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FLEET OPTIMIZATION nies gain insight into ? eet utilization. well as a maintenance system that was rine company’s ? eet, MarineCFO’s

For example, tracking when tugs are primarily used by very large manufac- Fleet Maintenance module provides requested and if they’re on time, or if turers. Through customizing and add- at least 18 different processes such some boats aren’t being utilized, ad- ing new features, the MarineCFO fam- as scheduling, preventative mainte- justments can be made to put a tug ily of software products continues to nance, maintenance orders, materi- into (better) use, instead of going to make headway in the marine industry. als requisitions, ISM compliance and the expense of building a new boat. In particular to help optimize a ma- more. Like all of the company’s soft-

When logging into the software, users will see three options: dispatch, sales, and billing. The billing screen shows a queue of all the jobs coming in, what is overdue, which is ready to bill and what has already been in- voiced. With the click of a button, a completed job can be billed. If there is no current contract in place with a particular customer, Helm CON-

NECT Jobs will warn the user if no contract is available.

Having the ability to choose event types is also an advantage. For instance, if tugs encounter icy conditions during their harbor docking job, the event can be added to invoices to ensure the ex- tra variance is accounted for and billed.

The software can be purchased one of two ways; either by subscription, which gives instant online access or customers can also purchase the in-house option that offers an entire IT infrastructure set up, but still have access to the web- based version.

Another big bene? t, Gort says, is the capturing of information as it hap- pens on the tugs by the vessel captains. “A lot of times, even if a dispatcher is ? ling in that information, they might be doing it after the fact when they get the log from the boat,” he says. “You get a lot more insight into what’s going on when you get the captains logging in as it happens and the information gets transferred straight into the dis- patching and billing areas.”

MarineCFO

Before developing marine-spe- ci? c software, New Orleans-based

MarineCFO designed accounting sys- tems used by businesses worldwide, as 35MN www.marinelink.com

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