industry in Asia is expected to grow as the world recovers from recession. New deep water discoveries, coupled with strong demand for oil and gas from emerging economies, are driving expenditure on exploration and production. Organisations operating in this region should be prepared to seize new opportunities as Asia will undoubtedly play an increasingly important role in the energy sphere."

Andreas Sohmen-Pao, CEO, BW GroupSession Chairman of the Offshore & Energy Day: Drivers of the Offshore Industry in Asia

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST TODAY!

www.sea-asia.comTel: +65 6294 2280 | Fax: +65 6294 2780 | Email: [email protected]

Early bird rates for conference expires 28 February 2011!

Tuesday 12 April

MorningTHE ASIAN VOICE IN WORLD SHIPPING: CONTAINER SHIPPING & LOGISTICSAfternoonTHE ASIAN VOICE IN WORLD SHIPPING:THE MAJOR BULK TRADES

Wednesday 13 April

MorningLNG ACTIVITIES IN THE FAR EASTFull day parallel sessionsSHIP FINANCE DAY TECHNICAL DAY

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p29-40:p26-32.qxd 13/01/2011 15:01 Page 4


Digital Ship

www.toddchart.com

Navigation technology company TODD, amajor distributor for the UKHO, says it isworking with the Hydrographic Office onthe release of a Fleet Manager module forthe new Admiralty e-Navigator product.

The Admiralty e-Navigator FleetManager will allow TODD to view andorder all of the digital products requiredonboard the vessels to which it suppliesAdmiralty Digital Products (ADP),Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS)and ARCS.

The UKHO says that it is also workingwith a number of its approved distribu-tors, as well as a selection of shippingcompanies, in rolling-out the new soft-ware product to a variety of shore-basedand seaborne environments before gener-al release early in 2011. Belfast-basedTODD is the first to be involved in thisphase of the implementation.

The e-Navigator is designed to be acomputer-based navigation informationsystem that will enable mariners to view,select and order all the charts and publica-tions needed to plan voyages from withinthe software, while also calculating themost cost effective way to get from port toport.

It includes access to all Admiralty navi-gation tools and data, as well as other mar-itime products including paper chart

updating modules, ENC updating, theMaris Weather Manager, Lloyds RegisterFairplay's World Ports Guide, and theDNV Navigator.

“Admiralty e-Navigator is set to makelife easier and simpler for our marine cus-tomers – both at sea and ashore in theoffice,” said Capt William Todd fromTODD.

“It also aims to assist shipowners ingetting their fleets ready for implementa-tion of the ECDIS mandate beginning in2012. At TODD we are committed toassisting our customers in the movetowards electronic navigation, and we areextremely pleased to be part of this prod-uct development.”

Fugro Seastar AS, Oslo, Norway Tel: +47 21 50 14 00 Fax: +47 21 50 14 01 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.fugroseastar.no

Know where you’re going

MarineSTAR assists manoeuvring in restricted waters and confined port areas. Quay distance calculation aids berthing of large vessels.

M in

The MarineSTAR Manoeuvring System provides high accuracy position, course and speed - both in the forward direction and athwartships.

MarineSTAR can be integrated within ships bridge systems to provide stable accurate, position course and speed data. This is especially valuable to ships using electronic charting.

▪

▪▪

www.saabgroup.com

Saab has been awarded a SEK 116 million (approximately USD$17 million)contract by the India Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships(DGLL), to deploy a coastal surveillancesystem covering the entire Indian main-land coast.

The national coastal surveillance system will encompass 74 sensor loca-tions, six regional control centres andthree national control centres, most ofwhich will be connected by broadbandsatellite links.

The contract also includes furtheroptions to add another 12 sensor sites inthe future.

The sensor sites will be equipped with redundant AIS base stations that willidentify and track the movements of shipssailing in India’s coastal waters. Saab willalso deliver network servers andCoastWatch operator software systems forthe control centres, which will be used tointegrate radars being supplied by anoth-er contractor.

As the prime contractor for the projectSaab will also manage installation, inte-gration, commissioning, training and tech-nical support for the new infrastructure,with the work scheduled to be completedin mid-2012.

Saab’s sales and service partner inIndia, Elcome Marine Services, will assistin these activities.

“This will be one of the largest nationalAIS-based coastal surveillance systemsever to be deployed,” said Gunnar Mangs,vice president, sales and marketing ofSaab business area security and defencesolutions.

“Winning this contract, which wascompetitively bid, is an important valida-tion of Saab’s position as the technologyleader in AIS base stations and networksworldwide.”

Collaboration continues on e-Navigator Contract agreed for Indian coastal surveillance system

Comark launches new displaywww.comarkcorp.com

Comark Corporation has announced theavailability of its new Victory-HD Seriesof large screen displays.

Available in 37-inch and 47-inch sizes,the Victory-HD line is designed to meet avariety of IEC marine specifications, andis ECDIS compliant.

The large screen displays featuremachined aluminium bezels, conformalcoating on all electronics, and are avail-able with an integrated computer and

touchscreen option. They are serviceablefrom the front and can be either wall orpanel mounted.

“The Victory-HD large screen dis-plays are perfect for integrating informa-tion from multiple dials, gauges andsmaller displays onto a single display orfor displaying information to a largegroup of people,” said Steve Schott, pres-ident, Comark.

“The optional integrated computersaves space, simplifies installation andserviceability.”

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A New Inspection Regime for port State control in all Paris MoU countries has come into effect as of the the beginningof this year. As part of the initiative a new Targeting and Information System, operated by EMSA, will be used to monitor

vessel movements in affected areas - where failure to report the required information could lead to penalties

New Inspection Regime to target poor performers


ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION

SS ignificant changes in the port Statecontrol system have taken effect asof 1 January 2011 in the European

Union, and by extension the Paris MoUregion.

This new initiative is aimed at reward-ing ships that are performing well, andtargeting poor-performing ships, as partof the 'third maritime safety package'adopted by the European Parliament inMarch 2009.

The legislation behind the NewInspection Regime (NIR) of the ParisMemorandum of Understanding (PMoU),Directive 2009/16/EC on port State con-trol, entered into force on 17 June 2009,and applies to all Member States of theEuropean Union, plus Norway andIceland as part of the European FreeTrade Agreement.

The text of the Memorandum has beenrevised accordingly, allowing the sameRegime to be applied by all members ofthe Paris MoU.

So why was this New InspectionRegime required?

The existing regime on Port StateControl allows the Member State consid-erable freedom in selecting ships forinspection. This causes ships to be 'over-inspected' without any clear reason, whileother ships can end up slipping the net.

The new Directive makes the applica-tion of the NIR legally binding on all theEU Member States, including a new com-mitment to cyclically inspect all the shipsvisiting the ports and anchorage areas inthe Paris MoU region. Retaining a har-monised and fair approach was seen asessential when drafting the Directive.

The European Maritime Safety Agency(EMSA), representing the EuropeanCommission, played the role of task forceleader within the Paris MoU in charge of

developing the NIR. EMSA's involvementin the day-to-day practicalities of portState control, in providing technical assis-tance to the European Commission, madeit possible for most provisions in the NIRand in the Directive to be identical - inshort introducing common standards,Paris MoU-wide.

The main rationale behind the initiativeis to adequately target poor performingoperators. While the majority of shipping iscarried out in a professional, safe and securemanner, EMSA notes that problems can becaused by a minority which may seek to cutcorners, and disrespect standards.

The Agency is looking to maintain abalance between ensuring safety whilesubjecting ships to an appropriate level ofinspections, which can be time-consumingand costly. As such, the NIR containsimproved mechanisms for targeting suchsubstandard ships - while all ships visitingthe region will be inspected, the inspectionfrequency depends on a 'risk profile'assigned to each ship.

While this is bad news for poor-per-formers, there is good news for the majori-ty who perform well as the NIR also recog-nises the need to pose a lesser burden ongood operators who, under the new regime(and provided that a number of other con-ditions are met), can enjoy a time windowof up to 36 months without inspections.

Conversely, it imposes tougher enforce-ment on substandard ships that, in the worstcase scenario, may be forced to leave theregion. A ship’s risk profile will be based oncriteria such as its type, age, flag, class socie-ty, inspection history and notably, manag-ing company (the ISM manager).

Information systemsIn addition to the development of the NIR,EMSA is also engaged in facilitating the

regime’s correct introduction and smoothfunctioning.

In particular, the Agency has devel-oped a new supporting information sys-tem, and is providing training to users inthe national administrations and thePMoU Secretariat. It is also developingother tools to support the daily work ofthe port State control officers (PSCOs)across the PMoU region.

The PSC Targeting and InformationSystem (THETIS) is the new informationsystem that will be used to support theNIR. The system, currently in the finalstages of development, contains all thefunctionalities necessary to implement theNIR requirements.

EMSA is the project manager ofTHETIS, and the Agency says it has madea substantial investment in the tool.

THETIS is capable of calculating andattributing to each ship in the database arisk profile which is continuously updat-ed. Furthermore, it calculates the 'achieve-ment level' of the inspection commitmentof each Member State (i.e. ensuring thatpromises to inspect are kept).

The system also monitors missedinspections, and at the same time allowsfor recording of the reasons for missedinspections.

An important new feature of THETIS isthe direct processing of ship call informa-tion. The system receives ship arrival anddeparture information from Member Statesthrough SafeSeaNet, the EU's vessel trafficmonitoring and information system.

THETIS will use this ship call informa-tion to automatically indicate the shipsdue for inspection in all ports and anchor-age areas of the PMoU region.

All EU Member States are requiredthrough the Directive to have in place thenecessary arrangements to facilitate the

collection and reporting of ship arrivaland departure information through theirown national systems. Shipowners, mas-ters, agents or operators of ships calling atports of members of the PMoU will have arole to play in this regard, as initiators ofship call information.

Required informationThe NIR requires the following informa-tion for any ship arriving and leavingports or anchorages in the PMoU region tobe made available to THETIS:� Pre-arrival notification, at least 72

hours in advance for ships eligible for expanded inspection

� Pre-arrival notification at least 24 hours in advance

� Actual Time of Arrival � Actual Time of DepartureFailing to report the above informationmay cause a ship to be targeted for inspec-tion or be subject to the imposition ofpenalties.

It is also important to note that,although the Directive’s transpositionperiod expired on 1 January 2011, theDirective officially entered into force on 17June 2009. Therefore, application of thenew Directive’s provisions will takeaccount of any deficiencies or detentionsimposed on board ships during PMoUinspections as from this earlier date.

This will particularly have an effect inthe calculation of the ship risk profiles andalso in the application of the new banningprovisions.

As mentioned above, the ship risk pro-file includes a company performance crite-rion as a new parameter. The company isdefined as the organisation taking theresponsibilities resulting from theInternational Safety Management Code, orsimply the 'ISM manager'. The company

With the New inspection Regime, a vessel’s Ship Risk profile is continuously updated,based on inspection results. PSCOs are alerted about when to inspect a vessel

based on ship call information

The collection of information for the NIR began in June 2010, while application of therules began in January 2011

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Digital Shipperformance calculation will take onlyinspection results in the Paris MoU regioninto account.

Company performance will also haveconsequences for publications. In the EUcontext, under Commission regulationsEMSA is required to publish, through itswebsite, the list of companies having a lowor very low performance on the basis ofthe preceding 36 months.

Publication will commence on 17 June2012, when complete data will be availablefor a continuous period of the precedingthree years. However EMSA points outthat the company performance criterionwill be used as a parameter in the ship riskprofiles from 1 January 2011, on the basisof the available data.

As regards the new refusal of access(banning) provisions within the NIR, thesewill now apply to all ship types and maybe imposed on ships flying flags on boththe black and grey lists.

Furthermore, the provisions introduce aminimum ban period before a refusal ofaccess order can be lifted. This minimumperiod increases with any subsequent ban,and could eventually be permanent after thethird or fourth ban, depending on the case.

The practical implementation of theseprovisions means that, as from 1 January2011, any ship flying a black or grey listedflag and having two or more detentionssince 17 June 2009, will be particularly sus-ceptible to banning; if such ship isdetained again after 1 January 2011, theship will be banned from all ports in thePMoU region and for a period of at leastthree months.

Although the Directive introduces newport State control requirements, it main-tains and reinforces some of the require-ments of the current regime. In particular,the Directive recognises the need formechanisms allowing ship owners toappeal against a detention or a refusal ofaccess issued by a Member State. Therespective competent authorities arerequired to establish and maintain appro-priate procedures for this purpose.

An appeal does not suspend a detentionor a refusal of access. Should the appealresult in the competent authority uphold-ing a ship owner or operator’s appeal, thiswill mean an automatic rectification,including any necessary amendments inthe information recorded in THETIS.

EMSA believes that this will provide amore solid alternative to the existing rem-edy of the PMoU Review Panel, which,although probably quicker and easier as aprocess, is still limited to an essentiallyadvisory function vis-à-vis the sanctioningport State.

Training and preparationThe need for appropriate professional com-petency and training of the port State con-trol officers (PSCOs) carrying inspections inthe PMoU region is reflected in theDirective. These qualifications and trainingshould be harmonised as much as possible,a goal which EMSA says it will support.

The development of harmonised train-ing tools for PSCOs is an important elementof the programme, and a harmonised train-ing scheme is being offered for the trainingand qualification of PSCOs of all memberStates participating in the PMoU.

In particular, EMSA says that it is

organising a number of training weekseach year, dedicated to sessions focusingseparately on new or experienced PSCOs.

With the introduction of the new initia-tive and the new information system, theAgency says that it has now had to doubleits efforts by delivering additional 'train-the-trainer' courses covering the NIR andTHETIS, with the aim of ensuring asmooth introduction of the new regime.

The Agency says it is furthermore com-mitted to the long-term goal of making the

Oslo • Tel: +47 22 00 85 00 Fax: +47 22 00 85 01 Email: sales@ nautisk.comSingapore • Tel: +65 6557 0170 Fax: +65 6557 0270 Email: [email protected] • Tel: +86 21 6329 6349 Fax: +86 21 6329 6307 Email: [email protected]

News:

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port State control system increasinglymore efficient and robust. In this regard itdeveloped Rulecheck, in 2009, a databasethat facilitates access to relevant regula-tions and port State control procedures.

This system can allow PSCOs to, forexample, identify Convention referencesrelated to the deficiencies found on boardand thereby deliver to the master a com-plete inspection report.

The Agency says it is also developing adistance learning package for PSCOs,

which it claims will be the largest ever e-learning development project in the areaof port State control.

EMSA says that all of these initiativesform part of its goal of ensuring "a levelplaying field for shipping", stating that"we need to ensure that everyone hasaccess to the rules, and that the PSCOsenforce them in an even-handed manner."

"In short - fair play from ship operatorsand crew, with fair treatment from mar-itime authorities." DS

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RR egular readers of Digital Ship willbe aware of the excellent workdone by the UK's Marine Acci-

dent Investigation Branch in highlightingthe causes and consequences of maritimeincidents aboard UK ships or in the coun-try's territorial waters, with the organisa-tion's regular reports often carryingimportant lessons on how the improperuse of onboard technology, particularlyin relation to navigation, can have disas-trous effects.

These reports serve as a constantreminder as to the importance of propertraining, competent operation and ade-quate situational awareness in all situa-tions – no matter how advanced the sys-tems onboard, failure to adhere to the fun-damentals of good watchkeeping is arecipe for trouble.

Two more recent investigations includ-ed in MAIB's reports have looked at theissue of radar and ARPA, and how a fail-ure to make proper use of the technologyresulted in damage to a number of vessels.In both cases navigators preferred to relyon their own senses and judgement ratherthan seek assistance from their equipment– an unfortunate decision in both cases.

The first case involves a general cargoship, travelling at a speed of 11.4 knots, onloaded passage in coastal waters.

The report states: “The bridge watchconsisted of the lookout and the chief offi-cer, who was sitting on the starboard chairin front of a radar which had ARPA andguard zone facilities.”

“The visibility was good, the wind wasforce 4 from the south-west and the seastate was slight. There was a tidal streamof 0.1 knot setting to the south-west.”

“The lookout reported the lights of avessel ahead to the chief officer, who inter-preted them to be of a power-driven vesselheading in a north-westerly direction.Shortly afterwards the lookout wentbelow, leaving the chief officer alone onthe bridge.”

“The lights were those of a fishing ves-sel, which was trawling in a northerlydirection. The skipper had seen the lightsof a ship ahead and was concentrating onmaintaining a steady speed of 2.6 knots tooptimise the spread of the net. When theship’s echo appeared on his radar at 3miles, he interpreted it to be an end-onsituation, and expected her to keep out ofthe way.”

“However, as it became apparent thatthe ship was not taking avoiding action,he altered course to starboard to show herhis port sidelight. Shortly afterwards, heturned on the deck lights and shone alarge bright torch at the ship. Finally, heput the helm hard to starboard. But thiswas too late to prevent a collision.”

In its conclusions on the case, MAIBsuggests that the chief officer made anerroneous assumption that the vesselahead was on a north-westerly headingand would pass clear, and should havepaid more attention to his equipment toconstantly update his awareness.

It states: “After his initial observation,he was complacent in that he did not mon-itor (the other vessel's) movement by visu-al or radar bearings, and made no use ofthe available ARPA or radar guard zonefacilities. Therefore, he did not appreciatethat there was a risk of collision.”

“It is likely that the chief officer’sapparent lethargic approach to collisionavoidance was due to a lack of stimuli: hewas seated; the lookout was absent fromthe bridge; the watch alarm was not oper-ational; the radar guard zone was not set,and an onboard practice of infrequentand rudimentary position monitoringwas permitted.”

“Although the fishing vessel was astand on vessel, the skipper could havetaken earlier avoiding action as permit-ted by Rule 17(a)(ii) of the COLREGs. Inthis case, delay was influenced by hisexperience of ships normally alteringcourse at the last minute and passing at aclose distance.”

By eyes aloneThe importance of using all availablebridge navigational aids to create ade-quate situational awareness is also high-lighted in a separate investigation case,where a pilot negotiating a winding riverneglected to make use of the onboardradar and relied on his eyes alone – the fol-lowing is the MAIB's description of theincident as stated in the report:

“A 10,000 tonne vehicle carrier ground-ed while departing from a port in poor vis-ibility when the pilot incorrectly orderedthe helm to starboard after the vessel hadrounded a right-handed bend in the river.”

“As the vessel cleared the bend thepilot, who was navigating by eye andwithout reference to the radar, gave an ini-tial order of 'starboard 10'. When thisfailed to stop the turn as expected, heordered hard to starboard and full ahead.”

“The vessel’s rate of turn now acceler-ated to starboard and, by the time the pilotrealised his error, the vessel was swingingrapidly towards the right-hand bank ofthe river.”

“The engine was then put astern andboth anchors were let go. However, in thenarrow river there was insufficient roomto prevent the vessel from grounding.”

“Checks were made of the vessel’sspaces which confirmed that, fortunately,she had not been damaged by the ground-ing. Harbour tugs later assisted her torefloat and she was able to resume herpassage to sea.”

The MAIB report pays particular atten-tion to the role of bridge team manage-ment and communication between per-sonnel in such situations, and stresses thatthe fundamental requirements of planningand executing a safe navigational passagemust be clearly and fully understood andimplemented by all bridge officers, includ-ing pilots.

The conclusions of the investigationteam, as published in the report, note that:“SOLAS Chapter V, Regulation 34 andAnnexes 24 & 25 to the MCA’s relevantguidance clearly define the requirementsfor the planning and conduct of a safe nav-igational passage, the key elements ofwhich are: Appraising, Planning,Executing and Monitoring.”

“In poor visibility, the pilot struggledto identify visual marks, and in concen-trating on this failed to realise that he hadordered the helm to be placed in thewrong direction. The allocated roles andresponsibilities of the vessel’s bridge teamshould have been such that an order toplace the helm in the wrong direction wasimmediately questioned.”

“This would have enabled the pilot torealise and correct his mistake in sufficienttime to prevent the grounding.”

“The International Chamber ofShipping’s Bridge Procedures Guidestates, inter alia, that: effective bridgeresource and team management shouldeliminate the risk that an error on the part of one person could result in a dan-gerous situation.”

“Bridge officers have a duty to supportthe pilot and to monitor his actions. Thisshould include querying any actions oromissions by the pilot (or any other mem-ber of the bridge management team) ifinconsistent with the passage plan or ifthe safety of the ship is otherwise in anydoubt.”

While the use of the radar in thisinstance may not have been the mostimportant factor in causing the accident,onboard technologies of these kinds arethere to fulfil a purpose as an 'aid to navi-gation' – and that helping hand can be sig-nificant in preventing a navigator frommaking the small mistakes that can havemore significant consequences.

The navigator is, and will remain,responsible for monitoring the safe pas-sage of the vessel at all times, and mustrely on his or her own judgement in doingso. However, making use of all availableinformation is essential in ensuring thatthe judgements that are made are thesafest and most effective possible.

Two cases in MAIB’s recent investigation reports have highlighted incidents where vessel navigators failed to make proper use of their onboard radar and ARPA equipment in maintaining

their situational awareness. In both cases the results were costly

Radar and ARPA – ignore them at your peril



Damage to port bow bulwark on cargo vessel after collision with fishing vessel. Photo: MAIB

Damage sustained to gallows and trawlblock of fishing vessel. Photo: MAIB

DS

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GG PS has been the mainstay of posi-tion fixing on ships since aroundthe mid 1990s, transforming the

practice of navigation.In essence the system works by accu-

rately determining the distance from theship to the known positions of satellitesorbiting the Earth and then establishing theship’s position through 3D triangulation.

Major developments in satellite posi-tioning are currently underway that willeventually result in a fundamental differ-ence to the way we navigate ships.

Several things are contributing to this,including the advent of more sophisticat-ed satellites, the steadily increasing num-ber of non-GPS positioning satellites andthe gradual introduction of more sophisti-cated receivers.

In particular, new receivers will be ableto use all position-fix satellites publiclyavailable, whatever the system.

It is not a matter of developing a GPSfix and comparing it to a fix from anothersatellite system – all available satellites canbe potentially used to determine a singlefix to the highest possible accuracy,integrity and availability.

The huge consumer market, which des-perately needs improvements for systemsto work better in ‘urban canyons’, is fortu-nately funding the majority of the develop-ment costs for the new receiver technology.

GPS and GLONASSIn 1995 GPS was declared to have full oper-ational capability. Its consistently good per-formance since then has made it the back-bone of positioning around the world,although it continues to exhibit some per-formance drop-off at very high latitudes.

As existing satellites become unservice-able they are being replaced by next gen-eration, higher functionality systems.Unfortunately, the current financial situa-tion prevents all older technology satel-lites being replaced in a shorter timescale.

The Russian system, GLONASS, wasinitially developed in parallel with GPSand briefly had a full constellation of 24satellites in 1996. Unfortunately, it wasdown to around 10 in 2002 but since thenhas been steadily increasing, and nowstands at 20 fully operational satellites.

Four more operational satellites areneeded for a full constellation, with com-pletion expected during 2011.Unfortunately, the satellite business is avery risky one, with failures of satellitesand launch delays a continual problem.This makes any predictions, not just forGLONASS, very uncertain.

The Russians have recently beenaddressing GLONASS accuracy, withgood improvements being made and con-vergence to that of GPS accuracy is fullyunderway, not least resulting fromimprovements already made to the basestations of the system.

The GLONASS orbits have been specifi-cally chosen to provide reasonable accura-cy at very high latitudes – originally a moreimportant defence concern for Russia butnow a useful factor to consider whenundertaking ice-free Northwest passages.

Emerging systemsFor a long time there has been much talkabout the proposed European system,Galileo, but accompanied by comparative-ly little actual movement.

At the moment there are just two testsatellites in orbit. However, four valida-tion satellites are planned to be launchedin 2011 as a precursor to 18 fully opera-tional satellites to be available by 2015.

In practice, these dates will probablyremain fluid, although the fundingappears to be secure. However, the plan tohave a full constellation of 30 satellites isseverely in doubt.

Although funding lies at the heart ofthe problem there is the growing realisa-tion that navigational accuracy, availabili-ty and integrity will not be particularlyenhanced by employing a full constella-tion, simply because satellite receivers arebecoming multi-service.

Also, because of the strong political tiesthat Europe has with the US a ‘stand-alone’ Galileo constellation is perhaps notof primary concern. An 18 satelliteEuropean-owned constellation wouldbenefit all users of positioning systems,including US defence interests, and soremains politically attractive.

Total independence from GPS, andother systems in general, is obviouslymore important for GLONASS and alsofor the emerging Chinese system, knownas Compass.

Compass is planned to be operationalacross China and adjacent areas in 2012using a constellation of 12 satellites. Thefirst satellite was launched in 2007 and thepresent plan is to make the system globalby 2020, with 30 satellites.

As a stated supplement to full operabil-

ity with GPS, Japan has launched the firstof 3 positioning satellites, known as QZSS– Quasi Zenith Satellite System – that arein geosynchronous orbit over Japan.

The system is designed to give highangle signals, greater than 60° elevation,that will be easier to receive in urbancanyons, enhancing the operation of GPS –and, in principle, all other positioningsatellite systems.

Also, India has planned a regional sys-tem known as IRNSS – the Indian RegionalNavigation Satellite System, with 7 satel-lites due to be launched from 2011 to 2014.

Technology improvementsDual frequency operation for all users isthe norm for positioning satellites beinglaunched this decade, even thoughdefence users have had its benefits sincethe early days of GPS and GLONASS.

It enables a receiver to estimate thevariable ionospheric delays that otherwisecontribute to positional inaccuracies.

Although single frequency use general-ly gives better than 10 metres (GPS) accu-racy, anomalous ionospheric conditionscause unpredictable excursions out tomuch larger inaccuracies – 20 metres andpotentially rather more.

However, with dual frequency opera-tion, better overall accuracies are achievedand maintained. For GPS, around 5 metrescan be expected, at least in conditions oflow multipath.

For the last few years there has beenincreasing evidence that low level jam-ming is a threat to satellite positioning sys-tems. It can therefore be expected that newdesigns of receivers will shortly emergethat lessen their vulnerability to jammingand, very importantly, alert the user ifinterference is detected.

This will greatly add to the integrity ofsatellite positioning systems.

Another development that will eventu-ally impact maritime users is the increasedavailability of SBAS – Satellite BasedAugmentation Systems. Such systems arereliant on, but have system independenceof conventional satellite based positioningsystems.

SBAS has been around for a number ofyears, and includes some very effectivecommercial systems for specialised mar-kets needing high precision.

Freely available government-based sys-tems have been initially directed towardsthe needs of commercial aircraft but actu-ally have a much larger potential use. It isthe greatly improved positional integritythat SBAS gives that makes it attractive for

the aviation – and maritime – industries.

SBAS principlesThe basic principles behind SBAS are verysimilar to standard differential services,such as DGPS. In fact the latter are nowsometimes called Ground BasedAugmentation Systems – GBAS.

SBAS relies on ground stations monitor-ing the quality of satellite positioning sys-tem signals. Monitored information isrelayed by satellite directly into the user’ssatellite positioning receiver, improving theintegrity and accuracy of the position fix.

The main advantages of SBAS overGBAS is that it provides a wider coveragearea and the more integrated approachgives it a higher integrity.

WAAS – the Wide Area AugmentationSystem – is the North American based SBAS.EGNOS – the European GeostationaryOverlay Service – is the European equiva-lent and gives about 2 metres accuracy.

Both system are currently beingextended in geographical coverage. Forinstance, EGNOS is planned to extend toparts of Africa.

There are also other systems in use orunder development in various parts ofthe world.

In the future such systems are likely toreplace many conventional ground baseddifferential systems currently used exten-sively by ships in coastal areas. However,this needs IMO to formally adopt specificSBAS systems as meeting maritimerequirements.

The revolutionAll developments occurring in satellitepositioning bode well for the next decade– and nicely tie up with the timescales forthe implementation of e-navigation.

It looks as if new satellite receivers willbe able to give consistently good position,perhaps within 5 metres without SBASand 2 metres with.

More importantly, with an extremelyhigh level of confidence, using sophisticatedRAIM and interference detection processes,the receiver will be able to alert the user if itsaccuracy has degraded, perhaps with a goodestimate of the level of degradation.

It is likely to mean that formal checkingof satellite receiver position as part of thenavigational routine will become unneces-sary, which will greatly change current pro-cedures – this will be the real revolution.

However, it certainly does not removethe requirement for backup positioningtechniques when the satellite receiver for-mally hands in the towel ... DS

Dr Andy �orris has been well-known in the maritime navigation industry for anumber of years. He has spent much of his time managing high-tech navigationcompanies but now he is working on broader issues within the navigationalworld, providing both technical and business consultancy to the industry, gov-ernmental bodies and maritime organizations. Email: [email protected]

GPS has been the mainstay of global positioning since it first came online more than 15 years ago – however newdevelopments in complementary systems and technologies are hoping to reduce global reliance on the US system

and play a major part in in the next generation of enhanced position fixing, writes Dr Andy Norris

Satellite positioning – a revolution underway

The Galileo constellation is expectedto have 18 operational satellites available

by 2015. Photo: ESA

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KNS Inc. is a worldwide designer, manu-

facturer, and integrator in the marine commu-

nications industry. KNS has been serving cus-

tomers worldwide providing high quality serv-

ice, VSAT antennas, equipment and parts for

the marine communications industry. Origi-

nally starting as a venture of KT-Korea Tele-

com, KNS obtained its first contract with the

South Korean Coast Guard before moving into

the private commercial sector. To accommo-

date its rapid growth, KNS Inc. has opened a

larger R&D facility in the Daeduk Techno Val-

ley, the research and development capital of

South Korea. KNS is committed to innovation

and providing the highest quality maritime

communications equipment at competitive

prices. Currently KNS provides maritime

antenna systems for satellite communications

and satellite television to approximately thirty

countries worldwide.

In support of its entry into the European

market, KNS recently obtained EutelSat

approvals for their 60cm and 85cm antennas

and are in the approval process for the 1.0m and

1.2m Z-Series VSAT antennas. Reflecting its

serious commitment to the European market

KNS will open a new facility in Rotterdam in

the 1st quarter of 2011, Europe’s largest port, to

service their maritime antenna products. The

new Europe distribution and service center will

provide KNS clients with a centrally located

office for easy access to a full inventory with

hundreds of antennas and spare parts in stock.

As part of its commitment to customer service,

KNS will send an engineer anywhere in the

world within seventy-two hours of client

request. With the Rotterdam facility KNS aims

to provide the highest quality maritime antenna

products and services for the European market.

The opening of the Rotterdam facility coin-

cides with the launching of the K-Series anten-

nas, developed specifically for the TVRO mar-

ket. K-Series antennas are based on the Attitude

Heading Reference System (AHRS) using IMU

sensors (3 axis gyro scope, 2 axis acceleration).

The 3 axis platform is a stabilized skew system

that guarantees precise searching and tracking.

The affordable TVRO K-Series antennas are

compatible with DVB-S2 and the DiSEqc 1.2

function allows automatic switching between

four satellites. The K-Series is a competitively

priced antenna that is based on the same tech-

nology as the Z-Series, providing exceptional

tracking ability, and is ideal for private and

smaller shipping vessels.

The K-Series antennas join an already

impressive list of KNS designed and manufac-

tured maritime communication equipment.

According to Chun Woo Lee, the Korean Coast

Guard Superintendent of Satellite Communica-

tions, the KNS Z-Series VSAT antennas are the

most reliable communications antenna on the

market and nearly a hundred units have been

installed on South Korean Coast Guard ships.

KNS also manufactures the S-Series 3 Axis

TVRO antennas. The S-Series antennas allow

users to watch satellite television at sea. All S-

Series antennas have received CE Conformity

and the EMC Directive 2004/108/EC, based on

the EN60945 2002 Maritime Navigation and

Radio Communication equipment require-

ments, have been met. KNS also manufactures

the competitively priced A-Series VSAT anten-

nas that are built in conjunction with Astra

Broadband Services and provide private and

commercial vessels the technology to access

the internet anywhere in Europe. The competi-

tively priced A-Series VSAT antennas for

Europe have been approved by SES ASTRA.

All KNS antennas are developed specifical-

ly to stabilize broadband connection during

volatile at-sea weather conditions and KNS is

working to put together airtime packages for

their antennas. The antennas are built on the

proven 3-Axis platform that allows them to

constantly track and lock in on satellite sources.

With the 3-Axis platform KNS antennas are

able to gyrate along the X, Y, and Z axes and

move 90 degrees per second. “With the 3-Axis

platform the motion of ships will not matter

because the antenna will move and track on its

own. This means that no matter what the condi-

tions at sea our antenna will constantly track

and lock on to a satellite. There will be no dis-

ruption of service anywhere in the world in any

condition,” said Noah Chung, International

Marketing Manager at KNS. One KNS VSAT

customer noted that during a lightning storm,

“The KNS A9 antenna was only five meters

from the lightning site and still appeared to be

fully functional! This proved to be the contrary

to other nearby equipment like AIS, Gyro, and

Fleetbroadband which were all severely dam-

aged and needed replacements.”

KNS will significantly increase their devel-

opment and production capabilities when they

move into their new facilities in Daeduk Tech-

no Valley in July 2011. The new campus

includes a 5,500m2 three story building and

will house a full Research and Development

facility for the A, S, K, and Z series antennas

and up to 3-meter C-Band antennas. The new

campus will also house facilities that utilize

state of the art equipment to run simulation

tests including 24hour security checks for mar-

itime communications technology used by the

South Korean Ministry of Defense. In addition,

a new fully equipped laboratory will provide

hands on training and an installation workshop

that can simulate technical issues that may arise

on vessels. KNS plans to integrate a Near Field

Scanner to the laboratory shortly.

KNS works directly with other companies on

various satellite communication defense projects

as well as with all major dock yards in South

Korea including DSME, Hyundai Heavy Indus-

tries, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, HanJin Heavy

Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries. In

addition, KNS is branching into new global mar-

kets including Europe, North America, Central

and South America. Recently, KNS received the

CE 0678 Certificate from German authorities for

the Supertrack Z6Mk2, Z8Mk2, Z10Mk2 and

Z12Mk2 antennas and the Anatel approval is

currently in progress which will allow KNS

products to be sold in South America.

KNS Provides Exceptional Quality MaritimeCommunications Equipment Worldwide

p29-40:p26-32.qxd 13/01/2011 15:05 Page 11

• On-demand solutions for any size or type of maritime operation, anywhere in the world

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Offering customers the most comprehensive product portfolio on the market

See how we can enhance your maritime satellite communications experience – contact Marlink

Tel (24/7) +32 70 233 220Fax +32 2 332 33 [email protected]

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90-vessel software deal for van oord

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