Page 34: of Marine News Magazine (September 2015)

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SOFTWARE & REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

Left image: Pat Folan, Vice President & Founder, Tug and Barge Solutions

Right image: The name of Tug and Barge Solutions’ product offering comes from manufacturing, where a safety block was a prop inserted between upper and lower dies that prevented the slide from falling of its own deadweight. “We feel our program is the safety block that keeps the company from falling under the weight of Sub M and other regulations.” Plus, the materials are in a rugged, watertight orange box that the crew can’t miss.

probably has the solution in its library of modules, ? rst track of the different things and daily tasks that need to be introduced to the marine industry in 2006. The software done, by sending messages to the appropriate parties, and is Microsoft-based, utilizing Web Services, Of? ce and SQL organizing data,” says deBruyne, whose company sells Helm

Server, and runs behind a corporate ? rewall or as a native CONNECT, a database-centered solution that automates .NET 2.0 web application. tracking of compliance and preventative maintenance.

The company offers web-based applications that feature It’s important to get the buy-in of frontline staff, he says. 100% con? gurable and dynamic interfaces that are easy to Tell them, “Here is what you need to do today,’ then you need use for inputting, collecting, processing and transmitting an escalating system of noti? cation that lets the responsible data. The application travels with the laptop via a roaming parties know what needs to be done, and what’s not done.” user pro? le, and has sections for the captain, maintenance Paper systems can’t match computers for data retrieval. engineer and electrician. The database can quickly produce They generate “thousands of pieces of paper you have to any data requested by an auditor. Speci? c to the needs of deal with – if one piece goes missing there is no way to get vessels plying the inland coastal waterways, MarineCFO it back. Electronic systems have the ability to sort, ? lter supports functions such as waterways management, ma- and summarize all those thousands of piece of data any terials and hazardous materials management and billing. way the auditor wants.” The typical two-week delay in processing paper reports is another problem if the boat is not doing what it is supposed to do, warns deBruyne.

Helm Operations “Paper is passive, it can only record what people have no-

Noting the adage, “say what you do, do what you say, then prove it,” Helm CEO Ron deBruyne points out that making ticed; electronic is active. You can just “set it and forget it’.” sure safety meetings, checklists, planned maintenance and Helm CONNECT was developed to address all these issues, inspections are done, is a “critical piece of being compliant.” with a focus on simplicity. “We want to be the Apple of the “This is where an electronic system can assist, by keeping industry. You should be able to buy a piece of software and

September 2015

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