Shipping is the backbone of international trade, as over 90% of all trade-related shipping is through the oceans. But braving the vast ocean for months is not for the faint-hearted. The risk related to economic losses and loss of life is also high. The threat of terrorism and violence in the maritime world has also been increasing. It is to curb these rising threats and risks-levels that there are safety measures in place which are implemented by the International Maritime Convention (IMO).  There are different safety and security measures to ensure the safety of the ship, crew and cargo ..read more

Having a maintenance system in place is one of the most important aspects of keeping a ship seaworthy. Machinery and equipment in a ship require being in very good condition to ensure the efficient working and safety of all onboard the ship. Should a system fail, it can affect the ship, its crew, and the shipping company. A maintenance system has to be efficient, cost-effective, and suitable for your particular needs. Subscribe to our blog! SUBSCRIBE One such maintenance method widely used by shipping operators is the planned maintenance system. What is a Planned Maintenance System? The ..read more

Having a maintenance system in place is one of the most important aspects of keeping a ship seaworthy. Machinery and equipment in a ship require being in very good condition to ensure the efficient working and safety of all onboard the ship. Should a system fail, it can affect the ship, its crew, and the shipping company. A maintenance system has to be efficient, cost-effective, and suitable for your particular needs. Subscribe to our blog! SUBSCRIBE What are the challenges associated with ship maintenance and how to remedy them? Read on to find out. Major Ship Maintenance Challenges Shi ..read more

Caring for the marine ecosystem is as essential for the shipping industry as ensuring safe and optimized cargo transportation. What is ballast water? The water held in the ballast tanks of ships is called ballast water. It can be freshwater or saltwater. Why is it required in the first place? The water offers stability to the ships, especially when the vessels are cargo-less or the cargo is not too heavy. The water is pumped into the tank. When the ship enters the next port, the water is released to fit in cargo. Ballast water also contributes to maneuvering the ship, especially on rough water ..read more

MS shipping, Cyprus had their system rollout in progress. One of the major hiccups was getting approvals for Overtime and Lashing bonuses from Superintendents, who are usually traveling and overloaded with work. The traditional computerized system could be accessed by laptop or by a tablet for approval. While superintendents in the office had no issues, the traveling superintendents resisted the extra work of looking up the system. A simple authorization module was built into a mobile based module and got quick acceptance and Resistance melted away ..read more

A Ship with not-publicized equipment (designed by a naval architect’s company in Norway) was under construction by a Shipyard for a customer DR organization, whose identity was to be kept confidential. SBNT was the chosen vendor for its PMS software.  One special requirement was to be able to have a “bundled” simple technical software in addition to regular PMS. This was to be installed on a Tablet for ease of mobility on board and be able to record and communicate with onboard PMS which in turn would communicate with office installation. Successfully implemented with a new auxiliary prod ..read more

ML company, Tokyo has 28 offices worldwide using SBNT’s former system. Migrating to the new web-based system with 28 offices worldwide (different time zones) is a task NOT done nor attempted by anyone else.  The company has the largest database in shipping in terms of number of seafarers and size of database. Apart from Data migration and training all the 320+ users to handle the system comfortably were challenges. But the Most crucial one was to get them all to sign off on Friday pm on the system (some office would sign off much later into the night of Friday due to geographical location ..read more

BSY Ship Mgmt. company, Hamburg, a huge conglomerate with several independent ship management companies had several sources of truth. Each office handling a seafarer had differing data about the same person – apart from duplicates and open dates.  Implementing a crewing system across to unify the databases was a Herculean task. Identifying the “right truth” and unifying the registers could take a large chunk of time.  With all offices at loggerheads due to personality issues and vested interests, unifying to achieve a single database; getting all the offices to cooperate was consider ..read more

BSY Ship Mgmt. company had always focused on quality operations and worked to combine great efficiency with a young, safe fleet.  As a Shipping software specialist, we were assisting them to create increased value. BSY Ship Mgmt. company, with a large in-house team, managed technical operations that included purchasing and stock management of spares, consumables etc.  They were using manual methods of procurement like publishing of tenders, bidding and selecting the best quote to finalize a vendor.  They also kept their budget and expenses separately and integration of budget an ..read more

SBNT data replication method was one of the most innovative ideas. This replication method was subsequently used across SBNT software. A two-way replication was easily possible with automatic conflict resolution. And this was configurable and highly flexible. By this feature it became very much possible to manage any complex network replication in a distributed network.  (All competitor replications were one-way). The system could also automatically take care of missing data packets. The system was also used for vessel office replication with minimum data size to cut down expensive satell ..read more