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76Maritime Reporter & Engineering News Boatracs, a San Diego-based company with more than two decades of experi- ence supplying communications, track-ing and monitoring and innovative software solutions for the workboat and commercial fishing markets, was ac- quired last month by the French com-pany Orolia, a move that could significantly extend the Boatracs brand beyond it North American core. ?(Currently) 100% of our current cus-tomers are in North America,? said Irwin Rodrigues, CEO of Boatracs Inc.?This is an acceleration of our visionand everything we want to do for our customers. Orolia is an internationalcompany, and we just went from being a small company to a growing mid-size company with many more resources. For Boatracs, it gives us immediate in- ternational exposure.? While focused on the North American market, Boatracs has built an enviable base, with more than 1000 customersand revenues of more than $5m in 2011, nearly 75% of which is from recurringsoftware and communications services sales. While the Orolia name may not be a familiar one in maritime circles, many of its brands surely are, as Orolia is a high-technology group specializedin precise Positioning, Navigation and Timing. Since 2006 the group has es- tablished itself as a leader in PNT solu-tions at a global level through its brands: Spectracom, SpectraTime, T4Science, McMurdo, Kannad Aviation, and Kan- nad Marine Rodrigues insists that the acquisitiontransition will be seamless for estab-lished Boatracs customers, as Boatracsremains laser-focussed on its core mis- sion. ?Our core mission is to solve busi- ness problems for our customers,? said Rodriques. ?We call it a focus on the ?3 Cs?: complexity, competitiveness and cost.? ?Our customers work in a complex environment, with a myriad of new reg- ulation, the harsh weather in which they operate, and the basic communicationgap (communication?s speed and relia- bility) that most land-based businesses take for granted,? said Rodriques. ?In addition, there are so many choices (of software and communication solutions) for them to make. We deal with this by making our solutions easy to under- stand, easy to adopt, and affordable.? While the first ?C? is complexity, most smaller workboat and fishing ves- sel customers concern themselves with the last ?C?: Costs. Simply put, Boa-tracs delivers its product and service at an attractive and hard to match price point. ?We make our product as cost ef- fective as possible,? said Rodriques. ?For example, with OmniTRACS, you can get started for as little as $100 permonth on the connectivity; that?s a cell phone plan.? For Orolia, the purchase was a strate- gic initiative to expand its business into new areas, a strategy to move up the value chain by offering more complete business solutions to its customers op- erating critical infrastructure in remoteor harsh environments. ?This acquisi- tion not only expands our product of- fering, but also strengthens our presence in the North American fishing and workboat market segments,? said Jean- Yves Courtois, President and CEO of Orolia, in a press release announcingthe acquisition. ?It has the added bene-fit of bringing us critical size in the ap- plication software domain, human-machine interfaces and client- server architectures.? Boatracs & KVHWhile the integration of modern fleet management solutions has traditionallymet resistance in the form of a conser- vative customer base, Rodriques reck- ons this is starting to change, asincreasingly mariners and managers ex- pect the same level of connectivity and seamless service that they find on land. Fleet management software can be a game-changing tool for maritime com- panies to compete more effectively and run their operations more efficiently, and according to Boatracs, a key driver of any software solution is good data. In the marine industry, this means how vessels and shore side operations com- municate ? both the software that is used as well as the network that is used to transmit the information.In tailoring a solution, factors to con- sider include fleet size, area of opera- tion, assessment of onboard computerpower, as well as the type and amount of information required to be shared be-tween the vessel and the shore. Since its inception, Boatracs has pro-vided a narrowband satellite solution with shore side fleet management soft-ware to enable vessels to communicate consistently with operations: BoatracsOmniTRACS. OmniTRACS is de- signed to meet the needs of those com-panies who have minimum data sharing needs and require simplicity and ease ofuse in an extremely affordable satellite solution. ?We look at our customer?s customer to help them solve problems,? said Ro- driques. ?Ultimately, we want to ensure that information is captured timely andcorrectly; and is accessed with a simpleuser interface on the vessel. This makes their life and job much.? The fleet management software can be accessed from any PC or mobile de- vice with internet connectivity. For those customers who operate within cel-lular coverage but require greater cov- erage and reliability, the OmniTRACS solution makes transmitting the data as cost effective as possible. The OmniTRACS solution currently serves thousands of vessels across North America, but the number of cus- tomers with requirements for uninter- rupted internet connectivity and high- speed data transmission is growing. More vessels have PCs on board utiliz- ing a variety of software applications, and satellite broadband has become aviable option due to a steady decreasein airtime rates combined with a de-crease in the size of antennas.Responding to the market, Boatracs announced a partnership with KVH tooffer the industry a Broadband Fleet Management Solution. ?KVH is a great step forward,? said Rodriques, in evaluating this new part- nership. ?KVH arguably has the best total cost of ownership solution .? hardware, reliability and airtime. At about a $1/MB, it is hard to find any- thing competitive with that in the VSAT market.? The Boatracs Broadband Fleet Man-agement Solution is an end-to-end com-bination of fleet management software with mini-VSAT broadband connectiv- ity designed to make data collection and transmission smooth, easy and afford- able. The solution combines Internet and Voice over IP with vessel tracking, two-way messaging and custom forms to satisfy the needs of customers, crew and operations in one complete pack-age. Components include Boatracs BT- Connect, a web-based fleetmanagement software that pulls data in from any vessel hardware to display po- sitions and messaging on one integrated user interface , Boatracs BTForms, a custom smart forms software that con- verts the paper forms crew and opera- tions are adept at using into dynamicforms that standardize data transfer andwww.boatracs.com MARKETMARITIME COMMUNICATIONS BoatracsIrwin Rodrigues, CEO,Boatracs Inc. A long-tenured player in the workboat fleet management sector, Boatracs last month was acquired by Orolia, charting its path toward global expansion. MR#8 (74-81):MR Template 8/13/2012 9:12 AM Page 76