Inmarsat and NAPA, a leading provider of maritime software, services and data analysis, have signed an agreement to enable ship owners and ship managers to access and analyze real-time onboard data more efficiently through a dedicated application hosted on Inmarsat’s new Fleet Data IoT service.
Developed by Inmarsat and Danelec Marine, and made commercially available earlier this year, Fleet Data collects data from onboard sensors, pre-processes that data, and uploads it to a central cloud-based database equipped with a dashboard and an Application Process Interface (API).
NAPA will then use this data to offer services for vessel performance monitoring, analytics and optimization.
Research published last year by Inmarsat on digital transformation in shipping* indicated that, on average, ship operators and managers plan to spend $2.5 million on IoT-based solutions within three years and expect average IoT-driven cost savings of 14% over the next five years.
However, the research strongly suggested that a greater maritime appetite for IoT-based solutions would emerge if more data could be delivered and analyzed in real-time.
Stefano Poli, VP, Business Development, Inmarsat Maritime
“We are delighted that NAPA will be our first certified application provider for Fleet Data. This partnership and the NAPA application will help overcome key difficulties faced by those frustrated with the challenge of aggregating vessel data on-board and getting it efficiently onshore to improve fuel optimization,” says Stefano Poli, VP, Business Development, Inmarsat Maritime.
“It will allow ship operators and managers to access, control and analyze their own data, through the NAPA application on Fleet Data and via a secure platform that is fully scalable, fleet-wide and now commercially available on both Fleet Xpress and FleetBroadband,” says Mr. Poli.
“Our NAPA Fleet Intelligence platform is built to utilize ship performance data from all kinds of data sources, such as noon reports, or AIS, and to scale according to the data available, allowing as many vessels as possible to use data to improve their operations,” says Mr. Pekka Pakkanen, Director, Development, NAPA Shipping Solutions.
“However, the most accurate performance evaluations and predictions need both good quality and high frequency data, which is just what Fleet Data provides. For us, the key is to provide value from the data collected, based on expertise in hydrodynamics, optimization and analytics. This scalable way of obtaining data opens new possibilities to enhance the benefits of this value added service for the whole shipping industry,” says Mr, Pakkanen.
In addition to Fleet Data, Inmarsat is also providing dedicated bandwidth services for application providers across both its L-Band and Ka-Band networks and recently signed an agreement with SRH Marine SAIT to provide ECDIS updates via FleetBroadband.
*The Industrial IOT on Land and at Sea – published July 2018; research commissioned to Vanson Bourne, specialist technology market research company. For more information, click here.
