Navios, Tsakos, Thenamaris and Maran are at the forefront of satellite communications and fleet management technology, but have their own challenges to overcome
Greek ship operators’ key technology challenges are ship-to-shore communications, IT security and training seafarers for a new generation of technically-advanced ships. Some owners are using technology to overcome operational issues, while others see advancements leading to smaller crews.
Navios group IT director Katerina Raptaki explained that one of her key challenges was the shortage of IT-trained staff and crew. Other challenges for her organisation are delivering cost-effective internet, e-mail and voice services over satellite communications systems to seafarers in a tough shipping market.
Ms Raptaki was discussing these challenges at the Reality and Future of the Digital Ship seminar co-hosted by Speedcast International and Riviera Maritime Media near Oslo, Norway, in May. She said limited bandwidth to ships means that it is tough to keep crew happy when they are requesting cost-effective, secure and reliable connectivity at sea.
Navios has a team of up to 12 people in its IT department who have to deal with challenges in shore offices and on board ships. Ms Raptaki said the department can be overwhelmed by the IT issues. This situation is exacerbated by the lack of IT-trained officers on the ships.
“Presently, there are no IT people on board, only the remote support from shore,” she explained. This means that reliable, stable and adequate satellite communications is required to enable IT engineers on shore to provide remote support to the ships. Seafarers can fix the physical problems, while the IT department can mend some of the software issues, but not all. “It is impossible for us to know everything, so we outsource as much as we need,” Ms Raptaki added.
One of the key elements of remote support is cyber security. Ms Raptaki welcomed any initiative that would help protect onboard computers and IT networks from cyber threats. She said Navios had stand-alone computers on its ships for seafarers to use to load their own applications. This is instead of them using computers that are directly linked to the ship’s network. There is also a risk that vendors, agents and port officials could accidently bring malware on board and infect ship networks.
"Viruses are a big risk to vessels an infection could wreck a business if a vessel is hacked"
“Viruses are a big risk to vessels. But it should not just be about the IT, as infection could wreck a business if a vessel is hacked,” Ms Raptaki explained. Navios uses outside resources to assist in performing risk assessments and to protect onboard computers and networks with firewalls, antivirus software and other methods of limiting the threats. “We need to know the vulnerability of our systems in order to limit the risk of a cyber attack, so we have multiple security plans,” she said.
Most of the onboard computers are updated to the latest operating systems. “We have spent a lot of money and human resources to update our onboard computers to the latest Windows,” she said. However, not all systems on Navios’ ships were updated. The cargo control systems remain on Windows XP operating systems because of the cost of getting the software updated.
Navios uses Speedcast International’s VSAT and L-band services to provide its ships with sufficient and secure satellite communications for crew welfare and operational requirements. This also includes cyber security solutions and remote support capabilities.
While Ms Raptaki would welcome investment in IT-trained crew, some shipowners consider the advancement of onboard technology a method of reducing the number of seafarers on ships. Technology change is coming to shipping and will lower operating costs and crewing levels on ships, said Tsakos Energy Navigation president and chief executive Nikolas Tsakos. He expects that greater levels of automation will reduce crewing on large tankers from 24 seafarers today to as few as 12 on board in the future.
“We will see more technology on ships, so we will see less crew, but we will still need well trained people to navigate and maintain our ships,” Mr Tsakos said. Despite the trend towards reducing crewing, he said a key issue will be recruiting competent and well trained seafarers.
"We will see more technology on ships, so we will see less crew"
Investment in training technology, including simulators and software, would help shipowners improve the competence of crew and retain the best seafarers. Mr Tsakos commented: “It does not matter if there is technology on board. We will still need competent people and there is currently a lack of highly trained seafarers.”
Thenamaris (Ships Management) has recognised the importance of improving ship satellite communications across its fleet. This year it is upgrading onboard communications from L-band services to VSAT solutions delivered by Navarino Telecom. The Greek company is investing in a fleet-wide rollout of Inmarsat Fleet Xpress in order to take advantage of the new business and crew communications applications that the high speed service offers.
Thenamaris electrical supervisor George Tsivgoulis said ships in the fleet were using Inmarsat FleetBroadband and Iridium OpenPort L-band services. “When we heard about the capabilities of Fleet Xpress and saw that it was commercially available, we were immediately interested in what new capabilities it could bring to our managed vessels,” he explained.
Thenamaris considered Ku-band and Ka-band VSAT options and conducted pilot trials of each band on some of its vessels. “The results of this trial showed that Ka-band outperformed Ku-band and that the Fleet Xpress service is extremely robust,” Mr Tsivgoulis commented. He acknowledged that Ka-band services could be affected by heavy rain, an issue known as rain fade, but he said communications would switch to an unlimited FleetBroadband service in poor weather conditions.
"Ka-band outperformed Ku-band and that the Fleet Xpress service is extremely robust"
“The great advantage that Fleet Xpress has is that the backup usage over FleetBroadband is unlimited and is included in the monthly fee,” Mr Tsivgoulis explained. “These factors, combined with the attractive commercial packages that Inmarsat introduced for Ka-band, meant that the choice to go for Fleet Xpress was straightforward.”
Maran Tankers Management, the oil tanker shipping unit of the Angelicoussis Shipping Group, said a new cloud-based platform will enhance its fleet operations. The company has selected Q88’s cloud-based voyage management system, Q88VMS, to manage its chartering and commercial operations.
“Q88VMS’s integrated approach to managing the voyage chain was a huge factor for our company, which encourages team work, open dialogue and sharing of information,” Maran Tankers Management operations director Georgios Asteros said. “Having chartering, operations and post fixture in various offices across the globe, we needed a system that not only enables quick and accurate voyage calculations, fixtures, operations and reporting but also works across devices and locations.”
Angelicoussis Shipping’s Maran Gas Maritime awarded a five-year condition-based maintenance contract to Wärtsilä Corp for its LNG carriers. Maran Gas Maritime technical director Andreas Spertos commented: “We acknowledged the technologically advanced maintenance requirements [for ship engines]. After the options, the most efficient and effective way to fulfil these requirements and maintain fleet reliability at the highest possible level was to engage with Wärtsilä on this extended maintenance agreement.”
Katerina Raptaki
Navios IT director Katerina Raptaki has been in maritime IT for almost 30 years. She has been with Navios since 2004, managing IT support for the managed fleet. Prior to this, she was IT manager for Eurocarriers and spent 10 years with Ekter. Ms Raptaki was educated at the National Technical University of Athens in naval architecture and marine engineering from 1982 to 1987.
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