Orange Business
Services Joins EU Initiative to Develop the
First Cloud-Based ERP Ship Management
Platform
Orange Business
Services has joined a European
Union-sponsored initiative to play a key
role in the development of new business
intelligence and IT standards that are set
to improve management tools used by the
shipping industry. A key goal is to help
shipping companies take complex decisions on
the basis of valid, up-to-date information
across all ship management lifecycle
processes. This will not only make it easier
to manage vessels, but also seamlessly
integrate them into a company’s corporate
infrastructure thereby facilitating
real-time business decisions, enabling cost
savings, and improving safety and crew
welfare.
As part of the EIS (“Exzellenzinitiative
Schiffsmanagement”) initiative, Orange Business
Services will be the sole provider for
ship-to-shore, vessel-based and land-based
communication infrastructure. As part of this
project, Orange will implement a cloud-based
satellite solution on several vessels run by
COLUMBIA Ship Management, one of the four largest
ship managers worldwide. The initiative includes the
support of the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF) and the City of Hamburg, Germany, one of the
most influential maritime centers of the world and
home to the second largest container port in Europe.
The project will also strengthen the city of
Hamburg’s competency in specialized maritime IT
systems.
The solution provided by Orange
comprises the communication hardware of the vessels,
the onshore data center as well as the design and
development of traffic optimization tools. The
integration of satellite communications with
Business VPN, a fully managed IP-based VPN service,
with private access to cloud services will enable
COLUMBIA Ship Management to benefit from a
high-performance, secure solution without relying on
the Internet.
“Communication at sea
constitutes specific challenges and was historically
a source of problems in terms of cost, performance
and support. With the help of Orange Business
Services, we want to utilize this project to test
and design solutions that help the industry take a
giant leap forward and set new standards in maritime
IT. With this initiative, we want to build a
remotely managed, integrated communication and
application infrastructure onboard that
intelligently connects the vessel to the office at
the lowest possible cost. We are very proud to be a
key driver of this project,” said Timothy Scheller,
project manager at COLUMBIA Ship Management.
“With the new cloud-based
platform in this project, we can demonstrate how
improved communication between vessels and their
management will streamline business tools and
decisions,” said Michel Verbist, Head of
International Business Development, Satellite at
Orange Business Services. “Real-time ship-to-shore
communication can provide a competitive advantage
for both large and small shipping companies around
the world. We look forward to providing innovative
cloud solutions for other players in the maritime
sector in the months to come.”
