Research Programme - Digitalisation Uncovered
Digitalisation Uncovered report captures insights from shipowners and ship managers in a period of technology transition.
Insight | The rising tide of maritime digitalisation
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Data consumption continues to increase across the globe and the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the world’s population come to rely on connectivity more than ever. This increased demand has been reflected across the maritime industry too, where connectivity and a platform of applications is needed to meet the rapidly increasing desire to get data from vessels in real-time.
A digital platform with seamless connectivity will not only enable more meaningful vessel performance insights and increase the potential for savings but it will also aid progress towards sustainability goals and enhance crew welfare.
Odd as it may seem, the maritime industry is no stranger to digital products and services, as it was one of the first to adopt Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards back in the 1980s. Increased maritime traffic at the time saw long delays in customs as goods were cleared. To avoid these delays, UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) systems were installed at ports to reduce paperwork and enable forwarding agents to enter information directly into the customs processing system.
The late 1990s then saw ship owners invest in a surfeit of dotcom businesses and although many of them didn’t survive, those that did effectively addressed the pains and inefficiencies of the industry of the industry. “Procurement was moving rapidly towards e-procurement, chartering was digitalising and vetting of vessels moved to a digital platform, they were ripe for change,” Mark Warner, Senior Director, Inmarsat Maritime recalls.
“Digitalisation definitely isn't an entirely new concept to shipping, it’s been happening for 20-30 years in specific areas that needed greater efficiency but what was always missing, was the connectivity onboard,” he continues.
What Warner is mostly referring to, is the ability to take data off a vessel, lots of data at high speeds. Which is why Inmarsat launched Fleet Services in 2000. Although at launch, Fleet Services only offered 9KB of data, it quickly moved to 64KB, then 128KB and so on. “There was more and more data,” recollects Warner, “we even started to see operational emails go through ships. And then, things really opened up when FleetBroadband came along,” he continues. “It’s the workhorse of connectivity at sea for vessels that need global lower speed data. And here we are, 14 years later and it’s still going. Still trusted far and wide.”
When the global financial crisis took the wind out of the world economy’s sails in 2008, shipping took a huge blow. The build up to the Beijing Olympics in previous years had seen sky-high charter rates and huge investment in ships to support the rapid infrastructure growth in China. The influx of ships into the market, coupled with the recession, meant that demand for ships dropped hugely and they started to need a point of difference to attract contracts.
It was at this point that technology became a priority, as Eco ships began to take precedence and these new types of vessels could deliver environmental accreditation and meet the requirements and plans of the maritime classification societies, as well as help work towards a 2050 decarbonisation goal.
But with the dawn of the ‘digital ship’ era came the need for a premium connectivity solution with unlimited bandwidth and speeds higher than FleetBroadband.
In 2016, Fleet Xpress (FX) was launched, offering a new level of high-speed performance that reached across the globe. The combination of the high data speeds offered by our award-winning Global Xpress Ka-band network with the proven reliability of our L-band network meant that we could offer unrivaled speed, continuous connectivity, and guaranteed performance on a global scale.
Fleet Xpress arrived at a time when reducing operating costs was key, as ship owners and managers tried to ensure their vessels could turn a profit again. “If your ship isn’t making much money due to depressed rates, the focus falls on reducing operational costs, reducing fuel costs, increasing fuel efficiency, voyage optimisation and routing,” explains Warner. “You use software to predict the best routes to avoid bad weather, you install live CCTV feeds to prevent container break-ins or thermal imaging to avert container fires,” he continues. “We started to see more predictive engine maintenance put in place to prevent ships being out of commission and so many other applications, even shipyards wanted performance data and now they could have it.”
"We have introduced Inmarsat’s FX, a high-speed and large-capacity VSAT service. With digitalisation of ships, the management of ships is going to change. In telecommunications, Ka-bands that perform even in awful weather conditions, such as FX, have been introduced on all our container ships. By utilising the "K-IMS“ we are able to maintain safe operations on our ships, we can check ship operations, monitor the condition of main engines, and analyze performance.”
Inmarsat’s ‘Digitalisation Uncovered’ report surveyed 368 shipping owners and managers in May 2020, who indicated that the primary drivers for digitalisation are cost reduction, operational efficiencies and regulatory compliance. When questioned further, most ship owners and managers had some vessel performance monitoring and fuel optimisation monitoring in place.
Yet of those respondents, 83% plan to deploy more fleet and vessel performance solutions, in the shape of fuel optimisation and fuel monitoring applications within 24 months. Engine performance monitoring and analysis, as well as emissions monitoring were also priorities.
Coming in a close second, were digital navigation solutions, which largely consisted of weather information apps, as well as Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) updates and route optimisation. The findings suggest that, within two years, 66% of ship owners and managers expect to be using between five and 30 connected applications onboard.
The potential of the digital ship is still being uncovered, from performance to safety and everything in between. Add to this, the significant increase in the use of video-based connectivity by crew, for social and welfare reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of telemedicine, and the progression of maritime’s digitalisation seems unstoppable.
The growth of Fleet Xpress has been steady, with users gradually realising the advantages of the speed of the connectivity to unlock its potential. Fleet Xpress recently hit the impressive milestone of 10,000 vessels installed with the service, from tankers to container vessels, fishing vessels to superyachts, offshore support vessels to LNG carriers. Data consumption has also been increasing steadily, roughly doubling every year.
COVID-19 seems to have accelerated data consumption significantly, with Fleet Xpress vessels seeing data usage on the average vessel go from less than 4GB to over 8GB a day, just downloading. Some of that is due to challenges around crew change, which left half a million crew stuck, unable to return home. Luckily, Inmarsat was able to support families by offering a sweeping 50% discount for crew calling and data streaming as well.
"In this time of Covid19, all of our vessels are equipped with a video link that is used by the management company for audit purposes as it is impossible to join the vessel. We have also been providing unlimited speed and daily data allowance free of charge to our crew to help them communicate with their loved ones back home.”
“Since COVID-19, we're seeing a real acceleration in digitalisation by about four or five years,” reports Warner. “We are now moving beyond being merely a connectivity pipe, as Fleet Xpress is now a technology platform with an ecosystem of applications,” he says.
Warner is referring to digital solutions such as Fleet Data, which is an IoT platform, that comes with its own integrated hardware, infrastructure and connectivity package, to enable optimised performance across an entire fleet or a single vessel.
The platform collects sensor data from onboard equipment and/or the voyage data recorder (VDR), which is then securely transferred to our central cloud-based database using its own dedicated bandwidth. From here, data is available to the ship operator and multiple Inmarsat Certified Application Providers to analyse and use to improve efficiency, sustainability, safety and compliance.
“With 35 application providers in place already, the next three months is likely to see that increase to 50,” says Warner, “and maybe by the end of the year 100 application providers, who provide everything from telemedicine, to navigation, field performance and even training. If there’s a need, an application can be created.”
It seems that COVID-19 has been a catalyst to invest in the digitalisation that the industry has been craving for years. As the industry’s transformation accelerates, the potential that connectivity brings is only increasing. With our fully-funded technology roadmap in place, to ensure that potential is catered for now and well into the future.
