Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2013)

22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? AUGUST 2013 the global Þ nancial meltdown of 2008. ?The Þ rst quarter of this year has been very nice in terms of order intake,? said Olsen. ?The growth has been slow single digits in that market, but with underlying increase in bandwidth consumption for those that have the services. Now we see a lot of vessels migrating from traditional existing services into broadband.?Drivers for Connectivity Traditionally, shipowners are of the mindset that communications are a cost rather than in-vestment, and Olsen readily admits that proving the case of increased efÞ ciency and economic beneÞ t is rarely a straight path. ?I think we have tremendous potential, but the real beneÞ t is hard to justify in advance because it requires a dif-ferent mindset in the way that they operate their vessels,? said Olsen. ?And there is no way that I, as a satellite communications person, can tell a shipowner how to operate their vessels. That?s not my job.?What Olsen can do is rely on his top line cli-ents to lead by example. While he contends that companies increasingly are turning to higher capacity communication solutions, he said mi-nority percentage ? approximately 20% ? have adopted the solution. ?There is still a lot of room for growth.? While ship automation (ie. ?smart ships?) tend to grab the spotlight, Olsen said one of the main drivers for services today are crew requirements. Providing crew amenities was particularly popu-lar in the years up to 2008, when competition for crew was most Þ erce. However, this competi- tion was dulled in the period 2009 through 2011 when the shipping industry navigated its leanest years and crew retention was not a top line con-cern. That is starting to change. ?The worst thing you can do to this generation is cut their internet accesss ? today?s genera- tion crew has an expectation of access, and the owners have to move.? In addition to crew ser- vices, Olsen said that there are several drivers to increased maritime communication service use, including a proliferation of machine-to-machine applications; legislative-driven issues such as secure cargo handling, CCTV for safety and oil spill monitoring; as well as simply leveraging the new onboard IT infrastructure for savings not yet realized, such as reducing phone costs, as Simon Møkster Shipping has done. ?He [Simon Møk-ster Shipping] doesn?t look at his ß eet of vessels as a ß eet of vessels anymore, he sees each as a branch ofÞ ce,? where he can do everything at sea that he could do at headquarters. To do this, you need a certain bandwidth and throughput to run the applications, Olsen said.An Industry in FluxBut as the shipping industry turns, so too does the maritime communication business, and Ol-sen said that years of consolidation and a vast increase in the number of competitive solutions has left the market, at times, confused.?I think we [the satellite communications sec-tor] are masters of making it difÞ cult for the cus-tomer as an industry. Everybody has the best sys- tem in the world,? Olsen said. ?The philosophy of Astrium is simple: We are agnostic to connec- tivity; we want to make sure there is a consistent user experience across the connectivity, making it easy and future proof. Shipowners today are worried if the system they buy today will still be the best system in Þ ve years.? Being a part of the Astrium brand goes a long way in helping to assure existing and potential customers, particularly as the company is able to explore and leverage assets across the corpo-ration, such as its network of earth observation satellites, to create value for maritime customers. ?This is a capability that Astrium as a group has, and we are trying to leverage since the acquisi-tion of the competence that sits elsewhere in As- trium to bring more value to maritime.?At the end of the day, Olsen and his team are focused on bringing to the market tailored mari-time solutions, not simply connectivity products. ?Now you have more than 100 broadband sup-pliers in the market; 10 years ago there were four or Þ ve of us, and everybody has their own spe- cialty, but focused on the connectivity,? he said. ?We need to move from there and focus on what brings value to the vessel independent of the connectivity.? While he admits price is an important factor in any business, he doesn?t believe price wars are a solid long-term strategy for success. ?There is al-ways somebody that will be cheaper, but we are not willing to jeopardize the quality of our prod-uct for a lower price. Near term you may take revenue hits, but long term it is a solid strategy.? MARKET FOCUS MARITIME COMMUNICATIONS ?The worst thing you can do to this generation is cut their internet accesss. Today?s generation of crew has an expectation of access, and the owners have to move.? Tore Morten Olsen, Head of Maritime Services at Astrium Services, emphasizing the renewed importance of providing maritime communication solutions to attract and retain crew. Vizada XChange v 2.3 When talk turns to investing in the business with Tore Morten Olsen, Head of Maritime Services at Astrium Services, it inevitably comes to the company?s XChange inter- face, which is positioned by Astrium as a seamless interface regardless of connectiv- ity, for business and crew applications. Earlier this year it rolled out some key upgrades to XChange, which now offers a range of new features to facilitate per- manent remote access, allow smartphone usage onboard and provide improved VoIP capabilities. Users will bene Þ t from a range of new features with XChange v 2.3 - speciÞ cally developed upon market demands.Permanent remote access for improved control: ? BeneÞ t from permanent fully secure remote access - with no onboard action required. ? Backdoor solution: access any commu-nication device, even while ofß ine, through another online satellite terminal.? Full access to our XChange local net-work devices from shore. In addition, crew can now use their own smartphones or tablets on board thanks to a specially created smart device interface. They beneÞ t from online access, real time cost control, voice and VoIP ? and crew members get more privacy. http://www.astriumservices.com MR #8 (18-25).indd 22MR #8 (18-25).indd 228/1/2013 9:17:24 AM8/1/2013 9:17:24 AM