Page 44: of Marine News Magazine (April 2016)

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WORKBOAT COMMUNICATIONS

Controlling Connectivity Costs

Bluetide Communications’ Access Management Portal (AMP) application for wireless net- work management is changing the way workboat operators manage data, crew and costs.

By Patricia Keefe housands of miles, and weeks or months out at sea, mariners have ever seen. But recruiters and users alike don’t the next best thing to physically being there, is an expect to see organizations cutting existing services.

T electronic connection home, and today, mariners Companies already heavily invested in connectivity will increasingly are reluctant to board vessels without access to keep those systems intact but probably hold off on expand- some form of it. “What seafarers want overwhelmingly is ing bandwidth or upgrading the current system, says Glad- a cost-effective way to speak to, and see, their loved ones,” ney Darroh, president and CEO of Piper-Morgan Associ- notes researcher Futurenautics, adding that with millenni- ates Personnel. “In today’s market, do you continue to gold als in particular considering access to the Internet as im- plate something? Maybe silver-plating works just ? ne.” portant as access to food and water, “the implications for Economic pressures are also forcing companies to both the maritime industry are likely to be signi? cant.” squeeze more use out of, and get a better handle on, their

Internet access and cheap global roaming SIM cards top communications network. A downward trend in con- the list of desired amenities in recent surveys of seafarers. nectivity equipment and delivery costs and system size

Workboat personnel use an array of connectivity applica- combined with an uptick in subscription service offerings tions – social media, Skype, Wi-Fi and email – to handle and an expansion in functionality is rede? ning shipboard personal banking and ? nancial needs, shop, make appoint- operations. At the same time, savvy workboat managers ments, and to take training classes and certi? cation tests. are quickly learning how to manage their comms spend in

They also like to keep up with current events and to un- new and economical ways. wind after their shifts with various entertainment options – scanning the news, watching movies and TV series, play-

Operational Ef? ciency Drives Boats ing games and general internet sur? ng.

In the past, management used to just blindly throw more

It all sounds good. All of that takes bandwidth and lots bandwidth (i.e. money) at problems; not any more. In ad- of it. And, if access to communications and entertainment dition to divvying up bandwidth between crew and opera- is no longer just an optional amenity for boat operators to tional apps, with management tools like Bluetide Commu- provide, at the same time, making sure that this doesn’t nications’ Access Management Portal (AMP) application for impact the bottom line is equally important. It turns out wireless network management, it’s possible to monitor, from that both goals can be achieved.

any location or device, network usage and change bandwidth allocations, divert traf? c or incoming data dumps to unused channels, or even shut off access, in real-time, at the push of

Good Spend in a Down Economy

The ability to positively impact crew morale with online a button. Users can run the application or trust Bluetide to connectivity is especially important today given the after- monitor network usage and make requested changes, like shocks of falling oil and gas prices roiling the maritime Jackson Offshore does. “It lets me focus on other priorities,” sector. For example, Crewtoo’s survey reports that seafarer says Trent Zimmer, Jackson Offshore’s IT Manager.

wages have fallen by as much as 40% – the worst some Steve Burke, Regional Manager at Bluetide Communi- cations adds, “AMP allows the customer to not only man- age the system for the crew, but to manage for the end user paying for the service. In years past, they’d call, you’d open a trouble ticket, but no matter how much work you did, you could never validate or prove how the system was be-

AMP allows users to easily view active devices, the access point and data usage with the ability to instantly block any device(s) to free additional bandwidth for business-critical needs.

Credit: Bluetide

April 2016

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